i'm taking it easy today - no need to do more work than i'm getting paid for, so today i'm attempting to hunker down and write this fatty scholarship application for george washington (clearly from this blog post i'm not making a lot of progress). scholarship applications are always a bunch of b.s. anyway, but this one is a career development scholarship, so i have to analyze the course i'll be taking in the fall and connect them with my current job and so forth. in two pages i have to tell them: 1.) why my coursework will enhance my current position, using specific examples from the courses as evidence (mind you, these are course i have never taken) 2.) why the duties performed in my current job will make me a better student (in courses i have never taken) and 3.) how this relationship will get my further towards my career goals (which i'm not quite sure of yet).
don't they understand that people go to grad school when they don't know what they want to be when they grow up? get with it, george washington -- don't play dumb with me.
regardless, i dug into the course descriptions and the classes i'll be taking in the fall and i've come to a few conclusions.
- i am not jazzed about taking economics AND applied statistics in the fall.
- i don't want to be in nonprofit fundraising FOREVER...it's nice now, but i dunno.
- i want to do policy research to help push for better urban education programs (a big dream, i know) and convince legislators to actually do something about it instead of letting kiddos in shitty schools with untrained and not good teachers continue to flounder.
- i want to work on Capitol Hill (or at least be involved in it for a good long while).
i took a look at a couple of policy research organizations in education, and i liked what i saw. problem is, this might be the nail in the coffin for future family gatherings with the Weakley clan. i might want to be a....LOBBYIST.
crap.
oh. good. lord. i hope andy won't disown me.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Saturday, March 6, 2010
falling down on the job
the job of reading, that is.
i finally pushed through (and loved) Lush Life by Richard Price. he is one of the co-writers for The Wire (which did nothing for Baltimore's reputation), and you could tell. the dialogue was snappy and slang-filled -- it was like watching a very very well written version of a cop show. my dad would most likely like this book, as my childhood was peppered with almost every cop/detective show that has come out in last 15 years. i was pissed when they canceled Homicide: Life on the Streets. i'm pretty sure i was the only 12 year old to mourn its passing on network television.
but more than that, the book was able to follow the tracks of two detectives in New York through their frustrations: with the friend of the victim who they thought for sure did it, canvassing the housing projects for witnesses, going into the projects filled with 10 Filipino men crowded into one room, dealing with the press, the victim's family. the novel was...grimy. my junior year English teacher told us to never say, "they painted a picture." but if Price's writing is that of an artist, he would not be Bob Ross. perhaps Pollack. lots going on, slightly upset, spattered with meaning in every paragraph. and also, i haven't read a book where i have to work to figure out the mystery myself - i love putting the puzzle of a book together, and this one was excellent.
mmm...books. i've missed you.
currently reading: John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead. i LOVED his debut, The Intuitionist. read it.
i finally pushed through (and loved) Lush Life by Richard Price. he is one of the co-writers for The Wire (which did nothing for Baltimore's reputation), and you could tell. the dialogue was snappy and slang-filled -- it was like watching a very very well written version of a cop show. my dad would most likely like this book, as my childhood was peppered with almost every cop/detective show that has come out in last 15 years. i was pissed when they canceled Homicide: Life on the Streets. i'm pretty sure i was the only 12 year old to mourn its passing on network television.
but more than that, the book was able to follow the tracks of two detectives in New York through their frustrations: with the friend of the victim who they thought for sure did it, canvassing the housing projects for witnesses, going into the projects filled with 10 Filipino men crowded into one room, dealing with the press, the victim's family. the novel was...grimy. my junior year English teacher told us to never say, "they painted a picture." but if Price's writing is that of an artist, he would not be Bob Ross. perhaps Pollack. lots going on, slightly upset, spattered with meaning in every paragraph. and also, i haven't read a book where i have to work to figure out the mystery myself - i love putting the puzzle of a book together, and this one was excellent.
mmm...books. i've missed you.
currently reading: John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead. i LOVED his debut, The Intuitionist. read it.
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