Heading Back to the True Civilization

[Cyber Burn]

Congrats Benton. 

[thalaw2]

Drop that knowledge on them Big B!

[BentonGrey]

Haha...I'm not entirely sure how to respond to that DJ....plus, I was in Arkansas....

Hah, anyway, thanks guys!  So...it's been an extremely busy and weighty weekend for the Grey family.  I had an interview at Ouachita Baptist University, as I had said earlier, and to say I was nervous would be something of an understatement.  I just about drove myself crazy the night before trying to prepare, and I still felt under-prepared when I stepped into that classroom on Friday morning, but it went really well.  We prayed very, VERY hard about this, ha, so I'm not sure how much credit I can take for the smoothness of the lecture, but the end result was that I had a blast, the class was interested, and the faculty that sat in were really interested.  Heh, it actually ended up with them carrying half of the discussion, and every time I glanced at them, they were nodding away, smiling, and scribbling furiously.  The chair of the department, a really awesome guy, said several times that 'that went really well,' and 'that was great.'  So, all-in-all, I feel really good about the demo lecture itself.  Apparently I'm up against one other person, and in my first interview of the day, before I taught, I was told she was all-but-dissertation, on the verge of having her PhD.  That gives her an advantage, but I'm hoping that my interview went well enough to give me an edge.  The position is non-tenure track, just a lecturer, but they are looking to make it tenure track eventually.  When they do, they'll want someone with a PhD.  So, we discussed how I might pursue that, and if I would leave them or not.  I very honestly said 'this is the kind of place I wanted to end up, so if I could get my doctorate and keep teaching here, you bet I would.' 

The interviews themselves went pretty well.  First I meet with the head of the department, and we just had an awesome conversation.  We went to lunch after that and continued chatting.  Then I meet with most of the department, minus one fellow who couldn't make it.  They asked me about my undergrad experience, which was at an institution a lot like OBU, and about my master's thesis.  I told them about those things, and my answers seemed to please them.  Then we talked about the way I teach composition, as most of this position's teaching load would be comp, and I think they enjoyed the ideas I've brought to my classes and my overall approach.  We talked about the role of faith in education, and that was a really fascinating conversation.  Well, long story short, I rather thought that I had rambled on about my experiences, but they said again that "it had gone really well," so that was encouraging. 

So...we'll see what happens.  I should find out this coming week, and I'm trying not to think about it, because I want to teach at this place so badly that I can taste it.  This is just about a perfect fit.  I know I could do the job they've got, and do it really well, and I would LOVE to teach at this kind of school.  I really, REALLY want the stability and security of a full-time position.  I'm sick of teaching adjunct, whatever I can scrape together, never knowing what I'm going to be doing from semester to semester.  Please pray that they'll pick me for this. 

Well, so that's part of the events of the last week...but there was more to it than that.  We were also house-hunting during this trip, and we made an offer on an amazing house, three bedrooms, two baths, and pretty much exactly what we were looking for.  It was built in 1912, so it is a hundred years old this year.  That gave me a great deal of hesitation to begin with, but the place has been modernized and kept up incredibly well.  It's age means it has tons of character that modern houses don't, and it has a beautiful, beautiful yard.  It 'ticks all the boxes' for us, having everything we've decided we wanted.  The only catch is that the owner is an 80 year old lady who is supposed to be very tough to deal with.  Please pray that she'll accept our offer (it's a good one, so she SHOULD, though apparently she's got unrealistic expectations, part of the reason her house has been on the market for two years!), and that this will work out for us.  I'll try and post some pictures later on.

All and all....I'm excited and horrified.  This is our first house, and that and this job are going to have a pretty gigantic role in the next several years of our lives.

[BentonGrey]

Well, I didn't get it. They said they were really impressed by me, but they chose the other girl because she had more experience and was further along on her PhD. I'm pretty disappointed. I really felt like I had it...and I felt so calm about this whole house thing because of that. Now I don't know. I don't know how long we'll be staying there, so I feel much more nervous about the whole thing.

[Tommy Troy]

Dang, I'm sorry about that, Benton.  Anything open at any of the three colleges in Conway?  UCA, Hendrix, Central Baptist?

[BentonGrey]

Thanks Tommy.  I'm starting to look again tomorrow.  I don't believe there is anything else open, but we'll see.

