Cheshire_Cat

At my schiil, if you have a masters, you get a teaching assistantship for the summer which pays about the same as the semester pay. But that is just this school, I know a school in the same city where they never teach.

JC Pennys and Kohls are my favorite places for professional looking clothing. They can be hit-or-miss, but usually they have good, inexpensive clothing. You can also find black slacks at any thrift store. You probably need 2 or three pairs of slacks, and then a few more blouses. I also almost always wear a cardigan because our office is cold. I have several black ones, and a grey one I wear a lot. If you have any pets, invest in a lint brush as well, haha. Unless you are comfortable in heels, I would wear comfortable flats to teach in because you will be on your feet. Jewlrey is hit or miss. I like a pair of conservative silver earrings, and maybe a necklace. The main thing is that you don't want to be fidgeting with them when you are trying to teach.

I have no advice, but I can commiserate. I moved from somewhere that snow was only talked about in legend, to where snow is an infrequent, but real possibility. I went into my first actual winter (Where it stayed below 50 during the day) with only a suitcoat for warmth. It was a hard winter, haha. I don't think I could ever move north.

I think I am going to tell my manager about my academic future tomorrow. Let's see if I get any sleep tonight... probably not. I hope they don't stab me in the back. But then I will have that weight off my shoulders. I just don't know what to say. I've never resigned from a job before. All of my other ones had a specific time period and we knew I would be gone after that. But I was always unsure about giving my resignation an exact date, because I decided I would just know when it was time. That time has arrived. It's not like things are bad anymore. The past month has been rather pleasant. My boss even gave me a free weekend at the beach, since we were auditing in that town the week preceding it and the week after. I've been doing site audits, and I've enjoyed them. But, July 1st I was transferred back to my old department, the one I started on. They are very nice, but things aren't the same. I'm no longer the star pupil. I'm the dunce who got sent back to kindergarten. I know they probably don't view it that way, but I do. And even though I know I will be leaving in six weeks at most, it still feels like I'm going backwards instead of forwards. And, I hate pretending that I'm going to be there, when I will be leaving. To be honest, I am still a little hurt by what has happened in the last year. So, I don't know if my company deserves advanced warning of my plans, but, my manager does. She has always been encouraging, and they took me back when everything went down. I will be sad to leave them.

That is why we do it. But I think some people get lost along the way and think that they are smarter and know better than everyone else because of the knowledge they have. We have to realize that we aren't the end-all be-all, and no matter what new and exciting discoveries we make, someone else may come behind us and invalidate them.

Quick, without Googling it, do you know who Shelby Hunt is? No? He was one of the top marketing researchers of the past 50 years. They are considering renaming the top marketing award after him because of how much he contributed to the marketing field. (He was also my dad's POI) Guess what? No one outside his industry would know him from Adam. It isn't like we are really superstars. I mean, some people think it is cool if you have Dr. in front of your name, but they don't really know what you do. And inside your industry, just be who you are. Now, there are a lot of people who do get puffed up, but most of the time that only leads to bitter disappointment. We need more people in academia who don't do it for the praise of others, and who realize they are not a god.

Well, I come from a field where the *lack* of Ph.Ds actually prompted our main professional organization to set up a scholarship so that more students would be incentivized to get their Ph.D. So, I can't really speak to my own industry. But from an economic perspective, I think decreasing supply is one way of dealing with the academic bust. I think it all comes down to rising costs of education. That is why we hire adjuncts instead of TTs. And as the costs rise, it becomes more cost prohibitive for undergrads to major in areas that may not be economically stable, which compounds the problem.

I had really bad impostor syndrome before starting college (but, to be fair, I had never been taught in a classroom or taken tests, so it really could have ended badly.) and I have it again now. I'm also trying to take a lot of free courses and such, but I'm also working full time and stuff, so I don't think I'll nearly know the stuff I need to. And I don't want to quit sooner than I have to because I'll be broke and have nothing to do but worry then. Added to that, I haven't been in school for three years, so everything is a little fuzzy anyways. What if I've forgotten how to study? Then I remind myself I never learned how to study in the first place, it was innate, and since I left college, I've had to study and pass five standardized tests, so I haven't really stopped studying... Doesn't really work, but oh well. What works better is talking to my friend who's a post doc. He is surprisingly good at listing to my worries and allaying them.

