Just my personal experience, though I don’t think I’m alone:
I have taught since 1990. I am still PT; I apply for FT jobs but they are very rare and I can’t even get an interview anymore. It might be my age, but it’s hard to say. It’s discouraging. I supplement my income any way I can.
What I get in composition classes is usually a blend of international students who should have stayed in the ESL track for a while, along with native writers who are sometimes good writers but who are often outnumbered by overcoddled darlings who think everything can be negotiated and that everything should be accommodated.
If I could find FT work as an editor, I would jump at it.
That’s a pretty good description* - I tasted Red Bull once, and it was awful.
- I don’t actually know what ass tastes like**, so I can’t say for sure how good the description is.
** Unless we’re talking about rump roast, in which case it’s pretty darned good
I was kicked out of the military due to a lack of respect for military bureacracy. The real story is longer, with detail, humor, some catch-22 moments, and will cost you a lot of alcohol. I sometimes consider trying to volutneer again, just to prove to myself that I could have handled combat (I am almost 40 with kids, so I won’t).
I can enjoy velveeta based dishes as well as I can enjoy top notch restaurants. I just like food.
Great wine is often wasted on me, as the longer the night is the more I drink rather than taste. I still keep pouring from the good bottle, though.
I waste a lot of time at work, but I am good enough at winging it that I keep getting promotions and raises. This makes me feel both guilty and arrogant at the same time. I also have yet to pay the real price for procrastination.
My personality at home has a strong correlation with the last time my wife and I made love.
I would go back to bartending in a second if my mortgage and kid’s college was paid for. Fuck this executive suite shit.
Yeah, I’ve heard a lot of those horror-stories . . . I have a friend who waited 16 years for a full-time position, which was promised to him, to open up. When it opened up they interviewed 50 people. He made the final 2 but lost out to someone else so he quit and he’s a corporate trainer now. Do you mind if I ask - are you a masters or PhD? I only plan on getting a masters so I’m wondering if this is a huge disadvantage.
If you could fill up your schedule as an adjunct, and work summers, would it be a decent living?
I have a high opinion of myself.
(Most people do. If you say you don’t you’re either lying, or an extremely rare individual)
This makes me sad. 
I was seriously thinking of going back to school for my PhD so I could teach but I don’t want to invest that time and money to be stuck working part time. I will have to do some additional research it seems.
I don’t think the problem is as bad for people with PhDs but obviously vivalostwages is going to know more about it than me. And it’s going to vary state to state, school to school, too. My academic advisor told me that 60% of the professors at my school are scheduled to retire in the next 8 years, so they’re going to be hiring like mad.
- I’ve spent the whole thread thinking of** pbbth’s ** cleavage and I’ve never seen it/them/her.
Did you not click on the picture link, sweetheart? Everyone in this thread has had a chance to see my cleavage. Not up close and personal, but it is still my cleavage just the same! 
Thank-you viva, thank you, for your post, and your pix.
The judges will need a minute…
Winner so far.
SSG Schwartz
I think what Al Gaddai means is that…
We can’t see your eyes, darlin’.
Ok, is it bad that this is for some unfathomable reason making me laugh hysterically? Well, I’m confessing it.
Other confessions:
-I eat at McDonalds fairly regularly, maybe once a month or so. I’m cheap/poor so the dollar menu is too hard to pass up, and the food has this weird greasy yet appealing quality that keeps me coming back. I know it’s terrible food and I otherwise try to eat healthy but I don’t think it’s something I’ll ever grow out of.
-I pick my nose when no one is around.
-I like many different kinds of foods, but drink-wise honestly I’d be happy with just water and milk for the rest of my life. I only ever drink anything else in social situations.
-I can be pretty bad with names, to the point where I’ll know someone for months and still not know their name. I’ll keep waiting for situations where someone else will refer to them by name, and dread situations where I’ll be called upon to know their name and make an idiot of myself.
