This Is Fine: social science and memes

I had this triumphant feeling when I got my proposal approved to send to committee, but then I had to rewrite everything into a different format and that's really been what's making it hard. Plus side, it's like 5k words shorter and a lot closer to publishable, probably. We'll see what my advisor thinks.

 

low-key there is office drama about the thermostat, but tbh I am more amused than anything at someone bitching when I dared to turn it down to 73

 

Oh, hey, I got into the conference over the summer! It's, like, the north american conference for the field, so that's good.

 

I defended my thesis today! I have revisions to make, but it's approved! I am now a Master of Science in Disaster Science and Management, or a Master of Disaster. I'm so happy.

 

We have a new grad college instead of a grad office, and that means a council to direct it, and I'm the graduate student rep for the college of arts and sciences to the grad college. Which means I represent 1097 people, the most of any single person on the whole council, and also that I don't get to vote.

Anyway, I finally managed to navigate the mass mailing system and contact people about 'hey let me know what you're looking for from the grad college' and I am now opening bets on what the final composition of replies is going to be.

Half an hour in, the counts are:

• 4 out of office replies
• 1 laundry list of suggestions (helpful! but most are GSG problems)
• 1 funding-related suggestion
• 3 'what the fuck is this'

I think out of office replies are probably done, but I'm thinking the final breakdown in like a week is going to be like half 'what the fuck is this', 25% usable suggestions, 10% about funding, and 15% suggestions for things that already exist.

 

Yay the new professor who is profoundly cool is excited to have me in her environmental justice class and also wrote down my recommendation of Train to Busan.

 

There is so much pandemic research. And I'm falling behind on some things? And my inbox is getting on top of me??

And, most importantly, I did not get out the sourdough starter this weekend. Though my roommate seems kind of mad at me about the amount of flour sourdough takes??

 

I'm so tired. The sourdough starter is probably dead??? But I don't care.

 

The sourdough starter is almost definitely dead.

BUT!!!!!

Okay, so June 3 we got an email about a job opportunity. We get them fairly often, because mailing lists are rad. It's very reassuring to have job opportunities come up in my inbox regularly.
But June 3 I still had no idea if I'd gotten my grant, or about what I'd be doing for the rest of the summer. So even though I seemed underqualified (a few of the positions were explicitly senior or head positions) and it was a 6 to 9 month contract, which would bork my fall, I sent in my resume, with a cover letter that was basically 'i am still a student so my availability is borked but i'm real good at science.'

10pm Monday I got an email, going 'hey wanna interview for this. tomorrow afternoon?"
so even though I got the grant and am ass deep in IRB I went '. . . sure yes i like money'

1:30pm yesterday afternoon I got on the phone with the woman for half an hour. and then another person popped in on the call. a former chief of staff at fema who also was affiliated with the drc. because drc.
NOTE: they literally never asked for references, the DRC and the UD DISA program are my references, wtf

so after we hung up - at 2pm, because they had another call - i sent my obligatory followup emails, because this was definitely the kind of position where you send followup emails - to the one dude going 'ha yes drc :thumpbsup:' basically and to the other going 'yes hi i would like to work with you ty for your time here is a bullet point list of main takeaways like

• yes i can get clearance
• i can start monday & sure i'll take the semester off
• pls yes stats
• pls no interpersonal, i have hella adhd

pls money. yes.'

and then. finally having thoughts. i sent the head of my program an email flagged urgent going 'ahhhhhhhh what have i done what do i do'

and then. and this is important to note as happening after i sent the email and before he got back to me.

• the woman emailed me back going 'yeah hey job $$ start monday yes?'
• i went 'yes(????)'
• she called me going 'hey here's the corporate structure we're doing because contract stuff'
• i emailed the department business manager
  • notably not the drc business manager
  • she's on mat leave
  • she's going to come back and find my weird project assignment, my grant, my weird contract stuff, my student org funding for a conference, my weird extra funding for the conference, and my weirder other contract stuff
  • i think i already owe her cookies
• my advisor, to tell him 'uh so i'm taking the semester to make money, it won't mess up my timeline probably, anyway that paper's going well'
• the corporate dude added me on linkedin

then! he emailed me back. going 'we should probably touch base. tomorrow, 2pm?'
and I went. yes. please. here is a video meeting link.

then this morning!

