Visit to MSU

The visit on Friday to MSU went very well. I met with the interim director of the ACS program, David Stowe. He's a very nice person and patiently answered all of my questions about the program.

One of the best things about the program is how wide-open it is. There's only one required course in the entire track, ACS 881, and everything else is decided between you and your advisor.

In a nutshell, I have to start out at the Master's level, where I'll get an MA in ACS. From there, I'll go on the the Ph.D. The ACS Master is two tracks: 24 credit hours plus thesis or 30 credits without. I'll be opting for the 30 credit track, if only because I don't want to get bogged down with a thesis that ends up taking much longer to write than a semester. And the way I procrastinate, that would be the case. Also, the 30 credits route requires that some of the credits be in vocational designs involving management skills. Historic preservation is specifically mentioned. Even if they don't accept the credits I took (nearly 10 years ago now) at Eastern I can still do HP. How cool is that? From there, on to the Ph.D. program which is an additional 18 credits (I think...) plus dissertation. About six years, once I start the ball rolling.

He was also happy to hear I've had experience teaching (Earth science, astronomy, physics) at the college level. He said they haven't had a problem placing students in grad assistantships up to this point and if funding stays constant, I should be able to get one. Rock.

I was walking on clouds the rest of the day. It was also a really pretty day and the sun was out. Sandy had to keep hold of my shoelaces to keep me from floating off.

Damn muse....

She's on vacation again. Mai Tais and Yahtzee seem to always win out.

I'm a Spartan!

I applied online to MSU via the Lifelong Education program and got my acceptance letter yesterday. It's really cool to have that to look forward to. They allow you to take any course you want to without actually having to go through the hassle of applying to the Graduate School and take the GRE and do all that stuff that goes along with it. In talking to Kathleen, the secretary of the American Cultural Studies program, I found that I can transfer these credits to the program when I finally get the application in and get accepted. Of course, I can't take all of my classes this way; that would be way too easy. But it's still easy to take them this way for as long as I can.

Now I have to decide when to apply to the school. I could apply to the school now to get accepted for the 2005-06 year but I don't know if that would be more or less advantageous when I can take the classes through the Lifelong Education program. I should probably take the GRE at the very least, so I know my score. If I tank the test I can always take it later or wait. Since I can take several LE classes and still apply them to the program requirements, there isn't as much pressure to get accepted. But it would be good to have them out of the way and be able to concentrate on school.

I realized something recently. My net take-home pay is about $36,000 per year. Maybe a touch more but that's close enough for my purposes. I can get graduate level student loans for up to $30,000 per year which are tax-free. In other words, I could get big loan and live off of it while I went to school and have the luxury of being able to concentrate soley on school and not have to worry about a job, apart from maybe a part time one somewhere. Hell, I could even get a 20 hour position here and keep my benefits and maybe end up making even more money than I do now.

I know that this money would have to be repaid eventually but it would enable me to get a Ph.D. much faster than I would get one by taking night classes only. I'd be able to take several classes per semester, rather than the one or two I'd be able to take otherwise. According to salary.com the median salary for an assistant professor (the lowest tenure-track position) nationally is $61,247. Even the 25th percentile is still at $50,043, still more than I make now as a middle-level systems administrator. For Ann Arbor specifically, the numbers are better: $64,983 and $53,095 for median and 25th percentile, respectively. If I were to get my Ph.D. in two or three years by going full-time instead of four to six years by going part time, I can be making more money faster which would in turn offset the costs of getting the loans.

I'm not making any rash decisions here, I'm simply laying out ideas to be pondered upon.

Now this one, I'm proud of.

You are a GRAMMAR GOD!


If your mission in life is not already to
preserve the English tongue, it should be.
Congratulations and thank you!


How grammatically sound are you?
brought to you by Quizilla



I take pride in my ability to communicate. While I don't dwell on each turn of a phrase or triple-check my spelling, I do try to make sure I show intelligence and care in how I come across with the written word.

When you meet me face-to-face, that's when all bets are off.

Which Mars Exploration Vehicle are you?

Snagged, as usual, from Eric. I don't have enough friends who take these tests so I have to rely on Eric to find them for me.


You're the Pathfinder/Sojourner team! When you're
not recharging your solar batteries, you're
writing haiku and wishing NASA would call.


Which Martian exploration vehicle are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

What would my anime life be like.....

Over in LiveJournal, they have these meme generators and little quizzes. Here's one I filched from Eric:

What would your Anime life be like? by hearthlight
Name:
Gender:
Your looks:	Brooding eyes and a trenchcoat
Your best friend:	A sickeningly sweet schoolgirl
Your powers:	Energy blasts.
Your beloved:	You can't pick just one!
Your occupation:	Villain.
Your ending:	Moving and life affirming.
Created with quill18's MemeGen 3.0!

Oh, yeah...

Almost forgot...

AstroJeopardy is nearly complete. I have two categories left to give to Heather, both of which are pretty much finished save for the last question or two in each one, plus the Final Jeopardy question. That's gonna be the bitch.

I'm open to suggestions.

It's hell, being the God of All Things Trivia. :)

Foolish greetings of the day

It's been an interesting day. First thing this morning, I got an email from a mostly anonymous reader of this page who noticed my diatribe on WAAM and the complaint about not being able to get hold of Ken Kelly, former afternoon drive jock for them. He supplied me with Ken's email address, which was WAY cool so I popped Ken an email this morning. I told him how much I missed his show and I was looking forward to his getting back on the air as soon as possible. He said he's been interviewing at various places, so that's a good thing. Ken's a rare person in today's radio: He speaks his mind, but not in a Howard Stern way; more of a slightly cynical Paul Harvey way. He's also quite intelligent and very funny. These are obviously things which don't mesh well with today's canned radio stations who import everything from somewhere else.

If you ever want Ken's email address, email me and I'll let you know. I think it's OK to give out, since he was giving it out on his last days on the air there. But I don't want to put it here for worries that the spambots will cull it and start flooding his email with solicitations for V |/-\ G R /-\ and emails from Nigeria on behalf of Generallisimo Mombutu, late of the President's cabinet, who was assassinated in a mysterious car accident and left 85 million dollars in a Swiss account but with no way to get it out, unless Ken supplies them with his name, address, and bank account number.

Anyway, that was pretty cool.

I also was informed that I have to impliment a time tracking and trouble ticketing system here at work. I understand why but I don't necessarily have to like it and the reasons behind it.

Damn blogspot doesn't have any way to make a post 'friends-only'. Wish it did. 'Nuff said.