Now don’t go sassin’ me boy! My grandpa had a great collection of clay pot recordin’s!
He had all of the greats; Hamurabi and the Lawyers; the Gilgamesh Trio; Not to mention Sargon’s famous “Tigris Rag”–the long version with the lyre solo!
Can still play ‘em too ifn I can knap a new point on the needle fer the player–but they don’t make flint like the old days–just this cheap obsidian stuff!

Hey, the folks who recorded audio on clay pots never got to hear it.

Actually, I don’t think anyone has recovered any audio from a clay pot yet. Didn’t Mythbusters cover that?

Nope. My employer had a satellite video link to USC. I only had to be on campus for exams. Viva la space age! Or is it le? Who thought applying genders to things was a good idea? Pft! Everyone should speak English, the open source language.

Oh, and they even had VCRs you could program so we could watch the lectures on tape at home the next day.

Slacker! I would have wished for such technology–if it existed back then! VCRs?? Bah!! We had to record our videos on wax cylinders–then wait 50 years for the TV to be invented so we could play them back! You young ‘uns got it tooo easy–Now1 Getthehelloffmylawn!!!

If you love a subject and are hell-bent on getting an advanced degree, I say, go for it. Just know that it is going to hurt sometimes and you may have several occasions (about 10^15) to doubt yourself and your choices.

Most importantly, it will be over eventually despite the cruel time dilation that apparently occurs in grad school (Einstein should have included that in his theory). You will be done one day and for the rest of your life (unless you’re one of those masochists who decides to do it all again and get another degree. Can’t help you.). And, like repeatedly smashing your head against a wall, it will feel SO good when it stops. You’ll have your degree, and what I consider life, will resume.

However, if you do something like Pamela did and go into academia, then you’re just making yourself a colleague of those crazy professors and answering to nasty journal editors, granting committees and tenure committees and your homework becomes reading your student’s homework. It is like Graduate School 2.0.

I avoided academia. Ten years after graduation that feeling that I don’t have any homework or a paper due still lingers and feels great. I’m FREE!!! Woohoo!!! I can watch TV! I can read Phil’s blog! Ahhh.

I think Phil is smart for crafting his career in the way that he has. It seems to be on his own terms, filled with just the things he wants to fill it with.

Nope. My employer had a satellite video link to USC. I only had to be on campus for exams. Viva la space age! Or is it le? Who thought applying genders to things was a good idea? Pft! Everyone should speak English, the open source language.

Oh, and they even had VCRs you could program so we could watch the lectures on tape at home the next day.

And it does look like the DDO sale is going through, though some of us still hope that the observatory can be kept running as a public outreach facility, with the cooperation of the new owners.

8-10 hour work days and countless work “nights” because in IT you’re merely a seat warmer by day and saving your real work for nights.

Now, I know what my twin brother went through. Out of High School, he went to college, and I went into the military. His doctorate’s in math and computers.

To my little experience, grad school sounds like five years of Infantry Trainingt Regiment: up all night, classes during the day, battalion manuevers, equipment orientation for four weeks. So much crammed into four weeks. And you guys went through that for years.

Wish this had been here for me to read, when I first found the blog. I would not have made such a fool of myself.

CanadianLeigh: the Dunlap deal is nearly finished. I have some friends in the astronomy dept at UofToronto, and that’s their buzz. UofT says that they’re going to use the money to improve science education facilities at the main campus. Still, cold-comfort as far as I’m concerned.

In addition, Montreal has a similar observatory that has been sold, and is about to be torn down. But, Montreal is doing it right, in that they’re using the money to build a newer, better observatory just outside the city (away from the light pollution)! If only we in Ontario were so smart/have a basic awareness.

Yeah, yeah, and you had to walk 20 miles a day to do it–in the snow–uphill–both ways–barefoot!!!

And my dad is still cool, even if he’s gone on to studying scallops. Wait, because he’s gone on to studying scallops.

Er, I seem to have gotten off the subject. I should go post this on my own blog. kThxBye.

I almost did. I made it through the MA and got almost ready for my prelims, then life happened.

Probably the only thing of value I really learned was how not to treat my fellow human beings. I had enough negative examples of arrogant (and ignorant) pedants that I decided I would never be one.