I’m completely convinced that I’m a much better lover than the average guy.
I’m completely convinced that I’m a much better driver than the average.
Great art does nothing for me.
I buy gadgets which I don’t use.
I buy software which I never install.
You sound like Projammer
My confession:
I got a kitten (Kitty Bella M) for my daughter which she keeps in her room until we have the house in better order.
No big deal, right?
Well, I forgot to tell Projammer. Ok, I figured he knew after all the “clues”. Kitty carrier box from the pet store, trip to the pet store, litter box and food no longer in our bathroom…
heck, daughter and I even talked about Bella in front of him!
It just didnt dawn on me to tell him “BTW, I finally fulfilled my promise to J and she now has a kitten.”
oooooooooooppppsssss
See, that’s the problem – it was a moment of unanticipated comedy in an otherwise heartbreaking moment and I couldn’t enjoy it, dammit! 
I have really enjoyed reading these confessions! I would like to add a few of my own…
- I think I have a serious mental illness that will keep getting worse until I completely lose myself.
-I did a lot of acid when I was a teenager, and I am convinced it forever changed my brain chemistry and personality (which isn’t all bad).
-I love my boyfriend who is mostly good to me, and I feel bad for the way I treat him sometimes.
-Sometimes I get so frustrated with my puppy that I need to leave the room because I am afraid I am going to lose control and hurt her.
-I REALLY like porn where the man (men) is being very forceful with the woman, but I don’t know how to express to my boyfriend that I would like to be treated this way sexually, but not any other time! It doesn’t help that he is really sensitive and all lovey-dovey!
-Since I graduated college in May I haven’t really tried to find a job, even though I am VERY poor. I have maxed out two credit cards. I know this is very irresponsible, but I don’t care.
-I wonder what the point in doing anything is. I don’t believe in God, and I only attended my motivation class three times.
-I have an irrational fear of leaving the house.
-I don’t understand my popularity because I really don’t like anybody except for my boyfriend.
-I think my boyfriend is attracted to men and this really turns me off.
-I am convinced that Obama’s accent is fake, and it skeeves me out. Wasn’t he raised in Hawaii? I can’t listen to him!
Wow, this has been cathartic! Sorry if some of this doesn’t make sense, I haven’t slept in a long time!
I’m not in the habit of posting photos of my cleavage, not for anyone. So this is as close as you’re going to get.
Confessions? I have lots but I don’t have time to give you them all. Here are the edited highlights:
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I don’t like children.
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I don’t like people much either.
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I don’t believe in god. Any god. I find devout believers kind of creepy.
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I am often unkind to 'im indoors and I feel bad about it, but I don’t stop.
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I prefer cats to people.
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Public transport irritates me immeasurably, but I still use it.
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I’ve never tried any kind of drugs (except the prescription kind) and sometimes I wonder if I’ve missed out.
Ummm…I can’t think of anything else I really want to share with you just now!
Just tell him that you want to try it sometime. He probably won’t have a problem with it (although he may say no). The thing you have to avoid is making him think you need to be handled roughly, or he’ll start thinking that he hasn’t actually been satisfying you all this time.
My confessions:
-I am a fan of some seriously lowbrow shit. Professional wrestling, Pimp My Ride and its white trash cousin Trick My Truck, those stupid NFL Yearbook things that make every team sound as though it was one play short of the Super Bowl, and heavy metal.
-I could spend the rest of my life sitting in a recliner eating Sour Punch candy and watching reruns of Star Trek: TNG.
-I like to tie up girls. Not to railroad tracks or anything, just to beds and such.
I would much rather be female.
I can’t stand the machismo game that men play all the time, I have no interest in cars or football, and hanging out with leering idiots for whom engaging conversation consists of the phrase “check out those tits/ass/legs” accompanied by copious leering and the expectation that I do the same is pretty much the definition of hell. Oh yes, and cars. And football. Testosterone poisoning is real.
