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Jun. 10th, 2015 11:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jhameia- Finished grading! Dr. R has also started going through the papers and I'm pretty much scott-free.
I've been somehow having a social life? Last Friday I managed to attend the first half of the SEATRiP symposium, which was quite fun. It made me wonder what might have happened if I had chosen to do the Interdisciplinary track instead of the Science Fiction Track (and done Malay and English as my language literatures, and Creative Writing as my other field) (I like to think I would have been more successful at it). But maybe I'm thinking that because I'm not enamoured of my dissertation right now because it doesn't feel as interdisciplinary as it should be.
Anyway, while wandering off home, I ran into my adviser who offered me a ride to the home of the professor hosting the shindig for the SEATRiP symposium end. I did want to go hang out and meet folks, so I went. We had to stop by her home first. I'd been before, but only saw the downstairs, so this time she invited me to go look around. (It is an extraordinarily large house. I don't comprehend its bigness. It's also so nicely decorated, which is also something I don't understand. My parents are nouveau riche in the sense that when they go big, they fill it an ugly hodgepodge of stuff they have clung onto, and some cheaper new stuff, and there isn't a sense of design harmony when they fill in a house.)
There appeared to be two separate tables when we got there: one for faculty, one for grads. It was actually kind of cool, and it was a majority of the SEA studies folks. SEATRiP is a program across disciplines, and most of the grads are from anthropology.... couple of dance studies folk, and art history. I got to meet the keynote speaker who was very impressed by our little group (although I hesitate to say "our"... I'm not a SEATRiP grad) and I also got to show off the cover for THE SEA IS OURS. So that makes it three professors who're looking forward to its release, AND putting forward that we should have a book party for it!
I spent most of Saturday grading down at Back to the Grind, Maurisa came to join me for a couple of hours. I walked downtown and back. On Sunday I spent most of it grading too, but I couldn't finish the grading that day like I meant to because I almost cried from how terrible the exams were.
I got Chi to come over on Sunday evening to help me cook. Potluck on Monday! I made two batches of fried rice (one vegetarian, one meat) and fridged them overnight. However, had to attend a talk at 10am, so I put them in the oven for about half an hour and took them to campus, left them in my office.
The library is hiring a new person to handle the Science Fiction collection. I missed the first two candidates' talks, so I was pretty adamant to not miss this one.
The potluck was wonderful, and we all agreed that we needed to do it more often. The Chair has sent along an email with a suggestion that we do brown-bag lunches once a month in the coming year, just for kicks. We're losing our current grad advisor, but we're also getting in three (!!!) new faculty! Two of whom are women of color, so I'm VERY excited. We're getting a new Linguistics professor (she speaks Tamil and studies the Slavic languages!!), a new German Studies professor (a spousal hire; he's splitting time with Art History), and an African Studies prof (who is also a spousal hire, splitting time with Women's Studies; we've never had an Africanist in our department before! She does Igbo studies, specifically, and her work is analysing the links between West African mythical narratives and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade) (her job talk was amazing).
The last two days have not been as productive socially, but I did get to sleep in, and I've been focusing on editing some stories and reading short fiction. (I'm going through my list of online venues, and reading three pieces from each. So far, I'm in the D's.)
My summer session class might get cancelled and I find I'm not too torn about it. I'll hand in some rent and go home for a month and a half. I really want to go seejolantru!!! I might even stay at the Little Red Dot again, try to get some writing done. And then be back to move apartments at the end of August. Joe and I will be sharing a 2-bedroom 1-bathroom, and we'll see how this will turn out. I haven't shared an apartment for about ten years (there was James who lived on my couch after he was evicted, but that barely counts, really; I do think we could've made pretty great housemates tho) and Joe tells me that he'll be around so rarely it will work out, but IDK. I DO want the lower rent pretty badly though.
I really need to work on my application for International Student Affairs Officer (even though this might cause some complications on my paystub, since the position receives a stipend and I already get paid the maximum amount by the university for teaching assistantships).
The book I accidentally left behind at the Concourse has made its way home to me! The ancestors are smiling on me, clearly. I'm going to read through it and start working on my HIDDEN YOUTH story asap.
