toasterazzi

I just don't like Melville or Hawthorne's writing styles. Hawthorne drags on too long for me, and Melville's never ending sentences are bothersome. I'm fairly meh on the content of their stories. I think I could've liked The Scarlet Letter if it was written differently, and I actually do like the story of Bartleby well enough. I'm just not into the writing.

Hawthorne. The Scarlet Letter is probably my least favorite book of all time and Young Goodman Brown wasn't much better. Also, Melville. Never had to deal with Moby Dick, but Benito Cereno, Billy Budd, and Bartleby made me want to run my head into a wall.

In my program, if you have a graduate assistantship, you teach two sections of freshman composition. The program director provides a schedule, lesson ideas, etc. Beyond that, I'm responsible for the actual teaching that takes place 3 times a week as well as grading their work and such.

I'm taking 3 classes and teaching 2 classes. That's pretty average for my department.

My program is pretty chill. Some of the older professors tend to wear more ties, suits, dresses, etc. But the younger adjuncts, grads, etc. mostly where nice jeans, khakis, polos, button downs, sweaters, etc.

I don't make myself do anything every day unless I have a big deadline coming up. For example, I have a big paper due on Thursday, so I'm spending a significant amount of time each day on completing it. I have 3 classes and they only meet once per week, so I generally do the readings a day or so ahead and take notes on what I read. My notes might be about things I thought were important or interesting or things I have questions about. My program doesn't really have tests, so I don't spend time studying for that sort of thing, but I do make sure I've read the material well enough to be able to participate in class discussions.

I don't know how much they help in the long run, but I always list professional affiliations (like the National Council of Teachers of English) and orgs in which I had leadership roles like Student Government Association.

I've used both blogspot and wordpress, and I honestly like wordpress more. For me, it's more accessible, has better templates, good analytics, etc.

I tend to keep a fair amount of the details somewhat vague. I might refer to my state, but not necessarily a specific city. I don't generally name people I actually know. I'm pretty open, but I don't necessarily want it to show up in a search if someone looks for my name, not because I'm ashamed of what I say, but because I know people will judge me for it regardless.

I'm currently in a Master's program, and I haven't entirely decided whether I want the Ph.D. just yet. I'm strongly leaning toward yes, but with some serious trepidation. The word dissertation freaks me out lol and research isn't necessarily my favorite thing. That being said, I'm feeling a strong gravitational pull toward becoming a professor. I know I don't necessarily need a Ph.D to teach everywhere, but still...We'll see how I feel at the end of this semester after I get done with this first round of freshman composition.

Yeah I'm not about that colorblind life either. I don't think it actually solves anything except making people feel indignant when you point out a racist belief they're exhibiting. I also don't want anyone ignoring my culture. I'm proud of all aspects of my identity and that includes my race. I would much rather embrace and celebrate our cultural differences instead of ignoring them. One of my favorite parts of undergrad was getting to participate not only in the Black student group, but also the Latino group and the Asian group. I learned so much from their meetings, events, etc. and I made so many amazing friends from various backgrounds. And personally, I feel like my life is enriched by these differences.

I got all but one of my textbooks from half.com. I work at the campus bookstore so I got a 25% discount on the other book. The grand total was probably like $120 for 9 books. I haven't really bought much in the way of supplies since I already had a backpack, pens, notebooks and folders. I just got some more ink for the printer/scanner I picked up last year on Black Friday I did get a desk though and that was like $45. I plan to get a nice desk chair as well, which will run me another $50-100 depending on which one I decide to go with. As for software, I'm thinking about getting Scrivener eventually, but my school provides Endnote and Office for free, so I recently downloaded both of those.

OP, I feel you. I'm a Black woman who grew up in a town that was 90% Black. I'm also a Black woman who went to a mostly White high school, mostly White undergrad school, and who will be attending a mostly White grad school starting next week. I'm pretty comfortable with it at this point, but I am hyper aware of the fact that, for a lot of my newfound midwestern friends, I'm one of the first Black people they've ever known besides the ones on tv (I'm not making that up btw. I've been told this more than once). There's so much pressure to not be a stereotype, and there can be so much frustration from people when they realize you're not a stereotype. As far as I know, there's only one Black prof in my department and maybe only one or two other grad students that are POC in my department. I'm very familiar with the concept that we have to be better than best. I remember reading something recently about how a Black man with a degree has a harder time getting a job than a White man with a felony on his record. Not sure how many were studied off the top of my head, but I'd be lying if I said I was entirely surprised. That being said, I do my level best not to live for other people. I'm just trying to do my thing and let that be enough. *keeps fingers crossed*

