*That's* Not Good!

I'm working on a grant proposal. Of course there was hardly any time between when I found out about the grant and when it is due. I finished a draft late Thursday and sent it off for comments.

The comments I got back from someone who I trust to know these things included "yikes," "dreadful" and "horribly awry." I have some serious re-writing to do...

Update 3/13/12: 5 drafts later, it's much better and on it's way. Fingers crossed!

Good to Know...

...in order to boil water for much-needed morning coffee, it is necessary to not only put water in the kettle, but to turn on the stove.

Yes indeedy, it is one of those days.

What I've Been Up To...

Sunrise over Lake Ontario, December 2011. The anniversary of my dad's death.

Here are some photos, mostly from my December travels. I don't quite know where December and January went, and here we are in the midst of February. Finally, a little bit of wintery weather, by which I mean, there was a dusting of snow on the ground when I left for school this morning and the temps are hovering just below freezing, at least for now.

The Metro. October 2011.

I started TA'ing this semester; a run of three 2-hour labs, all on Mondays...so "when I left for school this morning" was around 6:30am. I'm not a morning person, but the campus is beautiful that early; quiet, misty. And the light is changing as we get closer to spring. One morning I'll remember to bring my camera.

The mornings are beautiful, but the Monday schedule is kicking my ass. I'm a bit of a dishrag by the time I get home. It's nice to be in front of a class again, though. I've missed it. I will say, however, that students treat you quite differently when you're a professor (even "just" an adjunct) and when you're a TA for a class.

I did a lot of traveling back to the Great White North; first for a memorial on the anniversary of my father's death, and not a fortnight later to spend the holidays with family. January was full of more coursework, a conference, a family visit, and the start of a new semester. This grad school gig is going to FLY by.

Sunset, Perry City, New York, just outside Ithaca. December 4, 2011.

RBOC: November Edition

I'm in holy-shit-where-did-November-go-end-of-semester-full-hunker-writing-writing-writing. Survival, and even successful survival, of my first semester of doctoral studies seems likely! I'll let you know in a few weeks once I've dug myself out (and been graded)...

Some random bullets of crap:

• Back in August 2009 (omg two years ago; I've so completely lost track of time) I posted a post on time-to-Google-Scholar and reported that posting papers to Selected Works was the fastest at one month. That time span has shrunk: I posted a paper to Selected Works on October 25-ish after a conference, and by October 31 it was listed on Google Scholar.
• I found a link via Canada-Supporting Women in Geography (lots of good stuff not limited to geographers or women) to DiRT (Digital Research Tools Wiki). Tons of tools to help you work; worth at least a few minutes of your time!
• Speaking of tools and time, I apparently lose vast amounts of time screwing around on the Internets... checking mail, scrolling Facebook. It only takes a few seconds each time, but very inefficient (and the risk of a Complete Sidetrack). I found a little tool called Freedom that disconnects me from the Internet for a set period of time (from a few minutes to a few hours). You *can* bypass it before the time is up, but that requires restarting the computer, which is too much trouble. Result: I can be really quite productive when I'm not screwing around. There are some 'net jonesing issues for me while it's off, which brings up a whole 'nother set of issues... I'm finding that using Freedom means that I quickly check the 'net in-between sessions (often to get info I needed while I was writing... and to check FB...) but am eager to get back into what I was working on.
• What I wear when I'm writing: sloppy and comfortable. What I wear when I'm writing in public: less sloppy and slighty less comfortable. Teaching clothes: tidy and not terribly comfortable. I like the scarf-as-swiss-army-knife, but can't quite figure out how to incorporate one into my wardrobe. Douglas Adams is more my style, but I'm also not sure how I can incorporate a towel into my everyday wear-in-public outfit without looking like I'm carrying a blankie...
• I keep setting off the smoke alarm in my apartment by cooking. The threshold seems to be setting the oven at anything over 350. Unfortunately, there are lots of noms that require higher temperatures. :(

No. 476

No. 476. South of the Mason Dixon Line, July 2, 2011

Not at all who I expected to be sharing this enormous and densely populated campus with.

New Digs!

I finally set eyes on my new digs, and I'm very pleased (timing and distance = signing lease with apartment unseen). The big move to Hippy Town for Grad School is next month, but a friend and I ran some boxes down and picked up my keys this past weekend. I am totally excited, and totally overwhelmed by how much there is to do still!

