mercuriosity, posts by tag: school - LiveJournal (original) (raw)
Hey friends! Wanna help me not fail school?
If you are 18+ and a native speaker of American English, you can do that by taking my Voice and Attitude Survey. You'll hear some people speaking, and you'll be asked to answer some questions about them. It takes about 20 minutes, and it's completely anonymous.
Here's the link: http://nyu.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_7WMrlcxbv7KCpTe.
I need at least 100 responses, so whether or not you take the survey, I would also really, really appreciate it if you could pass the link on to your friends/followers/etc., or link people to this post. Again, this is for the noble cause of helping me not fail school.
I also welcome any feedback on the survey itself. Because of the limitations of the research format, I struggled a lot with how to phrase certain questions, and I'm sure I did not succeed in every way. I can't promise to change anything in this survey, since it's already online, but I will definitely take any comments into account in future research.
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Oh, speaking of responsibility, I also meant to say that I've somehow been elected president of my department's graduate student organization for the next academic year. And by "elected", I mean "cajoled into volunteering for".
Whoooops, chronic responsibility-taking-on strikes again. It's okay, though, I'll just procrastinate and freak out about everything to compensate!
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When I feel distressed, I wash dishes. If I can't resolve all my crises of confidence with soap and scrubbing pads, I can at least have clean forks.
Here I am, on the other side of two years of graduate school. It seems unreal--I can hardly say what I've done with my time here.
The end of the semester is always a crisis period, but this one was a little better than last, despite the increased amount of work I took on. I got pretty unhappy toward the end of last semester, though I don't remember how much of that ever made it into this journal. I know I mentioned that I was going to therapy again, which was a direct result of that unhappiness, and to which I attribute the improvement of this semester.
Unfortunately, I've now used up my allotment of free, "short-term" counseling visits, and if I want to continue going, I have to go somewhere else and pay a copay. This I have resolved on doing, and my previous therapist gave me a few referrals, but I haven't contacted anyone yet. I know I'd better do it soon, because the longer I put it off the easier it is to forget about it, and summer--always a difficult time--is looming ahead.
At the end of this summer, I will turn 25. But let's not think about that just yet.
Something happened during this semester that I hardly know how to talk about, and yet feel I must.
( Trigger warning for suicideCollapse )
But you're not here for my melancholy ramblings. You're here for cat pictures. By no means would I disappoint you.
Where's Stephen?
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18 January 2011 @ 05:51 pm
So, my schedule for the coming semester is shaping up to be pretty hectic. I'll be taking two work-intensive courses in other departments, Stats and Linguistic Anthropology: 6 hours of lecture a week. I'll be teaching a recitation section of Language (essentially Ling 101): 2.5 hours of lecture a week, an hour of recitation, and two hours of office time. And of course, I'll be writing my first major qualifying paper (QP), which involves designing an experiment, obtaining suitable recordings for said experiment, recruiting subjects to take part, getting IRB approval, collecting the data, analyzing the data, and of course writing. I do not actually expect to finish this in one semester; it is very likely that I'll be spending my summer on this QP, assuming I can somehow fund myself.
Oh, there's also the possibility that I'll be auditing a phonology seminar. That means another 3 hours of lecture a week, plus reading.
The thing is, I have partially brought this burden upon myself. I was semi-warned about teaching twice in one year, and while trying to write a QP. Nonetheless, when another grad student had to drop her commitment to teach the Language section, I leapt upon it. In partial justification, I said to myself and others that the class I TAed last semester wasn't very work-intensive--no teaching, just admin and occasional grading--and also that "I do better when I keep busy."
While both of these things are true, I secretly suspect that they are not the real reason I rush to add more obligations to my plate. I suspect the truth is that I deliberately take on a lot, probably more than I should, so that I have a legitimate reason when I start to feel like I can't handle it all. Because, in fact, I feel that way even when I don't have a lot to do (witness last semester). At least this way, my reasoning goes, I'll be keeping legitimately busy so that the amount of stress I feel won't be out of proportion.
Hmm.
ETA: Oh yeah, I forgot the part where I also continue to be the departmental webmaster. While that probably doesn't add more than an hour or two to my work week, on average, it does mean that I have to be prepared to pretty much drop everything to take care of assorted tasks whenever faculty members e-mail me about them.
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I have a file, growing with every day I spend in my current PhD program, entitled, "Theses I should be writing". Talking with a classmate last night, we agreed that it is only once you've locked yourself into a program of study that you realize your LIFELONG DREAM is to study something else. Here is a sample from the file:
* The phenomenon of Chinese (and clearly Chinese-based) characters (that's people, not written symbols) representing "ultra-Asianness" in Japanese media. This thesis topic brought to you by Shi-Long Lang of Ace Attorney Investigations, the Xing Empire of Fullmetal Alchemist, the cuh-razy Chinese peeps in Shaman King, and um. Probably like a million other examples.
