Neist

Yeah, but then I couldn't listen to audio books or podcasts while doing so. I'm only so multi-talented. Over the years I've more or less just adopted giving myself an 'allowance', and I don't spend anything outside of it. Everything else goes into a pile that I know is sufficient thanks to careful budgeting. What has helped me a lot with reducing screen time is that a lot of the shows that I've enjoyed have either been cancelled or are off season. I think my DVR records 2 shows a week at this point. To be honest, I'd probably watch a lot more if anything looked good, but nothing does, at least now or over the summer and into the fall. Also, sometimes doing quantitative work would be nice, as far as academic endeavors go. True, most of what I need to do is read, but it's a mountain of reading. I'm a little bit afraid that I'm going to burn out a few years in!

Nope! I'd like to, but I rarely have the time. I spend a lot of time either in podcasts, reading, or audio books, so it's uncommon that I have much screen time. I also walk a fair bit. I probably walk over an hour a day, and I expect to ramp it up to at least 2-3 when I start grad school; I listen to a lot of audio books while walking.

Well, they are history classes. It's not unusual to average a book a week in graduate-level history courses, plus supplementary readings. That's ~15 books per class per semester, at least. I'm sure I'll be able to get some of them rather cheap, but I'm also sure that some of them will be painfully expensive, academic press books. @Pink Fuzzy Bunny, remember, when you're feeling discouraged, I'm sure that a lot of people feel the same. And besides, if you need a cheering up, just pop in here because we're on your side!

Yeah, I'm not sure exactly how vague my budget is going to be. For example, I can only guess how much money I'm going to need on books per semester. Given that I'm studying history, it could be substantial. But it could also not be. A lot of older texts can be bought fairly cheaply. I've been told to expect to spend about $300 in books per class. I'm using that as a baseline, but who knows? The only thing I will absolutely still manage to afford is books, be them for academic study or pleasure. The two categories overlap greatly, so I'm not overly concerned if I take out a thousand dollars in student loans per year for books, assuming they contribute to my interests.

Aw, man. I realized I hadn't posted anything here for a while. And the post was a bit more in-depth, but my browser ate all my annotations and won't give them back. *shakes fist at heavens* I'm admittedly too lazy to rewrite them. I've read the follow since last checking in: The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution The Age of Edison: Electric Light and the Invention of Modern America The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America Breathing Machine: A Memoir of Computers The Story of Sushi: An Unlikely Saga of Raw Fish and Rice I'm currently reading From Betamax to Blockbuster: Video Stores and the Invention of Movies on Video. It's pretty interesting! At least it is if you're into the sort of books I am! @Danger_Zone, thanks! Articles like this one are scaring me a little from doing a history PhD. These sort of articles pop up with enough frequency that I'm unsurprisingly hesitant. We'll see, though!

@hippyscientist, thanks! At the very least, I have very few hobbies outside of reading books about things somewhat related to what I study, so. As per movies, I used to go see far more, but a visit to the theater is rare nowadays. I don't think I've gone in a year or so. I don't even subscribe to Netflix. Even when I subscribe to it, all I really used it for was documentaries, and I burned through everything I wanted to watch. So I can bring very little to the current conversation.

@janetjanejune, Thanks! I'm not sure if I can teach any ways, though. It recently occurred to me that this might be a skill that I've developed only because it's possible that I'm older than most of us here. I'm certainly not even middle-aged, but I'm not out-of-college, either. I turn 33 this June.

True, I guess!

In the ever-uninteresting saga of me prepping for graduate school, I moved 100lbs of books to my apartment today, by foot. Sure, I could have driven a car, but what fun would that have been? I loaded up my backpacking pack with 20-30lbs a trip. In hindsight, I think I should have driven a car.

If you go backpacking for any period of time, it's amazing how quickly one adjusts to not showering. It's still not overly hygienic, but it's easier to do than you'd think. I just discovered that you can upload .pdf's and .epub's to Google Books, the latter of which can be read to you. Then I found .pdf to .epub converter, so I should be able to listen to articles this fall instead of reading them. Yay for productivity! (I'm a really slow reader)

Thanks! I'm flattered! And I had, yes, but wife and kid make that impossible, or close to it. I'd seriously consider it if I was single.

Much of my childhood was incredibly emotionally draining. If I hadn't become comfortable with myself and resilient of obstacles, I probably would have suffered a moderate mental break. I'm also somewhat of an optimist. Haha! That definitely helps! As far as I'm concerned, any funding from any graduate funding is a golden paved road of dreams. Thanks for the kind words everyone!

I have many displeasing attributes. My wife will readily testify to that. However, I do have a few traits that I will coyly boast: I'm honest to a fault, I'm patient, and I greatly value integrity, both for myself and in others. I know that it was a mistake, and I know that people are probably pretty embarrassed by it. We all make mistakes, and I'm not going to begin punishing others for theirs, especially when they were made without malice or ill intent.

