Truman?!?!?

Had my interview today. Loads o' fun!
It went fairly well, I think. The first question was about Israel (great), and we rambled about that for awhile. The Policy Proposal, which Laura told me to spend the least attention on, is what we focused on, of course. Ha.

Oh, I'm close

Glory, glory, am I close. The results of the economics exam are in.
Exam 2 Score: 92.2%
Exam 1 Score: 78.9% (I was dealthly ill)
With quizzes and participation, current average score: 86.66784%.
To get a 4.0, on the final exam I need: 87.2778%
Can she do it? Yes she can!

Oh, Tuesday

Tomorrow's going to be an exciting one, folks:
8:30 - Economics Class (Exams back)
10 - Work at GenCen
11 - Interview for Truman Scholarship (Internal MSU Committee)
11:30 - More Work at GenCen
2:40 - Presentation in Anthropology
5 - Presentation in Women and Power
6:30 - Dinner with Katie
7:30 - Campus Interfaith Council (Discussion on Antisemitism and Islamophobia)

Three weeks!

We've got three weeks to go, folks.
To do:
Medical Anthropology Term Paper: 15-20 pages on Health Issues in the GenCen Working Papers
Women and Power Class: Group Presentation on Feminist Fundamentalists in Judaism and a 25-page paper
Anthropology Capstone: Presentation and 9-page paper (essentially done)
Ethics of Development: 2700 word essay
Economics: Final Exam
Thesis Independent Study: Final Paper (~15 pages) and Funding Proposal
Philosophy Independent Study: Concept Development

We're gonna make it, folks.

"Harry Potter"

The seventh movie, Part 1: Fabulous. They clearly should have made all the movies five hours long. It was incredible. They actually...did the book! What a thought. Bloody fantastic. Except that I now can't think of anything but "Harry Potter" and feel the frantic need to re-read all the books...which is a no-can-do, given the amount of work I have to do.
Bother.

And it's Thanksgiving!

Economics exam is done. Work hours are done till next week. Scheduled events: Completed.
Time to party!
: )
I'll be in Mount Pleasant with Mum, Dad, and Uncle Al. On the agenda for the weekend: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1)," "Megamind," "Tangled," and games, food, fun with family and friends.
And...research hours, a few papers, some studying. But all fun.

Not 60 degrees...

Michigan seems to have recognized that it's about to be Thanksgiving. It got suddenly chillier...

60 degrees!?!

It's been absurdly warm for the past two days. I went to church wearing nothing but a thin long-sleeve shirt yesterday morning because I had a ride. I was panicking when I remembered I'd be biking home at 6 pm with nothing but that shift on...but it was totally fine. 'Cause it was like 60 degrees out. What the heck, Michigan?

Work? Movies!

The day started out so well...two hours of paid research, an hour-long conference call, some cleaning...and then the movies started. And they don't seem to have ended yet...oh dear. I should probably consider getting back to work here, someday...

Go, Becca! Go, Abroad!

My boss is all thrilled with me because the initiative I'm heading on diversifying study abroad by making it more inclusive for LBGTQ students made it into the Dean's plan submitted to the provost. GenCen has been hoping to be included for years, and this is the first time one of our programs has been mentioned so explicitly.
Victory dance for Rebecca.

And the names have been chosen

The Teacher-Scholar Award Committee actually got out before 8 pm, so I got to go to most of choir practice and Wesley worship as well.
The meeting went fairly well. I got what I wanted...mostly. lol. But I am not allowed to discuss the winners, so now I must walk around with my mouth taped shut till February 8th, when I get to attend the awards ceremony. (I don't really have to wait quite that long, at least to discuss with the winners. They're getting called today. But I can't share with anyone else.)

Teacher Scholar Awards

Tonight is the meeting to determine the Teacher-Scholar of the year...an instructor at MSU who has been teaching for 10 or fewer years since their terminal degree. I got placed on the committee as an undergraduate rep. It's gonna be a hard decision. We have 14 names, all qualified for the award. 5:30 meeting at the Kellogg Center. We get dinner...and we meet till we've decided. This could be dangerous.

Happy AAA!

Triple A: not just an insurance company. The American Anthropological Association meets for their conference this next week in New Orleans. For me, this means several classes are canceled and I have glorious amounts of time. My 8:30 staff meeting was canceled Friday as well because so many of our folks are anthropologists.