Camping out my my new place. South of the Mason Dixon Line, July 2, 2011.

Linky Goodness (and a Photo)

Today's post: a jumble of really good or interesting links, and a photo.

Bitch or Bathmat?
Over at Historiann's is a really wonderful discussion about Gender and Performance in grad school. As ever, H'ann's comments section is worth a careful read. In this particular instance, profs and students give examples of their own experiences as well as deconstruct the issue and offer alternate approaches. I'm reading very closely myself, with grad school seminars looming.

This Season's Fieldwork Brought To You By A Whole Bunch of People
Announced over at Middle Savagery, the Maeander Project, a group of folks doing archaeology in Turkey, are looking to fund some fieldwork using a crowd-sourcing/micro-financing model. I'm very interested in how this pans out, as I've considered a similar approach to funding portions of work at OMGSuperCoolSite. While you're there, and if you can, kick them a couple of bucks. If they don't meet their goal, they don't get any of the money (no one's credit card gets charged unless they meet their $$ goal by the date given).

Skulls on the Internets
For the physical anthropologists: Kristina Killgrove over at Powered by Osteons announces the University of Michigan has digitized their human skull reference collection and made it available online. This is a big deal; usually this kind of data is a pain in the ass to access. Kristina's blog is, IMO, one of the best resources for announcements and analysis of cool and interesting stuff in the world of biological anthropology. Don't believe me? She followed up the internet skulls with the plot to exhume William Shakespeare to see if he was a pothead (nope, don't need to make this stuff up).

The Goal of Your Conference Paper
Academic coach Jo VanEvery frames the conference paper in a way I've not seen explicitly spelled out before. And made me feel better and more focused about an upcoming paper I'll be giving.

Being Constructive
The folks at Daily Writing Tips have posted 10 Tips for Critiquing Other People's Writing. Good to know, and filed for future reference!

Sunrise over Lake George, New York. Fall, 2009.

YES!

OMGSuperCoolSite vicinity. May 29, 2011.

The Board of Directors at OMGSuperCoolSite have approved my proposal to do my dissertation research there! *happydance* I will try not to freak out about logistics for a while, and just enjoy the elation/relief of a yes :)

Having a nosh near OMGSuperCoolSite, May 29, 2011.

Lightning Update

• I have a place to live come August. I am grateful to the person who responded to my plea, and went to check out the apartment on my behalf to make sure there were no bugs, dead things, or other reasons I shouldn't take it. Yep, I've not yet seen the inside of my new digs; but the building looks good, and the lease is signed.
• I'm no longer an adjunct. Feels........ weird. I've described this transition from working archaeologist/adjunct/married person to student/single as "between lives." It totally is. And as much as I'm a fan of writing about liminal places/spaces, living in one over several months is losing it's lustre.
• Wrangling a conference session seems pretty straightforward. Until critical email to one of your presenters bounces with no forwarding address, one presenter hasn't given an abstract nor responded to pleas for same, and the conference registration software does weird shit. And somewhere in there, I need to find a laptop that's running MS Powerpoint 2007, because I'm using Open Office on my machine, but I need to bring the hardware.
• Friends rock.
  

Philosophical Positioning

1. The personal is political. (Source of some debate)

2. The medium is the message (Marshal McLuhan)

3. All history is local (Joseph Amato, possibly others earlier)

Application Watch: Early Results

Seven applications to PhD programs mailed out. I've heard back from four:

1. The Land Far Far Away: Rejected.
2. South of the Mason-Dixon Line: Unofficial acceptance; waiting for paperworks.
3. Snowstorm City: Accepted.
4. Hippyville: No word.
5. Place With Brutalist Architecture: No word.
6. Unique Program: No word.
7. Hippyville East: Waitlisted.

No. 2 is my super-first-choice, and I'm stoked. But I don't want to say no thanks to Snowstorm City until I have official officiallness from South of the Mason-Dixon Line. I know the department chair doesn't just call and tell you that you've been accepted for shits and giggles. And I know that the sooner I tell Snowstorm City no thanks the better for anyone on their waitlist (and they're being quite aggressive in keeping in touch; not annoyingly so, but persistently so).

But I Just. Can't. Do. It. This is too important, and it hits some "Look! A Good Thing! Watch Now As I Snatch It Away" buttons. So I will wait, possibly irrationally so.

