The Hermit Poet

December 15, 2008

Rain, Followed by Interviews and Musings about Better Hiring Questionaires for the New Adminstration

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 7:08 pm

Last night it rained in Los Angeles, which makes it seem – if only for a brief little while – a bit like Vancouver.

Well, the semester has ended and all the grading is done.  I finished up on last Monday, but some issues arose which required further attention throughout the week.  Now I can honestly say I’m done — and it’s good to be done.  No papers, no reports, no exams.

While today has been a bit less productive, overall I’m getting caught up on things I’ve had to set aside during the semester-end rush.

I’m doing more research into book promotion and related issues now that the book is out.  I’ll be posting more on that in the next little while.  I spent part of this past week finishing up an interview I’ve been doing with some creative writing students at the University of LaVerne — I just sent back my 2nd round answers and there’s a possibility that there will be a third round of questions.  At some point I’m wondering if this type of thorough vetting might land me a spot with the new administration under poet-friendly Barack Obama.

In fact, I wonder if the questionaires the Transition Team send out to prospective hires feature a question about favorite poem or poet and why?   I think it’d be a good yardstick.  That, and having them play mandatory games of Scrabble to gauge visual-spacial skills, resource management, and adaptability.  Personally, I think that one’s Scrabble playing ability says a lot and would be a good indicator.  But it’s not just about the score, it’s about the style of gameplay and their willingness to play with different types of people.  In the end, I guess score isn’t the best indicator, but quality of gameplay experience and mid-game banter instead.  Of course these are hard to gauge.  So it’s probably back to the drawing board.  Or Scrabble board.

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