studying-with-k

[studying-with-k]

Reviews came back for my latest manuscript, and while they are simple revisions (yay), it’s always a bit heartbreaking when a reviewer basically asks you to strip any personal voice from the prose to make it as dry and wooden as possible. I read older papers that are, in addition to being seminal papers in my field, beautiful pieces of writing imbued with passion and wonder for the study system. My field has really shifted away from this in an effort to make the dissemination of science more standardized and accessible, but like I’m not out here waxing poetic in my results lol I just want it to sound like *I* wrote it.

My advisor, who has a similar writing style, has told me, quite frankly, that I will continue to face this kind of critique until I’m established in the field and idk I came into grad school as a student who loved writing about biology, the study of life, and now I can say I’ve had all that joy sapped from me. I will always love science and will continue contributing to the field outside of academia, but I’m looking forward to never being first author again.

[studying-with-k]

my academic focus this semester is rare book librarianship & im obsessed

[studying-with-k]

4/11/24

I have risen from the dead! I swear I say that everytime lol. My past 3 months in Lisbon have been eventful to say the least, I love the people I met from all over the world and in that short time we travelled to soo many different places together and sparked a happy that I think I'm gonna pick up more seriously from now on!

The masters program is such a breath of fresh air compared to my undergrad. Much more challenging but at the same time it's amazing to see the different ways people think and argue their points with their own logic.

I've been working on my blog and have been inspired to write much more than I did back when I was in my gap year and the doors for exciting new opportunities are slowly opening up which I'm excited to talk about once there's been more progress on that front!

Also turns out in Lisbon if you get the library card you get access to soo many libraries and there are more perks like interlibrary borrowing etc and it only took 10mins ✨

[studying-with-k]

the end of august has been - settling in to my new apartment, making way too many pasta dishes, dipping in and out of multiple books and not finishing them, taking the bus to campus and taking pictures of the sun shining through the trees 🍃

[studying-with-k]

i need to get into my head that the teacher-student relationship is a two-way relationship. i need to understand that professors arent just looking to tell us what to do, but they also want our feedback so that they can be of the most help to our personal goals.

see, i always felt that a curriculum and education can't be changed. what the teacher says is exactly what must be done.

when i was little, i was really ahead in math, but i never skipped any grades. my mom told me that even though i didn't skip any grades, i shouldn't let the teacher know that i already learned everything. i had to sit out and allow the class to learn. i think this attitude carried over into other classes, and eventually when i stopped knowing the material, the habit of "sitting out" became second nature.

two out of three of my professors today asked me if the lectures were progressing at a good speed for us. apparently, when they just look at our faces, they don't get much feedback. i said yes, but i don't really know how to answer that question. i have opinions, but i don't know how to critique a professor's teaching without being impolite.

not that it matters to them, it's a personal principle that i need to unlearn. i have a lot of respect for my professors, so i don't criticize their teaching (to their face). in actuality, i think it might be better for me not to keep my thoughts to myself, and to offer critique when it is asked for, even if i don't feel that it's my place to be saying them.

on a tangential note, i find it jarring that professors introduce themselves by their first names to me. i don't think i could ever call them by their first names, also out of principle. i don't plan on unlearning that, though.

[studying-with-k]

30.08.2024

late night reading! its finally friday and i'm so so so tired! i went to the campus almost everyday this week but i totally forgot to take pics lol

next week i'll be out of the state for a family trip and since september 7th is our independency day, we don't have classes this week (its not a patriotic thing, just a tradition of my uni that give us some break during april and september!)

i'm reading the dawn of everything and i'm really excited! i've been watching some interviews with David Wengrow about the book - he is so funny! i love when scientists are excited about their research topics even as professors.

[studying-with-k]

August 31st, 2024 | Reading LotR with my coffee in the morning instead of doomscrolling and going back to the library.

This week has been eye-opening and I know now I have no other choice than leaving my summer laziness behind and start working seriously again. I have a deadline on October 1st and it will be tough to meet it as the start of the year will no doubt be super busy and the amount of work ahead is no joke. Let's do this 💪

[studying-with-k]

how i’ll be spending the long weekend ☁️

[studying-with-k]

uoft <3 finally arrived

[studying-with-k]

today’s study spots 📗

[studying-with-k]

21.08.2024 | 12/18 days of revising this article before the deadline

I did incredibly little work today, and to be honest the only reason I did any work at all was because I had to make an accountability post. I have now finished reading all the articles the reviewer wanted me to read! Tomorrow will be another sit-down-and-synthesize-stuff-day. Hopefully I’ll be more focused than I was today.

[studying-with-k]

since i wont be able to do a research internship abroad (bureaucracy sucks especially for grad students) i'm thinking about applying to ubc for my phd but. my siblings in christ. why the hell is it so difficult and expensive studying in north america? have y'all heard about public and free education

[studying-with-k]

My archaeology teacher talks too fast. She sounds like someone sharing their special interest (I love that passion) but it is sooo fast. I mean she has to be saying more in an hour than my other professors are saying in two class periods combined. She talked about paleontology, Victorian women, the economy, and pooping in the woods before she even gave us her office hours.

It’s kind of terrifying. I have no hope for when I’ll need to take notes.

[studying-with-k]

22/8/24

It's been less than a week post moving to a new city and I've found it a lot of fun, it's not been one where I've gotten work done but it's been eventfully uneventful of that makes sense

I've already met some really nice folks and generally been less chaotic than I was back home. I did start another essay and also finalizing my academic blog on notion rather than using WordPress and or wix which is easier to navigate and manage.

[studying-with-k]

there should honestly be a TA experience evaluation of instructors because there is no reason that a prof who has continuously ignored disabled grad students’ accommodations is still allowed to take TAs

[studying-with-k]

*some panic is slowly creeping into me.......*

My A Level results (AS) come out tomorrow and I'm kind of nervous at the thought of it. I prayed to God that I'll get good grades, that I'll get the grades I need for uni (a final 3A's) and to somehow tell me that I will, that I don't need to worry. So I'm trying to do that. I'm trusting God on this one (especially that since my prayer, if anybody asked about the coming exam results they made comments like 'you'll be fine' 'you've done well' 'you've got nothing to worry about' so I'm seeing that as God's sign that I have gotten high grades.)

[studying-with-k]

Secondhand bookshop in Kyoto