December 26th, 2006 Rachel
Lets say your a student. And maybe you’re busy…you don’t really have time for those student-ly things like going to class, attending/participating in tutorial, handing in papers, etc. It’s okay, of course, because excuses are pretty easy to make up, you know. Being sick is a good one (you can have the flu at least twice in a semester), car’s need to be in the shop all the time, or even better take the bus because you can miss it countless times and not really be held accountable…
But you have to expect that by the end of the term, your TA (you know which one is yours, right?) will probably be pretty sick of you…after looking at your name on the attendance sheet three times before she even remembered who you are, of course. For all you know, she’s documented all the “hiccups” that got in the way of your academic endeavors…so you better make sure this last one is a doosie.
If “My mother died and I’ve had to take care of the family and my two little brothers” popped out of your mouth before you could stop it…is it still a “lie”?
Well, if this happened, you should probably cross your fingers and cover your tracks in case your TA is more technically savvy than you think. Especially if you send her hatemail after class, providing more “details” about the “death” of your “mother”.
In other words…check to see what comes up if s/he Googles you.
Those drunken pictures on Myspace/Facebook? “I was drowning my sorrows in beer…” Laughing and smiling amongst a group of fifty people? “These are the times when..sniff…sniff…I need my friends the most.” Messages that read “So glad your mom could make it to the party!” on a day two months after her supposed demise?
I’d suggest deleting those.
Or at least having the common sense to adjust your privacy settings so that said incriminating materials are more private (i.e. don’t show up so quickly/freely in the top 10 search results). But even that doesn’t mean your information is 100% protected from anyone other than your “friends”.
If you don’t want your mom/professor/potential employer/future partner/etc. to see it…
“So you just typed her name into Google…and her Myspace page showed up?”
“Yep.”
“Wow…I should tell the rest of my TA’s that one. That’s hilarious…”
…use some common sense and don’t post it.
Posted in Computers, Facebook, Learning, Observations, School, Tech | No Comments »
December 10th, 2006 Rachel
This interests me. Reading the description, I’m immediately thinking “YES - academia is thinking of me.”
But then I hesitate - we’ve all been in those classes. The ones that are ‘on the edge’ but aren’t really on the edge because they were planned out twelve months prior so by the time your butt is in a seat the content is woefully outdated.
For $225 I’m tempted to give them the benefit of the doubt, but at the same time I’m wondering if I could learn the same things just as easily by bouncing around online. Is it the experience that would make the difference? The boost of seeing some big names speak? Maybe. We’ll see.
Posted in Blogging, Computers, Learning, Marketing, School | No Comments »
October 7th, 2006 Rachel
Do you ever remember having a moment in high school (or now sometimes even middle school or younger) when you did something pretty cool or achieved something pretty big and said something like this:
“Wow, that’s so great - it’ll look really good on my resume.” I did.
One of the things I enjoyed most about my time in high school was theater. A few months into my first year at a new school I volunteered to participate in a public speaking competition…before asking the question “so what do we do at one of these?”.
Partially theater, mostly thinking on your feet, the four times I got to participate were some of the best memories I have of that “era” (oh gawd, I’m getting old). I enjoyed it…and I wasn’t half bad at it. I know that at the very least after the first time I walked back to my seat with a little trophy in hand and a grin as wide as can be, a teeny piece of my brain was thinking about how great this would look on the paper version of my deeds and accomplishments.
Which then makes me wonder, five years later, why I didn’t think past the resume and contemplate how this experience might influence the actual career the resume got me. Assuming that self confidence probably played a part (easy to picture yourself writing up the resume, but you got to believe in yourself to think you’ll “get the job” someday when you’re an awkward sixteen), I think there’s more too it. There’s far more books selling on how to write a killer resume than how to reward yourself after you’ve gotten the job (Though Wildly Sophisticated, one of the confidence boosts I found randomly while in University, comes pretty close.
Anyway, this nostalgic contemplation all came on because in the last two weeks I’ve had the opportunity to speak on two panels at two very different conferences. Me, twenty three year old, getting her feet wet me.
When I wasn’t giddily passing along the conference website with my name on it (among about fifty others - I won’t do so here, there’s a narcissism line, I believe), I was thinking back to how the time I spent studying monologues, practicing impromptu speaking and reading “meaningful” passages out of books (example: Paul Reiser) - not to write it on a resume, but to have a giant, enthusiastic ‘YES!!!” sitting in my back pocket when opportunities such as these would come up.
Think beyond the resume, and never do things “for” it. What you love and what you’re good at while pave the way itself, without the accolades and ribbons to prove it.
Posted in Learning, Personal, School, Work | 3 Comments »
March 11th, 2006 Rachel
If only Seth was a university prof. In high school we did an exercise sort of like this - current events sort of thing but you had to take a news story, broaden the scope of the issue and then lead a class discussion. It’s a great feeling when you get everyone interested, talking and engaged. It really doesn’t take much to turn on that ‘wanna talk’ switch…but
On an entirely other end of that Powerpoint-y spectrum, are the presentations where you either want to scratch your eyes out, or you just have a little cry for the poor scared soul just trying to read the words on the screen. It’s just unfortunate…
Here’s how I would conduct a university class.
Walk into the room the first day and say "Look, either you read the readings and have some questions or points of discussion…or we go home early."
Second day - everyone shows up. "Got any questions?" everyone looks around the room at everyone else, waiting for someone else to say something. "Nope? Okay then, I’ll see you next week." And leave.
Know why? Because I’ve been that student who didn’t read it and just waits for someone else to take the lead. I’ve been that student who does what the rest of us lemings students do when we see a powerpoint slide - write it down word for word (and it is just plain ridiculous when they tell you not too…I’m sorry, it’s human friggin nature). And I’ve been that student, when the responsibilty to learn was thrown back at me…rose to the occasion.
Posted in Learning, School | 15 Comments »
March 6th, 2006 Rachel
I’d be dancing around this wee apartment like a crazy woman because my world is now back in order!!!
Why you ask?
Because Belle and Sebastian have somehow fixed up their SXSW schedule to one that I can manage…i.e. I GET TO SEE THEM AT 11PM ON MARCH 15th!!!!!!!!
When you can’t dance, blog instead. That’s my motto. Okay, Court…I’ll go back to working on my essay now (I’m on page two! Of the reading, not the paper that is…hehe).
Posted in Music, SXSW, School | 4 Comments »
