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November 9th, 2009
academics_anon
[moll_cutpurse]
 | 09:05 am - Vita question: Outdated references?
Hello, all!
First of all, I am jazzed to be part of this community. I have been learning so much from everyone these past few days about GTA rights and the complicated situation behind unionization.
My situation is this: I got my MA two years ago (Spring 2008), where two professors agreed to be my references for Ph.D. programs, but I waited until Fall 2008 (after graduating) to apply. Unfortunately, that round of apps was a bust, and I decided to stay as a part-timer at a hometown college through the 2009-2010 academic year.
I've kept their letters on InterFolio, but my question is this: are they outdated as references? Should I be looking more toward my writing program administrator and department chair for newer references? N.B.: I am switching concentrations from literature (my MA is in Renaissance) to Rhet/Comp pedagogy for the Ph.D. apps.
Thanks for all feedback!
mood: ![[mood icon]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/niaha/kitty/ankhappyp.gif) grateful
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resiliang
 | 10:27 am - it's hard to say that i'd rather stay awake when i'm asleep
Hello! I submitted my resume at about 10PM last night and immediately got a call at 10AM in the morning. Very prompt reply. She also wanted to set up an interview today. TODAY. Which I obviously amn't particularly prepared for, as such, I have rescheduled it to tomorrow. MORNING. Which is still a very short notice, as far as I'm concerned. They also want me to start on the 17th, so I think they really need/want me. I think it was the slightly imba and awesome resume that I sent in. It's a rather well-paying job, I hope I get it.
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Now playing: The Temper Trap - Sweet Disposition
http://foxytunes.com/artist/the+temper+trap/track/sweet+disposition
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motorbike
 | 04:19 pm - a good meme
DRAWME!
I am a very good artist who wants to draw all of you
sexually
ETA: SOON WALLPAPERING MY USER INFO FFFFFFFF SO GORGEOUS YOU GUYS
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spiderpig
 | 09:15 am - tweet tweet!
Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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gradstudents
[vogtalicious]
 | 03:17 pm - Graduate School Creed (taken liberally from Kubrick)
"This is my thesis. There are many like it but this one is mine. My thesis is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my thesis is useless. Without my thesis I am useless. I must write my thesis true. I must write better than my enemy, who is trying to keep me from graduating from (insert university name). I must defend before he defends. I will. Before God I swear this creed: my thesis and myself are defenders of my university, we are the masters of our formatting, we are the saviors of my academic career. So be it, until there is no more things to research, but peace. Amen."
--Written after a bunch of stressed Master's students watched 'Full Metal Jacket' after stressing over life way late into the night.
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eye_of_a_cat
 | 05:28 pm
Back from conference in Italy. Italy pretty. Conference fine. Paper well received. Boss impressed, thinks we should co-write a book. Cool.
Less cool: life still stressful, flat still leaking, and there seems to be A Problem with one of the people I'm responsible for at work. Not a huge problem yet, but a potentially troubling one. Plus it's just weird. In vague terms: we employ a postgraduate student, 'Amelia', who has always been incredibly conscientious in the work she does for us. She's still incredibly conscientious about that. But, it turns out, she is not so incredibly conscientious about other stuff round the department, and seems to have an unofficial policy of not turning up to department stuff and then ignoring any emails sent to chase her up. I had an unofficial 'watch yourself, kid' talk with her when I thought 'stuff' was just 'department research talks', along the lines of it being a very good idea to show your face around the department every so often - but now it turns out that 'stuff' also involves things like 'mandatory teaching meetings'. Or indeed 'anything at all'. I don't get this.
Anyway, Amelia was supposed to be doing something on a course I work on recently, but after agreeing to do it, she ignored everyone's emails trying to get hold of her to make preparatory arrangements, which very nearly left us in the lurch. Amelia's explanation for this was that she is having huge problems with her university email account. But... that's very, very obviously untrue. Amelia is saying different things to different people, who know each other; Amelia is also blaming ongoing equipment issues affecting IT support, which do not exist, as we know, because we work very closely with several of the IT support people. Amelia knows that. Amelia knows we talk to each other. And yet Amelia is sticking to the excuse, despite one stern talking-to from a supervisor, because apparently Amelia was absent the day they taught everyone Basic Social Skill #526: Agreements In Which We Both Know Your Innocent Explanation Is Bullshit, But I'll Pretend To Believe You In Return For You Not Doing That Again. (I imagine her email wasn't working that day.)
