We've wined, we've waited, now it's time to celebrate 2016

[Neist]

So, I'm taking the evening off. I plowed through 11 hours of work today, but I need rest. Tomorrow's agenda includes the university's first association meeting for my discipline, and, well, I think that's it. Probably include reading. Lots of reading. I have to write an essay, too, but I like writing much less than I enjoy reading.

Edited August 25, 2016 by Neist

[rhombusbombus]

@Effloresce Is a mechanical keyboard super different than a normal keyboard? I feel like my mac keyboard is pretty clickety, but if I can get clickety AND clackety, that'd be amazing. Don't let your diagnosis stop you from living the life you want/can! You take it day by day like we all do! 

 

A tattoo sounds splendid! I keep putting it off, but I kind of want to convert one of mine into a sleeve. Maybe if I get this NSF grant, I'll treat myself. What are you looking into getting? Has anyone else noticed that tattoos are super common now? I'm in love with it!

 

I gave myself a Friday deadline for a scholarship draft that I have yet to start. I'm about to dedicate and hour to it before bed. And then find a place I can run away to tomorrow to finish up. So much furious typing is about to happen!

Edited August 25, 2016 by rhombusbombus

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

@rhombusbombus It's like the satisfying clickety clack of a keyboard... times A MILLION.

[Effloresce]

Just now, rhombusbombus said:

@Effloresce Is a mechanical keyboard super different than a normal keyboard? I feel like my mac keyboard is pretty clickety, but if I can get clickety AND clackety, that'd be amazing. Don't let your diagnosis stop you from living the life you want/can! You take it day by day like we all do! 

 

A tattoo sounds splendid! I keep putting it off, but I kind of want to convert one of mine into a sleeve. Maybe if I get this NSF grant, I'll treat myself. What are you looking into getting? Has anyone else noticed that tattoos are super common now? I'm in love with it!

yeah! i think it's pretty different. my roommate mentioned that the pressure typing on a mechanical keyboard is a lot different than using a normal keyboard, and i definitely agree. but yeah, it's super clickety clackety lol. i'm trying to take it day by day for sure! like the scientist i am, i've been reading up on a lot of stuff..and getting the diagnosis really put a lot of things of the past into a better perspective.

i really want to get a dopamine and serotonin molecule most likely on my ankle! it's something i've wanted for a while as i've dealt with clinical depression since my teens, so it means quite a lot to me. yeah!! there are a ton of people in my program with tats and it makes me super happy. good luck to you with your grant!!

[jlt646]

12 minutes ago, Effloresce said:

yeah! i think it's pretty different. my roommate mentioned that the pressure typing on a mechanical keyboard is a lot different than using a normal keyboard, and i definitely agree. but yeah, it's super clickety clackety lol. i'm trying to take it day by day for sure! like the scientist i am, i've been reading up on a lot of stuff..and getting the diagnosis really put a lot of things of the past into a better perspective.

i really want to get a dopamine and serotonin molecule most likely on my ankle! it's something i've wanted for a while as i've dealt with clinical depression since my teens, so it means quite a lot to me. yeah!! there are a ton of people in my program with tats and it makes me super happy. good luck to you with your grant!!

I am loving this particular conversation thread- tattoos and clackety keyboards are my jam! I have a PC in my office with an old clunky keyboard, and I LOVE it. On the other side, though, I think I might be the most tattooed person at Penn State. I haven't been stared at so much since high school, and that was for way different things. I haven't felt othered in this town yet for being visibly queer, but apparently lots of these folks have never seen big tattoos? Thankfully, my department is awesome and and the weird looks aren't coming from them, but still. This particular thing is an adjustment I wasn't expecting to have to go through.

