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| Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 |
academics_anon
[ wildrogue ]
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12:45p |
Writing styles
I've just finished my autumn term essay and, as ever, The Discussion has happened in our house. The Discussion stems from the fact that my partner and I have totally different approaches to writing. He's one of those appalling and lucky people who do the research, have a think then sit down and write a whole paper in one go without any real planning. It'll be ready in plenty of time for the deadline. I sit firmly in the other camp: I read around the subject, picking up anything that looks interesting and possible connected. I probably do twice as much research as I need to. Then I sift through the research for the bits that are really relevent to the topic. I write out plans. Possibly at this stage I go away and do a bit more reading to fill in any gaps. All the while my deadline come creeping ever closer. Finally I sit down to write. The blank page stares back at me mockingly. So I make a cup of tea. I jot down bullet points. I stare at the screen some more. I check my word limit. More screen staring. More tea. Possibly I go for a walk to get some fresh air. I threaten to throw the computer out of the window. My partner leaves the room/flat/city in frustration. Eventually, close to tears, I start typing. Some time later I realise that my partner has been asleep for hours, it's some ungodly time of the morning and I have the half-finished remains of dinner and several cups of tea littered around me, but the majority of the dratted thing has been drafted. From there it's just a matter of a conclusion and editing, which I can usually expand or contract to fit the amount of time left before the deadline. Naturally my dearest one can't fathom why it is that I get so upset by the process. "Why" he asks "do you spend so much energy getting angry about not writing, when you could use it far better if you just wrote any old garbage and then went back to edit it?" It's usually around this point that I threaten to throw books at him. I've tried to explain several times that my brain just doesn't work the way his does. He works on the production side of publishing and is he's very good at thinking A>B>C>D>paper. My thought process is more like one of those scatter diagrams: lots of apparently unconnected things gradually being filtered and grouped into a cohesive whole. To him this is a madly inefficient way of working, to me it's just life. How do you write? Does it cause domestic strife? |
btothektotheh
|
7:40a |
Second Time, is that a charm again?
Tried to do this yesterday, but it didn't make the grade for some reason (probably due to my accidentally having closed the browser before I could post my entry regalling the reading public with my wild & sordid tales of travel & adventure.) Holiday trip in Florida went surprisingly well, save for a hitch from the get-go in which my initial flight into Cincinatti was late, resulting in me missing my connecting flight & having to be put up for the night by Delta at a Holiday Inn in Kentucky...which reminds me that I need to call the hotel in Florida to make my reservations for Houston & Vanessa's wedding. Woke far earlier than necessary because I was in no mood to take chances with Delta. Discovered that the Cincinatti airport has a smoking lounge, so once past security, spent time in there smoking & lounging (aided by coffee & "House of Leaves", the latter purchased as an erstwhile gift for my mother at the airport bookseller.) Flight went well enough, what with my dosed to the gills on sedative pills. Landing in Fort Myers, mother makes with the taxi service, into Fort Myers for errands & the obligatory side-story into Flowers to 50s (note: It's current name is "Main Antiques"; "Flowers to 50s" was the name when I first discovered it.) Spent the following days in varying stages of sobriety & its antonym, Christmas tolerably well. Hung out with family (dad, mom, brother, & grandfather, also beagles). Watched a great deal of basketball & avoided reading anything for a few days. Mailed off some things Saturday (mostly memory foam bed pads; & a lamp I had received as a Christmas gift), which cost more than I preferred. Went for a motorcycle ride shortly thereafter thru the Everglades, then hung out with Keenan & Pops (our paternal grandfather) for a few hours. Biggest kick there came from making fun of our father in old family photographs. Also, this exchange: Keenan: So Pops, how's the iPod working out for you? Pops: It's all right. I was listening to it in the car. ... Me: Wait. So...Pops....when you say that you were listening to it in the car, do you mean that you hooked it up to the car stereo, or that you were driving about listening to it thru headphones? I'll leave you to guess what the answer was. The hint is that it was hilarious. Sunday flew back to Boston, unpacked, ran some errands. Have the flat to myself for the next few weeks. At work at the moment. Hoping that today is bearable. Looking increasingly forward to the moment I can drop off my grad school app. All that's left to accomplish in that respect is to file the Fafsa (after January 1st), & look into scholarships & financial aid. Otherwards, nothing of particular interest. Running into a problem with an online vendor over non-shipment of an item with which I may need to file a dispute thru Paypal. If my increasingly angry emails & likely angrier telephone call(s) can't resolve the matter. Spot of bother, that. Planning on hitting the Boston Burger Co tonite with Michael to use some coupons. Looking very much forward to Friday & the three-day weekend. There was probably more which I had wanted to say, but it escapes me presently. Cut. Current Music: Bright Eyes - Land Locked Blues |
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dilbertdaily
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12:00a |
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snopes_dot_com
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3:00p |
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academics_anon
[ smyleykyley ]
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12:16a |
How to register when presenting as an independent scholar?