Re: rejection from Far Far Away? I'm ok with that. I just wanted to see if I could get in! Hippyville East: ok with the waitlisting; not the best fit, really.

Update February 28:
5. Place With Brutalist Architecture: Accepted

Update March 4:
2. South of the Mason Dixon Line: Official letter received (yay email and pdf). Heading down late next week for the meet n' greet. *excited*

Update March 8:
4. Hippyville. Rejected. An expected rejection; many good things have come and will continue to come from this application.

6. Unique Program: Accepted.

Writing... and writing... and writing...

A productive day so far in the world of writing, which is fantastic. I'm often easily distracted at home, so it feels good to get in a non-distracted groove.

• Made some revisions to a report for work and edits in another. Have to remember to email the files back to the office (I *hate* when I forget that part)
• Finished up edits (almost) for a paper to be sent out for publication in a regional journal. I hate conclusion sections, I really do. So I put that part off until tomorrow, along with manipulating the graphics into the necessary format. They said they wanted it by the end of January. Hey, January 31 is still January! Plus, I was a good girl and formatted that sucker exactly as they required in their guidelines for contributors.
  
• Worked on tackling a scholarship application for grad school. It's a leadership-based scholarship program not an academic-based program, so the format is different than what I've been wrangling lately. It is very strange to me (and a little uncomfortable) to be tooting my own horn about myself in contexts that don't have anything to do with archaeology (yes, baggage, thanks). One thing I've been coming to terms with over the last few years is that no one will toot my horn for me, so I'm just going to have to suck it up and do it myself. And I don't have a lot of time to fret about it, the application is due soon (making that deadline work for me!).

One thing I've noticed in all this writing is that I use way, WAY too many commas when I write.* I mean, I knew that, but damn. I could delete every second one out of one of the reports I was working on and you'd hardly notice. Mostly they're in places where, if I was speaking, I'd pause. (See? I just did it right there. And left it in on purpose.) But there were a few commas that really, truly made me wonder what the hell they were doing there. No surprise, I suppose, that I'm a fan of the serial comma.**

* Dear editor friend: You're right, this is not news.
** Especially see the funny bit under "Unresolved Ambiguity" re: Peter Ustinov, Nelson Mandela, a demigod, and errr... personal accessories.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

That there is me squealing. Not like a piggie. Not in fear of a mousie (they don't scare me anyway). But in a jump-up-and-down happy excited way.

Why?

Because I just found out, in an unofficial because it isn't in a letter from Admissions way, but from a Very Reliable Source that starting this Fall semester, I will have a new academic home as a PhD student. At my first choice school.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!

Applications: Done!

I submitted my last grad school application this evening.

Whew.

Now... the waiting. Patience is something I'm working on and the next couple of months will be an exercise in it, for sure.

In the mean time, more work on the book, apply for an outside "take it with you" fellowship, and (gods help me) write a book review. Because I volunteered. Because the book looked cool, and I've not written a review for publication before.

Public Archaeology

1. I'm still alive, and life is pretty good, especially when I stop freaking out about looming grad school application deadlines, and just work on getting the suckers finished up and out the door.

2. I've been doing some reading in applied anthropology/applied archaeology/critical archaeology/engaged archaeology and all those other variations that involve archaeology being explicitly relevant, engaged, political, and collaborative. I found this summary of what public archaeology is, and wanted to share, since it's generally one of those amorphous concepts:

[Public archaeology is] more than learning how to handle volunteers at the site, making public talks, and presenting archaeological information in interesting ways. It includes those aspects, but also includes a willingness to share fully in both the production and presentation of archaeological knowledge, and to engage in the debates that surround public perceptions of those materials. (Carol McDavid, quoted in Michael Lucas)

Sources:
McDavid, Carol (1997) Introduction: In the Realm of Politics: Prospects for Public Participation in African-American Archaeology. Historical Archaeology 31(3):1-4

Lucas, Michael T. (2004) Applied Archaeology and the Construction of Place at Mount Calvert, Prince George's County, Maryland. IN Paul A. Shackel and Erve J. Chambers Places in Mind: Public Archaeology as Applied Anthropology, Routledge, New York, pp. 119-134

And SHIFT...

