Serial Killing, Sadomasochism, and Sexual Predation
My favorite lecture of the semester in Criminology.
PhD Comics understands my life.
If this comic or the last comic I posted about the daily five existential crisis minutes doesn’t get you hooked on this comic, nothing will.
Existential crisis!
Academia
Thursday I’m giving a lecture on blog analysis, a qualitative research method that examines blogs, similar to tumblr. As the title suggests, the method analyzes personal blogs in an attempt to capture real life phenomena that occur in a person’s reality. By examining an individual’s personal narrative, we are able to see their ever-changing present. Additionally, their archived nature makes them amenable to examining social processes over time.
WILL NOT MENTION THAT I HAVE A TUMBLR.
Meta blog analysis?
Academia: Winter Break
I will be out of the country from the 3rd-12th. There is no phone service or internet access where I am going, so there won’t be any posting for me during that time.
Please don’t miss me too much…
Academia: Welcome to College!
I had a student come into my office hours asking for help on her upcoming paper that was due.
After we finished analyzing some of her data, she asked me what she should study for the final. “Is it primarily from the book or from the quizzes?” I replied, “Mainly the quizzes, but definitely go over the main concepts in the book to make sure you understand them. Don’t just study the answers to the quizzes.”
Her response cracked me up a little. “But each chapter is like 50 pages, and we went over a chapter every week, so did she [the professor] expect us to read a chapter every week? That is a lot of pages to read.”
I took a second to collect myself, partly because I have been slammed with PhD applications, thesis work, my own classes, and all the grading I have been doing this week. But I also needed to refrain from myself from laughing and getting upset at the younger student.
“Yes, 50 pages is not that much to read every week. This is only the beginning of your college career, it only gets worse.”
Again, her response was killing me, “But I have five classes and 50 pages is a lot!”
“It’s really nothing at all, especially if you want to go to graduate school. Your’re in college now, and you have to put a lot of work into your education. You are choosing to be here and paying for this. The classes are difficult and challenging, this is what you signed up for.”
I guess she wanted some reassurance, but my fuse was short and hearing about how hard lower division classes didn’t amuse me. The truth of that matter is that lower division classes ARE easy. Yes, when taking 5 classes, your schedule can seem daunting. But the classes individually are .
&straightforward#13;
It was only fitting that I noticed she was wearing her high school sweatshirt when I said “Welcome to college!” Of course I said it in a joking manner, but there was more than a hint of truth to my statement.
She had an indignant expression on her face. “But I’m getting a C, and I don’t get C’s”
You do now! ”There isn’t much you can do about your previous assignments now, what you need to do is focus on your final and final paper that are due in a few days. There are a lot of points left on the table still. You have 4 days until the final. The library is open 24 hours a day. Study, study, study, go home and sleep, and then get back to the library and study all day and night. They give out free coffe at 10pm. This is your chance, make it happen.”
“I just wish we had extra credit or something!” She said under her breath as thanked me for my help and left.
Ahh, the joys of office hours and undergraduates!
(I wonder what her final will look like. She had a few days to make or break her grade…I’d like to think she is going to do just fine.)
The long & winding road to a PhD…!
Via: Online PhD Programs