[Effloresce]

1 minute ago, jlt646 said:

I am loving this particular conversation thread- tattoos and clackety keyboards are my jam! I have a PC in my office with an old clunky keyboard, and I LOVE it. On the other side, though, I think I might be the most tattooed person at Penn State. I haven't been stared at so much since high school, and that was for way different things. I haven't felt othered in this town yet for being visibly queer, but apparently lots of these folks have never seen big tattoos? Thankfully, my department is awesome and and the weird looks aren't coming from them, but still. This particular thing is an adjustment I wasn't expecting to have to go through.

oh wow. i don't know if i could deal with being stared at like that. 

i decided to dye my hair red before orientation last week, and i think i am getting some stares for that though. also, my hair is really short and that's like...an oddity around here (i'm talking like 3/8" guard is what i use to cut it).

[hippyscientist]

5 minutes ago, jlt646 said:

I am loving this particular conversation thread- tattoos and clackety keyboards are my jam! I have a PC in my office with an old clunky keyboard, and I LOVE it. On the other side, though, I think I might be the most tattooed person at Penn State. I haven't been stared at so much since high school, and that was for way different things. I haven't felt othered in this town yet for being visibly queer, but apparently lots of these folks have never seen big tattoos? Thankfully, my department is awesome and and the weird looks aren't coming from them, but still. This particular thing is an adjustment I wasn't expecting to have to go through.

so I actually got a tattoo since being here at Penn State (number 4). None of mine are visible unless I want to show you, but I got that done before a night out and ended up flashing everyone showing it off...that brought stares. You know, I know plenty of people with tattoos here, they just all seem to be pretty cookie-cutter-esque, well at least the undergrads. Grad students are awesome  But actually, now I think about it, even the tattooists in Ikonik Ink weren't overly covered. Maybe it's a central PA thing....

Also I have a super clackety keyboard in my office which is great but it does make a lot of noise! I've  just got in after a 13.5 hr day and I feel like I haven't done anything! We had a stupidly pointless orientation this evening but that's officially it. No more orientations!!! WOOHOO

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

@hippyscientist For a second, I thought you meant that you got the number 4 tattooed on yourself  I agree though - I've been seeing a lot of tattoos but they're all pretty lame (though I shouldn't judge, maybe there is a good reason for some of them). A lot of wrist infinity symbols, kinda-cheesy motivational one-liners on the arm, etc.

[rhombusbombus]

A LOT of the undergraduates look so similar, they kind of blend into each other. There were some drunk sorority girls on the bus last night, and by some, I mean like, 30. It was odd. even the bus driver was displeased.

Did they know it was Tuesday? 

ALSO, I went to trivia at one of the bars in downtown SC and it was super fun! I keep wanting a weekend off but grad school is saying a hefty NO. Project stuff this weekend and class stuff next weekend. I should have a Saturday to sleep in maybe around mid-September/ early October.

[hippyscientist]

Just now, rhombusbombus said:

A LOT of the undergraduates look so similar, they kind of blend into each other. There were some drunk sorority girls on the bus last night, and by some, I mean like, 30. It was odd. even the bus driver was displeased.

Did they know it was Tuesday? 

ALSO, I went to trivia at one of the bars in downtown SC and it was super fun! I keep wanting a weekend off but grad school is saying a hefty NO. Project stuff this weekend and class stuff next weekend. I should have a Saturday to sleep in maybe around mid-September/ early October.

I'm pulling long days but I am not working on my weekends. I am making time for me. No question! The undergrads are all the same. Thank god on canvas they have little pictures next to their names otherwise I'd really struggle to remember all my section. Trivia is cool though my cohort just seems to like going to bars - I'm allowing myself one social event each week be it bars or movies or something. Department socialising is excluded, as is exercise. Seems to be working pretty well so far.

[Neist]

44 minutes ago, hippyscientist said:

I'm pulling long days but I am not working on my weekends. I am making time for me. No question! The undergrads are all the same. Thank god on canvas they have little pictures next to their names otherwise I'd really struggle to remember all my section. Trivia is cool though my cohort just seems to like going to bars - I'm allowing myself one social event each week be it bars or movies or something. Department socialising is excluded, as is exercise. Seems to be working pretty well so far.

 

You use Canvas, too? OU is transitioning over this school year. I like it far more than what we had before. Also, I'm not taking the weekends off, but I'm definitely taking the evenings off. I'm an early riser, and I can only work so long before all productivity vanishes. 