I suppose this just isn't our week.  We will not be getting the house, it seems.  So, the owner is an 80 year-old lady. She apparently wanted to move up to IL (as hard as that is to believe), to be near her daughter and such. She was extremely inflexible about offers. Apparently there have been at least three other times in the last two years where she could have sold the house, had she been willing to make a deal. One of the biggest concerns as we started our negotiations was that she insisted on having a 21 day escape clause. If, after the contract was signed, she couldn't find a house she wanted within 21 days, she could back out. We, of course, categorically refused that, as it could very well prove disastrous for us. We argued that she had two months, minimum, before we'd be closing, so she had plenty of time to find a house. Well, after negotiating all week, we made her a counter-counter offer that was REALLY good. I mean, any reasonable person would have jumped at it. We just heard back from our agent, and he said that she had declined it without making a counter, attaching a note that read essentially 'Thank you for this serious offer, but I don't know if I am up for the trip to IL to find a house. I regret to decline your offer.' Apparently, the lady's daughter is going through some type of trouble, and Mrs. Mullen is, in the words of our agent, 'really down' and 'out of the selling mood.' Her agent told ours that, if she didn't change her mind by Monday, he was going to take her house off of the market because it wasn't fair to folks like us for her to act this way. I feel sorry for the old lady, but she really broke our hearts. Lady Grey is really devastated. We both felt that this was the house. It was pretty much everything we wanted it to be, even down to having the porch of her dreams. It's one thing to lose out in negotiations, but this is like having the rug pulled out from under us.  Last night we were thinking that she was going to take the offer....but, not so much.

[Tommy Troy]

There are an awful lot of nice Victorian houses in the area, I know you'll find a great one in this buyer's market.  I feel sorry for the old lady; she probably threw away her last chance to sell her house.

[BentonGrey]

Yeah Tommy, I imagine she did. 

However, we've got some good news.  We have not been able to find ANYTHING that was what we wanted.  I mean, we've been looking since the other deal fell through...the first time, and we just haven't been able to find anything that would really work, but out of the blue my wife got an email from her new boss, and he mentioned that a friend of his was looking to sell his house.  We checked in to it, and long story short, we decided to take an impromptu trip down to Arkansas to check it out.  At 7:00 P.M. Wed., we decided we'd leave early the next morning, we drove 9 and a half hours, and then looked at houses Friday.  Our agent found us a few more to check out while we were at it.  In a really surprising turn around, we ended up liking all four houses that we saw, and we made an offer on one of them (not the one we had actually come to see, interestingly enough).  So, we should know something Monday.  Keep us in your prayers, folks!

Also, just a heads up, Lady Grey is now Dr. Grey, so we're heading out of town tomorrow to celebrate.  I'll be out of pocket for the next week.

[Cyber Burn]

Congrats to Dr. Grey, and best of luck on the house.

[BentonGrey]

Thanks CB! 

Hey guys, I haven't been around very much for the last two months or so, and I wanted to apologize for folks who have sent me messages and in general been waiting on me.  It's been an extremely chaotic summer, and buying this house was WAY more complicated than it had any right to be.  Anyway, we've been crazy busy, and I've been fairly stressed.  However, it's coming to a close, are getting the loan and closing on the house in mid-July!  I'll try to get back to FF stuff after we're moved in. 

[oldmanwinters]

Thanks CB! 

Hey guys, I haven't been around very much for the last two months or so, and I wanted to apologize for folks who have sent me messages and in general been waiting on me.  It's been an extremely chaotic summer, and buying this house was WAY more complicated than it had any right to be.  Anyway, we've been crazy busy, and I've been fairly stressed.  However, it's coming to a close, are getting the loan and closing on the house in mid-July!  I'll try to get back to FF stuff after we're moved in.

Good to hear it, man.

Anything involving houses might just be the most stressful thing ever.

Cue the ominous commercial!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7b6WX2cLws

[John Jr.]

Great to hear of you, Benton. I was afraid you had been retconned away by the "New 52", or worse, changed in a "edgy hero with an over rendered, high-collared, armor".
Congrats to Dr. Grey and best of luck to both of you. I know how difficult is to face so many changes at the same time, but we're all praying/rooting for you.

[Deaths Jester]

Great to hear of you, Benton. I was afraid you had been retconned away by the "New 52", or worse, changed in a "edgy hero with an over rendered, high-collared, armor".
Congrats to Dr. Grey and best of luck to both of you. I know how difficult is to face so many changes at the same time, but we're all praying/rooting for you.