Other things. If you like Princess Tutu at all, I highly recommend you check out this This Pendent Heart, a fan-made light novel (aka, multichapter fic with illustrations).
I normally veer away from long, multichapter fics, for a number of reasons--one of them being that I often feel like authors who want to write a long plotty adventure, post-canon, often end up undoing a lot of the character development that already occurred, for the sake of conflict/drama needed to drive the plot. And with this one especially, I thought, "Why would I want to rob the Tutu characters of the happy ending they worked so hard for?" But I gave it a chance, and I was really impressed; the author displays an acute sensitivity to the character arcs of all the major players, and skillfully manages to extend them even further in a fully believable and satisfying way. Furthermore, there are some fantastic allusions, both to the anime and outside sources, and wordplay and riddles that just really make the tone spot-on. Even the structure of the story mirrors the anime, with a "happy ending" in Chapter 13 that yet hints at--dunh dunh DUNH--further conflict to come. I was so ridiculously pleased when I noticed that, I can't even tell you. And there is ROMANCE, and lots of heartwarming moments, and it makes me feel a lot like watching the anime did, which is about the highest compliment I can pay!
tl;dr version: There are pretty pictures!
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07 December 2009 @ 05:03 pm
I'm not dead! Barely.
I have, however, spent the last five days almost entirely in bed, thus causing me to be even more behind on my work than I already was. YAY. So, uh, in between schoolwork, recovering from the plague, and Yuletide, I might not be around much until, say, Dec. 23.
In the meantime, hit me up on the messaging service of your choice! All the details are in my profile.
26 November 2009 @ 12:28 am
Last night I completely blew off all my already-hopelessly-behind schoolwork to go to a Röyksopp concert! It was fantastic and completely worth the minor twinges of guilt.
Anneli Drecker was touring with them, providing vocals on several songs; I had hoped it would be Karen Dreijer Andersson of The Knife, because she is a force of nature, but Anneli was also amazing! She wore a series of masks and outfits during the show, including a particularly memorable owl mask and feathered cape--she also did some kind of crazy owl dance which I can't even describe, beyond "awesome".
You've probably already seen the video for "Remind Me", but just in case:
Here are some of other
favorites
ones that are good; honestly, I cannot pick favorites, don't make me try:
Never let it be said that the Scandinavians don't know how to make people dance.
---
PROFESSOR (at end of class today): Happy Thanksgiving! Don't come in here for the next four days. And if you have any work for me, don't do it.
ME: No promises.
(I do appreciate the sentiment, though.)
Current Mood: satisfied
24 November 2009 @ 02:41 pm
I stayed up until 1:00 last night, reading a truly hideous syntax paper*, and when I was finished I felt too frustrated and anxious to sleep, so I tossed and turned and puttered around for hours. Then, this morning, I made myself a sandwich, which I promptly left in the refrigerator as I rushed out the door. I got to class a few minutes late and ran upstairs to grab my notebook, forgetting to actually bring the paper I'd so laboriously read for today's class. I ran back downstairs to class, checking to make sure my cell phone was silenced, only to realize that I'd left it on my desk at home.
Truly, some days were just not meant to happen.
On the plus side, I just found out that the term paper for this class is due a week later than I thought it was. I nearly did \o/ arms in class. It doesn't even make that big a difference, I'm still looking at nonstop stress and work through the end of the semester, but it's just- every little bit helps.
*Note to authors: When your footnotes are as long as the actual text of your paper, SEEK HELP IMMEDIATELY. Or learn to shut up.
Current Mood: exhausted
23 November 2009 @ 10:30 pm
I'm writing an e-mail to a professor to say that I really can't finish my project by Wednesday (unless I find a way to manipulate the fabric of space-time itself), and to ask if I can hand it in a little later.
This is the professor who, on the last assignment, forgot the due date he'd put on the syllabus and said, "Oh, was that due today?" when I handed in the INCREDIBLY BAD paper I'd spent the last night frantically typing. And two weeks after the assignment was ostensibly due, casually mentioned that if people hadn't turned in the assignment yet, he'd like to have them "soon". Come to think of it, he didn't seem too fussed about the deadline for the first assignment, either.
...And I'm still sweating over this e-mail.
I don't want to be too apologetic and grovel-y, because then I'll feel silly when he responds with a two-word answer, but I still have this fear that if I come across as too casual, he'll suddenly change his attitude and RADIATE DISAPPROVAL. This is totally irrational! I know it! WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME, I AM ONLY A (SOCIAL) SCIENTIST.
Basically, every situation in my life these days has a corresponding PHD comic.
Current Music: The Raconteurs, "Steady As She Goes"
27 October 2009 @ 11:41 pm
~A Story Without Words~
THE END.
*Yes, I know it's only Tuesday. It's that kind of week.