"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

– Winston Churchill

Aaaaannnd....that's it! This is the last post I will be making on this blog. It's early Monday morning, so technically, our last class is tonight; this blog has served its purpose.

To my fellow classmates, best of luck on your final projects, presentations, and so on. I'll be seeing you!

To anyone who wants more from me, remember that you can go to rogermarket.com to read my regular blog and drafts of my stories and essays, but also to access my hypertext narrative (the final project for this class). I will definitely continue to make updates to the website. I do have a personal Facebook account, and I'll accept you if I know you. For everyone else, because of this class, I now also have a public page that markets me as a writer/artist, so feel free to Like it (updates and changes are forthcoming). I also have a special Facebook page for my hypertext narrative; join that page in order to receive updates about the hypertext story and/or to provide feedback on it. I need all the help I can get to make it better.

Now, I bid adieu to Blogger.com for the time being.

"Pat Downs don’t want anything to do with your junk."

– Chris Rodell, MSNBC

Apparently, airport pat-downs have caused a lot of controversy recently. And a lot of bad/amazing puns.

"What is not started today is never finished tomorrow."

– Larry Elder

The semester's almost over. I'm putting the finishing touches on my paper for Electronic Publishing, and then I'll just have to print out my final poster designs, and mount them, for Typography. Yay! It's been an interesting semester, heavy on the publishing part of the M.F.A. degree, but I'll be glad to have some time off.

As evidenced by my previous posts, I've got lots of shows, movies, and books to watch/read during that time off, but I'm also going to be working, so that list may not be feasible. I've started a new job, so for the first time since August 2009, I'll be working full time (though it's commission-based). I'm also still working part time for O.T.S. at U.B., although I'll actually be working from home for a couple of weeks, updating the student lab assistant manual, and after that's done, I won't be working much for O.T.S. until February. Then there's the U.B. Post; I still plan on doing layout for the Post, in order to gain work experience in my field.

With all of this work going on, my career goal for 2010 is to make enough money that I'll actually end up having to pay taxes for my 2011 return. You see, I've never worked enough to have to pay; I've always gotten everything back on my tax return because I've never earned more than $7,000 in a year, which is below the limit for paying taxes. Although I'll end up losing part of my income to taxes if/when I meet this goal, at least I'll be making a living wage (and then some)! I just wish I could have found a full time job in my field; that's the next step.

"Approximately 5.9 million U.S. adults own an eReader."

– Paul Biba, TeleRead.com

I read an article the other day about e-readers. Apparently, ownership of electronic reading devices has soared from 2.1 million people (in the March to October period of 2009) to 5.9 million people (in the same period of 2010), an increase of about 180% in a year's time. Previously, male users outnumbered female users 56% to 44%, but now, the numbers have almost evened out, with men at 49% and women now in the lead at 51%, mirroring the world population. These numbers do not include tablet computers (i.e., iPads, netbooks, laptops, etc.), only dedicated e-readers.

And then tonight, I found out that one of my friends got a Kindle in October and likes it a lot.

Argh!

I know it's inevitable: soon enough, I'm going to be part of these statistics. But right now, I'm still resisting.