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.

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. :(

Radio Silence

I've been very quiet here lately.

Part of it has been just being busy (middle of my first term as a grad student), being sick (two freaking weeks, back to back, two different reasons), not going anywhere to take pictures (a cop out; I could take pix anywhere, I just haven't), and part of it is professional blogging-under-my-real-name elsewhere (professional as in real life archaeology stuff, not as in getting paid for it stuff!).

Most of it, though, is that I'm in transition, and figuring out who this new me is, what voice this new me has, how pseudonymous this new me is (or is likely to be), and what this new me has to share that won't a) blow my pseudonymous cover or b) if said cover gets blown/revealed/whatever, won't be a liability. Nothing here I think *would* be a liability, but I did poof a post yesterday because it felt too personal.

There's a lot of negotiating at school, too -- who are all these people, these classmates and professors? Who can I trust? Whose opinions and readings of things seem grounded and helpful? Who do I want to study with? Who will be helpful when I go to them in the weeds? How the hell am I going to get everything done? What things are more important than others, and I can therefore spend less effort on them?

I need to stop fretting so much and trust what I know, but it's a lot to process. And that's what I've been doing by not writing here... processing. As things settle, I'll be back.

In the mean time, I know what to wear for an interview!

Abstract Distraction (and a photo)

After much humming and hawing, I've finally mashed together an abstract for an upcoming paper. I'm never terribly fond of putting together conference abstracts because I don't have the paper written yet (obviously!) and I worry about writing something either too specific and limiting what I'll be able to write about when I write the paper, or writing something so generic that it's useless. Generally, though, I'm presenting after all the work is done, so I have *some* idea of what I'll be talking about.

This time, I'm presenting on the starting end of a project -- what we know, what we don't know, previous work, research questions. It's hard to write a paper (or abstract a paper) when it's not about having the answers, but about the process. Or thinking about the process.

If I don't have the answers, what am I doing? Well, I'm trying to introduce people to the site, and put the impending research into context, geared towards the contexts associated with the session I'm in.

And that right there is the clearest I've been about this thing. I'm going to go re-write my abstract. Again.

This is what abstract writing feels like.
Ausable Chasm, New York, October 2009.

Scary To Do List

I think I may have over-committed myself, or at least gotten frighteningly close...

• Revise article for regional journal, by end of April
• Write book review for topical newsletter, by mid-April
• Write short research note for topical newsletter, by mid-April
• Write article for sub-field journal, no distinct deadline, but needs to be done, as I've been exchanging email with the editor.
• Wrangle session for annual conference: participants confirmed, aiming for abstract submission for early May (hopefully I shall escape the curse of the 8am Sunday slot...)
• Write my own abstract for the session.
• Do research at OMGSuperCoolSite over the summer (June?) so that I have something to present at said conference; paper draft due mid-Novemberish
• Write paper for regional topical symposium, mid-May
• Skim notes for paper presentation at regional meeting, late May
• Oh yeah, The Book....
  

Hm... it's a lot, but actually not too bad, once I get out of April. I must not say yes to anyone else or find something cool to distract me for a while, though....

Burnt Out.

Scorched.

That is all.

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.

Drive-by Post (aka RBOC)

1. I remain alive, though it sort of feels like barely. Massive work deadline, waiting on school acceptances, mid-term grading and exam writing, not enough sleeps. Yeah, it's that time of year. I see the end, I just need to not get sick in the mean time.

2. A shredder is a Most Awesome accessory to purging oneself of stuff. Very, very satisfying. I highly recommend it.

3. Oooooooo the Internets!!!!

It's not really about wheels...

I've been hammering away at The Book. I'm happy to say I've made some progress. I'm sad to say it hasn't been in the parts of the book that need it most. That is to say, I've spent a lot of time tweaking parts for which I already have a Shitty First Draft. What I need to be doing is buckling down and writing Shitty First Drafts for the parts that I have notes for but no text.

At least I've been able to reconsider the structure of the thing. There's been enough work on the subject that I no longer need a chapter Inventing The Wheel: Chronology, and I can therefore collapse two chapters into one. Instead, I'll write the chapter, Wheels Are All Round But Not Necessarily The Same Thing: Dating Your Wheels Is More Complex Than It Seems. Or at least jam the discussion somewhere into The Book.

