Neist

Yay! Two high As so far. Still no word on the third. Also, I think I'm going to have to give up dairy. Yesterday was not a fun day. I dared the gods by eating a lot of butter and cheese. I lost.

Doing a little bit of primary source background reading. I'm reading Zoological Philosophy by Lamarck. I was going to read the entire thing, but I think I'm going to stop midway through. Not sure if the latter half of the book is relevant to my research; I might revisit it later. Now I'm starting Principles of Geology, v.2 by Lyell. Up next is a re-read of On the Origin of Species.

Basically, yup! I'm broadly interested in information history and the history of modern biology. And I don't feel as if there's a lot either. There just so happens to be two of us who are relatively active. Well, I think because it's a niche field, students of it tend to try to spend more effort looking for peers. That's just a guess, thoug. Yeah, the waiting was the worst!

Depends. The only thing I am confident to say that I've learned over the last two years is that graduate programs are as diverse as you can imagine. Congrats.

Yup! I haven't had time to watch the third season, but I loved the first two. Also, I'm still twiddling my thumbs waiting for my grades. They aren't technically due at our university until the 20th, so... *twiddles thumbs*

That's not a completely inaccurate interpretation. History of reading closely parallels, but is distinctly different from, the history of the book. It studies how books are used and to what ends. I wanted to read some on the history of libraries, and a lot of the books on the subject are history of reading-esque.

Hm. That's interesting! And I would like to teach, but given my experience, I'm aiming at a career path that makes the most sense, for me. If I stumble into a teaching/research position, I wouldn't be disappointed. I'm doing quite a bit of reading. Doing some introductory readings surveying the modern history of biology, and I'm doing quite a bit of reading on the history of reading.

Same! I'm hoping that my electives will expand my breadth a bit. I think it'll allow me to allow to apply to a much wider variety of positions.

I feel the same. I have 10+ years in academic libraries as full time staff (3 more as a student), 9 years of which was in management. I'm sure it's the same way in museums, but in libraries, you nearly always need the masters degree to move forward. It's a necessary bullet point on your CV. Don't get me wrong, my library classes are interesting, but I feel like they are more continuing education than necessary education, if that makes any sense.

To be honest, I feel like a lot of graduate students feel this. I've talked to a few people who told me that they might have not come if they knew what it was going to be like, but now that they are here, they'll probably stick it out. Anyone else feel like there should be a little bit better transition to graduate school? I don't know about other disciplines, but history as a graduate student really is different than history as an undergraduate. I'm a super nerd, so I'm buried in it anyway, but I feel like it's a bit harsh of a jump for a lot of people.

Congrats! Also, everyone, we made it through a semester! Yay! I feel like I was dreading it worse than it actually was. I'm not sure what I expected at the beginning of the semester, but I feel as if my expectations were worse than reality; I was somewhat terrified of classes the beginning of this semester.

I know nothing about wine, but Aldi's has pretty fantastic products. I've become a fan. I've never been disappointed by their store brands (which is all they carry, usually). Super cheap, too.

This probably seems fairly antiquated, and I don't know if it'll be effective because this is my first semester, but I've been compiling subject-specific annotated bibliographies. I really like lists. I really like them.

I have a fairly severe intolerance to sulfites, so I can't help you with the wine. We're certainly not breaking any sickly academic stereotypes here.

I'm a big fan of So Delicious cashew milk ice cream. It's not too bad. http://sodeliciousdairyfree.com/products/cashew-milk-frozen-desserts Congrats! And I find that drinking and paper writing actually surprisingly well-mesh.

Will do! I've actually developed a slight milk protein intolerance, but I popped a couple Benadryl and cast all to the wind. http://www.talentigelato.com/products/chocolate-peanut-butter-cup I love me some Talenti!

I may or may not have eaten an entire pint of ice cream this evening. :X

My experience is completely anecdotal, but my undergraduate years were as hard, if not harder than graduate school is now. To be honest, I think I'm doing well because I've been drowning in work for years. I've gotten pretty used to it. I definitely think my past struggles have certainly helped. It probably doesn't help that you're in, what I have to imagine, a very rigorous program. The history of science side of my program is pretty well-regarded in the discipline, but it's not like I'm studying the history of science at the Max Planck Institute, ya know?

I've more or less tossed my hands into the air at this point. As long as I maintain a B average, I should be fine. And there's no indication that I'll receive anything lower than that. The fact that I have a predictable career path after my degrees, regardless of my grades, certainly helps matters. I'm increasingly convinced that I want to work in libraries, and libraries couldn't care less what my grades are. Experience is really more key in libraries.

I read all of my books, actually. I know, I know. Insane. But I've kept up fairly comfortably this semester. The only books that I tend to not read in their entirety are books for my own personal research (i.e., not for coursework) when I determine after a chapter or two that the title is absolutely not what I'm looking for.

I feel as if grading in history courses is somewhat nebulous. I feel as if I did well, but who knows? Sometimes I get papers back with comments and nothing else (i.e., no grade).

Final paper done! ... I think! I'm not sure I straight-forwardly addressed the prompt as best I would like, but it's well-written. It was sort of a complicated prompt, so I assume there's some assumed variability. Will review it tonight and turn it in. *does happy dance*

That sounds pretty horrible. Ever watched Mean Girls? Your situation definitely reeks of high school drama. Congrats! I'm the same, at least mentally. But I don't think that makes us overly gifted, either. Mental stamina can be built, but I simply don't think there's a lot of situations that build it up. I've worked in the tedium of libraries for over 10 years, so my mental stamina is pretty high.

Yeah, I understand that it was probably a long shot with the scholarship, but one always hopes. Hope everyone's end-of-semester work is smoothing out! I know mine is. Looking forward to doing reading that I want to read, not what I'm forced to read.

I'd like to counter this statement and highly advise against lying. The academic world isn't exactly huge, and a lie could very easily burn you later.