Amelia is mainly hurting herself at the moment; pissing off your department is not the wisest move. But it's also starting to affect things like the course I'm teaching on, and that's not good. Plus, Amelia is not stupid, and this is quite bizarre behaviour. I don't get this, at all.
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spiderpig
 | 12:59 am - Nakashima Mika <3
中島美嘉は最高。やっぱり生で歌っては良い。
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November 8th, 2009
resiliang
| 11:21 pm - Suplex, suplex, suple backbreaker!
Yes, this song is freakin' awesome. Go check it out if you haven't already! I am full of this 小笼包s that I ate earlier on at JP. I love that stuff, it's like portable soup pastry. whoever thought of it is a goddamn genius. I accomplished a couple of things today! I shall recount them in reverse-chronological order! Just came back from the gym a while ago, I'm running and gymming alternate days to get rid of the post-ORD fats. Legs ache, but it's totally worth it. Before that, was L4Ding with the girlfriend at Clementi. Tank pwnage is FTW.
And before before that, I had 小笼包s at Ding Tai Fung. That stuff fucking owns. Was at Jurong Point so I could take a photo for IC and resume submissions. Submitted my resume when I came back! I hope they employ me, or something! I want to remake my IC because I look terrible in it, and I want to change my signature into a more atas looking one.
Was at Boon Lay before that looking at KL bus trip prices! Going there on 13th Nov for the weekend with the girlfriend. Berjaya Times Square Hotel ftw! Finally vacationing in ages, thanks for ruining my life, National Service.
But the future is bright, and I shall carry on. Carpe diem.
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Now playing: Fight Like Apes - I'm Beginning To Think You Prefer Beverley Hills 90210 To Me
http://foxytunes.com/artist/fight+like+apes/track/im+beginning+to+think+you+prefer+beverley+hills+90210+to+me
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motorbike
 | 03:43 am - so
Ladies on the twitters asked me to upload a clip of me singing karaoke at PMX
but I have something uh better
3AM ACOUSTIC HALLELUJAH CHORUS FFFF
ALSO I HAVE A PLURK
IT IS HERE I have 4 friends yesss
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spiderpig
| 09:15 am - tweet tweet!
Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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motorbike
 | 12:05 am - bgm: backstreet boys
✦ I am staffing PMX Karaoke at the LAX Hilton this weekend! Come on over and say hello ♥
✦ ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) mikei_puu just posted EVERY DUCK TALES EPISODE
✦ Whoever linked my DSRK fst yesterday, thanks brahhh :Dvv /shame Sometimes I forget how much I love things and the people who give me the things asdkjsa
so exciting:
Last week I got a package from 5cmprince!!
ILU LAWNY IT IS FULL OF BEAUTIFUL THINGS
And I got a copy of innueneko's wonderful comic
And some other solid stuff
( MORE MORE MORE )
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resiliang
| 02:06 am - Kua simi kua?!
Eh. I collected my pink IC on Friday, which didn't really take as much admin time as I expected it to, I guess they're done and thoroughly sick of us as well. Fair enough. Let us go, then. Bought the ORD shirt from Daryl and proudly paraded it around, it's an achievement, but not one that everyone would talk about very proudly. I hate how NS has disrupted my otherwise relatively undisturbed life.
After lunch with Daryl, I went to the salon for a haircut, but later also decided to dye my hair. Did it a little brown. Was quite unimpressively dark at first, but it has taken a lighter shade as of today. The girlfriend is literally screaming at me to dye it back black because I look like a chao ah beng. I'm not particularly attached to it, to be honest, but to me, it's a declaration of independence from army life, so it does have some significance. Plus I'm too lazy to dye it away. Yet.
Spent the better part of Saturday morning doing my resume, going to be applying for jobs soon. Night was spent playing Ghostbusters and Rock Band with the girlfriend. Band Hero is really coming along slowly, I've about.. three days more to go if I'm lucky. I can't wait to play it, seriously.
