Well, not usually. I'm not late normally. That's a bit awkward as everything in Texas theoretically goes slower, but I'm still on East Coast speed. But yes, it's been nearly a month since the last blog, which must be remedied.
I've been devoured by school. Classes are going well, but the Taskmaster's class has become an episode of Survivor -- who will be eliminated? Who can't take another day without their phone or their chocolate peanut butter cupcakes? Starting at 12, one dropped once he saw the syllabus, another was in all my classes and dropped them all, both girls dropped, and then there was a meltdown last class during book reviews. So it's me and six boys playing academic hardball.
I have not changed much since my elementary school days.
I've managed to get some other small things done around apartment, like cleaning, repairs, and getting my bookcases up! Huzzah. That was a project two weeks in the making due to the hectic reading pace I have to maintain. Week after next is a happy exam in my 18th century England class...which I have some minor anxiety about, but as long as I remember warming pans and whorehouses, I think I'm set.
Still trying to finish reading this week's work for Witchcraft class. I have no idea where my time went. Ah well. Off I go.
29 September 2010
02 September 2010
The Graduate Student and the Gravedigger
Just survived my first week back at school. It was only two days, but when you're working 40 hours on top of it....very hard. You should give a hug to all people who work and go to school at the same time. And not those crappy student office jobs they have on campus -- those are ridiculously cushy, I've realized, and I wish I had one again!
It went really well, despite utter exhaustion Tuesday night -- that'll reboot anyone's sleep system! Tuesday night was Britain's Long 18th Century. It going to be an interesting cross-section of not only political history (which has been the trend in recent years; people are more interested in that than the 'culture' of the times -- forget music, art, and war!) but of more passionate pursuits of love, war, and arts. At least that's the aspiration. I hope it follows through. I've loved history of Britain in the Medieval to Early Modern Era, but this is a bit later and should give me a rounder notion of things.
Wednesday started at 2 with European Witch Hunts -- these seems most akin to the era and things I want to study in school. It's various aspects of witch hunts and trials in Europe from the mid-1400s to the later 1700s; people were hung as late as the French Revolution for witchcraft! Often times the reasons were fairly obvious: a Jewish witch, a Gypsy witch, a gay witch, a heretical witch -- they weren't actually witches, but you can guess why they were executed in these draconic times. However, those accused of being diabolic witches -- in covenant with the devil, doing the dark arts, etc. -- often a more personal or political vendetta a la Anne Boleyn by Henry VIII.
Wednesday night will be my downfall in all likelihood -- an immersion course in European diplomacy and war during the age of Enlightenment and Revolution. This guy is a taskmaster. This is going to be what I call a grunt grade -- if I can grunt through this, I can hack it in the academic world. I may not get an A, but this is the red badge of courage type deal. I win if I get over a C, in short. If nothing else, I'll improve my writing, which this course focuses on. I'll email the professor to forward his most severe critique of my paper to him -- I know I have to work on content by myself, and I have a better idea of how to do it now. However, if it's a technical issue, then it's on me.
If I don't get an A, this guy is stuck with me until I do. Stubborn as hell be I.
I don't intend on dropping courses this term -- if I am disciplined, I will do fine. Just a matter of divvying my time up well, and using this weekend to my distinct advantage. I've plowed through one background reading already, so I'm at work on the first military book. I need to get through a book a day, which is doable. I'll need to take copious notes, as indicated by the veterans in this class, and bring them with me.
Two classes would pose no problem. The third complicates things. However, I can doggy paddle as needed. I know I'm innately "good" at academia enough to pass and not fail utterly, but I'm ambitious (Napoleonic complex?).
I wish grad school offered the pass/fail option at times, but I pulled a B out of the wreckage of my poor marks last term (well, poor for me; I'm nuts). If I can do it then, with the massive time lost during my days to the commute.... I'll push myself for this.
When my grandfather died, it was discovered that the Ukrainian gravedigger was a very smart man with his money. He lived for almost twenty five years on a pension from the Greenwood Cemetary in Brooklyn, the war reparations he received from Germany for being a forced laborer in WWII, and social security. He died of esophageal cancer -- he lasted fourteen months when given a "maybe six months, maybe Christmas" diagnosis. The last few months were a steady decline, the final two weeks a plummet to the ... well, not the bottom. I'm very sure he went up. Because none of us have a hope in the world of "up" if he didn't go that way.
Despite the very humble beginnings, very humble life, very medical-infused end, he managed to leave behind a significant amount to his two sons, who split it evenly and then divvy'ed it out to his grandchildren. It was a shocker to everyone. He lived a frugal, Spartan life -- and the "spartan" comment is coming from a gal who went 6 months without a TV in her apartment and still doesn't have a damn thing on her walls. It was not a massive fortune, but a lot more than anyone had anticipated, especially after medical bills.
