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this set of questions was way more generative, like I laid down some foundations for parts of my dissertation over the last 48 hours which feels really good

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second set of riddles (phd exam questions) complete

phd exams update: once again I am explaining why the global financial crisis and the war on terror set the stage for so much bullshit we're still dealing with and it makes me feel so fucking old

received my second set of wizard riddles (qualifying exam questions), wish me luck

quals update: working on an essay section titled "The poverty of economics in understanding the economics of poverty" this must be how Karl Marx felt after putting a sick burn on Proudhon

Wizard riddles update: I requested questions from my most annoying committee member first and they are pretty goofy but not actually hard?

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Today the council of wizards (my committee) will send me my first set of riddles (exam questions), please send vibes

i understand why a pet insurance company would make their hold messaging emphasize working with you to avoid canceling the plan, but for the recently bereaved it is a bit harsh

it feels sort of insane that I'm doing my quals the same week my fucking dog died but realistically I won't be less devastated in a week and it's more tiresome to have it hanging over me. but god, what a bleak time.

Kitty passed away suddenly last night. We think it was a stroke. We were with her, at least. I loved sharing her on here and I'm glad so many people loved her. She was a very special dog and my world feels dimmer without her.

"I couldn’t accept the moral calculus that prioritized the academic freedom of some U.S. and Israeli faculty over every other moral consideration, including the rights of the Palestinian people to be free from illegal occupation, free from violence, free from apartheid—and no less free to pursue research, scholarship, and learning than their Israeli counterparts"

https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/10/03/an-academic-boycott-of-israel-is-necessary-but-not-sufficient/

#BDS #AAUP #HigherEd #academia #Israel #Palestine

buttondown.com/perfectsentence this week in sentences: gravity forgot itself, enhanced by the chancy, over a poem, pious disciplines, basically disreputable

Feel like I'm flickering between wavelengths of reality most days

two of my fellow PhD students have been making a schematic of metals used both in building missiles and in renewable energy tech and they used a gradient background that I definitely called "bisexual lighting" on a zoom call just now, and no one got the joke

please respect my privacy in this time

A source in Lebanon tells me that there have been two mass roundups of Syrian refugees at Beirut's Martyrs' Square since Saturday. The Syrians had been displaced by Israeli airstrikes & were on the streets with scores of other IDPs. The source tells me she is certain that Syrians were targeted, because police went around asking people for identifying documents, presumably to avoid arresting Lebanese.

The Saturday arrests began late, around 22h00, just after journalists had left for the night.

phd stuff 

sent out my exam memo!!! it's happening!!

Someone is DDOSing the internet archive, so we've been down for hours. According to their twitter, they're doing it just to do it. Just because they can. No statement, no idea, no demands.

Meanwhile, we literally rescued 400,000 dissertations from being pulped.

I like our side.

https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2024/10/09/leidse-proefschriften-worden-toch-niet-vernietigd-400000-dissertaties-gaan-naar-de-vs-a4868698

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Horsin' Around

This is a hometown instance run by Sam and Ingrid, for some friends.