Eh. Has it really been almost three months?
It's been so long since my last entry that I'm pretty sure I used a different looking editor when I wrote it. Internet time is really scary.
Anyway, for anyone who's been wondering if I disappeared or fully fell down the tumblr rabbit hole and never made it back: don't worry, I didn't. I just didn't feel like anything worth reporting happened.
Which, upon closer inspection, isn't actually true. In June, for example, I (hopefully) gave my last presentation (baring my thesis defense) in my Master's program and on Wednesday, I (hopefully) went to a seminar for the last time. I'd originally planned to finish this semester but since uni sometimes doesn't comply with our plans, I'll have to stay for another semester which, if everything works out, will consist of nothing but writing (two 20 pages papers and the second half of my thesis) and then hopefully lead to a degree (which, according to one of my lecturers, is worthless, anyway. That guy's really a genius in motivating people...) which, hopefully will lead to a job since I'm slowly starting to get tired of the student life and would actually like to do something for a change, something that actually results in something real, instead of just lecturers reading it, grading it and forgetting about it.
I've been starting to think about where I want to go in earnest and it looks more and more like I won't go down PhD road, after all. I think I'd love to keep researching but since I'd never go into military history (if anything, two years of mostly military history have taught me that this is not how I plan to spend my professional life...) but into military sociology and the overwhelming majority of German universities wouldn't touch that even with a ten foot pole, the perspective re: grad student spots looks rather grim. I could apply for one of the grad student spots the institute we're working with is offering (apparently, they're offering more spots for sociology PhDs than history PhDs and I nearly burst out laughing when one of my military history lecturer griped about it... apparently, everyone thought merging the military history and military sociology institutes would result in military sociology losing almost all grad student spots they had and generally slowly disappearing...) but then I'd always have to fear my thesis and everything else I produce there going the way of everything the (German) Department of Defense doesn't want to be published (ie. going directly into the "poison cabinet" and never seeing daylight, ever again) or every suggestion for improvement my papers make being fully ignored by the Department of Defense.
I just think I'd rather be the person saying "Yes of course you can publish that" instead of being the one being crushed because she can't publish yet another study, weird as that sounds. So, yeah, I could imagine working at the Department of Defense, either in anything involving international cooperation (eh, not the selling state secrets kind of international cooperation, mind you) or in political analysis (same here...) but apparently, according to Miserable Military History Lecturer, the Department has a ban on employing peole with our degrees. Yeah, well, I'd love to hear that from the Department themselves.
Anyway, aside from that, work's been... work (you know the drill) and there's still nothing new on the apartment front. I had the offer to share a flat with a friend of my brother-in-law's but I didn't take it in the end because of too many uncertainties re: money, uni etc. I'll just have to hope to get a decent job after finishing my degree. Oh, and I'd have had to bury my plans to go to New Zealand in November/October since moving would have eaten all the money I'd need.
Speaking of which, I really should book my flights soon, if I still want to go but damn, as always, I'm afraid of spending so much money and yeah, of my own courage, since I'm planning on spending four weeks there travelling on my own. Not that I'm afraid of travelling alone in a Western country (been doing that a couple times before, so I know what I'm getting myself into) just... the general fact of having to make good on all my announcements ;) So, uh, you know what? Ask me in a week if I've booked my flights yet and if I say no, ask me every day until I do. Because I really do want to go to NZ, I'm just afraid of myself.
So, uh, yeah, that's it, mostly. I'll try to post more regularly again (since there are still a couple Military Madness stories on my backburner and I'm working on another Arrow icons dump and yeah, stuff's happening on the fandom front, too ;)) and of course I'm always reading what you're posting so uh, no, I didn't disappear and I don't plan on doing so :)
Anyway, for anyone who's been wondering if I disappeared or fully fell down the tumblr rabbit hole and never made it back: don't worry, I didn't. I just didn't feel like anything worth reporting happened.
Which, upon closer inspection, isn't actually true. In June, for example, I (hopefully) gave my last presentation (baring my thesis defense) in my Master's program and on Wednesday, I (hopefully) went to a seminar for the last time. I'd originally planned to finish this semester but since uni sometimes doesn't comply with our plans, I'll have to stay for another semester which, if everything works out, will consist of nothing but writing (two 20 pages papers and the second half of my thesis) and then hopefully lead to a degree (which, according to one of my lecturers, is worthless, anyway. That guy's really a genius in motivating people...) which, hopefully will lead to a job since I'm slowly starting to get tired of the student life and would actually like to do something for a change, something that actually results in something real, instead of just lecturers reading it, grading it and forgetting about it.
I've been starting to think about where I want to go in earnest and it looks more and more like I won't go down PhD road, after all. I think I'd love to keep researching but since I'd never go into military history (if anything, two years of mostly military history have taught me that this is not how I plan to spend my professional life...) but into military sociology and the overwhelming majority of German universities wouldn't touch that even with a ten foot pole, the perspective re: grad student spots looks rather grim. I could apply for one of the grad student spots the institute we're working with is offering (apparently, they're offering more spots for sociology PhDs than history PhDs and I nearly burst out laughing when one of my military history lecturer griped about it... apparently, everyone thought merging the military history and military sociology institutes would result in military sociology losing almost all grad student spots they had and generally slowly disappearing...) but then I'd always have to fear my thesis and everything else I produce there going the way of everything the (German) Department of Defense doesn't want to be published (ie. going directly into the "poison cabinet" and never seeing daylight, ever again) or every suggestion for improvement my papers make being fully ignored by the Department of Defense.
I just think I'd rather be the person saying "Yes of course you can publish that" instead of being the one being crushed because she can't publish yet another study, weird as that sounds. So, yeah, I could imagine working at the Department of Defense, either in anything involving international cooperation (eh, not the selling state secrets kind of international cooperation, mind you) or in political analysis (same here...) but apparently, according to Miserable Military History Lecturer, the Department has a ban on employing peole with our degrees. Yeah, well, I'd love to hear that from the Department themselves.
Anyway, aside from that, work's been... work (you know the drill) and there's still nothing new on the apartment front. I had the offer to share a flat with a friend of my brother-in-law's but I didn't take it in the end because of too many uncertainties re: money, uni etc. I'll just have to hope to get a decent job after finishing my degree. Oh, and I'd have had to bury my plans to go to New Zealand in November/October since moving would have eaten all the money I'd need.
Speaking of which, I really should book my flights soon, if I still want to go but damn, as always, I'm afraid of spending so much money and yeah, of my own courage, since I'm planning on spending four weeks there travelling on my own. Not that I'm afraid of travelling alone in a Western country (been doing that a couple times before, so I know what I'm getting myself into) just... the general fact of having to make good on all my announcements ;) So, uh, you know what? Ask me in a week if I've booked my flights yet and if I say no, ask me every day until I do. Because I really do want to go to NZ, I'm just afraid of myself.
So, uh, yeah, that's it, mostly. I'll try to post more regularly again (since there are still a couple Military Madness stories on my backburner and I'm working on another Arrow icons dump and yeah, stuff's happening on the fandom front, too ;)) and of course I'm always reading what you're posting so uh, no, I didn't disappear and I don't plan on doing so :)