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I think any time you follow a semicolon with a comma, something has gone wrong. But congratulations on starting :)

I'm getting pleasant flashbacks to writing my thesis' introduction and discussion, the only academic writing I'd done by then that wasn't subject to tons of feedback loops (the main chapters are all papers with co-authors). It felt great to just sit down and write and revise by myself for a bit, and I'm still pretty happy with the result.

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Okay so I wasn't fired.

 

Also, my transfer and raise have been secured. So moving to Vegas is now at 100%. I'm stoked and relieved. The hard part is enduring my boss' insufferable crap for the next three weeks.

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I think any time you follow a semicolon with a comma, something has gone wrong. But congratulations on starting :)

I'm getting pleasant flashbacks to writing my thesis' introduction and discussion, the only academic writing I'd done by then that wasn't subject to tons of feedback loops (the main chapters are all papers with co-authors). It felt great to just sit down and write and revise by myself for a bit, and I'm still pretty happy with the result.

 

Oops! Deleted a "however" somewhere along the way. Luckily, it being only half a page, it's easy to proof my dissertation right now.

 

I've had a really ambivalent relationship with writing it, honestly. On the one hand, I thrive on feedback, so working with an advisor who's only interesting in seeing full drafts of chapters is intimidating just in concept. On the other, it really is nice just to hold in my head the prospect of writing thirty-odd pages at a go on whatever I want and without any real pressure for it to mean something right away. I'm glad I've made even a nominal gesture towards starting, even though I have a couple of articles that will technically be part of my dissertation someday soon, too.

 

Okay so I wasn't fired.

 

Also, my transfer and raise have been secured. So moving to Vegas is now at 100%. I'm stoked and relieved. The hard part is enduring my boss' insufferable crap for the next three weeks.

 

Yay, that's a relief! Hopefully, you can make it through the rest of the month on teleological thinking: "No matter what happens, in three weeks it won't be my problem anymore." That is my number-one coping technique most days.

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I created a Word document, wrote a hundred words, and saved it as "Dissertation.doc." It's a big step that I'm having trouble processing.

 

Bonus! My first footnote, which is a hundred and forty-eight words and hence outnumbers what I've written in the body:

 

Just looking at that mess there, I feel like I'm already in trouble, but it also feels a little good?

 

You have probably been told this, but i wrote my thesis as an ever expanding series of bullets. My first version was literally just the chapter titles. Then they got broken into section, then subsections, then paragraphs, 2 sentence descriptions and finally the actual text. Then my supervisors got their hands on it, but that is another story.

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You have probably been told this, but i wrote my thesis as an ever expanding series of bullets. My first version was literally just the chapter titles. Then they got broken into section, then subsections, then paragraphs, 2 sentence descriptions and finally the actual text. Then my supervisors got their hands on it, but that is another story.

 

I have it at sections right now, but I stopped breaking it down there because my outline was getting increasingly speculative, to the point that it was not helping me make progress. I've now redesignated it in my head as three linked articles with a bookending introduction and conclusion, which is much more effective at getting work out of me. The narrative focus of the central chapters, as well as the amount of non-narrative material I have to synthesize into that narrative, is probably what blew your tried-and-true method off the rails for me.

 

I do like hearing from people who've finished a thesis or dissertation, whatever their advice. It makes it seem more doable than hailing my advisor from his seat on Mount Olympus.

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Probably helped that mine was for engineering, so i already knew what i had to say before i started the thesis, as there was always going to be sections on theory, model setup etc. 

My main advice is to give yourself plenty of time and try not freak out about it all too much. I spent a good three months with a twitching eye and indigestion for my troubles:/

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Okay so I wasn't fired.

 

Also, my transfer and raise have been secured. So moving to Vegas is now at 100%. I'm stoked and relieved. The hard part is enduring my boss' insufferable crap for the next three weeks.

 

Yay awesome all kinds of good news! Just think of every day you're spending with your boss as one fewer day in the future!

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Hopefully, you can make it through the rest of the month on teleological thinking: "No matter what happens, in three weeks it won't be my problem anymore." That is my number-one coping technique most days.

You know what's funny about that? I can't operate that way. I've spent the last month (especially the last two weeks) trying to arm all my coworkers with the tools they need to defend themselves from bullshit on the job, as well as just bettering their work ethic (though most of them are already excellent with that). I mean, nothing insubordinate, I'm just trying to teach the younger generation (GROSS I AM OLD) that they can stand up for themselves on the job without being out of line or drastic. They don't have to play into the whole "willingness to get fucked in the ass" thing that the American workforce did since the 80s that lead to our current situation. I feel like I'm leaving them behind in a way, and feel terrible about it. Especially since the assistant manager is also leaving, a month after me pretty much, and she's trying to accomplish the same thing I am.

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My girlfriend's advisor was the same way with the full chapters thing. She really didn't like it either, but I guess it trains you to be pretty ruthless about your thinking/self editing, because basically couldn't take (time wise) a chapter needing a major tear down. 

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i think the thing that has been most useful to her, and that she has pushed really hard/offered a short class on, was that she built a database of all her research (diplomatic history). it is pretty thoroughly annotated, with photos of original documents, tags, etc...

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I worked straight through from 8am to 4pm today with no lunch break. I had arrived early just cause I was travelling from another town and got there at the exact midpoint where going home was pointless and nothing was open yet so I just went into work and did stuff. Then around 12pm an urgent thing cropped up, a job that I hadn't been told was needed yet needed to be done last Friday and something I had been working on was slightly broken in a way we hadn't noticed before.

 

After trawling through all that and reaching 4pm my supervisor and I had the brief conversation:

"Ok, so we're gonna work away with this thing now. So you could go back to working on [non urgent thing]"

"Well I was thinking I'd go get lunch now."

