First Day of School!

[davy]

My first real week of classes starts tomorrow. I am not even in the mood.

[andronicus]

My academic fortunes did a 180 today.  I'd convinced myself that a paper I wrote for my thesis advisor last quarter was pretty crappy, but I got it back and aside from nitpicking issues, (comma placement and questionable which vs. that usage--this guy is notorious for being picky at every conceivable level) he really liked it.  My original plan was to use that paper as the lit. review section of my thesis but I'd abandoned it, convincing myself the paper was unsalvageable; now the guy who is grading the finished product gave me the thumbs up, and magically my thesis goes from 0% to between 1/3 and 1/2 written. 

TL;DR: YAYYY!

[G.C.R]

Awesome!
I am so ready to go back to school. I don't start until March 2 and its driving me nuts.

[alex]

Yeah, that's great, Richard!

Man, it fucking sucks to be teaching classes with strict can't-miss-a-single-session rules and super-tight deadlines. I'm in the middle of writing an email to a student saying "no, you can't hand in your essays four days late", and while I kind of see the point of it (the group session will be about the students giving each other peer feedback in groups of two, so if she doesn't at least bring in a draft of an essay, the entire thing won't work), I also feel like the worst person in the world right now.

By the way, I ended up mellowing down considerably on this issue, and feel a little bit better about myself again.

I did, however, make one person rewrite an essay that won't count towards the grading (in the sense that it's one of a bunch of assignments that the students have to hand in in order to get graded at all, but which doesn't itself get a grade). I felt a bit bad about that, but the thing just didn't meet the criteria that were asked for -- it was a summary of a text instead of a stylistic analysis. Plus I did want to give some indications of the standards I was going to apply for the graded assignment, so it seemed like a good idea to point out if something just wasn't of sufficient quality. So I gave the student some feedback and told her to rewrite it. She actually responded quite positively, and sent in a revised version this morning -- and, what do you know, it actually became a really good essay! So I'm glad I did that, after all.

[citrus]

oh my god developmental neuro and a new lab and a teaching ethics course and even a poetry class why kelly why

[davy]

Why does it always take me so long to figure out that a new semester has begun?

I feel like it's still the holidays, and it's not like my classes are waiting on me to come around.

[silentsigh89]

it is still the holidays for me, and I'm nervous as hell for classes to start up again.

[hannah]

How's everyone's semesters going?

[Ashley]

I feel like we haven't done anything and I'm going to have a panic attack when midterms come around because they're going to be like "well, you didn't do anything" and I'm going to say "what?!  There wasn't anything to do!".

its the material of nightmares.

[Efli]

Somewhat annoying due to a move of department to a new building designed by a German company apparently specialists in fire stations and, from the feel of the place, prisons. Big on concrete, not so much on usability, and we lost the nice little departmental library.

[Bernard]

We're down to the last few weeks of term, just now starting in on After Effects, learning to foley, learning to checkerboard dialogue, finishing treatments for two scripts and writing the first act of each. I am trying not to get hired to edit a short film because it's good and I'm scared I'm going to fuck it up.

Also I have switched from insomnia to fatigue and all I want to do is sleep. The lack of caffeinated tea is not helping.

[jess]

I am pretty sure, like 95%, that I have decided where I want to go to grad school. I'm sitting on it for another day or so before making it official though. Some of you are going to shake your heads based on the location (esp given some of the other options), which is a pretty good hint to which one it is if you've read my recent travel threads, but the program is a great one, and I'm feeling really excited about it, which says to me all the more that it's the right call.

[theartlessmonster]

Information Technologies

Are you in an MLIS or other librarian-type program?

You got it: the University of Alabama's School of Library and Information Sciences.

hey! that's my field!    wooo for information science!  when do you finish?

[G.C.R]

First day of school is tomorrow. 9am Lingistics 223 Language Learning Processes Hunter Building room 220 God damn I'm an adult now why am I all nervous and actually worrying about what to wear and stupid stuff?

[davy]

You got it: the University of Alabama's School of Library and Information Sciences.

hey! that's my field!    wooo for information science!  when do you finish?

Cool! I'm still first-year, but I should be done by the end of summer, 2010. I'm part of the distance education program there, so I take my classes at night and online. Really enjoying it so far, though right now, at this exact moment, I'm tearing my hair out over this sample reference question I've got to answer for a homework assignment. I need citations for articles about bookmobiles in the 1930s, and I can't find jack.

[davy]

I haven't seen her post around here much lately, but Morgan is another LPTJer who was interested in the field and was planning on applying to some MLIS programs.

[silentsigh89]

I'm another, as well! It's just a few years away from me. I hope there is still some demand for the position by the time I get there.

[Bernard]

Do you want to specialize in anything? My four friends who did the MLIS program are now:

1. Children's librarian
2. Archivist at Getty
3. Film archivist at a univ. in Texas
4. Freelance info architect and professor

[elpollodiablo]

I think I've mentioned before that my dad has a MLIS (though the acronym might have been different twenty five years ago). He's been working at public libraries for going on three decades, and still loves it. Plus old dude gets six weeks of vacation a year and mad bennies. You could do worse!

[Ignatius]

At first I just assumed 'mad bennies' meant speed, and after an instant of confusion it seemed perfectly natural that public librarians would constantly take amphetamines.

[Anne the Man]

Shmeh, school. So not in the mood. I have my first POLS 209: Dictatorships and Revolutions class tomorrow, but it's gonna be boring-ass admin stuff. Chinese looks okay, though. Interesting.

[G.C.R]

i thought you said they showed you Eddie Izzard clips in the POLS class? That's cool! We watched Sullivan's Travels in film yesterday, which I enjoyed much more than the first time i saw it, mainly due to this girl who was clearly loving it (laughing lots, etc) in the front row. When the lights came on i saw it was the girl who was one of the few people who came in the fancy dress we were encouraged to come in for the last film class last year- she came as Hunter S. Thompson, and actually did a very good likeness, considering that she is short and Maori. I think I want to be friends with this girl.
Also, 'forge! linguistics is ace! This week we are learning about first language acquisition.

[davy]

Do you want to specialize in anything? My four friends who did the MLIS program are now:

1. Children's librarian
2. Archivist at Getty
3. Film archivist at a univ. in Texas
4. Freelance info architect and professor

I'd probably be satisfied with any of those positions, but my focus right now is collection development, hopefully for a decent-sized public library.

[davy]

I think I've mentioned before that my dad has a MLIS (though the acronym might have been different twenty five years ago). He's been working at public libraries for going on three decades, and still loves it. Plus old dude gets six weeks of vacation a year and mad bennies. You could do worse!

No joke, I am continually inspired by your stories of your dad's job.

[ellaguru]

So it may happen that I may join you information types. Seems like a convenient way to sidestep the whole economic downturn thing and come out the other side with a better résumé. It depends on stuff, like they're making me an offer but I haven't seen what the offer is, and also my erstwhile boss has a proposal in the works for a big project I'd be on if he wins. The downside, of course, is the bit where it involves being in school, but given the world as it is, it seems likely to be a good plan. So we'll see.