I had paid off a good amount of my student loan while I was working as a teacher, but he took care of the rest, in short. The money is all gone at this point -- put into college education or mortages and the like. Things that needed to be taken care of -- nothing frivolous. So don't ask me for a loan, I never had the money in my hands -- it went straight to AES to set me free for the future, and anything leftover went to stuff other family needed. Digo didn't like spending money on stuff he didn't need, and the question of "Why are you spending money again?!" always rang through the apartment or condo when he heard my dad had made a major purchase
But college education? That you needed. Graduate school? You gotta be free of undergrad debt before you do that, in my opinion.
I'm not going to blow this. I will work through this, because someone worked for decades in a graveyard for me to be here, doing this.
It went really well, despite utter exhaustion Tuesday night -- that'll reboot anyone's sleep system! Tuesday night was Britain's Long 18th Century. It going to be an interesting cross-section of not only political history (which has been the trend in recent years; people are more interested in that than the 'culture' of the times -- forget music, art, and war!) but of more passionate pursuits of love, war, and arts. At least that's the aspiration. I hope it follows through. I've loved history of Britain in the Medieval to Early Modern Era, but this is a bit later and should give me a rounder notion of things.
Wednesday started at 2 with European Witch Hunts -- these seems most akin to the era and things I want to study in school. It's various aspects of witch hunts and trials in Europe from the mid-1400s to the later 1700s; people were hung as late as the French Revolution for witchcraft! Often times the reasons were fairly obvious: a Jewish witch, a Gypsy witch, a gay witch, a heretical witch -- they weren't actually witches, but you can guess why they were executed in these draconic times. However, those accused of being diabolic witches -- in covenant with the devil, doing the dark arts, etc. -- often a more personal or political vendetta a la Anne Boleyn by Henry VIII.
Wednesday night will be my downfall in all likelihood -- an immersion course in European diplomacy and war during the age of Enlightenment and Revolution. This guy is a taskmaster. This is going to be what I call a grunt grade -- if I can grunt through this, I can hack it in the academic world. I may not get an A, but this is the red badge of courage type deal. I win if I get over a C, in short. If nothing else, I'll improve my writing, which this course focuses on. I'll email the professor to forward his most severe critique of my paper to him -- I know I have to work on content by myself, and I have a better idea of how to do it now. However, if it's a technical issue, then it's on me.
If I don't get an A, this guy is stuck with me until I do. Stubborn as hell be I.
I don't intend on dropping courses this term -- if I am disciplined, I will do fine. Just a matter of divvying my time up well, and using this weekend to my distinct advantage. I've plowed through one background reading already, so I'm at work on the first military book. I need to get through a book a day, which is doable. I'll need to take copious notes, as indicated by the veterans in this class, and bring them with me.
Two classes would pose no problem. The third complicates things. However, I can doggy paddle as needed. I know I'm innately "good" at academia enough to pass and not fail utterly, but I'm ambitious (Napoleonic complex?).
I wish grad school offered the pass/fail option at times, but I pulled a B out of the wreckage of my poor marks last term (well, poor for me; I'm nuts). If I can do it then, with the massive time lost during my days to the commute.... I'll push myself for this.
When my grandfather died, it was discovered that the Ukrainian gravedigger was a very smart man with his money. He lived for almost twenty five years on a pension from the Greenwood Cemetary in Brooklyn, the war reparations he received from Germany for being a forced laborer in WWII, and social security. He died of esophageal cancer -- he lasted fourteen months when given a "maybe six months, maybe Christmas" diagnosis. The last few months were a steady decline, the final two weeks a plummet to the ... well, not the bottom. I'm very sure he went up. Because none of us have a hope in the world of "up" if he didn't go that way.
Despite the very humble beginnings, very humble life, very medical-infused end, he managed to leave behind a significant amount to his two sons, who split it evenly and then divvy'ed it out to his grandchildren. It was a shocker to everyone. He lived a frugal, Spartan life -- and the "spartan" comment is coming from a gal who went 6 months without a TV in her apartment and still doesn't have a damn thing on her walls. It was not a massive fortune, but a lot more than anyone had anticipated, especially after medical bills.
I had paid off a good amount of my student loan while I was working as a teacher, but he took care of the rest, in short. The money is all gone at this point -- put into college education or mortages and the like. Things that needed to be taken care of -- nothing frivolous. So don't ask me for a loan, I never had the money in my hands -- it went straight to AES to set me free for the future, and anything leftover went to stuff other family needed. Digo didn't like spending money on stuff he didn't need, and the question of "Why are you spending money again?!" always rang through the apartment or condo when he heard my dad had made a major purchase
But college education? That you needed. Graduate school? You gotta be free of undergrad debt before you do that, in my opinion.
I'm not going to blow this. I will work through this, because someone worked for decades in a graveyard for me to be here, doing this.
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