recap (less sick)
Good news! I'm almost well. I still have the remnants of a gnarly cough, but what are you gonna do.
Did a bunch of stuff this week...also chose a bunch of stuff
not to do. For instance: all the reading for my Romanticism seminar. Bad student, I know. But I prioritized, and it didn't rise to the top of the list.
Other things I did:
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thing 1: work (all week)
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thing 2: "interview"/chatty thing with "TA committee"...in quotations because the only people chatting with me were mentor profs 1 and 2. It was stress-free.
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thing 3: read for AmLit seminar (Hawthorne)
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thing 4: read for Victorian seminar (Brownings)
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thing 5: stressed out about AmLit seminar paper, the entire rough draft of which is due on Wednesday the 26th. It's a 12-ish page paper. I have one paragraph. Sure, it's a one-page paragraph but still, that's not a good ratio.
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thing 6: finished up a rough prototype of the steinbeck bibliography indexer/searcher thing. not only is it rough, it's not even in the correct programming language for the target server. But we have lot of things to work out still with regards to data, less about the way it'll work in general, but still—things to finalize. Once it's finalized, then I'll translate it to the language I have to use on the server. It's like writing an essay in English, then translating it to French.
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thing 7: did a demonstration of aforementioned prototype indexer/searcher thing for steinbeck center board of directors. they said things like "very impressive" even though it's just a prototype and isn't really all that impressive by my standards. but hey, anytime a board says positive things about something, the boss is always happy, which makes the employees happy.
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thing 8: turned in all of author review chapters for the 3rd ed of the book I'm working on. So, 19 chapters have made it fully through my edits, dev edits, copy edits, tech edits and my final review/edits. That'd be great except I still owe them 11 freshly edited chapters...which I absolutely must do this weekend. You know, when I should be writing the rough draft of my AmLit seminar paper. Hmm. AmLit seminar paper doesn't have a barnes & noble buy-in on a specific day like the book does (meaning it damn well better be ready by then), but there is a grade attached to it.
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thing 9: found out a
ton of people from the department are going to the Cal State conference. Me, three undergrads, and (that I know of) three other grad students...something like 20% of the presenters are from our little school. Way to represent!
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thing 10: got back some grades for things; mentor prof 1 is one of those fellows who writes things like "it was a pleasure to read" on little 2-page essays that go with presentations and handouts, and every time he does that I just want to hug him. That's the kind of guy you want on your side of things. Other prof handed back comments and grades for our presentations on
Middlemarch and on my 8.5x11 sheet of paper he just wrote the one line, "good job, as usual". Ok! You could have just patted me on the head and not wasted the paper. Ha ha. Then I got back my presentation/essay grade from weeks and weeks ago, in Romanticism, and again—none of the crappy things I walked away feeling were represented on the grade sheet. I almost wondered what the hell presentation
she heard, but I went with it...guess I'm not doing as terribly in that class as I assumed.
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thing 11: went out for diner food after classes last night, as usual, with some school chums. There was pie! I love pie.
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thing 12: got the email saying I'm officially a TA next year. I think the fact that I told them I prefer the 7:30am class really put me over the top.
Up next:
- a weekend full of work! included, but not limited to, book chapters, draft essay, presentation/essay on Hawthorne, reading for three classes. Whoo. and a hoo. and my bestest bud's birthday dinner on Sunday!
Labels: gradschool
