Friday, February 18, 2011

Lesson learned

Advisor forwards me an email about a resource that might be useful for my dissertation research.  I send a quick "thank you!" reply.  Her response:

"Where the heck is the intro????"  (yes, with 4 question marks)

Lesson of the day: when you are writing a piece of a manuscript that is waaaay overdue (and that your advisor has been bugging you about for the better part of a month), don't send unnecessary emails to said advisor...even to be gracious.  Looks like another Friday afternoon in the Dungeon/Batcave to get this thing done before the weekend...

Friday, February 11, 2011

I'm baaaaack.

Oops...took a much longer blog hiatus than intended.  Ended up having a rather eventful 2nd half of the semester - I'm sure I will end up writing a longer entry about the major reason why it was eventful, as I wish I'd had more advice about how to handle the situation at the time.

In other news: I officially finished coursework in December.  It's weird to not have to go to class at all after a year and a half (including the summer) of full-time classes.  This semester I am preparing for my program's version of comps (writing the literature review for my dissertation, then defending it before a faculty committee) and doing a part-time internship in a non-academic setting in the Big Important City near my university.  The internship is actually a requirement of my program - very good and timely, given this recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Ed.  I've previously mentioned that I have some reservations about a career in academia, and I'm still more or less on the fence...I love teaching (even though undergrads do drive me crazy), but so far, I'm having such a fantastic experience in the non-academic world that I'm starting to lean in that direction.  The good news is that I still have some time to mull it over before I have to make a decision.

Other than that, I'm still living the grad student dream...the Dungeon/Batcave no longer has a leaky ceiling (now it's just moldy/mildewed...yum), but my officemates and I are relatively certain that our workspace isn't heated...not an ideal scenario during one of the metro area's coldest winters on record.  Space heaters are a constant companion.  Been teaching the occasional guest lecture in undergrad classes, so undergrad quotes will be coming.  My life has been relatively consumed lately by the student organization that I advise, but things should finally slow down after this weekend.

But yes - I'm back.  For good.  Until life inevitably gets crazy again.