Quidditch World Cup

Why, yes, I do have the world's coolest friends.
http://manhattan.ny1.com/content/sports/sports_news/128880/fantastical-sport-of-quidditch-has-real-tournament-in-hell-s-kitchen/
Bailey was there! And some of her teammates are featured in the video. More videos of her are on Facebook.

Ahh, Gloomy Sundays

November has arrived...it was cold today. Church, a bit of work, a bit of play, dinner with the Ellises and Alec, a bit more work, a bit more play. It's been deemed "Disney Day" in my house and we've been watching "Hunchback" and "Pocahontas." And there are now brownies in the oven. (Explain how Kelsey and Lindsey like brownies, I don't really all that much, and yet I'm the one who baked them...)

Happy Weekend!

Hey everyone...hope you're enjoying your weekend. Thursday night, Lindsey, Kelsey and I went to Mitchell's Fish Market for no reason other than it's good. And then we watched "Toy Story 3." (Guess what. I cried like twelve times.)
Friday I had a meeting and attended a lovely meet-and-greet and lecture on Islam in Indonesia. And today I will be catching up on some work in a very relaxed manner.
Life is good.

Between Deadlines

Ah, the horrors of being between deadlines...I have tons of things to do, but most of the deadlines are far away...this does not help my motivation. But hopefully I can make myself get a paper written early so that I'm not suddenly writing twelve all at once...

Hello Wednesday

Today was an extraordinarily ordinary day. Met with the Provost for the Women's Advisory Council. Went to work. Put my father's teaching to use as I played around with our director's laptop (monitor broken; played with absurd numbers of cord to reroute the laptop to my desktop monitor). And then my graduate medical anthropology class. And eating dinner at church. And now catching up on some emails and waiting for choir practice to start.
Ordinary good.
But a magnificent one nonetheless.

And we're breathing

Truman is taken care of.
Had very successful meetings for my two independent studies and my research job.
The draft for anthropology capstone course was completed yesterday before noon (due this afternoon).
Last night, I actually sat on the couch and watched a movie. Not had a movie playing while I worked, no. I actually viewed a movie. It was amazing.

Go, Becca!

I have just rocked and rolled in the Peace and Justice Studies Archive to-do list department. Go, Becca, go.

Most important tasks left: Truman Application and Draft of Paper for Anthropology. We're gonna make it, folks.

Huzzah!

And the reading analyses for my "Women and Power" class for next week are done. Woohoo.

Update!

Today, I have completed:
2 hours of monotheism research
My 2 thesis proposals

And now I'm looking at the to do list, and am sad. Because my day felt so much more productive before I did that. lol.
But I did also manage to clean my living room (and good grief, did it need it). Also had a few very productive meetings.

Weekend To Do List

Anybody want to take care of something for me? : )

Truman Scholarship Application
2 Class Readings and 750-word Summaries/Critiques
Paper on the shift from Women & International Development to Gendered Perspectives on Development in MSU's Working Papers of GenCen
8 hours of research on the emergence of monotheism
3 Essays on Peace and Justice Studies Concepts with Annotated Bibliography
2 two-page Thesis Proposals

I think Katie and Derek are coming Saturday night, too...heaven help me. lol.
It's all gonna get done. And it's gonna be awesome.

ANP Midterm Grade

Essay 1: B
Essay 2: A-
Overall: B+
We'll take it!
She says she rounds down for midterm and up for final grade. I'm not sure exactly where in the grade point spectrum this is for her, but I think I should be good...the final paper will almost certainly be better than the midterm was, since I get to decide the topic and will have more time, and there's participation in the grade as well.

MC Midterm Grade

The grades are in...3.75. We will take it!
This just in: highest grade was a 3.9. ("Grr" says Becca's desire to be as best as possible.) But I was still in the top four, so such is life.

Court of Appeals!

I've been voted by a friend to be a judge for the Court of Appeals...that should be exciting! I'm guessing I probably won't make it, but one never knows who's going to write you in...

I voted!

I paid a visit to my local school gym this morning...I was worried I would get there and have crazy lines as I fought all the school teachers and folks who have to work at 8 am, but not so. Got in and back to the house by 7:30; 'twas beautiful. And then off to econ!
I didn't vote for the judges...no party affiliations are noted, so I can't even pretend to know something about any of their politics. But I did vote to increase my taxes to give the zoo and the schools money. : )

Twitter

I've given in and gotten a Twitter account...
BeccaFarnum, should you care to follow me.
We're going to try using Twitter to publicize the MLK Student Leadership Conference...