Even if I’m mostly in female company, being male means you just can’t be “one of the girls”. I’ll never be able to join in on the internet shopping sprees, talk about girl stuff, and the worst part is the “reverse exclusion”, that I have to keep quiet when they talk about “unspeakable” things (at least they’re comfortable enough to talk about waxing outings when I’m around) because anything - ANYTHING I say will be layered with a sexual subtext. When you titter nervously and apologise about subjecting me to talk about shaving your hoohaa, believe me, I’m silent for your benefit, not mine. And sharing food… hah. Wanting a taste of your cream cheese bagel isn’t just wanting a taste of your cream cheese bagel, there must be some hidden HORNY MALE agenda.
Men’s fashion is pretty much a moot point. “Acceptable” styles of clothing number about 3, there are about 6 men’s shoes in toto which mens’ shoe manufacturers have been feebly trying to replicate in minutely differing shades of brown. When pleated and non-pleated actually constitute a major change in style, you know even trying is pointless. In any event nobody cares about what you’re wearing anyway, so why bother?
Oriental men’s bodies are just fugly anyway. I know there are good looking caucasian men - the average whitey guy looks more decent than not. But chinese guys like me, less than 5 in a hundred even look /decent/. Sure, I’m being shallow, but nobody - and I mean nobody - ever checks out chinese men. You argue that nobody ever checks out ugly girls, either, well, even a plain jane can turn heads with proper makeup and clothes. The best chinese men can shoot for is “not skeevy”. I’ve never felt sexy in my life, never received a second look. And we’re not supposed to care about it, but I do.
When I see a hot woman nowadays, I like to look at the other people. Beats staring daggers at her for being beautiful. Without fail, you see men and women turning their heads in what they must think is an inconspicuous manner, craning their necks, pretending to be reading a sign on the wall behind… you can tell where the hot woman is by looking at where the gazes of everyone else intersect. Once, just once in my life, I’d like to know what being that hot woman feels like. But a man… a man is either invisible, or ridiculed.
To top it off, I’m a terrible guy. I don’t have any hunting instinct at all, meek and submissive are my middle names, and I’d rather much have the ability to get along with people than understand differential equations. That wouldn’t be so bad, except for the EXPECTATIONS that come free with every Y chromosome. Sexism isn’t a one way street - there are plenty of expectations on men too. You have to be the provider, you have to make the decisions, you can’t drink a strawberry margarita without COMMENTS (never positive), even if you FUCKING HATE BEER.
The worst part about being male is when your body betrays you. When you know that you’re being a fucking boor because you’ve been around enough females to be sensitive to it, but you don’t realise you’re doing it until you see the tell tale reactions around you… and you realise that yes, you are indeed male, and your fuckups are legion.
Yes, women occasionally get can neurotic, and female relationships can get a bit herdish and shadowy, but if by science or magic I could become biologically female, I would think LONG and HARD about it, and the only reason why I wouldn’t would be for the sake of my SO.
More than you could possibly know.
You women that are complaining about your sex drives intimidating your boyfriends? I hate your boyfriends, and am totally jealous of them. Even in my first marriage, when I was sleeping with 2 other women besides the wife, I was still wanting more. I am not sure what my upper limit is.
That being said, being a fat guy is depressing.
I know what I need to do to lose the weight, but I don’t know if I have the willpower. I’ve tried numerous methods of inspiring myself, but it doesn’t help. I’ll be trying again on the 16th.
I may be addicted to porn (see that sex drive stuff above). Not sure.
I’m loving the cleavage contest here, and am sad to see so few actual pictures from our self confident doper ladies.
I consider myself a safe and sane gun owner now, but when I was 20 and stupid, I took up my rifle with the intent of killing someone. Common sense stopped me, but 15 minutes more and I would probably be in jail for 1st degree murder.
Most women I see, I picture naked. So, if I ever make it to Gettysdope, I apologize in advance.