beak3chimps

Man, we're all getting a little testy, heh. I think we can all agree that there's good intentions on everyone's front, except maybe for the occasional impolite people at the call center who clearly just intend to be rude. Yay one week. Maybe even sooner! Now if only my adviser would stop asking me every day if I'd heard back yet, lol.

Jesus, she could've at least been polite. I don't see her future livelihood depending on this.

Here's hoping. I'm so sick of waiting. Anyone hear anything more?

Thanks Higgins. All of us poor new stalkers might otherwise have freaked the fuck out. Someday, the karmic defenders of graduate students will smite all those who do shit like just.for.the.grfp....or maybe they already have and that's why that poor bitter soul is trying to bait us.

Haha, yeah, I probably can't really talk, since we made everyone in our lab (all four of us+adviser) tshirts with "[advisor's last name] Lab 2008-2009" on them for said adviser's birthday, and presented them along with cake etc. It is nice to have an adviser relaxed enough that you can also be friendly with them. I hope I'm building up good grad student karma for some day down the line...

I love that they do this every week, and every week, we all have anxiety attacks over it. Re: letters of rec, well, yes, everyone's are glowing, but there's a difference between a glowing rec that indicates a good working relationship with a well-respected prof who has lab/field space to suppport you and a glowing rec that indicates that your ta liked you one semester in your upper division class. I figure I'm also thanking all of these people for also helping me get publications and research experience and the expertise to even write a decent grant, and that by asking them to recommend me, I'm sort of giving my intellectual pedigree. I dunno...I try to live by the rule of always working with people who the people I look up to also look up to, and setting my standards by their standards... You know, until I find forums full of more and more reasons to obsess about grants I may or may not ultimately receive.

Definitely sending all of my recommenders huge thanks in an email no matter what I wind up with....though cookies seems a bit brown-nosey for me...then again, my field is a pretty casual one; I doubt anyone would even find time to read a written thank you note. Yeah, letters of rec are huge. The more, and the more glowing, and the more high powered the recommender, the better. The best way to pay your recommenders back or thank them for what they've done is of course the currency that all academics accept: publications & data. It's a nice little obligate mutualism, in the end. And um, shuette, wouldn't it be worth it to write a good first year project....anyways?

Yeah, wow that PDF is so tempting to believe in. If only, if only.

From NSF's twitter: "External users of NSF eBusiness systems will experience delays/outages tonight between 1000 & 1200 EDT as NSF installs ARRA funding patches." and "NSF Spending Plan for FY09 and ARRA approved by OMB, ARRA plan delivered to Congress. NSF expects to be able to move soon on funding actions" Maybe this week?