Besides, my Pixel C with keyboard game in today and I've been "setting it up" this evening.  In all seriousness, though, I really do think this will improve my productivity a bit.

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

8 hours ago, hippyscientist said:

The undergrads are all the same.

I'm so glad that I'm not the only one who feels this way. The busses are so jam-packed with undergrads and it annoys me to no end!

[hippyscientist]

41 minutes ago, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

I'm so glad that I'm not the only one who feels this way. The busses are so jam-packed with undergrads and it annoys me to no end!

I mean clearly they are their own people but they fulfil so many cliches it's crazy. And yes! The busses. Agh!! My stop is near the start of the route and it's impossible to get a seat from the start of service. And it took me an hour to get home on the bus last night. How is it only thursday?

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

22 minutes ago, hippyscientist said:

I mean clearly they are their own people but they fulfil so many cliches it's crazy. And yes! The busses. Agh!! My stop is near the start of the route and it's impossible to get a seat from the start of service. And it took me an hour to get home on the bus last night. How is it only thursday?

I have the opposite problem - I also get on at the very start of the route but no one else gets on with me. And by the time the bus gets to school, there's so many people on the bus that I can't get off! But coming home, I understand you - and I've also learned that I'm not balanced enough to stay upright if there's nothing to hold onto on the bus

 

So I've started parking near school and walking in. My fitbit tells me that it's about a mile and that I gain 600 feet of elevation. Can't wait for winter

[MarineBluePsy]

The undergrads seriously crack me up.  The swarms on the bus, the inability to read a campus map and find the building they need, and not realizing they need to leave early and allow extra time to get lost or deal with the swarm.  I am far from perfect, but I was much more prepared as an undergrad.

[Neist]

1 hour ago, MarineBluePsy said:

The undergrads seriously crack me up.  The swarms on the bus, the inability to read a campus map and find the building they need, and not realizing they need to leave early and allow extra time to get lost or deal with the swarm.  I am far from perfect, but I was much more prepared as an undergrad.

 

I think it's at least partially a millennial thing.

I guess that were all more or less millennials here, even if I'm a little bit of the earlier period, and I've noticed several changes in freshmen over the long course of my college education (I began school in 2001). For one, while I wouldn't call the current wave of freshmen spoiled, they are certainly far more hand-held than I ever was. This year, when moving into the dorms, there were entire teams of people who unloaded all of their belongings for them, organized those belongings into labels tubs-on-wheels, then unpacked it for them in their dorm rooms. They didn't need to think about anything throughout the entire process, and while I'm certain those freshmen are incredibly thankful (I certainly would have been), these hand-holding measures probably impair their progress towards becoming independently-thinking individuals.

I wouldn't be the free-standing person that I am today if I didn't have to figure out a mountain of stuff out on my own, and doing so granted me the willingness to always attempt new things, even if I have no clue how to do them. 

That's my random musings for the moment.  Back to reading. 

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

3 hours ago, MarineBluePsy said:

The undergrads seriously crack me up.  The swarms on the bus, the inability to read a campus map and find the building they need, and not realizing they need to leave early and allow extra time to get lost or deal with the swarm.  I am far from perfect, but I was much more prepared as an undergrad.

I mean... I was too prepared. I had printed out my schedule in early June, not realizing that classes would switch rooms several times over the following few months. I sat in an algebra class instead of Calc II for two weeks because neither the professor nor the syllabus had said the course name on the first day of class, and the rooms had been switched. Life lessons!

Although I'm a stereotypical millennial I'm going to agree with @Neist. You haven't really lived until you've had your laundry scattered all over a major road because the garbage bag tore while crossing the street to carry it between car and dorm. Although I now think back and laugh at the memory of a car driving by and running over my bath towel, it sure would've been nice to be coddled a bit

[hippyscientist]

I also think current freshmen have so much technology at their finger tips. Get lost? Use google maps. Don't know what time the coffee shop opens? Google that. Don't know how to get vomit out of your carpet? Someone will have written a whole blog on the topic. Theres so much more information out there that they don't really need to think, they just follow the swarms.