Wait...BG isn't an "edy hero with an over-rendered, high-collared armor"?!?!?!  Blast it...back to the drawing board for that skin!

[John Jr.]

Nope, he's the guy with an orange shirt and yellow gloves.

[Deaths Jester]

Nope, he's the guy with an orange shirt and yellow gloves.

No pants?!?!?!?!  OH Bloody 'ell..someone get that boy some pants!!!

[BentonGrey]

Haha, you guys are quite awesome.  That really cracked me up.  Thanks for the well-wishes!

We're packing everything up today, cleaning the house tomorrow, and driving down Monday.  Please keep us in your prayers!  It's a long trip.

[oldmanwinters]

Best wishes on the move, man!  I said a little prayer for you today!

[cmdrkoenig67]

May the moving gods be with you, Laddie!

Dana

[The Phantom Eyebrow]

Best of luck with the move there BG!  Tis a stressful time but it sounds like you're on top of it.

Or, is that just what you want us to think... devious, very devious.  (And no, I'm not paranoid, although you'd like to think that, wouldn't you...?)

And congrats to Dr Grey too... Gads, that was a while ago.  I don't check here half frequently enough these days...

[BentonGrey]

Thanks guys!  The move was successful, though fairly awful.  We are here, and somewhat settled.  We're now throwing ourselves headlong into rennovating our new house.  We're painting, replacing, and reorganizing like crazy-go-nuts.  It's really starting to look like our home.  I'll have to post some pictures after we get things more finished. 

While I've got some time now, it's going to be a little while before I can get back to FF stuff, at least a week.  Unfortunately I had to format my hard drive, and while I have everything backed up, I found my Windows CD damaged, so had to order a replacement from Microsoft.  It won't get in until Saturday at the very, very earliest, perhaps not until NEXT Saturday.  So, once that happens I'll need to reinstall everything, but I am still hoping to release the Marvel mod before too terribly long into the next semester.  So, at the moment we are down to just my wife's laptop, so I'll be a bit sparse in my visits to the forums.

[Deaths Jester]

Thanks guys!  The move was successful, though fairly awful.  We are here, and somewhat settled.  We're now throwing ourselves headlong into rennovating our new house.

Throwing yourself headlong into the house?!?!  Don't you know that's how we got Murs?!??!  Stop doing that!!!

[BentonGrey]

Haha, it does hurt quite a bit at times.  Anyway, we've made major headway, and we're about to take a break to get ready for the beginning of the semester.  I finally have my computer restored, so I can get back to working on FF stuff, so that's awesome!

[Deaths Jester]

Haha, it does hurt quite a bit at times.  Anyway, we've made major headway, and we're about to take a break to get ready for the beginning of the semester.  I finally have my computer restored, so I can get back to working on FF stuff, so that's awesome!

Ahhh...with ye comp back out and better than means I'm going to have to unpack the whip and get you back to work then!!  *digs around a few boxes and finds the whip*  Aha!!  Here it is!  -CRACK- Back to work you lowly fishman!!  -CRACK- Back to work!!!

[Cyber Burn]

Haha, it does hurt quite a bit at times.  Anyway, we've made major headway, and we're about to take a break to get ready for the beginning of the semester.  I finally have my computer restored, so I can get back to working on FF stuff, so that's awesome!

Yes, yes it is! 

[BentonGrey]

Ow!  That whip hurts DJ!  Alright, alright, I'm working on the Marvel mod already.  Leave me alone!

[Deaths Jester]

Ow!  That whip hurts DJ!  Alright, alright, I'm working on the Marvel mod already.  Leave me alone!

Not until you get over your creepy fascination with Aquaman!  -CRACK- No repeat after me!  Aquaman is just a comic character and not worthy of my worship!  -CRACK-

[BentonGrey]

Haha, I'll accept that he isn't worthy of worship, but he is an awesome character.

[BentonGrey]

Hey guys, I had to wipe and restore my hard drive during all of this chaos, and while most everything is okay, apparently Carbonite didn't feel the need to back up my shortcuts or icons, thus, I've lost all of the custom shortcuts and icons I created for my mods.  Would someone who has my DCUG installed be willing to email me the icon file that is in the folder?  My email addy is username@yahoo.com.  Thanks!