next »

[plebeian]

Fair enough, Pirate. I can see the ambiguity of my posts (due to poor wording and/or dry humor), now that you point it out. I was never (intentionally) in agreement with the OP, so I failed to see my puppety value.

I will plead the fifth on all other counts of puppetry and remain suspect.

[bread_pirate_naan]

Fair enough, Pirate. I can see the ambiguity of my posts (due to poor wording and/or dry humor), now that you point it out. I was never (intentionally) in agreement with the OP, so I failed to see my puppety value.

Seriously?  The dismissive on undergrads comments were not doing what you thought they were. (For me.) The sparkle tags were so myspace 2004 as to be juvenile, but in retrospect not necessarily believable as aged 18-22.

I will plead the fifth on all other counts of puppetry and remain suspect.

If you are not closely related to pocksuppet you are also plagiarizing the profiles other puppets without adding anything clever.  This is the failing of every would be ahastar and newdochere.  As puppets go, the only character I am missing these days is popcorn_pimp.  Now there's a puppet with a raison d'etre.  Originality and execution, both essential to the art and science of puppetry. 

[plebeian]

Seriously?  The dismissive on undergrads comments were not doing what you thought they were. (For me.)

Yes, I see that now (hence the ambiguity comment). I was missing the word "supposed" in there somewhere, but that I went on to point out that the OP was treated just the same as every other poster suggested to me that my comment was still clear enough. I was wrong, so my apologies for the confusion.

I will not, however, apologize for the sparkles. The satiric value of sparkles should never, ever be demeaned.

[bread_pirate_naan]

I will not, however, apologize for the sparkles. The satiric value of sparkles should never, ever be demeaned.

Right-O.

I am not going to declare this thread dead, but it could be. 

I did have a thought about Grassy's post.  It was chock full to the brim of truth. Grassy's post was a seasoned one and very balanced about where she is now.  I can relate.  Pathanalysis, one of the most important things I learned during my time as an MA was to take baby steps.  That is what I told the committee at the end of my thesis defense.  Positive reinforcement is very motivating, but it can be a double-edged sword.  The meeting with the editor was a while ago.  I could again be flush with  thoughts about how to turn a diss into a manuscript, but nothing good would come from being focused on that right now.  Absolutely nothing.  I am not Grassy.  It doesn't make sense to compare myself to Grassy.  Doing so would get in the way of producing a passable dissertation.  In that sense we are not peers.

Looking at what is happening down the road and learning from people in your environment is worthwhile, but that is not the same as trying to accomplish what they are doing, or match them by trying to be more like them (by taking their class, or thinking about writing books).  While it seems logical that doing the same tasks as someone further along constitutes some idealized mark of distinction, consider this -- reliable sources say being ABD with a TT job is a daunting proposition and a form of task-based (non)equality that is not all that desirable, even if indicative of confidence in one's ability to do the job. 

If you do come back to this thread, there are a number of people who are interested in the administrative angle of this thread.  It might reflect well on you to respond. 

[pathanalysis]

I know you are trying (I think?) to be kind, but your reply can't help but come across to me in that backhandedly kind way that insults often do. I don't grandstand--in fact, the reality of my situation is that I have a one-in-five shot of ever getting ANY job. I can't get a job at McDonalds, or a department store, or as an orderly. I can't get a job in a building with one front entrance and stairs leading up to it. I don't have a lot of options. I'm a good writer, researcher, and student  (allegedly) That's my only fall-back in life, and it scares me, honestly. My ability to write is wonderful and magical, but if I got to trade that for average writing ability and a functional body, I'd probably take you up on it. You all seem to think I'm arrogant, but I'm not. How can I be when I depend on others to open doors for me or to grab the printer from the paper? How can I be when I know that everyone has a million options, and I have a grand total of one?

And why does everything think I'd be a complete tool in the class? I respect my colleague greatly, and I respect that she knows more about topic A than I do. I'm not arrogant. I'm smart, perhaps, but I know my limits. 

[bread_pirate_naan]

but if I got to trade that for average writing ability and a functional body

Wait.  Are you the artist formerly known as snowstorm?  That is an uncanny coincidence if you are not.  Regardless, best of luck in your endeavors.

[prof_smartypants]

I know you are trying (I think?) to be kind, but your reply can't help but come across to me in that backhandedly kind way that insults often do. I don't grandstand--in fact, the reality of my situation is that I have a one-in-five shot of ever getting ANY job. I can't get a job at McDonalds, or a department store, or as an orderly. I can't get a job in a building with one front entrance and stairs leading up to it. I don't have a lot of options. I'm a good writer, researcher, and student  (allegedly) That's my only fall-back in life, and it scares me, honestly. My ability to write is wonderful and magical, but if I got to trade that for average writing ability and a functional body, I'd probably take you up on it. You all seem to think I'm arrogant, but I'm not. How can I be when I depend on others to open doors for me or to grab the printer from the paper? How can I be when I know that everyone has a million options, and I have a grand total of one?

And why does everything think I'd be a complete tool in the class? I respect my colleague greatly, and I respect that she knows more about topic A than I do. I'm not arrogant. I'm smart, perhaps, but I know my limits. 

If that's the case, then why even start the thread? If this is what you are honestly like, then there shouldn't have been any question at all whether or not it is/was OK for you to take the class. You're an undergrad - she's a grad student. You learn the material. Where's the problem?