Really, the only chapters I have left are:

• The Introduction (write this last)
• Why Wheels At All, Really? (the Bear in the Book. OMG. I have over 100 pages of notes that are freaking me out. I need to just bite the bullet; I suspect they will condense nicely. I don't need to regurgitate everyone's take on Wheels, just summarize and refer. Right? Right.)
• Wheels Are All Round.... (as I write this post, I'm mentally condensing this chapter into a blurb and incorporating it into a Case Study Introduction section that I didn't know until right this minute I'd be including)
• Special Wheels: The class of Wheels that won't fit right into my overall organization of Wheels, but which make their own easily identified, tidy little class
  
• Case Study: The Necessity of Wheels
• Case Study: Variations in the Use of Wheels by Religion
• Case Study: Variations in the Use of Wheels by Ethnicity (possibly too uncritical a use of "ethnicity", but pretty sure this isn't the place to resolve the nature of the concept in historical archaeology)
  
• Conclusion: Aren't Wheels Cool? Future Directions in Wheels.

Hmmm. That looks like a lot. I'm confident I can get through the Case Studies pretty easily, as long as I don't think about stuff TOO hard, and go off on TOO many tangents. I need to do the Why Wheels At All chapter. That's my hangup right now.

And I'll get right on it, as soon as I've finished messing around with my Really Early Wheels chapter.

To Do

Arrived home yesterday following my dad's death and funeral. Through his illness and passing, I've been away from home about two and a half weeks. I have a ton to do; to wit (and in no particular order of priority or preference):

1. Submit three grad school applications (two require additional essays, on top of the personal statements that I need to tweak). One due Jan 1; two due Jan 15
   
2. Apply for outside funding. Main one due early Feb.
   
3. Grade students' assignments (how is it that I have 2 weeks to go, while other schools are wrapping up/wrapped up for the semester???). Not due for another full week, but if I don't get cracking I'm screwed.
   
4. Prep for this week's class (heavy on the review). Due soonish.
   
5. Find a financial planner that I can trust. By early Jan.
   
6. Laundry. Today.
   
7. Ignore work gremlins until Monday, at which time they will have to be tamed. Although I feel vindicated, being correct in this case = wrench in the works.
   
8. Write OMGSuperCoolSite. Today would be good.
   
9. Return a book I never ordered. Coordinate by Monday.
   
10. Apparently my brakes need to be checked because the person driving my car today said they made a funny noise. Under advisement.
    
11. Take my vitamins. Preferably today.
    
12. Go for a walk/to the gym. Maybe today, probably tomorrow?
    
13. Do some work on the book. Hopefully tomorrow morning; maybe today if I can get motivated.
    
14. Call SnowboundHistoricalSociety regarding cost of photocopies, since they apparently don't answer their email. Monday.
    
15. Call FederalCurator regarding image permissions, since they are apparently ignoring my email. Monday.
    
16. Breathe. Ongoing.
    
17. Formulate ConferencePaper into JouralArticle (ha, I saved a version all full of citations; this, at least, should go quickly!). Due mid-Jan, I think.
    
18. Outline paper for upcoming journal and make arrangements for research visit; coordinate research visit with visit home to see family while avoiding the worst of the Jaws of Winter, even if this means missing visit with portions of family. By mid-Jan.
    
19. Blog post following up on an earlier post re: getting your work out on the 'net. Sometime this weekend?
20. Holiday shopping. I don't feel in the spirit. I'm putting this off until I decide how much holiday cheer I can take.
21. Two more articles to get out. Research is done, just need to massage into papers. By April.
22. I'm sure there is more; there is always more.
    

All that, after I take a long, hot bath.

Community and Precious Snowflakes

More Reverb10

December 7 – Community.

Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011?

I have discovered community in 2010, yes. It's a nice thing. But very new; needs more time to coalesce.

December 8 – Beautifully Different.

Think about what makes you different and what you do that lights people up. Reflect on all the things that make you different – you’ll find they’re what make you beautiful.

Seriously, I'm glad I hadn't eaten before I read this. For realz?

Instead I will briefly address Clio's Alternate Prompt "what pisses you off." At the top of my list right now are Precious Snowflakes. Especially when their Precious Snowflakeness is SO much more important than that of all the other Precious Snowflakes.

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...

Foxes, Hedgehogs, Squirrels, and A Carnival

1. Creatures.

Back at the beginning of August (holy crap, it's almost over already...) I posted about being mostly foxy with shades of hedgehog, and admitted in public to being a splitter, not a lumper. JaneB posted a comment that I find very interesting: in her field (which is, I believe, quite unrelated to mine, only a close enough relative that she was able to instruct me on the correct way to eat dirt, for which I continue to be grateful) foxes tend to be lumpers, not splitters.

