Life Update:

Hello everyone!

After a fun, and challenging first semester of grad school (and a short break from blogging) I have returned. On a great note, I am proud to say that I earned an “A” in the Human Osteology and Odontology course! This puts me one step closer to interning at the office of chief medical examiners in NYC.

My instructor is phenomal, and I learned to look a bone in such an interesting way. For those that might be interested, the course involved looking at bone fragments (not whole bone) and determining whether the bone is human or nonhuman, the element (what bone it is), where on the bone is the fragment from, side of the body the bone is from, and lastly whether or not the fragment came from an adult or a subadult human. We also looked at some important soft-tissue, as well as development, and pathologies. Over all, the course was a great experience filled with many hours in the osteology lab. Super grateful to have had such an opportunity.

Classes start again at the end of this month, and I will be taking three courses again. One is about the history of biological anthropology, another is an internship at the molecular anthropology lab (Super excited for this!), and Interpreting The Human Skeleton, the course taken after osteo.

Hi! Great news. I was accepted into the University of Minnesota’s landscape architecture master’s program and will be pursuing a concentration in sustainable community development. There are also plenty of public art and creative placemaking opportunities that I plan to carry on when I move there.

With that said…I am going to be a new kid in Minneapolis (or St. Paul)! Looking to connect with some people there! Any info that you think I should know about the place, feel free to respond! 

Y'all are literally so funny- I haven’t been on this blog in like 2 years and here I am, back here because I’m having a party on Friday that’s 2014 Tumblr themed so I wanted to do some research….And y'all really made my posts pop off like? Y'all tag me in your posts now? Y'all so funny fr fr lmaooooo.

Okay, all jokes aside, I guess I might as well start posting content again. Some updates:

I’m a senior now and I’ve decided to do Asian Studies Honors so I’m writing a thesis. I will probably share more about it as my project grows- there’s not much to share at the moment. I’m most likely going to grad school for computational linguistics. I don’t know where tho and I guess it all really depends on which school will offer me the most money. I’d really orefer to stay in Austin though. I have a job offer at Google, but since it’s only a year-long contract I think grad school is the better option for me. My first choice is UT but since they (pretty much) only have a PhD track and not a Master’s track, I’m– idk if I’m ready/want to commit to a PhD right now BUT if I got in, I would do it. BECAUSE it’s fully funded (and I’m like- if it’s fully funded, why even says there’s tuition at all???) and it’d be cool to be the first Doctor™ in my family.

This semester I’m taking: - Phonology - Computational Semantics - Korean Conversation (fourth year) - Honors Seminar

Like I said, I’m doing my thesis thsis year. So far, it’s been feeling like a side project™ and idk if it’s supposed to feel like that. I’ve not been stressed about it which is good, but I’ve also not been /stressed/ about it??? I’ve just been feeling like- it’ll just happen over time, it’ll get done so? Anyways, I’m really excited about the topic, I guess I’m just feeling a little lost and disillusioned at the moment- about school and the future and everything.

Not all is wrong though! I am- in general, very certain that I will be okay regardless. Life moves on and things will turn out for the better, even if not knowing right now is scary. So, all this to day that I am very much back at the moment and will hopefully be able to provide some fun posts in the very near future!

Cheers!

hi i need graduate admission advice pretty please

you know what? I’m gonna be real about my experience writing my MA thesis for a sec. I’ve been too scared to go into details in case my method of writing it will make people think I’m stupid, but I also think it’s important to share one’s experience (if you yourself want to ofc) because it will probably soothe a panicked undergrad and that’s all that’s ever helped me when I’m stressing

I’m getting a masters in literature studies in sweden and we had to give a vague idea of what we MIGHT write our thesis about the first semester of grad school. we also got our supervisors before the end of the first semester, and I talked to mine before christmas break. since then I’ve gotten to talk to her 1-2 times a semester about my idea, but it’s never been too detailed. my biggest thing is that I gave her the impression that I was working on it more actively than I was, despite us not having to actually START until the fourth semester. I was always thinking of it tho, which I count as work. sorting things out in my mind etc

then came this spring semester and I was struggling to juggle the thesis with freelance work (since I didn’t work during my previous semesters) and I fell behind. it didn’t help that I started questioning the hell out of my idea. with not even a month to spare I finally found myself being able to properly work on it, having paused my freelancing to focus on it. despite not having many words I was almost always reading and researching, which is why I wrote half my thesis in like… two weeks? and I still have half to go. I’m not sure I’ll actually make it, but I’m writing this to share that everyone works differently and for me I needed to sort things out in my mind and do research without actually writing for a while. I mean, it was also very hard to start writing in general, but now that the deadline is so close I’m working faster than ever. and obviously I’ll need to edit the hell out of all of it, but I’m finally making visible progress, you know? and if I don’t manage to finish it this semester they’re super okay with us sending it in next semester. I just want to say that it’s okay and however your process looks is good as long as it works for you. is writing 70 pages in three weeks something I would recommend to others? god no, but the work I did behind the scenes helps me immensely now. I know myself and how I work. it’s gonna be okay

One of the MPDG’s key functions is that of representational transaction, or signifying the masculine in relation to another masculine identity or, more often, the masculine in relation to the public sphere of organized patriarchy. –Thesis Rough Draft, Chapter 1

(this is getting way less fun, and way more multisyllabic)

TODAY: I wrote 9 pages.

TONIGHT: Watching Ruby Sparks(again).

I’ve written 8 ½ pages today. I’m getting close to my limit. But it’s only 5 o'clock!

dankmemeuniversity:

Greetings fellow kendokas!

Apologies for the unannounced hiatus. I’ve been busy the past year tryint to complete grad school. As such, I’ve had to put things such as kendo (and even fencing) on hold. But now that things have winded down for me a bit and I’m focusing just on research this term, I have a little bit of extra time to get back into the swing of training. I’ve returned to fencing and picked up epee, which is a lot like kendo in it’s own way, I’ve also began to show a friend the very basics of kendo (how to move, how to swing the shinai, etc.) which is making me review the basics as well.

Basically, you all can look forward to more posts and updates from me in the future! While I will be blogging about my experiences in fencing, I’ll be making some comparisons to kendo and how much these two arts have in common. I’ll also be posting some more martial arts/kendo/samurai related things I find here on tumblr.

Until then, keep practicing everyone!

I’m like:

[credit: anonymous]

WHEN I CAN’T FIGURE OUT HOW TO DISTINGUISH MY ARGUMENT FROM THEIRS

HOW MUCH I CAN TALK ABOUT THE ROYAL ENGAGEMENT

CIVILIANS

GRAD STUDENTS

emailing my undergrad advisor for advice bc my current advisor hasn’t responded to my emails in 2 weeks but i’ve already dropped in on multiple committee members for advice in the past 2 weeks and they’re busy trying to survive the end of the semester, hands fucking sweating all over the place bc i’m sending him drafty shit and i think the last time he actually read my work was when i was an undergrad and what if i’m not any better at writing