Since we've been trying to eat healthier recently, we've been spending more on food. In the past, especially during undergrad, I bought a lot of food that was cheap/easy to prepare. However, I'm putting a bit more effort into things now. I scour the web for recipes that catch my attention, bookmark them, and then go shopping for necessary items on roughly a weekly basis. I would say I spend anywhere from $200-$500 per month on groceries for two people now. The variation depends on what we have in stock already. For example, I recently had to spend a lot of money on spices we needed, but they'll last quite a while. Generally, we shop at Kroger because they have good stuff, decent prices and we get gas points. Depending on our monetary situation, we also go to walmart sometimes. And when we have some extra to kick around, there's a really nice local store that has fantastic fresh produce, high quality meat, and all sorts of really interesting items. If I can, I try to make dinners big enough so that I can have leftovers for lunch the next day.

Oh hi! I did my undergrad at BSU in English Education. While the town of Muncie can leave a lot to be desired, the campus is pretty nice. It's a mid-sized school with basically one main road down the middle that makes it pretty easy to get wherever you need to go. For a mid-sized school, the campus has a lot going on pretty much always. The success of our athletic teams varied from year-to-year, but admission is free for students. The theatre department, which I was also part of for a good portion of my undergrad career, regularly puts on fantastic shows. In addition, the university works very hard to bring in touring companies, dance troupes, etc. to the big campus theater. I got to see the touring company for Hairspray while I was there and I loved. They also do this weekly event called Late Nite, which some consider childish, but I always had fun with. Basically, they choose a theme and set up all sorts of games and activities for people to do on Saturday nights. The best part is that you get free food . The English department is pretty great in my opinion. There are some really knowledgeable profs (my favorite being Peterson) who teach the norms as well as interesting classes that you might not expect. Amongst the many classes I took, some of my faves were Queer Lit/Queer theory, Holocaust Lit (though this isn't for the lighthearted), and Ethnic American Lit. I only took a couple Linguisitics classes (with Kuha) and I found those mostly enjoyable as well. I found that most of my English professors were easy to engage both in and outside of the classroom, which I always appreciated. So that's a general overview. Please let me know if you have any additional questions. Incidentally, I probably would've gone to BSU for grad school if I had decided to do it immediately following undergrad. Since I took off a couple years to work, circumstances put me at Indiana State. I'm excited to experience something new, but I still have mad love for BSU.

Hey! I'm going to ISU too! I'll be getting my Master's in English. I moved to town on July 2nd, so I've mostly just been hanging out. I got a temp job at the bookstore on campus, which I start next week. And then training for my assistantship starts on Aug. 16th.

I said this on the other thread, but I'll put it here too in case people don't check both: Oh hi everybody! I started my blog almost a year ago, and I finally really picked up my writing over the course of the last month or so. I don't start grad school until the fall, but I have written a bit about my preparation for school. Otherwise, I write about things I like/don't like, politics/news, entertainment, etc. Feel free to check it out. The link is in my signature

Oh hi everybody! I started my blog almost a year ago, and I finally really picked up my writing over the course of the last month or so. I don't start grad school until the fall, but I have written a bit about my preparation for school. Otherwise, I write about things I like/don't like, politics/news, entertainment, etc. Feel free to check it out. The link is in my signature.

My program only requires that I either have the necessary credits from undergrad or that I can pass a proficiency test. If I can't do either of those, then I'd have to take classes to get where I need to be. I took 3 semesters of Spanish in college, and I got either a C or C+ in it, but it didn't seem to have any effect on my admission to grad school.

Well, this was definitely an interesting thread to read through . My first answer to this question will always be The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne's writing style makes me want to throw my books across the room.

I studied abroad in Italy for six weeks and it was roughly $5000 including the flight. For me, it was definitely worth it to be in a completely different culture, experiencing all sorts of new things. I think studying abroad is a great opportunity to travel and learn that many might not get in their regular lives.

I have a 13" MBP. I had a 12" Powerbook before this. I've messed around w/ other laptops, and I've found that I really do prefer this size. The larger sizes are just unnecessary for me.

I'm starting grad school this fall, and I plan to make full use of the campus' recreational facilities. My boyfriend and I plan to have a set daily time to work out instead of just going whenever like what I did in undergrad. We've also been working on eating healthier. We're both big fans of locally grown produce and such, so that helps as well.