Mods: Please feel free to remove my post if it's not appropriate. I've been accepted to a conference as an independent scholar. I'm trying to register, but I'm not sure what to call myself: Professor/Professional or Retired/Unemployed While I do work, I'm not working as an academic or teacher (nor am I enrolled in graduate school), and it's half priced if I select Unemployed. Of course, I don't want to be dishonest, but I'm paying for all of this out of pocket, so it certainly makes a big difference. Thanks! |
| Monday, December 28th, 2009 |
gradstudents
[ markovnikov ]
|
10:47p |
awkward conversations about grad school
so as grad school has gone on, i've noticed myself more and more dreading the awkward conversations where i'm asked what i "do for a living." i usually just reply that i'm in grad school, but that obviously leads to questions about what i'm studying, what i want to be when i grow up, etc. at first i didn't mind answering the questions, but i've grown to hate it. i always feel like such a douchebag saying i'm working on a PhD. i mean, perhaps it's just that most people don't seem to understand what getting a PhD entails. lately, i've been dealing with a lot of questions about if i'm glad finals are over or when the semester starts up again, and then i have to explain how we don't take classes past the first year, which leads to even more confusion from the person, ugh. another thing i hate is when i tell people i'm studying chemistry, i always receive responses like "oh i was really bad at chemistry in high school." there aren't really many ways you can respond to that other than like "oh, that sucks." blah, i should just lie and say i work at target or something. i don't know, do you guys find these questions awkward too? how do you all deal with them? i feel like i have these conversations with everyone ranging from my family to my hair stylist, ugh. |
fursonals
[ blueberrihusky ]
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12:41p |
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academics_anon
[ lady_daereth ]
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3:06p |
I'm looking for some info on what the flora (plant life) might have been in Britain in the early middle ages. I'm not a botanist, I just need a quote in my linguistic research to support the idea that the occurrence of certain plant types in herbal charms was not coincidental.
So, anyone, any ideas on British landscape in the early a.d.'s?
PS Tried article_request, and this community was recommended to me. Will be grateful! |
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dilbertdaily
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12:00a |
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academics_anon
[ vaikuntha ]
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3:28p |
CDROM Citation
+Please remove if inappropriate+ Hi, I've tried searching online, but is there a particular way (MLA if it exists) for conference proceedings published in a CDROM only? Thanks! |
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snopes_dot_com
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3:00p |
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| Sunday, December 27th, 2009 |
tallahassee
[ threeorfour ]
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12:55p |
So I want to go back to school @ FSU. Does anyone know a really good admissions officer that will help me out? I don't want to the run around. |
ms_beeblebrox
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9:16a |
I'm really excited to see my family in three days. Until then, I'm just going to count down hours.
I'm a little behind, but since Joss Whedon finally wowed me with Dr. Horrible, I decided it's about time to watch Buffy from season one to the end. My sister watched it for a while, but I always made fun of her more than actually enjoying the show. Well, I thought Dr. Horrible was one of the best things I've ever seen - ever - so now I'm onto you, Whedon. Time for Buffy. Luckily for me, season 1 is uploaded onto Hulu, and the subsequent seasons will be there within the next year. I like watching seasons of shows nonstop. Also, I don't know if I can handle this much Willow, but man - she is sexy. Even in her Sears dress and awkward stares, she is so sexy. And Xander, and glee - and it's nice to watch a show from which you've heard all the squees, and now I can squee for myself. Silly me. I have to count inventory by myself today - so I hope that it won't be busy at all. Then, there will be scrabble, which is much better than inventory. There's been very little gym time in the past three weeks, and I'm definitely feeling it. I can't believe how long I lived without regular workouts. Also, I'm taking it upon myself to keep shopping and cooking better, and better meals for the family. I'm going to plan out the lists with more regularity. We haven't done that in a while, but I really want to reduce spending... simply because if we lower our food budget, we can raise our entertainment budget, and go out for meals more. So, the end. I've got the first episode of Buffy, and then I have to go work. Current Mood:  tired |
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dilbertdaily
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12:00a |
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snopes_dot_com
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3:00p |
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comic_foxtrot
[ dreaming_faerie ]
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1:49a |
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| Saturday, December 26th, 2009 |
bipolypagangeek
[ goldfish42 ]
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10:19p |
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chaosrah
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4:33p |
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dilbertdaily
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12:00a |
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redmeat_rss
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7:07a |
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| Friday, December 25th, 2009 | |
dorktowerfeed
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6:38p |
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dorktowerfeed
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6:09p |
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ms_beeblebrox
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10:57a |
I'm still working on this layout business. It's hard and tricky, and I suck at photoshop.
