Interesting day

A day off today (unpaid as usual) that actually required me to go into uni for two meetings. I'm glad I did though.

The first was with the editor of the media and cultural studies list of a respected publisher to talk about the possibility of turning my 'Simpsons Family Guide to Cultural Studies' course into a book. I really enjoyed the meeting and I hope something comes from it. Even if they don't go with that idea, it's possible they may want me to suggest something else along the lines of getting practice-based student interested in the theoretical side of their studies.

The second meeting I can't say too much about for various reasons but it involves me doing a PhD looking at a certain aspect of design education - I got quite excited at the prospect, and it was nice to be invited in to talk about it based on reputation alone. The only problem is, if I did it, I'd have to take a massive pay cut (33%) and face a three-four year restriction on the amount of teaching I could do. Ironic, really. In order to teach more I need a PhD. To do a PhD I need to teach less. And the PhD is in design education... Any surprise I sometimes wonder how academia works??

So all in all a busy day off. Fortunately tomorrow is completely clear (I should be marking essays but they can wait until Saturday). I need to think about this seriously. It's quite exciting, but daunting as well. Funny, though, how the last few weeks have brought huge contrasts. One minute everything looks bleak, then something raises your hopes. Then that's dashed and all looks dim again.

What I really need is either to win the lottery or meet a really rich woman. Or both - I'm not fussy.