I finished my personal statement and am  not sure how I like it. I'm 3 years graduated from college and have been working since graduation. I'm looking to go to grad school to help me change careers. I'm applying for a M.S. in Computer Science at a local state school. The school I'm applying to requires a personal statement a maximum of one page. Here it is: 

"I would like to puruse a gradute degree at SCHOOL in order to faciliate a career change from working in the insurance industry to the computer industry.  In my undergraduate career, I was inerested in discrete mathmatetics and number theory and as I leared more I became interested in their applications in computer security.  As a result, I have an interst in this field and in addition to changing careers, I would also like to be taken on in order to conduct research in this field, in particular, cryptography.
 
After graduating from SCHOOL I went on several interviews for employment at software companies, hoping to be hired as a programmer. During this time, my mother lost her job and looked to me to be the primary earner in our household. Due in part to this and my failure to secure a job as a programmer, I took employment from a large insurance company as a claims examiner and am currently employed with this company.  I enjoy the environment I work in and the work itself - I get to interact with people, have the opportunity to work independently and as part of a team - but ideally, it's not what I want to do or where I want to be.

    SCHOOL is an ideal setting for me to continue my education and improve on my skills in order to allow me to complete my career change.  I hope to assist in research and I feel my interests best reflect those of Dr. whatever and Dr. whatever2 and their research in cryptography.  I am very impressed by the Center for Research and the research being conducted there.  A school with a faculty with similar interests to my own and a program that focuses on the importance of research are values that I am looking for in a graduate program.  For these reasons, I am eager to continue my education at SCHOOL. "

They ask for a "personal statement about your educational or career objectives....that should be of the kind and quality that expresses why you have chosen to pursue a graduate degree."

I think that covers it, no?

While picking up some dinner to go at Peking Palace, I took The Tome with me to kill time while waiting for my veggies.

A family walked past me out the door, with the matriarch remarking, "Wow, look at the size of that book."  I also noted that my meal came out at record speed, no doubt in an attempt to get the guy with the big fucking book making them look slow out of the building.

I gave one of my instructors a negative review on that site. I think they are suspicious it was me. Is there anything I can do to rectify this.

I applied to Coach and Lush today.

I went to Lush first, since I pass it first going into the mall. They said bring in a resume, so I made a note to do that. Then I went upstairs to Coach to ask if they were hiring. For both, I said seasonal, but there is always the possibility of becoming a regular employee. Particularly since both stores have employees who are familiar with me. Anyway, that particular Coach said today was the last day they were bringing people in, I'm assuming for interviews, but they could always see if other Coach stores need people.

So I went to the main Coach store a little further south on Michigan. They said they're wrapping up hiring, but it sounded more promising than the first store. I filled out the application for the first Coach store, and all the extra materials that the people from the second Coach store didn't give me, and handed them in to the first store.

I went to Lush, bought some stuff, since it's been a while, and talked to the salesgirl who's worked with me the most. I told her my boss is threatening to quit, so I was thinking of applying. She said I'm one of her favorite customers, so just bring in a resume. I went back to the office, added stuff to my current resume to reflect what I'm doing at my present job, went back to Lush to that salesgirl, and I have an interview at 10:15a with her on Friday. Mom's out of town, so that works, lol.

I figured a couple of things with these retail jobs. 1) They're probably hourly and pay "less" per hour than I currently make, 2) I might still have to work until 9p, when the store closes. I currently make about $134 a day. This would be great if I got to leave at 5:30 - 6p like most employees here, but I'm generally here from 8:30/9a - at least 7:30p most days. Some days until 9p or later. I'm still at work now. So really, I'd probably make close to the same salary given the amount of time I work.

Also, if I don't leave these jobs until 9p, I probably didn't *get* there until 12 - 1p in the first place. And if I am making less money, really, the discount I'd get from these stores would make up for it, as I've spent a lot of money at both Coach and Lush this year. Not to mention, I don't currently get benefits, so if these jobs don't have benefits, it's not like I'm losing anything.

I think I'm content.

Salvete, omnes!

I have, of late, become a rather frequent twitterer (primarily due to my interest in space exploration and the large community of "space tweeps" out there). At any rate, being a classics grad student, I am curious as to whether anyone out there makes it a habit to compose their tweets / converse in Latin. If so, I would quite enjoy the opportunity to continue practicing my compositional skills. (Plus, the whole "living Latin" phenomenon is just plain fun!)

