Neist

I'd look into BGSU's pop culture MA then. I was either going to attend that program or the one I choose (in the sig). They have amazing pedagogical training. The first semester you serve as a TA, and the remainder three semesters you're an instructor of record. I cannot think of many programs that provide that much teaching experience at an MA level. They also fund every accepted applicant, or they did as of this year and many previous. It's not a large stipend, but Bowling Green is a pretty cheap place to live. It's sufficient if one's frugal. They also have the third largest comic collection in the United States. I visited the program last fall, and I have nothing but positive things to say about it. It was a difficult decision choosing between the two programs that I did. If I didn't have a wife and daughter, I might have chosen BGSU.

Wouldn't have it any other way. It was painless, thankfully! It seemed clear that I'm the first person to ask for advisement, and my tentative schedule seemed tentatively appropriate. There's still the possibility of courses dropping from the schedule in a year or two (rotations are planned, but who knows if they'll lack the staff to teach certain courses), but I'll cross those bridges later. She also guessed that there would be little issue with the electives I want to take, assuming they contribute to my research. The library side of my coursework is nutty. They have long rotations schedules. Some courses are only offered once ever two years. Many have prerequisites, so you have to plan everything in advance.

You might see if you can swing it as an internship. Sometimes "paid, credited internship" is not categorically the same as "job."

Man, I overthink things. I'm going to be advised at lunch, with a faculty member who offered to pay for it (we're well-acquainted). It should be casual, and I don't see any reason the tentative course list I've developed wouldn't be acceptable, but am I ever nervous!

Wow. I'd hope that a department would try to waive the requirement, given the circumstances, but I guess not. Are there any "prepping for life outside" courses at your university? You might look into an independent study version of one of those. It'd be easy.

I think there's a lot of grey areas when talking about professors. Trash talking is not good, but I definitely want sincere opinions and warnings. It's a difficult edge to walk, I admit, but I don't think unglowing discussions about a professor are necessarily bad. I've definitely warned people about certain faculty member's courses, but those faculty members are among my favorite faculty members. @sjoh197, I'd like that advisor. I think people should be franker. Miscommunication and buttery language is the parent of many problems.

That's rough! Think they'd be open to doing a 1 credit hour independent study or directed reading? You could probably burn through that pretty quick this summer.

Couldn't hurt to ask. My first disbursement is August 31. Appointment officially begins August 1, even if we're not required to be there for a few more weeks.

I'd want the same. There's actually a real condition for this. It's called Hyperthymesia. It's almost what people think an eidetic memory is. You can find a few interviews with people who have it. It's pretty creepy. They can recall exactly what happened 20 years ago, in precise detail. Although it's not all giggles. Some things in one's life are probably better forgotten.

I'm only stumbling in here, but @bhr, you might check out this thread. You might find a few suggestions in it.

Congrats! I was starting to worry for you! I'm glad it panned out. I amidst planning my course schedule for the next three years. I meet with one advisor (since I'm dual degree, I have two) today for lunch, and I want to ensure that all my t's are crossed.

Congrats!

I opted out scanning old notes or heavily annotated journal articles. I figure that if I needed to revisit the articles, it's best to visit them with fresh eyes. I kept all syllabi, handouts, and annotated/marked papers. All course readings I recycled because I can relocate them via the syllabi if necessary. And I've kept all of my computer files. It's far too easy to just dump them in cloud storage. Sorting them by class certainly took a while, but that was only for the sake of my own sanity. I'm a little bit OCD.

Hm.. That is somewhat difficult. There are a couple backpacking websites I frequent that has fairly active gear selling forums. Send me a PM if you're interested in the web addresses! In other news, this weekend I scanned every single old, meaningful class material that I've saved. It's pretty interesting looking back at a syllabus for a course that I took 11 years ago (been in college a while now). It took hours, but now I've archived everything that I still have. I've lost some things, but it's good to have it available, I think. #Productivity

I gave up and started to give stuff away. As long as someone will find random thing #3 useful, it's all theirs!

You know there was a thread about this, but I can't seem to find it. D'oh! Everyone I know in history uses Zotero, but I think it's largely a personal preference thing. They probably just use Zotero because it's cheap. I use Paperpile, and I've never felt the need to use anything more. If you went with either of the three that you listed, I think you'd be fine. If memory serves, forum-goers reported in previously-mentioned, unfindable thread a broad variety of preferences. Whatever you choose, I would advise that you choose a platform that exports as BibTex or RIS so you could at least migrate to another platform. Sorry that I didn't have more insight!

@pterosaur, have you ever heard of the book Paco: The Cat Who Meowed in Space? Your avatar reminds me of the cover.

Congrats! It's always nice to see results. I studied Magoosh exclusively, and I found their estimations to be relatively accurate (within their range).

It's only expensive if you want to play games at absurdly large resolutions or with dual monitors. My thoughtfully-built $1200 machine from 3 years ago can still play anything I throw at it, or at least it can at 1680x1050, which is my monitor's native resolution anyway.

Haha. This is so true. @Danger_Zone, you could always pick up a cheap Xbox 360 and play it that way. The game plays better with a controller, I think.

I thought I'd chime in that Mass Effect is my favorite game of all time. I casually picked up the original and didn't stop playing for nine hours. I've marathoned each game immediately upon release. Such a great game.

I'll second anything by Gleick. He's very readable and engaging. The Information, his last book, was a little bit dry in parts, but I still loved it. He also wrote a decent biography of Newton. If you know nothing about Newton, you should read a biography of him sometime. He was a character!

Hedy's Folly is also written by Richard Rhodes, an author and historian I really adore. I've loved all of his books, even if they are generally pretty huge. And I do love documentaries. Their my favorite genre of film, actually. I don't watch as many now that I don't have Netflix, but I still love'em. I've considered getting that Sundance documentary Netflix-like service. I've dabbled in everything, to be honest. I've spent thousands of hours in MMORPGs, and I've spent hundreds of hours perfecting my craft in Call of Duty. I'll play pretty much anything, assuming it's good. However, I've pretty much sold everything off by my immense Nintendo DS collection (I have around 450) and my Steam games. I only really play games on those platforms anymore, or I would if I had time.

It's okay. We still love ya. Hm. This is a difficult question. I'm not sure if I have any favorite authors (because so few authors produce repeat titles concerning my interests, besides maybe Walter Isaacson), but I really enjoyed The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Cataloging the World, Hedy's Folly, and The Professor and the Madman. I've also recently completed and like Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes; I liked it a lot. I also like quite a few titles that aren't strict narratives but narrate history (if that makes any sense). They tend to be quasi-biographical. Examples include The Ghost Hunters by Blum and The Ghost Map by Johnson. I'm not sure about least favorites, but I'm still up in the air about Walter Isaacson. I know he's immensely popular, but I'm not sure if it's really my thing. I need to get through his latest book and see how it rubs me.

I'm the same, actually. There's definitely some science-y books that are like that, but they have to be tied to a narrative. Books, at least for me, simply aren't interesting without a story. A story engages the reader. Too many history books lecture, and that gets tiresome. I think it's one reason why I like biographies more. It attaches history to a story, and in the process the history becomes much more memorable.