That rare, amazing moment when you realize that what you're reading has fundamentally changed how you think about things? Happened to me tonight. It started as casually flipping through an Inter-Library Loan while my class wrote their mid-terms, and ended with me sitting in the classroom after everyone had left to finish the section I was reading, and wishing it wasn't borrowed, because I was itching to annotate. Obviously, not the only person to have that impulse, as there was already marginalia.

The book: Jones, Andrew (2007) Memory and Material Culture. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

The passage:

We take for granted the survival into the present of artefacts from past. Indeed, the discipline of archaeology would be impossible without the survival of such artefacts. What is the implication of the durability or ephemerality of past material culture for the reproduction of societies in the past? ... [R]emembrance is a process made apparent to the experiencing subject by the continual and dynamic encounter between the subject and the material world he or she inhabits rather than an abstract and dispassionate transaction between the external world and the mind. This opens up the possibility of thinking about memory differently. Rather than treating memory as a function of the internal processes of the human mind, we might consider memory to be produced through the encounter between people and the material world.

All kinds of good stuff about the dynamic production of memory and meaning between people and things (things take an active role in his approach). I haven't finished reading the book yet (barely started), but I have fireworks going off in my head.

This has happened to me twice more over the last couple of years. Once reading Judith Bennett's History Matters: Patriarchy and the Challenge of Feminism and once reading Mary Daly's Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism. I'd bought a copy of Daly's book, but had borrowed a copy of Bennett's. I hadn't cracked it for more than 5 minutes when I ordered my own copy, lest I vandalize a library copy. My copy is now massively annotated and dog-eared. Interestingly enough, these events have not been isolated incidents, but are linked by a series of people, places, and events. I've been reading crazy-wildly lately on all sorts of topics* but these are the works that set something off.

* All sorts of topics include: the history of death; ritual concealments; fine metal refining; soils for growing tobacco; the prevalence of pig in certain foodways assemblages; colonial distilling; memory; landscapes; the Progressive era; contact period tribal organization in parts of the Mid-Atlantic; public archaeology; critical archaeology; etc. Dude, no wonder I'm tired...

And Breathe...

Clear Water, October 15, 2010

October is whooshing by; hell, the whole year is whooshing by! I've been super busy. Visited Prospective Grad School South Of The Mason-Dixon Line, which went very, very well; got a collaborative paper mostly written (this weekend's job); FINALLY heard back from someone regarding photo permissions for The Book (I've been trying for almost 2 years now); and got to visit OMGSuperCoolSite again. Which is looking increasingly promising, and I'm so excited I could bust.

I will sleep in November sometime. In the mean time, here are some photos from my October Adventures:

Grant's Tomb (The General Grant National Memorial), Riverside Park, New York City, October 2, 2010. According to the National Park Service (of which this is part), it is the largest mausoleum in North America. How could I not go see that? Unfortunately, I could not get inside, as they were closed.

Part of "The Rolling Bench" by Pedro Silva and the Children of New York City, October 2, 2010. This sculpture, done in 1972 to commemorate the 100th birthday of Yellowstone National Park, snakes around the entire perimeter of Grant's Tomb. A very cool public art project; I had to walk around the whole thing and check it out. An odd juxtaposition with Grant's Tomb, though.

Near OMGSuperCoolSite, October 15, 2010.

Home Again and Happy Fall!

Autumn Field, Tompkins County, New York, September 22, 2010

Happy fall, everyone. I was fortunate enough to be able to spend much of the first day of fall outdoors!

I'm very pleased to say that the meeting with Prospective Advisor went great. I was totally not nervous when I arrived, probably owing to the fact that I'd been for a hike, had not entirely imagined that visitor passes and parking zoos would take up quite that much time, and had left my directions to hir office somewhere that wasn't with me. I'd pretty much run the nerves out of me by the time I got to hir office (on time); I would have preferred to be a little less sweaty, but w/e. Zie was also very welcoming and easy to talk to; it quickly went from "interview" to "shop talk." Prospects are iffish because of funding constraints, but making the connection with Prospective Advisor was totally worth the trip.

I drove up a day before my meeting and took the opportunity to spend some time in one of my favorite places (within a couple of hours of the U., definitely a perk) and took some pictures. I also had the opportunity to hang out in a cafe in a very small town in upstate New York and overhear several conversations. The statements that liberalism is Satan and you can't believe in god and vote Democratic gave me pause. The pumpkin-pear bisque was very yummy, though!

