It's Friday. Thank God. Don't get me wrong; this week was in no way a bad week. It was just a *crazy* week: all running around filling out forms and buying books and other crap and buying party supplies. It's nice to have the worst of that over.
Things look good for the quarter. My Maximum Likelihood class is going to be hell on wheels, this I can already tell. But I'll learn a thing or two I'm sure. On the other hand, my Intro to GIS (Geographic Information Systems) class is totally bitching. It's a year long class, slowly cumulating in bad-ass mapping skills. I'm psyched. Even my TA position seems cool; the work load is not bad (grade 20ish, 2-page papers each week and teach two class session) and the topic is good (ideology and bureaucracy).
The whip cream on my pie was the *great* meeting I had with E. yesterday. I feel a bit like I'm working on borrowed time, since I don't yet have the official word on my exam. But, regardless, we're plunging ahead on the proposal. My first task, in the next two weeks, is hash up the big themes (architecture, interstate as instutution, federalism and planning) and boil those down into specific hypotheses. Just like a 3 page write up. I'm also to start hunting up data sources. Then, we'll start talking about things like structure, a work plan, other readers, and so on. E. is really psyched. So, things feel good right now.
The cherries on my whip cream on my pie?
1. Other readers were briefly discussed. My nemesis ("C.") who was my origial, other reader on my (disastorous) MA project last year was *not brought up at all.* I don't know if E. caught my powerful psychic vibes over the summer, or if he re-thought the whole project in his head, or if E. and C. had some issue or what the fuck happened. All I know: my ass is off the hook, and I don't have to fight with E. to keep C. off. YES.
2. E. had some crazy shit to say. Here's our dialouge:
E: So, this is your third year?
SN: That's right.
E: And you did a year of grad school before this?
SN: Actually, two years...
E: So, you must be pretty sick of grad school?
SN: Yea...
E: Well, listen. If we can get this going, I'd like to see you have 2-3 chapters done by the end of summer. If that happens, maybe we coud do a test run of you on the market..."
This is wonderfully exciting (because having a job, especially as the wife heads back to school) would be fucking aces plus some. But it's also super-motherfucking scary ass fucking shit. I mean, I in NO WAY feel like I have the skills to be wrapping up the diss and educating others.
We shall see. It is thrilling though. I mean, I have a grain of salt here: E. is a big thinker and talker. So this might fall through the cracks. But it's damn exciting.... If it does happen, there will be limits - based mostly around wherever the wife is going to school [*crosses fingers for the chicago-metro area*] ... but thems bridges we'll cross when we come to them...
All right, I'm going to do some work and wait for my groceries to be delievered.
The weekend? It brings French food and Serenity! Joss Whedon is my master now.
Have a good one. Or at least a *good enough* one.
Things look good for the quarter. My Maximum Likelihood class is going to be hell on wheels, this I can already tell. But I'll learn a thing or two I'm sure. On the other hand, my Intro to GIS (Geographic Information Systems) class is totally bitching. It's a year long class, slowly cumulating in bad-ass mapping skills. I'm psyched. Even my TA position seems cool; the work load is not bad (grade 20ish, 2-page papers each week and teach two class session) and the topic is good (ideology and bureaucracy).
The whip cream on my pie was the *great* meeting I had with E. yesterday. I feel a bit like I'm working on borrowed time, since I don't yet have the official word on my exam. But, regardless, we're plunging ahead on the proposal. My first task, in the next two weeks, is hash up the big themes (architecture, interstate as instutution, federalism and planning) and boil those down into specific hypotheses. Just like a 3 page write up. I'm also to start hunting up data sources. Then, we'll start talking about things like structure, a work plan, other readers, and so on. E. is really psyched. So, things feel good right now.
The cherries on my whip cream on my pie?
1. Other readers were briefly discussed. My nemesis ("C.") who was my origial, other reader on my (disastorous) MA project last year was *not brought up at all.* I don't know if E. caught my powerful psychic vibes over the summer, or if he re-thought the whole project in his head, or if E. and C. had some issue or what the fuck happened. All I know: my ass is off the hook, and I don't have to fight with E. to keep C. off. YES.
2. E. had some crazy shit to say. Here's our dialouge:
E: So, this is your third year?
SN: That's right.
E: And you did a year of grad school before this?
SN: Actually, two years...
E: So, you must be pretty sick of grad school?
SN: Yea...
E: Well, listen. If we can get this going, I'd like to see you have 2-3 chapters done by the end of summer. If that happens, maybe we coud do a test run of you on the market..."
This is wonderfully exciting (because having a job, especially as the wife heads back to school) would be fucking aces plus some. But it's also super-motherfucking scary ass fucking shit. I mean, I in NO WAY feel like I have the skills to be wrapping up the diss and educating others.
We shall see. It is thrilling though. I mean, I have a grain of salt here: E. is a big thinker and talker. So this might fall through the cracks. But it's damn exciting.... If it does happen, there will be limits - based mostly around wherever the wife is going to school [*crosses fingers for the chicago-metro area*] ... but thems bridges we'll cross when we come to them...
All right, I'm going to do some work and wait for my groceries to be delievered.
The weekend? It brings French food and Serenity! Joss Whedon is my master now.
Have a good one. Or at least a *good enough* one.
VIEW 4 of 4 COMMENTS
you know, i had a college roommate who majred in geography at the u of c. i couldnt believe they 1. have that as a major and 2. some of the unusual (but seemingly cool) classes she had and 3. there were two others her year that were also geography majors. what cracked me up is, at the end of the year i guess they give out 3 awards...and i assumed it would be nice if they just gave each award to each of the three people...but nooooo, my roomate won all three, incurring the jealousy and hatred of the others. ha.