Archaeodan

@jamesaly Maybe it's because I'm from Boston, but I'm rather fond of Boston University. They've got a January 15th deadline. They have a strong as all hell sociocultural department.

I have to do quite a bit of research and translation of research articles into human English for my project at work, so I'm writing a lit review and guys...I missed this. I'm actually enjoying writing a lit review. I love research

Wine, my job, meditation tapes (check out the app Insight Timer), commiserating with my brother/you people about his/y'all's applications, and exercise. I miss my jacked arms from my undergrad rowing days, so I have at least something to work for (Michelle Obama level arms).

This warm front is bringing rain and melting all the snow. Just in time for Christmas. So again, we don't get a White Christmas despite getting snow every single day for the past week. I'm unreasonably frustrated about this.

@Bschaefer Yeah, Brown is one that I'm hodge-podgeing together. Dr. Van Dommelen is my POI in Anthro and we're coordinating with Dr. Bathsheba Demuth from History and Dr. Yongsong Huang of Ecology to make it work. If this works, it would be kinda awesome.

@Bschaefer Oh, thank you for reminding me I needed to send an email to my Brown POI. Totally forgot to do that oops

I know this is my second in a row...but this really hit me. Some stranger cleaned the snow and ice off my car this morning. Just because. I could cry, that was so nice...

ONE WEEK UNTIL CHRISTMAS BREAK AND I GET TO GO HOOOOOOOOOME Also, I'm just about finished with the major edits for one of my projects at work. My presentation in front of the Board went great and they're super supportive anytime I need help (let me tell you, tourism advertising is hard when you have no contacts and have only lived in state for 2 weeks) The Department of Commerce is super excited about my project, and they want to help my find official photos for advertising. Which is great because the guy who was supposed to be doing this project before it got dumped on me can't help anymore and so forward movement is a wonderful thing.

Healthy, I know, but I'm drowning myself in my job. You could always do that if you have one. My is very GIS oriented, so I'm trying to become an expert. Here's my GIS plug: learn it if you don't know it. QGIS is open source, Arc is the fancy one you pay for (or your company pays for because they love you). Skill in GIS translates across disciplines and it's useful for everything. Also, it's time consuming and frustrating as hell, so it's conveniently distracting from The Wait.

@hats Thanks! That's exactly the advice I got and no one ever really went further than that to explain it! OK. Road map potential projects. I can do that.

Question: how specific did you guys get with your SOPs? All advice I got led me to stay rather general, but a POI just got back to me that they want more specifics. My difficulty I always run into with narrowing down my interests any more is what if I propose a project POI is not interested in and I get pigeonholed as just wanting to do that so I get rejected when in all reality I like everything under my broad interests and I'd be happy working on any related project. So. Yeah. Stress. So, how specific is right?

@EvelynD I mean, yeah, don't get me wrong, I never said I was good at taking my own advice. Do as I say, not as I do (this post can be re-titled the World Wide Wine Club of Stress cause I'd imagine you and I can't be the only ones drowning our sorrows in wine)

I won't lie, @phyanth. The funding situation is bad, and half of us commenting this year are back from not getting in last year. Shit happens. The stats are unpleasant. My best advice, don't think about it and try as hard as you can to get in. That's all you can do. If you don't get in, it might have nothing to do with you. Just don't lose hope and don't stop trying. We only lose when we give up.

@phyanth I wouldn't worry. I take it as, if they answer the first time that means go ahead, if they don't answer again, they got busy/considered you set and are waiting for the application review stage to review you further. Personally, if I were a POI, I wouldn't want to have to review you twice in addition to my busy schedule. If I get the feeling you're going to apply, I'd wait to put more time into during the application review phase. But, what do I know lol

Update: Crisis averted. Anthro POI liked my game plan and is happy to advise me. WOO. Day of wins.

OMG MY DREAM SCHOOL JUST SAID SHE'S ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS. OMG. GUYS. OMG. (this means i have to write another application...yaaaay....BUT STILL)

Yeah, that's what I said in my email back. I have my own contacts in my region, so it's not really that big of a deal if he doesn't. I also do have the same situation as yours, @jamesaly , at a different school, where a POI is willing to help me find people to cover the bases where she doesn't fit. I hope this works. the situation would be super awesome at this place if it does work out...

3, maybe 4 more. This one kinda sounds like a wash.

This is the first time I've talked to him, because he's been out in the field. I got the suggestion to use him as a POI from the anthro grad adviser and from one of the other profs in anthro and that other prof I've been talking to in another department. I guess it's my fault for assuming based on recommendations that he'd be interested, but there was no way to contact him in the field. Giant catch 22.

So, now this is after the deadline for this school and after I was told this would be a great fit department and POI and after I involved another professor from another department in a potential collaborative project, POI tells me I really should have applied to a different department under a different POI because, while my methodological/theoretical/time period interests fit with him, my geographic interests don't. So the fit would be bad. HOMIE. YOU CAN'T TELL ME THIS 2 DAYS AFTER THE DEADLINE. I guess the good thing here is that I have contacts in the geographic region, so I'll send a note that as long as he's willing to advise me on everything else, I can make the region work. My subfield is very small, this would not be unheard of....Yes? No? STRESSSSS

Mood after email from one of my POIs: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, she screams angrily.

Just moved 11 hours away from my favorite place I've ever lived for a new job and it's not what I expected. My bosses have no idea what I'm doing, rarely ever come to the office, and keep piling more tasks on that weren't in my job description. They don't understand the computer program (which they still haven't downloaded to my computer so i'm stuck using the open source program which is unintuitive) they hired me to run, so their requests are vague and unreasonable for the time frame. So, when they ask more things on top of my main project, I get super frustrated because the main project is huge and I don't know what they want and I can't do 8 things at once and get everything done on time. And then my boss tells me she's sending me to a forestry conference next week because she wants company representation there? Like...this is so not my job? Like...you know this means another day I'm not working, right? And this is only my first damn week. My coworkers are not social and the town is tiny, so meeting new people is hard. The loneliness and boredom is hitting me kinda hard. I miss my friends. I miss my old job, even though I know this job is worlds better for my career. I miss living some where near civilization, where I can do outdoorsy things without fearing for my life if it snows in the mountains or my car breaks down where there's no cell service or humans. I miss the culture of home. I miss my old life. I miss being called by my nickname, because people here prefer my legal name and insist on calling me that. I'm just done. I'm sure it'll improve if I give it more time, but it sucks to all hell right now.

Four words. Surprise. Application fee. Waivers.

@phyanth Sincerely hope so! This is one of the more...involved GIS/museum jobs I've had. And, again, sad pay. But, for reals, it's a good time. Lot of free merch

All December applications submitted! And I got my Brown fee waived because I'm with AmeriCorps! That was a really nice present. Thanks for recognizing how sad my pay is, Brown