And now, some more photos!

First stop, Women's Rights National Historical Park, Seneca Falls, New York. The reconstruction of the Wesleyan Chapel is complete. You can see the difference in the brick; the redder brick is the surviving original structure of the Chapel. The reconstruction is to size, built over the original foundations. I think this reads so much better as the Chapel than the standing ruins that it has incorporated/replaced. Honestly, I was skeptical of the reconstruction of history, and didn't expect to like it. But I think I like it.

Wesleyan Chapel, Women's Rights National Historical Park, Seneca Falls, September 22, 2010

Interior, Wesleyan Chapel, Women's Rights National Historical Park, Seneca Falls, New York, September 22, 2010. There is screening on all the windows, which will be great in the summer. But it means you can't easily see inside, which sucks. The doors were closed and locked when I was there.

I was also able to spend some time at Taughannock Falls, New York. I try to do something different every time I'm in the area. This time, I went up the South Rim trail above the falls, and was pleasantly surprised. Next time, I may try the approximately 2-mile round trip up the North Rim trail, across the top of the falls, and down the South Rim trail. I wanted to try it this time, but just didn't have the time.

Taughannock Creek, Taughannock Falls State Park, Tompkins County, New York, September 22, 2010. The creek bed is exposed shale (no sand/mud); there wasn't much volume of running water, so you could actually walk up the creek bed.

Fall in the caldera, Taughannock Falls, Taughannock Falls State Park, Tompkins County, New York, September 22, 2010. I just love the colors.

Abandoned road alignment, Taughannock Falls State Park, Tompkins County, New York, September 22, 2010. I kind of cheated and took an unmarked path off the South Rim Trail; the trail itself runs across the top of the bridge. This would have been one hell of a curve to take; there is a sheer drop into the creek gorge just above the falls immediately to the right of this photo.

First Date Jitters!

Bright and early I will be on my way to a meeting with a prospective PhD advisor. I kind of think of these meetings as "first dates" -- we meet briefly, talk about mutual interests, and all decide if we want to spend more time together.

I am not nervous about my abilities, background, interests, or anything on a professional level about this meeting. I'm actually feeling good about what I want to do, why, and why I chose this particular person to work with. But I'm nervous nonetheless!

Fortunately, I am driving up a day early, and will be able to spend some time before the meeting not too far from the U. in an area that I absolutely adore. Hopefully, the thunder storms they're calling for bugger off, and I can spend some time in the gorgeous fall outdoors doing a little hiking and a little reading without feeling like a lightning rod. (Fine, it will be reading Prospective Advisor's recent work...but I -do- find it interesting, or zie wouldn't be on my list of prospective advisors! Also a good reason for no rain: I could only get my hands on an interlibrary loan copy. Is it just me, or is it weird that the closest library with a copy to lend was very-far-away Texas?).

Still feels kinda like a first date, though. I will endeavor to return with pretty pictures, and a synopsis of the meeting.

On another note: I continue to not hate my body. And sporting equipment that was tight on me a couple of weeks ago... not so much. I cannot tell you how completely different this is for me...

PhD Application Grumble

I'm going through the application materials for the schools I am applying to (at least, those which have application materials available so far). I'm making notes about what, in particular, certain schools want to see in their personal statements/statements of interest, etc. etc. (One school in particular wants to know why, if there is a significant gap between previous school and PhD land. I am assuming 10+ years counts as significant).

Here is what has me stumped and grumbly: the GPA. I did my undergraduate and MA level schooling up in The Great White North. The Great White North does not (or at least, did not, when I was there) bother itself with Grade Point Averages. That was an American thing... like calling universities colleges, and second year students sophomores. For the record, in TGWN, universities are universities; colleges are colleges; and your second year of university is referred to as your second year.

One university has specifically requested that students with international credentials just leave the GPA thing alone, and they'll figure it out when they get the transcripts. Another school gives no guidance, and I've popped off an email. This is why starting so freaking early is a Good Idea; grad school applications are rife with niggly bits that take time to sort out.

So, while I am frustrated that I can't just answer the question, at least there is time. What I *am* worried about are these online recommendation letters that require me to complete my application online before recommendation letter requests are sent out to recommenders... it means I have to have all my shit sorted and complete sooner rather than later, including those personal statements...