"...you haven't had lunch yet? ...go get lunch."

 

What feels the weirdest is that this is exact bizarre situation I realised could happen when I took a job with genuine responsibility (because I'm the only person in the office with this particular set of skills) and it is not what I'm used to.

 

So I bought donuts to make myself feel childish.

 

(bonus fact, I got up at 5am this morning to catch the bus into town)

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We found a house in Redwood City that is exactly what we wanted and more affordable than hoped for. Signing papers on Friday. Sometimes things work out nice :)

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I'm pretty happy with where I am right now except for where I am in my competitive games sphere. I feel like I and my team are in a rut that after about 6 months of playing won't be escaped from. 

I took over a team that's existed for about 11 years from a guy who ran it for a decade. At the time of transition it was being played as a semi casual competitive team after several key players left and the team was formerly one of the most dangerous teams in Australian competitions. 

I think I'm finally seeing the results of doggedly choosing to continue a casual competitive angle in an environment where there aren't many new recruits and people are burning out and seeking to step off from our team into teams that may not be of a much higher rank but at least have a higher win rate. It feels like most people in the team just aren't trying too hard any more. Even if or when there are communication failures that cause us to make dumb mistakes and throw. Adding to that would be the low personal skill of most team members relative to other teams and the lack of participation (of late) of our higher skilled players I'm starting to feel really burned out with a game I've come to love.

 

I've also got a problem that because I have to multi-task and make more calls than other players I play less well and have probably become a less valuable player to other teams than a player who largely just focuses on winning engagements.

I'm feeling burned out and I'd like to go back to being a competitive player who doesn't have the responsibilities of team play on their shoulders all the time. But I'm loathe to disband my team and I'm not confident that I can find a replacement captain.

Adding to that is the insight that even if I did have the gall to try to join another team right after leaving a captaincy and probably disbanding a team I'm both not good enough and likely seen to be lower skilled than I am that there wouldn't be a new home for me either way.

I still love the niche game I play but I can't really stand the skill disparity and different dynamic that I find in public games and I don't think that I or my team (as a whole, some players would definitely still go on to succeed) have much of a future in the competitive scene any more because we've existed on a plateau for so long (of course due to my failings as a then newly minted comp. player turned captain possibly even moreso than other team members shortcomings).

 

I've enjoyed the team I've been with for so long and I feel like I'll be letting down some of the friends who have stuck with the team as long as I have But I'm coming to terms with not having a future in the comp level of that game any more.

 

Maybe I'll get into Nosgoth, CS:GO, or some kind of Lords Management game because I'm still a player who can be good and get better at those kinds of games but I think I'm just about done with my ~600 concurrent player competitive multiplayer game.

Interestingly this kind of emotional quagmire is also making me less enthusiastic about becoming too attached to other niche multiplayer games (like possibly Nosgoth) because I'll probably become exposed to echoes of this situation a lot faster than more popular games with longer life-cycles.

 

Urh I just feel so bummed out about this. I don't even want to speak about this with other players in the scene because we're in the middle of the competitive season and I don't want my headspace to affect my friends/teamates while we still have big games ahead of us.

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I was supposed to be out of this apartment by now, and now the damn thing is falling apart. I've spent about sixty dollars trying and failing to fix the toilet and just today a lamp fell off of the ceiling.

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Buying a birthday present for a two year old girl is NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE.

 

Bright, colourful book. Always a good choice. Even if she can't read it yet, it's a good idea.

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She's two, and I guarantee none of their family knows what minecraft is.

 

Yes I got the heads up that Frozen is a solid choice. The impossible part is more that I want to do in store pickup and it has been a frustrating experience to find something carried in a giant store.

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The two year old won't give a shit as long as it is shiny and pink. For my nieces 4th birthday I just got her a pink cowboy hat (sherif callie is the latest Disney hit), a sparkley dress and some sweets. €20 for it all and she was delighted.

If you are worried about what the parents think, just make a show of asking theme if there is anything the child needs, that will get you off the hook.

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Also, 2 year olds love symmetry and things that are not meant for them. So get her some simple geometric shapes like balls, blocks and paper towel tubes and then top it off with some expensive ass shit that you would normally get for an adult that she can utterly ruin without upsetting her parents. Maybe a couple universal remote controls and six expensive Blu Rays that she can destroy and dirty up with her fingerprints. Her parents will probably think you are a douchebag at first when they see you break out the balls and blocks but when they see you follow it up with all six Star Wars movies on Blu Ray and a nice Logitech universal remote, they will be singing your praises for years to come.

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The two year old won't give a shit as long as it is shiny and pink. For my nieces 4th birthday I just got her a pink cowboy hat (sherif callie is the latest Disney hit), a sparkley dress and some sweets. €20 for it all and she was delighted.

If you are worried about what the parents think, just make a show of asking theme if there is anything the child needs, that will get you off the hook.

 

Nah it's my friends from college, one of whom was my roommate. I'm not worried about being judged. I was told a gift wasn't even necessary, but still.

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We really need a travel thread (do we have one?) because Bavette and Boeuf (Chicago) is booked solid for Saturday and I need a good downtown location near the river that has tasty dinner that I can go to. Preferably with meat and not TOO fancy but I was really looking forward to Bavette's fried chicken and steak frites. :(

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just staying on that side of the river you could go to wollenskys (nice steak place), highline bar (more loungey), harry carays (nicer restaurant, not the touristy BS), 

 

or go north into gold coast for some slick places (although night time gets gross), if you are dumping your car could easily redline/brown line up to lake view, boys town, or ravenswood or west on the blueline to wicker park or logan square for great options.

 

 

i unfortunately have a packed weekend otherwise would love to meet up. putting faces to avatars and podcasts voices would be nice

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