Obviously, there is something else going on here, which everyone else picked up on, hence the direction of the thread. If you actually thought that there would be no issues whatsoever with you taking this class, then you wouldn't have posted what you did, how you did. And if your colleague thought there would be no issues whatsoever, she wouldn't have gone to the chair. Apparently you do NOT know your limits, or you never would have asked the question in the first place.

[pathanalysis]

If that's the case, then why even start the thread? If this is what you are honestly like, then there shouldn't have been any question at all whether or not it is/was OK for you to take the class. You're an undergrad - she's a grad student. You learn the material. Where's the problem?

Obviously, there is something else going on here, which everyone else picked up on, hence the direction of the thread. If you actually thought that there would be no issues whatsoever with you taking this class, then you wouldn't have posted what you did, how you did. And if your colleague thought there would be no issues whatsoever, she wouldn't have gone to the chair. Apparently you do NOT know your limits, or you never would have asked the question in the first place.
   

Dual relationships always have a lot of potential to be complicated, and there are students here who refuse to have a grad student as a TA who they work UNDER in a lab (on the grad student's thesis or what not. I've learned my lesson about posting here. Bye.

Wait.  Are you the artist formerly known as snowstorm?  That is an uncanny coincidence if you are not.  Regardless, best of luck in your endeavors.

Huh? There are lots of people with disabilities in the world, about 20% of the population. I fail to see how this is "uncanny."

[bread_pirate_naan]

Huh? There are lots of people with disabilities in the world, about 20% of the population. I fail to see how this is "uncanny."

What makes it uncanny is the context in which it happens and the many common qualities of your posts and experiences.  Snowstorm, aka nameishere, was a disabled undergrad (cerebral palsy to be specific) who had a very hard time sorting out an appropriate relationship to a female grad student.  That grad was a clinical psychologist who left for another institution.  Snowstorm had a number of similar behaviors, a pronounced interest in fuzzy boundaries, and an inflated sense of her writing ability from her contact with that clinician.  You have similar responses to positive reinforcement.  You are not so different with your internally generated ideas of equality that were not reinforced by forumites, and your sense of having a certain sort of vexed perception of your "collegial relationship" with this grad in your lab.

You are both very fixed on female grads, (power) relations in the university, your ability to write, and neither of you can accept feedback you don't like.  You shout it down.  There's a perseverance that is not something we see here on the fora in many undergrads, and we don't see many undergrads at that. If you go into her old posts you can verify that she, like you, she vowed she was not arrogant, but took great pains to list all the positive feedback she had heard from superiors.

If you are curious, you can read one of the old threads that survived the horrific trainwreck that ensued on a thread that had to be deleted because it got so out of hand.  Snowstorm had a thing for ALL CAPS under stress when she did get the response she wanted as well, but you won't see that unless you have the archive copy that survived the purge. I don't have a copy but my memory is long enough.

Above all, when I posed my question you didn't reply, "No, I am not."

I will again wish you the best endeavors.
http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,48580.0.html

[wet_blanket]

I'm not quite sure I agree with your last few posts, BPN.  I see nothing in pathanalysis' posts to indicate a weird relationship with the grad student.  You seem to think it an unusual pathology that a traditionally aged undergrad is insecure and this manifests as appearing arrogant at times and seeking reassurance from others.

You know, I normally agree that the OP doesn't get to control the direction of the thread.  But I think there's a difference between giving advice that wasn't expected, and going into detail on the OPs perceived personality flaws.

In an case, pathanalysis, good luck.

[pathanalysis]

Fine, No, I am not.

Furthermore, I have no boundary issues with my co-worker--in fact, I'd like to avoid creating them! This borders on libel, really. And my sense of my writing ability is not inflated, I'm a good writer. I'd be an awful (probably) engineer.

[bread_pirate_naan]

You seem to think it an unusual pathology that a traditionally aged undergrad is insecure and this manifests as appearing arrogant at times and seeking reassurance from others.

I don't.  That's why I referred to my own experience of insecurity as a grad(not undergrad), with specific reference to threads about on the grad board about grandstanding and my conversations about those insecurities with others. 

You know, I normally agree that the OP doesn't get to control the direction of the thread.

The OP engaged my question and I replied.  I don't see where this comment fits into that equation.

I think it is uncanny (in the Freudian sense of unheimlich, not "unusual") that there is more than one aspiring clinical psychologist among undergrad forumites with a self-described magical writing ability, and a disability with substantial physical limitations.  Big difference.

Now it's time to put on a costume and get out of the house.

[pathanalysis]

Your post was insulting, bordering on libel, and offensive. I am not snowstorm, and furthermore, I do not have relationship issues with my co-RA (in fact, I'm trying to avoid creating them), do not care about power relations unless they could create awkward situations involving me, am not at all "fixated" on my co-RA, and do not have an inflated sense of my ability to write.

Please apologize and/or request deletion of your post.

Thank you.

[spork]

Your post was insulting, bordering on libel, and offensive. I am not snowstorm, and furthermore, I do not have relationship issues with my co-RA (in fact, I'm trying to avoid creating them), do not care about power relations unless they could create awkward situations involving me, am not at all "fixated" on my co-RA, and do not have an inflated sense of my ability to write.

Please apologize and/or request deletion of your post.

Thank you.

Still waiting to hear about the color of your thong.



Polly, we know you go commando on occasion -- stop teasing me.

[pathanalysis]

Just because I sincerely want you to shut up and drop it, spork: I don't where thongs.