I took my final new class today and I was really apprehensive about it. It's an ME/IE/E Design class which is so far out of my past experience it's crazy. It sounds like there's going to be a steep learning curve but the professor is crazy (in a good way), and looks like there will be some entertaining times. There's 3 kines students in there so it's fun to get some experiences from others.

Ooohh. I got my social security card finally today so hopefully my advisor will give me tomorrow afternoon off so I can go to the DMV and get my drivers license (or start the process). 

P.S. This is my 1000th post on grad cafe...I spend too much time on here

Edited August 25, 2016 by hippyscientist

[Neist]

2 hours ago, hippyscientist said:

P.S. This is my 1000th post on grad cafe...I spend too much time on here

 

Don't we all. And congrats!  

In other news, I'm reading what must be the most arbitrarily dense journal article that I've ever seen. I think this is going to have to require several passes to work through...

Edited August 26, 2016 by Neist

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

The gym here doesn't even have a running track ????

[sjoh197]

So far I have wracked up for the upcoming semester... 8 presentations, 1 (for a class) full research proposal, 1 set of hypotheses and research suggestions ( due in like a week) for a region I know nothing about and have never studied... That I will be doing 10 days of field work for in < a month, and a short original research paper accompanied by some form of computer model.

This in addition to my 2 actual research projects and being a TA. I think I might just die instead.

[MarineBluePsy]

So I'm finally furniture shopping and am I the only one who didn't know mattresses and bedframes had weight limits?!  Some of them are kind of low its a wonder 2 people don't regularly collapse mid sleep.  Hell I've put on weight, even I could collapse by myself.  I found a bedframe that holds 1200 lbs so that should be plenty.

11 hours ago, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

Although I'm a stereotypical millennial I'm going to agree with @Neist. You haven't really lived until you've had your laundry scattered all over a major road because the garbage bag tore while crossing the street to carry it between car and dorm. Although I now think back and laugh at the memory of a car driving by and running over my bath towel, it sure would've been nice to be coddled a bit

Or paid for gas with nothing but change.....or gone to any relatives home for a free meal with tupperware in hand......or buying anything off craigslist and realizing what a bad idea that was.

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

@MarineBluePsy Definitely done those too! Paid for gas in all change yesterday, in fact. Had to fill up a rental car before returning it and lost my wallet though  I totally thought I was the only one who has done the Tupperware thing... it's still a running joke in my family But I have to ask... what is your Craigslist adventure??  Never had a problem there.

[avflinsch]

On 8/23/2016 at 9:26 AM, MarineBluePsy said:

It wouldn't surprise me if the workers there were unhappy.  Companies that large tend to set up in areas where jobs are needed so the people who work there feel like they have to suck it up or go back to being unemployed.

My oldest son works at the local Amazon distribution center. He loves it there - 4 day work week (10 hrs each day), plus an additional discount on orders thru Amazon. The local center is actually paying a little bit higher than anywhere else in the area, so they are attracting workers from other facilities. Which basically forces other companies to upgrade wages also so they can get workers.

I know a few other folks that work there also, they seem to like it also.

 

[Neist]

@MarineBluePsy I just stuff wads of food into my cheeks like a hamster. I usually swallow it afterward, though.  I've been known to eat two meals, back to back, if there's free food. It's probably the not the most healthful of practices, but it's practical.

@sjoh197 Sounds about how my semester is seeming to turn. I hope the faculty members here realize that it's the first graduate semester for many of us. I know that there's going to be at least a small-ish transition period for me. Things are already intense, and I'm probably making a poor decision to attend a meeting over the next two days for a consortium that's actually pretty relevant to my work; it randomly just happened to be at my university this round, and even though I have a ton of work to do, I think it'd be foolish not to go. I might never get to go again unless I'm presenting.

Edit: Also, I might add that Premium Grammarly is super awesome. Best time-saving investment I think I've ever made. Yay!

Edited August 26, 2016 by Neist