I really, honestly, believe that people who aren’t happy are just those people that don’t really want to be happy. I think that happiness is a choice that we make. I have two people in my life that, on a consistent basis, make the choice to be unhappy. I think that there are always things that are going to drag you away from happiness. I’m not financially independent, I’m not making enough money, I don’t think I’m working to my right potential, I haven’t been able to run… the point is, you can always find reasons for unhappiness. You can’t always be happy – but your attitude about life does determine your overall mood. Maybe this is easy for me to say, and maybe this is an easy philosophy for me to have, since I’ve been pretty lucky in life when it comes to family and friends, and luckiest when it comes to love. On the other hand, I’ve also gotten pretty depressed about family, and friends, and money, and sometimes even love. And I feel like people can’t call my attitude naïve anymore because I’ve lost someone. Of course I have a different perspective on life because Katie shot herself. Things like that change you quite a bit. I have been changed to want happiness for myself, and to feel that I deserve to really fight for it. I’ve been unhappy since adapting this new philosophy, but I also feel that I’ve been a much happier person overall in 2009. I don’t think that I’ve been a happier person because my life has changed drastically for the better – I’m in the same town, still away from a lot of family and friends, still not making a whole lot of money… factors that have changed are things that I have changed of my own volition. I work out, which brings me a great deal of self satisfaction. I changed my eating habits, lost the weight (and burden of it) that I had been carrying with me for years. I’ve been working, and hopefully, I’m about to get a second job. (But I don’t want to talk about it, because I don’t really want to jinx it). I’ve been meddling about in the art world. Cooking a lot of great food, conversing with friends – I just think that these are things I have had the power to change. You can’t spend all your time being devastated about the things that you can’t change. I can’t change my job. Well, no one is hiring – so it’s hard to change my job. I can’t change how much money I make. I can’t change a lot of things that I would like to change, but I can change how I feel about these things. Alex and I are changing the budget around, so he is paying for more (he earns more), and I can save more money. This kind of compromise, to me, is a true testament of how much we’ve grown as a couple. My friends, both of them, spend quite a bit of time being unhappy about the things that they can’t change – as well as being miserable about facets of their lives that were determined before they were even born. I think it’s a really stubborn way to view life, and it seems to me that you could get stuck in a place like that, and not know how to find your way out. I know I was stuck for quite a while, and my way out was working out; it changed my determination completely. I’m a different person now because I took up running, because I lost the weight, because I’ve kept it off, and because I’m no longer unsatisfied with how I look. I think the reason I thought of all this was because Rachel texted to wish me a Merry Christmas last night, and when I responded with similar wishes in return – she managed to victimize herself in minutes, complaining about how she could never have a good Christmas until she was rich, and out of debt, and I felt like an idiot for even wishing her one. It was all rather silly. My point is that I had a fantastic Christmas Eve. Alex and I hosted a small dinner party with a couple of close friends. Alex made duck, and I made roasted mushrooms and butternut squash risotto, and our friends brought wine. So, we sat around and drank three bottles of wine (between five of us), and some scotch, and ate really delicious foods. And after dinner, we opened presents and watched a timeless holiday classic – Die Hard. It was a brilliant evening, and I’m lucky and blessed to be surrounded with these people in my life. I hope that I have these kind of friends (or these friends, specifically) around me for the rest of my life. I hope I can continue toasting to friendship, and love, and happiness, for many more years to come. And I hope others in my life can also learn to appreciate the really great things – because when you look around, I find that there are lots of great things about life to appreciate. PS. On the other note, I think I really do see being a vegetarian as an experiment that I wanted to try. I wanted to see if I could still do it, I wanted to see if I could still be healthy while doing it - but I don't have a passion to keep being one. In a lot of ways, I often want to be a vegetarian because I want to be a part of another group, because I don't feel I've found my place yet. So, I try on different roles, simply to see how they fit. This one, doesn't really. I don't know. I wanted to see a different identity, and see if I could wear that identity, I'm not sure. And I definitely believe in decreasing meat consumption, and I think that this experiment has done that for our family. But, I'm not sure that this is going to be for the rest of my life. Probably not, honestly. For now, I'm going to go back to eating fish, and see how I feel about that. I guess it really was just a phase for me. I'm okay with being a hypocrite, since I didn't preach about my ideas to anyone else. Merry Christmas to all who celebrate, and happy holidays, and if not anything at all – I hope you have a great Friday. Current Mood:  hopefulCurrent Music: Great Big Sea: Dancing with Mrs. White |
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dilbertdaily
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12:00a |
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snopes_dot_com
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3:00p |
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