TV and Stuff

Someone in Switzerland asked what TV I've been watching lately. Well, I'll tell you. A lot of Alias and The West Wing, both on DVD. And on Sunday I watched part of the E! True Hollywood Story of Drew Barrymore. I like her. Other than that, though, very little TV. I'm hardly ever home, it seems, and the regular TV season is over, anyway. I used to watch Las Vegas on Mondays, Scrubs on Tuesdays, West Wing on Wednesdays and tape Friends, Will and Grace and ER on Thursdays. I usually wouldn't watch the tapes for a couple of weeks, though, and then I'd catch up on all the missed episodes on a Saturday afternoon. I got pretty tired of television this past year, though. By the end of the season, I actively wished for West Wing reruns. Now that I'm watching the first two seasons on DVD, I'm struck by how much more interesting the show used to be. Plus, I complain all the time that my life is too busy and scheduled, and planning to watch a particular show at a particular time be oppressive. I don't like to miss new episodes, though. So the moral of the story is that I'm kind of glad that the regular season is over.

So, since I don't watch much television, how on earth do I fill my hours? Worrying about jobs, that's how! I'm applying for four different jobs now. One is at the American Physical Society. They have an opening for a Program Coordinator for a program that pairs high school physics teachers with university professors to work on team-teaching and curriculum development. They want somebody with at least a bachelor's degree in physics with an interest in education and strong communication skills. I think I could be that person. Unfortunately, the location of the job is pretty bad. It's in College Park, MD, and we want to live in Alexandria, VA. It is on the metro, but it would be almost an hour on the train each way, which is a bit longer than sounds reasonable to me. So, I'm also applying to work with my sister at the Patent and Trademark Office. That job sounds like it might be a tad on the boring side, but the location couldn't be better, the hours are regular and the salary is excellent. And they're advertising for someone in semiconductors, so if I got the job, I'd get to use my physics background, which appeals to me. Just because I'm tired of labwork doesn't mean that I don't still love physics. I'm also putting together an application to teach physics at private high schools in the DC area, and I haven't given up on the National Academies' Science Policy internship. That application is due September 1, so if nothing else has materialized by mid-August, I'll apply.

In the meantime, I'm working on converting my CV to a resume. I bought this book online (and for very cheap, I might add) called "So What Are You Going To Do With That?" A Guide to Career-Changing for M.A.'s and Ph.D.'s. Now, I have an M.A. and a Ph.D., so I figure this book was written just for me, right? In any case, it has a chapter on turning your CV into a resume, and I think I could benefit from some of their hints. The book was written by two women with English Ph.D.s who left academia and found fame and fortune. Hey, it worked for them....