Today I'm going to try and get a passport sized photo taken so I can use it to (potentially) remake my IC and for part-time job applications. I think my resume is nicely sized. We'll see how many responses I get. Wish me luck!
I realise that I'm posting more often. This could be good. Also, I've taken to gymming alternate days, so I have to make time to get down today as well. Go Liang, go.
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November 7th, 2009
spiderpig
| 09:15 am - tweet tweet!
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November 6th, 2009
academics_anon
[green_eyed_view]
 | 11:40 am - Who's fighting for whose rights?
What do you think about unions in universities?
Has your education been compromised by a striking union?
Have you been a staff or faculty member that has been severely underpaid?
Our strike is not the worst by far. I'd think York University's (Toronto, Canada, 2001 ?) might qualify though.
Brought to you by the fact that we are on strike
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academics_anon
[vampire_kitten]
 | 10:43 am - Pay Scales: Maths Teaching and Marking in the UK
(cross-posted to gradstudents)
My university has recently swapped the way it is paying it's grad students.
We used to be paid by the hour.
We are now paid by the hour, up to a cap of 1 hour per lesson, 15 minutes prep time and 8 minutes per homework marked. (These figures are the average of figures given by postgrad students for the last year). Pay is £13.69 a hour.
The Postgrads are not terribly happy about this, as there are often times when courses take longer than average to mark and we don't really enjoy working for free. When we asked what we were supposed to do on the longer than average courses, we were told to judge which these would be in advance and mark faster to compensate. We also dislike the prep time, as last year it was 1 hour and now it is 15 minutes, and 15 minutes isn't long enough to prepare me for getting out of bed, let alone teaching 10-14 undergraduates.
We are attempting to argue this is an unfair system (in that other than minimising what we get paid and complicating our paperwork, it seems to have no benefit), and will lead to a lowering in quality of marking/teaching. It's not going well.
I was hoping there are other Math postgrads on here who would share how payment for marking/teaching works at their university. I'm primarily interested in UK based figures, but other answers would be helpful also.
Thanks in advance.
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gradstudents
[vampire_kitten]
| 10:43 am - Pay Scales: Maths Teaching and Marking in the UK
(cross-posted to academics_anon)
My university has recently swapped the way it is paying it's grad students.
We used to be paid by the hour.
We are now paid by the hour, up to a cap of 1 hour per lesson, 15 minutes prep time and 8 minutes per homework marked. (These figures are the average of figures given by postgrad students for the last year). Pay is £13.69 a hour.
The Postgrads are not terribly happy about this, as there are often times when courses take longer than average to mark and we don't really enjoy working for free. When we asked what we were supposed to do on the longer than average courses, we were told to judge which these would be in advance and mark faster to compensate. We also dislike the prep time, as last year it was 1 hour and now it is 15 minutes, and 15 minutes isn't long enough to prepare me for getting out of bed, let alone teaching 10-14 undergraduates.
We are attempting to argue this is an unfair system (in that other than minimising what we get paid and complicating our paperwork, it seems to have no benefit), and will lead to a lowering in quality of marking/teaching. It's not going well.
I was hoping there are other Math postgrads on here who would share how payment for marking/teaching works at their university. I'm primarily interested in UK based figures, but other answers would be helpful also.
Thanks in advance.
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resiliang
| 11:13 am - ORD
Bad News #1. Mr. Sung just contacted me, HR wouldn't let me go back for assistant teaching because I couldn't commit myself till October, so no 4P for me. I am still available for jobs! Please contact me!
Bad News #2. I just found out that the clothes I checked out for the Halloween Threadless sale were not registered. Need to check out my bank account to see whether they deducted any fees or not. But most of all, ugh, no shiny new shirts ): I'm ordering during the End of Year sale though. Feel free to drop a comment here if you want a mass order and I'll contact you when it starts.
Good News #1-670 days of military torture. Is over. I fucking ORD. I win, assholes. Suck on this, 48.
mood: ORD
music: I FUCKING ORD I DON'T NEED MUSIC
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![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/niaha/kitty/anksleepyp.gif){kind=small}
drained