Yup! To be honest, I'm not as disappointed as I would have imagined. As I stated, I suspected it was incorrect, and besides, I know that I do good work when left to my own devices. They're a million and a half projects I want to complete between now and the end of next summer, and the GA-ship would have taken more time than a TA-ship. Neither situation was completely unattractive. Back to cleaning my desk space and organizing my bedroom.

@sjoh197, I'm cool with spiders, as long as they aren't the "I'm gonna knife you!" sort of spiders. My dad nearly lost a leg to a brown recluse. In other news, the letter for the assistantship was addressed to me in error. Womp womp! They offered to match the 12-month appointment as they've already produced the offer in error, but I'm not going to hold it against them, so I've declined and will settle for the TA'ship that I originally suspected. Annoying, yes, but I'm not going to strap an already financially strapped department. My gut told me it was a mistake, and it was. I have no hard feelings.

@Pink Fuzzy Bunny, I admit, the GA position very much aligns with my interests, so I thought I'd get the opportunity eventually, but I also figured there would be those with much higher seniority pining for the position. It pays slightly more and it's a 12-month appointment. @Cat_Robutt, I'm going to help maintain a bibliographic database. I mentioned it a few pages back in this thread, but my dream career is a bibliographer. There isn't a lot of them, so any experience doing bibliographic work is an amazing opportunity. Frankly, I thought I was going to have to start my own bibliographic database of one kind or another in order to list some sort of demonstrated bibliographic experience on my CV. @hippyscientist, spiders in the shower give me huge creeps! I'm incredibly near-sighted, and I'm nigh blind without my contacts. I don't shower with my contacts in (because one isn't supposed to), but I've discovered giant spiders in the shower only after I started showering. I still shudder thinking about it. Randomly finding a brown recluse in your shoe is bad enough, but it's worse when can't even see it. Needless to say, my contacts are generally in post-shower to bed.

Wow, that kind of sounds like my parents. I feel your pain, and I truly empathize! Also, I'm so happy! I got a letter in the mail today with an official graduate assistant appointment. I thought it was going to be a normal TA appointment (the department had hinted that it was the case), but I got the more competitive 12-month GA appointment that's doing the exact thing I want to do professionally. Yipee! The appointment could change next year, but it's an amazing opportunity. At the very least, I'll have a year-long assistantship doing work relevant to my professional and academic interests. Honestly, I'm a bit afraid that it was incorrectly sent. It's signed by the department chair, so I doubt it, but I'm still paranoid.

I have to admit, I'm pretty happy that I sometimes give off sketchy, eccentric vibes. Not in the "he's going to knife me" sort of way, but more in the "I'm not sure if I want to sit next to him on the bus" sort of way. I've walked around in some pretty unsavory parts of cities with little bother. Occasionally, someone will try to bum cigarettes off of me, but that's it. I hope you figure out a solution that works for you. In other news, CV revision is taking longer than I thought. However, I admit I'm spending an unnatural amount effort making it pretty. Also, I'm still unsure how much I should delve into my professional experience. It is topically relevant to my academic interests, but it disrupts the elegance of the overall design. I'll figure something out. Next task in the queue is drafting essays for scholarships due in the fall, and I'm considering submitting a presentation proposal for an interdisciplinary history conference in the fall. I'd submit a paper I've already presented elsewhere, but it might be nice to get experience presenting at a larger, national conference. They probably won't accept my proposal, but it's fun to try!

Cornell parking permits are a little absurdly expensive, aren't they? That's what I've heard, at least.

@hippyscientist. Sound advice. I might have to settle with four groups. One organization's bibliographer is one of the faculty members in the program I'm attending, but another program has a special interest group more in line with my topical interests. I guess it's good that most organizations have cheap student membership fees? @Pink Fuzzy Bunny, you just have to embrace the chaos and roll with it. Not great advice, but sometimes the insanity makes life fun. Also, the task for this evening? Writing up an actual CV. All of the programs I applied to asked for resumes, not CVs, so my CV is somewhat 'meh'. Plus I've presented at two conferences since, and it's probably time for an update. One of the reasons I'm planning which organizations I want to join is because I want to preemptively list them on my CV as I won't be using the CV until the fall anyway, much after I've joined. Edit: Why did my quote boxes bork? I hate you Grammarly... Aw screw it. I'm deleting them.

Insanity and duct tape?

Your wine'ing was foretold by fate! It's hard for me to decide because my work is very interdisciplinary. I think the ALA (huge library organization) covers all library bases; I'll just join their relevant subgroups. There's really only one bibliographic association in the US, and as professional bibliographic work is sort of the dream, that one seems apt. After that, things get blurry. I could join several history or digital humanities ones... Hmm.

What's everyone's thoughts on the sweet spot for a proper number of professional organizations to join? I'm leaning towards three, but I could easily nab one or two extra. However, I don't want to join too many.

Anyone else miss the days when things at thrift stores tended to be cheap? Hipsters drove up all the prices.

Sound amazing, yes, but I'm not sure about altogether. I'm sorry to hear about that @hippyscientist. At least it doesn't seem like it's a complete wash.