um...*something* check-in

[forthwritten]

How's everyone doing? I am still seeing life from the other side of the desk so the PhD's a bit on the backburner. It's interesting to see how department administration works - what administrators can and can't do, contacts within the university, that sort of thing - plus catching up on department gossip, intrigues, power struggles and drama. If I were a more manipulative and cynical person I'd say that befriending administrative staff is a good move, but I'm not that manipulative!

So what's going on with your PhD/life/etc?

Comments

[aruna7]

*waves to fellow PhD busy bee*

I hear you about PhD being on the backburner. I'm moving in one week, so all my books are already packed. I'm currently working on article projects and finishing to work on my PhD blog that should open within the next couple of weeks.

[zulu]

My Master's thesis is due in six days. Panicking? Me? ...yes, quite a bit actually. 0_0

[aruna7]

Good luck!!!

[zulu]

Thanks! It's getting there, slowly but surely; it's only the "slowly" part I'm worried about.

[aruna7]

*sends more good vibes*

Hopefully it'll be more "surely" than "slowly". :)

[forthwritten]

Good luck!

[liseuse]

Good luck!

[luciente]

Good luck!

[liseuse]

I have done no significant work on my new chapter, I'm fighting with the university system and have sent nine zillion(approx.) e-mails in the past few weeks trying to sort things out.

I would really really like to know why the uni website hates firefox so much.

[luciente]

I am trying to do CV-building things in the hope of actually getting a job once I finish, so have spent most of this week preparing an article to send to a journal. I ran into a bit of a brick wall with it yesterday, though, so today instead I focused on finally shoving past my nerves and imposter syndrome and submitting a proposal to MeCCSA2011. Of course, now I am sitting here filled with despair and woe and wondering why a Proper International Conference would ever be interested in the abstract I just sent them, but at least I did it!

I am also SO EXCITED about starting teaching again soon. Undergraduate teaching really, really makes me happy; it's only the knowledge that I have to get a PhD to be able to do it full-time that's keeping me going with this thesis, really.

[trouble]

There's supposed to be a meet & greet tomorrow and I don't want to go because my Adviser will ask me how my chapter is coming and I will cry. :(

[liseuse]

Oh, I hate that. I spent a month skulking around department events because I knew that at least one of my supervisors was going to be there and I really didn't want to talk to them.

[trouble]

I actually jumped behind someone to avoid her the other day. *sigh* My chapter is so terrible I want to die.

[katealaurel]

Whenever I meet real scholars, I expect these incredibly smart and accomplished people to be all suave and confident, and so when they turn out to be even more awkward than I am, it compounds horribly. Awkward academics just all over the place. Makes me wish I could do everything on the internet.

( Also, hi! I'm not yet in a graduate program-- applying this fall-- but am already doing professional work in my field [classics/ancient history], and so am hoping you won't, you know, kick me out of here. Thank you for making the comm.)