Gbrlgh.
I've been somehow having a social life? Last Friday I managed to attend the first half of the SEATRiP symposium, which was quite fun. It made me wonder what might have happened if I had chosen to do the Interdisciplinary track instead of the Science Fiction Track (and done Malay and English as my language literatures, and Creative Writing as my other field) (I like to think I would have been more successful at it). But maybe I'm thinking that because I'm not enamoured of my dissertation right now because it doesn't feel as interdisciplinary as it should be.
Anyway, while wandering off home, I ran into my adviser who offered me a ride to the home of the professor hosting the shindig for the SEATRiP symposium end. I did want to go hang out and meet folks, so I went. We had to stop by her home first. I'd been before, but only saw the downstairs, so this time she invited me to go look around. (It is an extraordinarily large house. I don't comprehend its bigness. It's also so nicely decorated, which is also something I don't understand. My parents are nouveau riche in the sense that when they go big, they fill it an ugly hodgepodge of stuff they have clung onto, and some cheaper new stuff, and there isn't a sense of design harmony when they fill in a house.)
There appeared to be two separate tables when we got there: one for faculty, one for grads. It was actually kind of cool, and it was a majority of the SEA studies folks. SEATRiP is a program across disciplines, and most of the grads are from anthropology.... couple of dance studies folk, and art history. I got to meet the keynote speaker who was very impressed by our little group (although I hesitate to say "our"... I'm not a SEATRiP grad) and I also got to show off the cover for THE SEA IS OURS. So that makes it three professors who're looking forward to its release, AND putting forward that we should have a book party for it!
I spent most of Saturday grading down at Back to the Grind, Maurisa came to join me for a couple of hours. I walked downtown and back. On Sunday I spent most of it grading too, but I couldn't finish the grading that day like I meant to because I almost cried from how terrible the exams were.
I got Chi to come over on Sunday evening to help me cook. Potluck on Monday! I made two batches of fried rice (one vegetarian, one meat) and fridged them overnight. However, had to attend a talk at 10am, so I put them in the oven for about half an hour and took them to campus, left them in my office.
The library is hiring a new person to handle the Science Fiction collection. I missed the first two candidates' talks, so I was pretty adamant to not miss this one.
The potluck was wonderful, and we all agreed that we needed to do it more often. The Chair has sent along an email with a suggestion that we do brown-bag lunches once a month in the coming year, just for kicks. We're losing our current grad advisor, but we're also getting in three (!!!) new faculty! Two of whom are women of color, so I'm VERY excited. We're getting a new Linguistics professor (she speaks Tamil and studies the Slavic languages!!), a new German Studies professor (a spousal hire; he's splitting time with Art History), and an African Studies prof (who is also a spousal hire, splitting time with Women's Studies; we've never had an Africanist in our department before! She does Igbo studies, specifically, and her work is analysing the links between West African mythical narratives and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade) (her job talk was amazing).
The last two days have not been as productive socially, but I did get to sleep in, and I've been focusing on editing some stories and reading short fiction. (I'm going through my list of online venues, and reading three pieces from each. So far, I'm in the D's.)
My summer session class might get cancelled and I find I'm not too torn about it. I'll hand in some rent and go home for a month and a half. I really want to go see
jolantru!!! I might even stay at the Little Red Dot again, try to get some writing done. And then be back to move apartments at the end of August. Joe and I will be sharing a 2-bedroom 1-bathroom, and we'll see how this will turn out. I haven't shared an apartment for about ten years (there was James who lived on my couch after he was evicted, but that barely counts, really; I do think we could've made pretty great housemates tho) and Joe tells me that he'll be around so rarely it will work out, but IDK. I DO want the lower rent pretty badly though. I really need to work on my application for International Student Affairs Officer (even though this might cause some complications on my paystub, since the position receives a stipend and I already get paid the maximum amount by the university for teaching assistantships).
The book I accidentally left behind at the Concourse has made its way home to me! The ancestors are smiling on me, clearly. I'm going to read through it and start working on my HIDDEN YOUTH story asap.
Gbrlgh.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-06-13 01:29 pm (UTC)