First Day of School!

[fishjim]

Ha. I am part of the whitey generation that idolized Public Enemy in college. Still do, but never listen to them anymore. Should I?

[Good Intentions]

I spin my Public Enemy albums every couple of weeks, so I answer with a resounding 'yes'.

[hannah]

fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck

On Monday evening I am taking a Russian translation exam. Two hours, 450-750 words. I am panicking. I need to get a High Pass, which a 75 or above.

Like, I know Russian. I mean, not really. But if you give me a passage that's 450-750 words and I have a dictionary, I'll be able to more or less read it and tell you what it is about. And I've done some translating. But translating takes time—particularly with a language like Russian, which doesn't obey English word order. To translate it into idiomatic English, well, that takes even more time. It is fucking hard. And I don't work well with time pressure. My heart rate goes up. I have trouble concentrating. And I read the same thing over and over again and fail to comprehend any of it.

I am very, very, very worried about this exam. If I get under a 75, I will have to take it again in May. And that means pushing my comprehensive exams back, too, which I was planning to take in May or June.

fuck fuck fuck

It took 'em six weeks to grade the damn thing, but I got a HIGH PASS!!!!!!!!!

Phew.

[ellaguru]

 

[fishjim]

Congrats, hannah! Except a HIGH PASS seems more like Wide Receivin', not Russian.

 

[silentsigh89]

fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck

On Monday evening I am taking a Russian translation exam. Two hours, 450-750 words. I am panicking. I need to get a High Pass, which a 75 or above.

Like, I know Russian. I mean, not really. But if you give me a passage that's 450-750 words and I have a dictionary, I'll be able to more or less read it and tell you what it is about. And I've done some translating. But translating takes time—particularly with a language like Russian, which doesn't obey English word order. To translate it into idiomatic English, well, that takes even more time. It is fucking hard. And I don't work well with time pressure. My heart rate goes up. I have trouble concentrating. And I read the same thing over and over again and fail to comprehend any of it.

I am very, very, very worried about this exam. If I get under a 75, I will have to take it again in May. And that means pushing my comprehensive exams back, too, which I was planning to take in May or June.

fuck fuck fuck

It took 'em six weeks to grade the damn thing, but I got a HIGH PASS!!!!!!!!!

Phew.

Поздравляю тебя!!!!!!

[jess]

Congrats!

[Ignatius]

Congrats, hannah! Except a HIGH PASS seems more like Wide Receivin', not Russian.

 

Was thinking a mountainous crossing, myself.

[Bernard]

I give you a HIGH 5 [hi-5 cat]

[elpollodiablo]

Buh. Just left my panel. Did alright but it was kind of intimidating--the other three presenters were either post-docs (2) or faculty (1). The moderator asked me the first question, and it was about formalism and the effects of representation. My paper was on violence and political philosophy. I flailed around for a couple minutes and eventually said something about the limits of art in effecting social change. The next three responses were all about formalism. I thought the guy from USC was condescending to me when he said it was "self-evident" to any materialist that art in itself is not a solution to social problems, but he went out of his way to compliment my essay afterward. Garh. Stupid self consciousness. I guess I had been feeling too confident lately.

Also hh I toad a so, I fuckin a toad a so

[fishjim]

K's older brother, a German professor at Reed, has a book coming out in July some might find interesting - Watching War from Stanford University Press. First work of his I've been able to engage with as an outsider to the theory world.

The cover art's kind of a trip, too.

[jess]

Hmm, I wonder if I know/know of her brother? I was at Reed in 2000-2003.

Thursday night I stayed up until 5am learning how to do structural equation modeling (think fancy stats) using this awesome entirely syntax-based stats package, and conducting final thesis analyses. Totally worth it, since I impressed the hell out of my advisor and learned a ton. Tonight I plan to stay up however long it takes to finish writing the thing and creating the necessary tables/figures etc. I defend in less than two weeks, which means it should have been entirely done already, but my committee probably won't care as long as I give them a week to read it. Hopefully anyway. The week after next I have a talk to give as well as the defense and some other research stuff due too, so once all of that is done, I am going to celebrate so hard. YES.

[jess]

Thesis defense in 20 minutes! Ahhhhhhh! (mostly excited but also starting to get nervous, but only to an entirely reasonable degree)

[Greg Nog]

You will do spectacularly!

[fishjim]

Yes you will! There is a secret Reed alumni track in academia that's got extra grease.

Plus, of course, anyone who didn't pass you would be insane.

[jess]

Aw, thanks! It went really well! Got really positive feedback, especially on the statistics, which makes me really happy. No revisions required. Yaaay! Now I just need to do quals and a dissertation!

[ellaguru]

Yay!

[Bernard]

Has anybody ever made it through a degree without thinking "eff school in its goat ass" at some point in the process? When I am king, there will be no such thing as workshops. I will just make you eat chocolate out of a diaper, which I feel accomplishes precisely the same thing, but is more honest, and therefore less of a mindfuck.

[G.C.R]

I went through with my first tutorial all the things they could improve on in their assignments, and then was preparing to hand their graded essays back, and was like "though hey overall you guys did fine, no one in this class failed, so that's good" and they all started yelling and one girl burst into tears. I had NO IDEA that they were all so scared about it. I'm glad I had good news for them.

[fishjim]

Has anybody ever made it through a degree without thinking "eff school in its goat ass" at some point in the process? When I am king, there will be no such thing as workshops. I will just make you eat chocolate out of a diaper, which I feel accomplishes precisely the same thing, but is more honest, and therefore less of a mindfuck.

workshop, jerkshop.

[Bernard]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/magazine/cartoonist-lynda-barry-will-make-you-believe-in-yourself.html?pagewanted=all

[peacocks]

Man I really liked that article

[Anne the Man]

I went through with my first tutorial all the things they could improve on in their assignments, and then was preparing to hand their graded essays back, and was like "though hey overall you guys did fine, no one in this class failed, so that's good" and they all started yelling and one girl burst into tears. I had NO IDEA that they were all so scared about it. I'm glad I had good news for them.

Whoa I've never been in a tutorial where anyone reacted like that. Freaky!

[elpollodiablo]

Found out today that one of the oldest tenured faculty in the philosophy dept at Miami is an avowed LaRouchite. This school continues to amaze

[hannah]

Yo I was just readin' about that philosophy department—namely, Colin McGinn. (I don't think he is the LaRouchite.)

edit: Whoops! He is at the Florida Miami. But I thought of you nonetheless.