Hi all,
So I'm planning on applying for a MA in history for the Fall of 2010. My end goal is to be a secondary school social studies teacher, so I really don't care about the name of the school or anything like that, just as long as there are professors there that teach my interests (primarily US history w/strengths in race and gender history). The biggest thing I need is either to qualify for a tuition waver or a graduate assistanships, which I know can be rare at the MA level.

So, long story short, I'm trying to decide if I need to take the GRE again. I got a 520 verbal and 630 math, and I haven't gotten my writing scores back yet. I studied a good bit for these thru Kaplan books and other online sources (in no way can afford to take a course), and most of my practice tests actually put me in the 450 range (with one outlier of a test at 600 the weekend before the test.), so while this score definitely wasn't what I wanted, it also wasn't horribly lower than where I'd been practicing at. I really really really don't want to take them again, one b/c it caused me almost debilitating anxiety for the two weeks before the test, and I really don't want to dish out another $150 when I don't know if my score will even improve and/or if it even matters. I have a 3.9 gpa, will be able to write a solid SOP, and will get great recommendations. I'm pretty confident I'll be able to get into the schools I'm applying to, I'm just worried if my verbal GRE score will hurt my chances of getting scholarships or assistantships. (Also, for frame of reference, I think the main schools I'll be applying to now are University of New Orleans, Northern Arizona University, Villanova University, and University of Oregon. Oh, and possibly UT-Dallas, but mainly b/c they don't require GREs.)

Any thoughts?

So my doctor was taking my blood pressure today and noticed the boulder of a book taking up half the examination room and said:

"So what's Under the Dome about, a small New England town covered by a big dome?"

Stunned, I said, "Exactly."

"Wasn't that a Jim Carrey movie?"

Again stunned, I said, "Why yes, it was! The Simpsons too."

"Huh," he said.

I'm looking at you, King.*
.

Seriously, anyone who thinks that Stephen King MIGHT have been inspired by a film that came out a couple of years ago and pounded out this monolith of a document based on such a premise hasn't seen this book in person yet. It's the kind of thing you take 30 years to write (and apparently zero years to edit).



* I maintain that every person inclined to creative thought has, at some point in their development, thought of a story involving a city under a dome. My brother Stephen had such an idea when I was a kid and Megan, my co-worker, had a similar idea. Domed cities are just another trope that makes its way around the communal campfire with anyone who has more than a fleeting scrap of imagination.

if you are struggling with writing your SOP like I am, perhaps you will find this link as useful as i did::

https://career.berkeley.edu/Grad/GradStatement.stm

i especially found the lists of words and rhetorical strategies to avoid to be very helpful.

good luck!

A patron just came up to reserve the book.
I had my copy fresh from my field test handy, so I allowed him to look at it.
He showed it to his buddy. "Look how big it is!"
His buddy: "Eh, The Stand was 1100 pages. I could knock that out in ten days."

Oh, sure, you could knock it out in ten days...if you have no job. And you order in all of your meals. And no one loves you.

I almost used a Special Forces throat chop on him.

I just did a field test of the new King novel.

At random, I pulled a typically sized book from a library shelf. Turns out it was Homer's The Odyssey (the McCrorie translation), at 416 pages...a very typical hardcover in every way.

I dropped The Odyssey onto our fake-mica counter and it made the sound a novel makes when tossed onto a countertop. It is the solid "clump" that makes people fall in love with books and libraries and literacy.

By contrast, the sound of "Under the Dome" by King is the sound of a body falling from a great height, a dead wieght, surely a suicide.

Dear Mr. King,

Really?

Your new book, Under The Dome, comes out and it's 1072 pages long? Are you fucking kidding me?

In your "Author's Notes" in the back (p. 1074) you state:

"Nan Graham edited the book down from the original dinosaur to a beast of slightly more manageable size..."

Really? This book sits next to me on the computer counter at work and my fucking computer is leaning. I had to put a smaller book - The Bible - under the keyboard to level it out. On the same page you state:

"I tried to write a book that would keep the pedal constantly to the metal."

Though I have yet to open it in earnest, I find it hard to believe that you "kept the pedal to the metal" for 1072 pages.

You know I am a fan. I go way back. You have received more of my money than I am willing to post here publicly.  I supported you when I had no reason to. And when Cell came out, I trumpeted your way back to the top of the bestseller lists where you belonged. But now you ask too much.

