I'm blogging today for no reason.  I've got nothing to say, so I'm saying it.  Regarding my last post, thanks for the comments and the advice.  I appreciate it.  Nothing much has happened in that area over the past two weeks.  I take that as a good sign.  That said, I've been on an emotional rollercoaster for a while now, and I'm getting pretty tired of it.  Stability would be nice at this point.

I hope everyone has had a good Thanksgiving and you're all enjoying your holiday weekend.  Me?  I decided to come into the office, because I'm apparently pathetic.  I wake up early, find myself with nothing to do, so I just go into the office to catch up on things.  Sheesh!  It's like a ghost town here.

I have not heard of anything remotely interesting in the literary world for a while now.  Which is odd.  I got my Authors Guild bulletin, but nothing.... I think, however, I'm giving up on my subscription to Poets & Writers magazine, a magazine I've subscribed to since it was a piece of junk-looking rag back in the 1980s (good content though).   I've become frustrated with the obvious fact that it's now little more than an advertising piece for the millions of MFA programs popping up around the country.  My God, that's all it is now!  And I think these programs, and the ads in the magazine, are doing many writers a disservice.  (Disclaimer:  I HAVE an MFA in Creative Writing, for what that's worth....)  I know a ton of people go into these programs with the idea of teaching.  10-15 years ago, there weren't all that many programs.  Now, apparently, there are thousands.  And all of these writers are graduating with their MFA degrees in hand, expecting to go to UC Berekley or UC Irvine or NYU or Iowa and teach away, when in reality, there are VERY few teaching positions, at least full time, tenure track positions.  Practically none, at virtually none at the "prestige" schools.  So, these writers are getting adjunct gigs at backwoods community colleges, and while they may like that, it wasn't for me, that's for sure.  I've done adjunct.  You can't live on that.  It's a joke, IMO, but unfortunately, that's where education has been moving for over a decade.  Why pay a good salary and benefits when you can get some idiot like myself to teach three classes for next to nothing???  Anyway, I find the proliferation of MFA programs discouraging and virtually disgusting.  I still owe thousands on mine, and I've had to eliminate it from my resume because I lost job possibilities from having it.  Isn't that just great?  (Sarcasm intended.)  Poets & Writers has to pay the bills, I know, but a little discretion in the ads would be nice, a little diversity, make their ad salespeople actually work the phones for something different.

Well, it appears that I actually did have something to say.  And went on a rant.  Sorry.  I hope I don't appear to be too much of a hypocrite about this.  I'm just speaking from personal experience, and from observing what happens to MFA students I know or know of around the country.

As I said, I've got nuthin' -- much....