I suppose that makes a certain amount of sense... when foxing from subject to subject, how CAN you be a splitter? How can you spend enough time with a subject to split it all out, rather than going "big picture" and looking at general trends? This caused me to rethink my self-imposed pigeon holes (oh! another critter...). I still say foxy with hedgehog tendencies AND still a splitter. But my splitting is at the dirt and artifacts (data) level, not at the subject-matter level.

The caretaker over at Notes From The Field ponders whether she is Fox or Hedgehog, and concludes that she is a Squirrel: "...What has become most clear to me as I look through my research notes, and find myself using things I wrote down years ago - not because they were pertinent to the project at the time, but because somehow they seemed relevant and worth keeping - is that I am neither a hedgehog or a fox. I am a squirrel. I seem to have a habit of finding useful sources and connected ideas, and putting them somewhere safe for me to go back to in the winter." I like it.

2. Carnival
Samia, over at 49 Percent, has posted the zomg grad school!!!1 carnival. It is chock full of posts about choosing and surviving grad schools. Including a guide to free food sources. I'm applying for PhD programs for Fall '11, so this came totally at a perfect time. I'm so ready to do PhD, that even lessons on how to line your pockets with ziplock bags when fresh veggie platters are on offer has not put me off.

I will post more grad school application stuff. This will likely become A Theme. Look! I gave it a tag :D

3. (Bonus) Grad School Application progress:
- tentative campus visits awaiting final scheduling. One meeting with prospective supervisor scheduled for upcoming conference.
- transcript requests completed, and wrangling of transcript request payment systems begun ("Yes, I know I need to pay online. No, the system won't work for me. Yes, my student ID number has 9 digits instead of 7. Yes, I've been out of school that long. Yes, I'll hold...)
- GRE Round 1 complete; Round 2 scheduled
- Funds secured to pay for this application process (thank you, Giant Online Auction Service)

To Do:
- Everything else.

4. (Added bonus whine and tentative victory dance):
Why chapters are HARD. But I think I have mine pegged.

GRE

I've scheduled my GRE for less than two weeks from now. I suppose I should study??

I do wish they never got rid of the paper test; I like to graze when I test-take. That's not possible on the computerized test, and if I screw something up, there is no going back... ah well. At least everyone taking it is in the same boat.

Oh Gods, Commitment....

I haven't even started writing any formal statements of interest for grad school applications; I've only been corresponding by email with some prospective advisors to see if they're taking students, will meet, etc. But writing down what I'm interested in studying? Kind of daunting; in a few sentences I'm on the road to committing myself for years of study. I better mean what I say, no?

Courseblogging: Holy Crap

I am fried. This pace is relentless. If I teach an online course again, it can't be less than 6 weeks, unless it's 1/2 a course.

Holiday weekend plans: Away! Somewhere peaceful. Yay!

Hope you all enjoy the long weekend!

Courseblogging: The Perils of Multiple Personalities

Yep, it happened. I posted to my course blog under my pseudonymous identity. Fortunately, I caught it -immediately-. Hopefully, no one is getting email updates when someone posts a comment...

Courseblogging: Dear Students,

Dear Online Students: Thank you for being proactive and for (at least most of you) reading the instructions. I have not graded your first assignment yet, but I am encouraged. Keep it up, and we'll all get through this!


Dear Plagiarist: I did not make you fail; you made all sorts of choices that resulted in you failing my class. I do not grade you on the number of other courses you are taking. I do not care that you insist that you are acing those classes. Do not blame the unwitting student you plagiarized from for the fact you submitted their paper as your own, and then announce that their paper was crap. When you get busted for plagiarizing, do not hand in a second assignment to me that is also ripped off from somewhere else. Also, you got a raw deal on the essay you paid $100 for; I found it for free.

Grading Jail, WTF, and Yikes a Bleg

I am in grading jail. One more class and the final exam, but I have a stack of essays and other assignments to grade and get back to my students. At least it is only one class.

Some of their work is very, very good. But, because they didn't actually complete the assignment as given, they're not getting full marks. I read them the riot act at the beginning of the semester about doing the assignments they're given; I re-read them the riot act mid-semester. A lot of them got burned on their in-class presentations for not following instructions. And still? Their written work = incomplete. WTF. I am at a loss.

Finally, Yikes. I'm teaching this summer, but the class will be online. And I have 4 weeks to cover 13 weeks of material. And most of my in-class course is designed for in-class -- films, in-class presentations, handing around casts of human bones, etc. Despite being told that teaching online is just like teaching in-class, but online (another WTF), I have to rejigger my class and somehow do it so that I can get a sense that my students are engaged and understanding the material. I will gladly take any and all suggestions!