Anyone else hating snow for this reason?

[zjwah]

Anyone else out there simultaneously hating/loving the numerous snow days in the south because while they are fun and you don't have to go to work they also cause:

1) The mail not to run due to treacherous road conditions...so, no hope of getting anything from any school you applied to until that clears up.

and

2) After exhausting your 10-year-old self with snowball fights, watching copious amounts of tv, and reading all interesting books available, you have nothing to do but check your email and application statuses every 5 minutes.

Am I the only one? I'm going crazy here! Tomorrow will be day 4! I've never wanted to go back to work so much before.

[Eigen]

I spent the waiting part of my application year reading papers. Great way to get ready for potential interviews, grad school, etc.

That, or use the Yale or MIT open courses to work your way through graduate courses in your field, or related fields.

Plenty of things you can do to get ready for graduate school and pass the time.

[katerific]

I'm from the South, but I flew out of the region the day before Snowpocalypse! I was really disappointed, though, since I NEVER get to see snow.

That, or use the Yale or MIT open courses to work your way through graduate courses in your field, or related fields.

I LOVE those! Although they leave me feeling slightly sad--the math professors at my uni are so bad at teaching, yet I pay to take classes here..... I learned the material a lot better by watching MIT lectures, and they're free! But other than that, they make me really, really happy (it's such a fantastic way to nerd out).

Eigen has some great suggestions, but I know it's hard to focus on useful stuff 100% of the time. If you need a mental break, I recommend browsing TVTropes. Google it. Can't explain, just explore. It can be quite a time vampire.

[Eli-]

Georgia + snow = total shutdown. Nothing to do but obsess...

Anyone else out there simultaneously hating/loving the numerous snow days in the south because while they are fun and you don't have to go to work they also cause:

1) The mail not to run due to treacherous road conditions...so, no hope of getting anything from any school you applied to until that clears up.

and

2) After exhausting your 10-year-old self with snowball fights, watching copious amounts of tv, and reading all interesting books available, you have nothing to do but check your email and application statuses every 5 minutes.

Am I the only one? I'm going crazy here! Tomorrow will be day 4! I've never wanted to go back to work so much before.

[zjwah]

Eli- Exactly. I'm from GA too, so there's really nothing to do but sit here until the ice melts. Especially after our local grocer (within walking distance) has run out of pretty much everything useful and that means no more daily snow hikes to the store just for the heck of it.

Eigen- Thanks for the suggestions! I've been doing the open courses through Johns Hopkins' School of Public Health, but I'll check these out as well.

katerific- Thank you too! I'll check out TVTropes, too! A time vampire is exactly what I need since work was cancelled for tomorrow and that means I'm not going back in until Tuesday! I do enjoy the time off, but it's hard for me to be so idle).

Edited January 13, 2011 by zjwah

[Eigen]

I see you're in epidemiology.. It's a bit out of your immediate area, but MIT had a great genomic medicine course I took a few summers ago- really nice introduction to the clinical use of genetic microarrays and their future potential.

You could also pay $8 for a month of Netflix instant watching... And devour some old movies and TV shows there. They have quite a lot of stuff, including some good BBC stuff...

[zjwah]

I see you're in epidemiology.. It's a bit out of your immediate area, but MIT had a great genomic medicine course I took a few summers ago- really nice introduction to the clinical use of genetic microarrays and their future potential.

You could also pay $8 for a month of Netflix instant watching... And devour some old movies and TV shows there. They have quite a lot of stuff, including some good BBC stuff...

Thanks for the tip about the MIT course. Yeah, netflix is a current addiction of mine. I've managed to get through their entire collection of Dr. Who, Torchwood, Robin Hood (BBC version), and MI-5. I'm all for British television.

[ZoeWeber]

Anyone else out there simultaneously hating/loving the numerous snow days in the south because while they are fun and you don't have to go to work they also cause:

1) The mail not to run due to treacherous road conditions...so, no hope of getting anything from any school you applied to until that clears up.

and

2) After exhausting your 10-year-old self with snowball fights, watching copious amounts of tv, and reading all interesting books available, you have nothing to do but check your email and application statuses every 5 minutes.

Am I the only one? I'm going crazy here! Tomorrow will be day 4! I've never wanted to go back to work so much before.