Even you hold that your best book was probably The Stand, as many of your legions of fans have proclaimed. This book is a mere 79 pages shorter than the "complete & uncut" version of The Stand. It is only 69 pages shorter than the paperback uncut version. It is 255 pages longer than a 1981 printing of the original version.

In short, this better be the best fucking book of your career, and it better be feeling like it might be at around page 536...the halfway mark. This is as much as I am willing to concede to you in this day and age, well past the peak of your prowess, many years since the perfect King novels you used to churn out with such spot-on efficiency.

You got 536 pages. I will not stop short of that. At 536 pages it is longer than most novels anyway. If you cannot make me believe in it halfway through, I am under no obligation to finish your masturbatory exercise.  Maybe my frustration with my NaNoWriMo novel this year is aiding this diatribe in unhealthy ways.  Here I am struggling to break the 12,000 word mark and you just dropped a 1072 page brick on my desk in the middle of what most people consider a Sisyphean task.  I have tried to exorcise that prejudice from my consternation here.  Being a hater does neither of us any good.

I still love you.  I still respect you.  I still turn people on to your work.  But this?  You ask too much.  It better be the best fucking book I've read all year.  You got 536 pages of my trust in your hands.  I hope we can still be friends.

Sincerely, your black friend in Ohio,
Scott Woods

Cook Shack - which has a shop in Hilliard and a shop Downtown during the week - has apparently opened shop on James and Broad, in the old bagel shop. Smackies had a BBQ cart here off and on the last few months, but has opted out of the area. The Cook Shack is now open there on James.

I really like this place downtown (and hope it stays open despite the expansion). I see no reason why the one on James wouldn't be of the same quality. I highly recommend the pulled pork and ribs on most days. Also, their sides are VERY good. The mac and cheese has an interesting dill taste to it.

If its quality holds up this could replace City BBQ as my new eastside BBQ spot, son.

And! I'm wondering if there's a list of English Lit MA or MA/PhD programs out there that do not require the Lit GRE. I am quite suddenly and most unfortunately having to drop all my applications to those programs that do. Kind of sucks, but I'm still going to complete the process for this year, even if it's only for a few programs.

Hi guys, great community you've got here! I've had to drag myself away a few times to actually work on my applications. Anyway, just throwing another English lit SOP rough draft out there for perusal. I'm not long on theory, unfortunately. I took an intro to critical approaches as an undergrad but nothing of much depth.

I'm not sure about the first paragraph/historical sketch. It captures what I'm most interested in and shows that I know just a bit about it, but it probably also shows a lot of what I don't know. 

( SOP )

Mom keeps threatening to quit. Sometimes I just don't know if she's having a bad day or if she wants to go through with it. She asked me yesterday, "Does anyone ever tell you that there's no fun here?" and on a presentation she made for the executive committee, she contemplated putting "[Name of agency here]: Where fun comes to die." I convinced her to use softer words lol.

When I wanted to quit, I just kept Spain in mind. This is just a means to an end. However, for her, this is the "end." When she got laid off last year, she was perfectly happy not working. This agency asked her to work for them, she didn't "apply" per se. And frankly, if I could find another job, I too would be perfectly happy if she stayed at home. We'd get healthy meals everyday. Lol. She's a good executive, but really wouldn't mind being a housewife. I wonder if I'll ever get to that point in my life and career.

Anyway, so I'm looking for another job. I have one lead, sorta, and I plan on applying to some seasonal jobs. I really need to get on that.

Coach and Lush will be my first stops on the seasonal job hunt. I worry the smell at Lush would get to me. So bright and cheerful and STRONG. But the ladies there know me, and last I saw they were hiring. I know their product line WELL. Embarrasingly well.

I don't know if Coach is ever hiring. I've spent hundreds of dollars there this year. I never see any Black girls working there, at any Coach store or department, so I'd up their diversity lol. Anyway, I think that would be fun as far as retail is concerned. Plus I might get a discount. It'd take care of Raven's Christmas present, as she's the only one I'd contemplate getting Coach for. Maybe my mom too.

Someone commented that they didn't know what I meant when I keep referring to natural hair. Partly because she's Australian, but I've had American LJ friends ask me more-or-less the same thing. And really, since most of you are White, you may not know what natural hair looks like, since it's not as common as processed hair on Black women. This lady's hair looks very similar to mine, but hers is a little longer:



She looks fierce, especially with her muscles. I, however, don't think I've ever have the confidence in my hair to wear it like this.