Ave Minerva!

Well, it’s the end of August again, which means back to school for yours truly. I begin what is hopefully my last year of undergraduate study early tomorrow morning, and in most respects it’s stacking up to be a good semester. I’m only on campus Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, which leaves Tuesdays and Thursdays as workdays, which has proven to be a very effective arrangement in the past. It’s amazing what you can get done when you don’t have to go anywhere, see anyone, and have a coffee pot in your room. I’ll be living with the in-laws again and driving about forty minutes each way to good ol’ UNC-Greensboro, where Athena continues to watch over me.

As usual I’ll start out my day with Latin, and this semester I’ll follow the noble language with Spanish history, ancient Near Eastern history, and an independent study on the rise of Augustus and the establishment of the Principate in ancient Rome. Heavy on the history, but that is the major, after all. Plus, thanks to some long semesters earlier and summer classes, I only have to take twelve hours each of these last two semesters, so the work load should be doable.

That’s the school workload, of course. Beyond school, I’m lucky and excited to be involved in several writing projects. First, I’m working on finishing up a chapter for a forthcoming edited collection on the US/AU/UK science fiction series Farscape where I’m examining the show’s story through the lens of military-political history. Next comes a paper on Samuel Colt in fact and fiction to be presented at the Popular Culture/American Culture—South conference in New Orleans in October, and then beginning/stepping up the research process for Slayage 5 in Vancouver next July, where I hope to present the first in a series of papers on “War in the Whedonverses.” Finally (for now) I’m proud, flabbergasted, and downright giddy at being asked to serve as an assistant editor to David Lavery for a forthcoming project on the life and works of Owen Barfield.

Beyond all of that there’s studying for and taking the GRE. Getting together writing samples, letters of recommendation, applications, transcripts, etc to send off to prospective graduate schools, and dealing with a “commuter marriage” after a wonderful, too short summer season in which Mockingbird got me used to all of the myriad pleasures that come with sharing the same nest all the time (including co-authoring a post for Nik at Nite's Buffy Rewatch which goes up Tuesday!). One does what one has to do, of course, and all of this driving and separation is leading to a goal which will allow us to keep said nest well-feathered, but I do miss her, Readers Mine.

All of which is to say that, if you think posts here have been few and far between this summer, you may very well have not seen anything yet. I’ll try to pop in regularly, but I guarantee there will be times when other elements of life will be taking priority. In the meantime, though, be well and remember, as Jeff Bridges’ mom said “Have fun, and don’t take it too seriously.”