You're going to find this weird but I don't know the snow, I have never ever seen it, except for movies and books and such. When I was a kid my mom told me it was something like the weird ice our broken fridge made and I used to waste a good amount of valuable time looking at the fridge... Now that I'm applying to grad school up north, I day dream on being accepted, funded... and plus, about having the opportunity, one day, to see the snow for the first time. Everyone has warned me that I will hate it the day after; after your post I can see why...

[apieceofroastbeef]

they leave me feeling slightly sad--the math professors at my uni are so bad at teaching, yet I pay to take classes here..... I learned the material a lot better by watching MIT lectures, and they're free! .

I felt the same way! I've paid a lot of money to do correspondence/online courses from my UI that were complete crap compared to the Yale courses. I hope they put up more English ones at some point.

[waddle]

If you need a mental break, I recommend browsing TVTropes. Google it. Can't explain, just explore. It can be quite a time vampire.

katerific- Thank you too! I'll check out TVTropes, too! A time vampire is exactly what I need since work was cancelled for tomorrow and that means I'm not going back in until Tuesday! I do enjoy the time off, but it's hard for me to be so idle).

TVTropes will ruin your life.

[zjwah]

TVTropes will ruin your life.

Ha! The current version with me obsessively checking email and websites because I have nothing else to do. I'm all for it!

Oh, and for any others out there in the same position. Stumbleupon is always a nice way to waste time. I'd forgotten about it.

Edited January 13, 2011 by zjwah

[zjwah]

You're going to find this weird but I don't know the snow, I have never ever seen it, except for movies and books and such. When I was a kid my mom told me it was something like the weird ice our broken fridge made and I used to waste a good amount of valuable time looking at the fridge... Now that I'm applying to grad school up north, I day dream on being accepted, funded... and plus, about having the opportunity, one day, to see the snow for the first time. Everyone has warned me that I will hate it the day after; after your post I can see why...

Growing up in the south, I never saw that much snow. Then I moved to Colorado for my Masters degree and naively assumed that snow = Snow Day! Ahh, the disappointment I felt when the first good snow arrived and I still had to get up, go to work, and then spend the rest of the daylight in class. After two years of living in Denver, I definitely lost my affinity for snow and actually began to hate the stuff. But now, after two years back in the south, I am starting to enjoy it (this was the first time since that first snow storm in Denver that I've actually enjoyed it). But that doesn't mean I enjoy being stuck in the house with only walking as a means of transportation since Atlanta doesn't have the means to deal with any snow/ice that actually accumulates. But you should enjoy the snow for the first few times you see it, then when it sticks around all winter and it's been 5 months since you've seen grass you'll be glad for it to finally disappear!

[katerific]

You're going to find this weird but I don't know the snow, I have never ever seen it, except for movies and books and such. When I was a kid my mom told me it was something like the weird ice our broken fridge made and I used to waste a good amount of valuable time looking at the fridge... Now that I'm applying to grad school up north, I day dream on being accepted, funded... and plus, about having the opportunity, one day, to see the snow for the first time. Everyone has warned me that I will hate it the day after; after your post I can see why...

I don't find it weird at all! I grew up in the south where it RARELY snowed.... and for the past few years I've been living in a region that never gets snow. Ever. I have MANY, MANY friends who are 21+ who have NEVER seen snow in person. There are also those who have seen snow, but never snowfall. I think it's quite common here, actually.

Sadly, I have many relatives in Chicago who tell me the same thing about getting tired of snow--after a few days the snow gets annoying, and eventually it gets really dirty, too.

(Honestly? I'm applying to schools in the NE and I'm excited about snow!! just not sub-50 degree F weather )

Georgia + snow = total shutdown. Nothing to do but obsess...

Georgia high-five!!!

TVTropes will ruin your life.

uhhhhhhhh I think you mean ENRICH and IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF, not this "ruin" you speak of. :P

(on a serious note: waddle does have a point. DO NOT BROWSE TVTROPES THE DAYS LEADING UP TO AN EXAM. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.)

Edited January 13, 2011 by katerific

[MoJingly]

That, or use the Yale or MIT open courses to work your way through graduate courses in your field, or related fields.

How did I never know these existed?! So cool!

[Eigen]

Also note that if you have iTunes, you can use iTunes University to access almost all of the lecture portions (audio and video) and take them with you.

I'll also note that listening to TED lectures is a great way to pass time- some really good stuff in there.

