Which is not particularly anything productive. I've been working on grad school applications, which is fucking annoying but must be done. For awhile I was using the daily show website non-stop to entertain myself but because of the WGA strike I really shouldn't use it at all since this is exactly what the strike is about. So what else. I've been downloading lots of podcasts, particularly Anderson Cooper, Keith Olbermann, and Bill Maher. Oh and also this one called The Bugle which is John Oliver and this other British guy. Then today I trolled YouTube watching random moments having to do with my favorite pundits--real and fake (which basically amounts to Stewart/Colbert/Cooper/Olbermann)
Um also I'm learning French, but the book/cd I'm using is in German. Which was all well and good to begin with, because it forces me to review German grammar a bit and I am learning new German words as well...but I just got to the section about explaining where you are from to someone and my options are Germany, Austria or Switzerland. I mean, yes its not that hard to look up how to say "American" in French online or something, but this does not bode well. That being said
je suis nous sommes
tu es vous êtes
il/elle est ils/elles sont
I totally did that without looking it up. So I hope it's right? and wait let's see if I can remember how to conjugate -er verbs....
I just tried it and realized I can't. I only started learning it last night. The one funny thing about the book though is all the things they compare to German, like "you may become annoyed at the fact the French do not pronounce the ends of their words. This, however, will pass."
Ok, and I will leave you with this video, which I love and makes me smile. I've watched it like 10 times already
Anderson Cooper swearing is adorable
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If you get bored you could always so some fetish modeling. http://www.l-a-tex.net/web/e/frames-faq.html Or go to the 482095825 fetish/goth events they have there.
I really like how you posted that link, considering both my mom and boyfriend read my blog/comments.
It's okay Julie. I read like a smart Mom, i.e., selectively. There are some things I ignore. Indira's mom.
You're applying to grad school?
Be sure to check out things like:
Stats of Germanics grad students (page 59) (About 1/7 of accepted & entering students get a PhD)
http://www.grad.washington.edu/stats/tenyear/departmental/rptGsisAnnual_department.pdf
Employment status of Germanics PhD grads (half are in universities, half are non-academic):
http://www.grad.washington.edu/stats/phd_survey/deptrpts/german01.pdf
Other stats/where the above stats are from:
http://www.grad.washington.edu/stats/index.htm
Conclusion: each entering student of the program has a 1/7 (14% chance of finishing with a PhD) and a 1/14 (7%) chance of ultimately having an academic career, including both tenure and non-tenure track (full-time, part-time, and adjunct) positions.
Also, consider whether or not you're being groomed to be the bedbuddy of a former professor's ex-girlfriend, with no real payoff for you.
only thing to add is that it's not a malicious citation of statistics. i personally find the term "in your best intersts" insulting. only someone who felt, well, very coveted, in the way you may feel, and who learned over time that being emotionally exploited while teaching a number of students for about $12,000 a year (even with a fellowship) without being able to have one's needs met (despite making a variety of very smart attempts to do so) is not worth it; no other place operates like BMC-- you can't simply ask for mediation and get it. You have ABSOLUTELY NO power in grad school. Sexual harassment? very normal. do it or don't get a job.
if my mother can have two children in 16 months while working on her dissertation and still write it in 3 years, I think I stand a pretty good chance.
I'm more like her than anyone else in the world.
also, I'm applying to film and media studies programs, not german programs.
I'm sorry if you have felt emotionally abused/sexually harassed. I really am, if it was as bad as you've made it out to be, that's horrible.
I'm young and dumb though and clearly have to make my own mistakes. Telling me there is a 1/4 chance they blow your brains out after completing your phd wouldn't discourage me either. It's a nasty side effect of having two parents who have managed to get their phds and one who is a tenured full professor (for the record, my father never intended for an academic career, he's a research scientist, and you know what? that might just be why he has an extremely rare form of cancer the doctors are perplexed by now, it's a crapshoot)
Indira,
Great response to Anonymous-2 wrt grad schools.--- A minor point of clarification-it actually took 3 years to for my PHD degree overall including writing the dissertation----And, the truth is you are smarter, and more skilled than I was at your age.
You can do anything!!!!!!!
very sorry to hear about your father, hope he is cured.
not trying to discourage you from pursuing something which matters to you, hope you do what you love and are happy doing it, and have a better experience than I did in grad school, and yes, I really was abused. my only advice would be go in with your eyes open and to know all of your options: know the u. systems and so on, and know how good you are and options for doing other things beforehand. good luck with it!
Dear bmc alum,
It's great that BMC alum care about each other to give advice. Your experience sounds awful. I am Indira's mom (2 masters & a Phd)+full prof... so I know academia. It is very political and unfair sometimes (particularly for women). Early on I had good mentors (so I avoided the exploitation trap). Hope you're doing okay now, and it's good that you are alerting fellow alums about potential pitfalls.
Hi, I was looking at BMC german dept site, and it occured to me that you may currently be at Washington if you started in 04-05. If you are and the abuse is still going on, you should find someone there who can help-there has to be some advocates on the campus who can help. Start with the University Counselling center-find an older female therapist on staff to talk to...they should be able to help or point you in the right direction. At this point in time, intelligent young women should not have to put up with this this of crap!!!
Thanks, a little too late, though I appreciate your support. I've found www.advocateweb.org to be of the best support. I've got a log, have documented everything, but when all's said and done, it seems that universities (and small liberal arts colleges) support tenured profs and tenured alum far more than they'd support grad students. Have been advised by a few reliable sources that I'd be best off seeking legal support and action. I simply have not had the emotional energy to put myself through everything once again to do legal things. I've tried to move on and have a good job. Have lost all respect for academia in the process, though will always love research and writing and teaching. I'm so impressed that you can be there for your daughter in whatever she may choose to pursue; that's an enormous strength in her corner no matter what she does. I started there in '02. I'm not on the BMC dept. site; my former prof there disowned me as a student after sexually harssing me (I didn't respond) and then destroying my grad career later on. The problem for me has been that I'd really trusted her. My family fell apart and I had trusted her during that time. She couldn't handle it or her previous sexual harassment of me and destroyed my career, had me kicked off of committees, breached confidentiality left and right, gaslighted me, hired her girlfriend, involved my whole dept. which was across the country, gossip, tried to create a lawsuit based on false information, etc. No boundaries while I was her student, no boundaries later, and no understanding of professional power on her part. I think it's more a psychological issue on her part than anything else. Other good resources for me have been _At Professional Risk_, _Betrayal of Trust_ and others. Because I certainly don't want to make the same mistakes which new young professors made with me.
Anyway: didn't mean to invade this blog, was referred to it by a friend who is hip to my issues over the years, who wrote to me that "there goes another one!" Could not resist the urge to try to spare someone else some pain.
Take care!
Sorry, that was _At Personal Risk_.
Only thing I'd add is that there have been 3 BMC alums who enrolled in the same dept. in a 3-year period. The first was frustrated that she had no sense of mentoring and left after the MA, ostensibly for medical reasons. A former prof. had berated a number of professors currently working there to her before she even went. The second was me. The third, who was there 04-05, left because she simply didn't feel well there, though I personally don't know much about this situation. I do know that a former prof. berated me to her before she even arrived. I was there for 5 years, but 2 abroad.
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