• the department business manager got back to me going
  • yeah sure that works if the drc says it works
  • i'll talk to {decider} about how late in the semester you can start and we'll still cover your tuition,* btw 6 credits** is full time this semester [unsaid: because plague]
  • we can maybe do a filler class for it if you're only taking 1 class,
  • when's your end date
• I replied with my end date
• btw both of us copied the head of my program so he is Very Aware that i am just continuing full speed ahead on the crazy train
• my advisor got back to me going 'congrats i'm happy for you check the nsf rules'
  • notable: the rules say no concurrent thing, but that's why i contacted the business manager, because being full speed on the crazy train doesn't stop me from still being good at stuff i guess
• $newboss - not on the project, at the corporate place that's, like, handling my contract, because the woman saw 'delaware' and went 'ah yes this dude who is on year 11 of a 5 year contract with the state and contracts people a lot, good fit, we'll get this young person employed' - called, and we talked for like 15 minutes where he asked me a bit about my background and i did NOT say 'i like the shiny chaos things' and he went 'ah yes the paperwork' and i went 'paperwork???' and he went 'right, the passage of time, this afternoon, call me if questions'
• $newboss was ALSO like 'hey so when are you done' with, like, not audible but palpable notetakeing for when they can hire me long-term, which was both deeply rad and. not the goal?? i want academia. but also contracts for money are nice.

and now it's another hour and a half until our meeting but at this rate i'll already have a fema email by the time i sign in. i feel like he's going to sigh at me a little for the not waiting to talk to him at all. but w/e, he'll also be real happy for me and possibly use this as an example when talking about the program in future.

everything has happened real fast and real intense in the last 36 hours and i am fucking stoked to be a surge jr analyst now.

*the crazy thing is i'd already run the math and 6 credits and paying my own damn tuition was still making way more money than turning down the contract, holy shit. my position is the bottom end of the range advertised, and Seebs implied seems low for consulting, but for me it's crazy money
**6 credits is the 2 classes I'd need to take on top of working 40 hour weeks in order to not fuck my timeline, because dissertation prep class is required before comps, and only offered in the fall, like comps are only offered in the spring, and risk analysis is only offered every 2 years, and i want to be done by the time it'd be offered next

 

update: the 6 credits being full time is apparently new as of yesterday and not in the system yet. i suspect monday, when we have scheduled maintenance.

He thinks I should be getting paid 60%-125% more (which would be nice but also gets me into 'dissociating gently into the ether' territory), but that it's a common student mistake not to negotiate. Also that my plan re: classes is good, I just need to manage my time well and look at weekends. He seemed mildly amused at my whole ongoing trainwreck, but in, like, the usual way, and also he apparently opposes the fact that our regular contracts don't let us do outside work. So he's supportive. And it's up to completely unrelated people whether my tuition is covered. So!

good meeting, probably. now it's just a matter of waiting and finishing everything else.

 

so 6 credits was NOT fine, but I'm in a bullshit 3 credits of 'pre-candidacy research' which w/e i need to be doing these interviews anyway except i'm not
which is 100% depression
Also I'm getting paid so much money??? It's mindboggling but I like it. Only one paycheck so far. Also my tuition is covered. Everything is coming up me.

But so this class I'm taking. Risk Analysis. The bogeyman. It's a graduate level civil engineering class, and we're social scientists. So it's the big bad. So I was kind of glad I wouldn't have much other coursework this semester???

But it turns out. Risk Analysis? It's just lateral thinking + spreadsheets.

Guess what my whole brain does all the time with no external input or prompting?

If you said lateral thinking + spreadsheets, you'd be right!!!! So this bogeyman of a class is going to be a cake walk. And I'm pretty sure that's not just because it's a new professor - he's using most of the old professor's powerpoint stuff. It seems like this is just. The kind of subject that I'm obscenely well prepped and suited for? Actual sample homework question:

• Please define a goal, then in 1-2 sentences describe ways to pursue that goal.
• Answer: If goal is a, could pursue in x y z ways. Could also redefine so that goal is b c d instead because that's just rotating a.

And the terrible thing is that we talked through one of these in class and literally 0 people got to the 'redefine' stage.

 

Today I got to blow a couple people's minds with some real simple probabilities. I'm going to die.