Edited January 13, 2011 by Eigen

[sputnik]

<br />Anyone else out there simultaneously hating/loving the numerous snow days in the south because while they are fun and you don't have to go to work they also cause:<br /><br />1) The mail not to run due to treacherous road conditions...so, no hope of getting anything from any school you applied to until that clears up. <br /><br />and <br /><br />2) After exhausting your 10-year-old self with snowball fights, watching copious amounts of tv, and reading all interesting books available, you have nothing to do but check your email and application statuses every 5 minutes. <br /><br />Am I the only one? I'm going crazy here! Tomorrow will be day 4! I've never wanted to go back to work so much before.<br />

<br /><br /><br />

Sorry, sport. I live in the Midwest. You just described December, January, February and March to me. Of course we're not _as_ helpless as the south, but it does slow things down and it sucks.

[dant.gwyrdd]

Sadly, I have many relatives in Chicago who tell me the same thing about getting tired of snow--after a few days the snow gets annoying, and eventually it gets really dirty, too.

(Honestly? I'm applying to schools in the NE and I'm excited about snow!! just not sub-50 degree F weather )

Well, an inch or two of snow is nice and can make everything look pretty, but it stops being fun when you have to wade through a foot of snow just to get out of your house and walk on the road since the sidewalks are completely under it as I had to do yesterday... then it just becomes very bothersome. And wet.

[zjwah]

<br /><br /><br />

Sorry, sport. I live in the Midwest. You just described December, January, February and March to me. Of course we're not _as_ helpless as the south, but it does slow things down and it sucks.

Trust me, I know. I used to live in Colorado where snow is expected from October until May. There it's a fact of life and people grind their teeth and get on with it. However, here (mainly because we only get this much snow once every decade and don't have the means to deal with the roads) it's more like, "OMG, is that a snowflake?!?! Take cover! Now!" And we stay hidden like little chipmunks hibernating for winter until it all magically disappears.

At least in Colorado I could go shopping or to work or to school. I know the south is a laughingstock when it comes to snow for the rest of the country. Believe me, I used to laugh along with everyone else when I didn't live here. Now it's more laughing out of insanity.

But at least I can go to work today- if I can make it out of my driveway.

[joops]

You're going to find this weird but I don't know the snow, I have never ever seen it, except for movies and books and such. When I was a kid my mom told me it was something like the weird ice our broken fridge made and I used to waste a good amount of valuable time looking at the fridge... Now that I'm applying to grad school up north, I day dream on being accepted, funded... and plus, about having the opportunity, one day, to see the snow for the first time. Everyone has warned me that I will hate it the day after; after your post I can see why...

This is too cute! Especially the part about staring at the fridge.

I am the opposite of you. I am daydreaming of going south, where I don't have to deal with snow. This is mainly due to the fact that I am a sociologist/fashionista and can't wear cute dresses in the snow :-) However, I did apply to a couple of places up here in the northeast because I am slightly more sociologist than fashionista.

[Golden Monkey]

I hate snow because some of it was still on my shoes the other day, so I slipped and fell down the stairs. It kinda sucked.

[robot_hamster]

They never close school here when it snows. Okay, not never. They will close if there is over a foot of snow that falls in a relatively short period of time. I hate the snow though, even though I have had to deal with it all my life. I'm always saying we're going to move to Hawaii and be homeless on the beach! Haha! No snow there! Well, except on the very top of the mountain.

[phira]

I've lived in New England my entire life (born, raised, college, and now work--hopefully grad school, too), and I haaaaaate the snow. I don't necessarily want to move because of it; I like living in New England for a lot of reasons, and I also feel like something's wrong with the seasons if there isn't snow. But I guess I'll never understand the fascination with it that some people have.

Like someone else mentioned, snow doesn't mean a snowday (although we've had two this winter--it's been pretty bad). For example, today, snow meant trying not to fall over while walking to the T to get to work. I'm still at work, putting off leaving, because it's raining now, and I know walking home will be pretty bad! And yeah, the snow gets dirty and crusty pretty quickly. As an undergrad at Tufts, I remember a lot of people who had never seen snow before, or never seen so much accumulation, were excited for snow, but then confused and nervous when they found out that we were going to have to walk up and down the hill in the stuff ...

It's fun to see everyone in the south get snow days, though! That's so weird!