I go back and forth on this one. I want to date, but probably not my first semester,but it would be nice to have someone for emotional support, but I don't want to burden them, but vulnerability is part of any relationship,.. back and forth it goes.

This is an interesting case from the POV of someone whose profession is auditing. I don't have much to say, but it is interesting.

Reading this thread makes me think I have "mild situational depression" The situation being my job. It's also giving me headaches. I should probably take a break before going into the grad program. But then I'll be stressed about money...

All of my friends are getting married, and I'm just sitting here. And one of my friends/close acquaintances came back from a month long trip yesterday, and I just realized how awesome he is. Funny, very easy to talk to, and extremely intelligent. And he is a post-doc, so he knows what a Ph.D program is like. But I don't even want to think about dating right now because starting a relationship during the first semester of a Ph.D program sounds like a recipe for disaster. It's just... all my friends are doing it. *whine* Yes, I'd probably jump off a cliff if all my friends did it too. They are very intelligent people, if they jumped off a cliff, something terrible would have to be chasing them.

No, I think his name is Jim Fowler

I am taking a calculus class on Coursera to give me a better understanding of it. The professor is hilarious (something I never thought I'd say about a math professor) and the class is a lot better than I thought it would be. I am very impressed with the professional appearance of it. I do believe that online classes like that can be useful, especially on general subjects like calculus. Kind of like being able to KLEP certain classes. You probably get as much out of it as you put in, just like college. But I think there are a lot of classes that require more instructor/student interaction to understand the full scope of what the class is about, and those you can't do justice with an online class.

The ESPY was pretty much what my original post was about. Other people turned it into an argument about more.

Public scrutiny and image vs. life and limb. It wasn't a competition until they decided to give the award to the most heroic, and it went to her instead of someone who literally almost died for this country. That is why it matters.

To put it another way, remember when Angelina Jolie had a mastectomy? I would consider that brave and she brought awareness to breast cancer. But she wasn't heroic. She didn't put her life on the line to save others with no thought of herself. Having it saved her life, and the awareness may have saved someone else, but that was in indirect result of her actions, not the motivation behind her actions.

Bringing awareness isn’t particularly heroic. There are celebrities everywhere who stand up for good causes and bring awareness to them. It doesn’t really cost her anything. She is doing what she thinks is best for her, and getting praised and fawned over for it. “Wear purple for fibromyalgia awareness. Wear pink for breast cancer…” we bring awareness to things every day. Does that make us heroes? But how many people would put on the cameo of the military knowing that doing so meant they may be blown to bits? Knowing that coming back means suffering from PTSD and flashbacks. There are some things that deserve more praise than “bringing awareness” to anything.

True, I think the other "candidate" was the man who was in the military and lost his arm and leg and was on Dancing with the Stars, I think. He probably should have won. Interestingly enough, my trans friend (who is in the army) was pissed that Jenner got it instead of him.

Caitlyn Jenner. I couldn't care less what people do to their own bodies, but seriously ESPN? Someone publicizing their sex change is more heroic than someone raising money and playing basketball as she's dying of cancer? WTF?

Speaking of women and babies and Academia- Here's an interesting article. http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/07/for-female-scientists-theres-no-good-time-to-have-children/278165/

Haha! My undergrad school put the business school about 2 miles away from the rest of campus. The joke was that it was to keep the conservatives in the business school from corrupting the rest of campus with their free-market, capitalist ways. The business professors disagreed on who was corrupting whom... I think in this economy, a lot of schools are just struggling to survive. If a program can't support itself, it is going to be the first one cut, and the programs that help to support the rest of campus are getting more resources. Otherwise everyone starves.

Cool! I don't think many people know Mayday Parade, but they are one of my favorite, and the cover art for their albums is really interesting looking, IMO.