Eves and Eyes

YIKES

Holy Moly, do we ever live in one giant-but-not-so-giant-as-you-might-think closed system! Warm and dry thoughts for all of my east coast friends and family. You guys are throwing a great party over there. Yikes.

Istanbul, in a weak show of solidarity, is balmy as can be.

I'd like to wish those of you with a working internet connection a very happy Halloween. May you sustain nary a chiding belly ache.

[Audience looks around] "What just happened?" "There must be some context we're missing."

Tomorrow I'll descend into NaNoWriMo* and may or may not emerge again until December - and I'd rather not be plagued with guilt over this temporary abandonment, so here's an itemized update for:

Graduate Applications (based on the late December/early January humanities deadline):

• At this point, duh, have your list sorted and professors contacted -
• and your writing sample done (or at least have a completed first draft under the eyes of a trusted editor friend).
• If schools want official transcripts, order them. The bureaucracy around these things is such that it can take anywhere from 2 weeks to over a month to sort out and send off. Generally, though, schools will accept unofficial transcripts (you know, the ones that you've invalidated through mere contact, protracted or otherwise) as a scanned pdf.
• Ditto GRE (and related) scores, if you failed to maintain the sense of existence in time and space necessary to order them after you completed that three-hour migraine...

In November, we'll be contacting professors about letters of recommendation and sending them updated resumes or recent papers, and writing statements of purpose.


On November's Bookshelf

• Auerbach's Mimesis
• Borges's Collected Fictions
• G. Lewis's translation of the Dede Korkut stories
• Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Chronicle of a Death Foretold and The Autumn of the Patriarch
• Marshall Berman's All That is Solid Melts into Air
• and Julian Barnes' Flaubert's Parrot

So! The house is scary professional clean, the laundry is all done and drying, the fridge is stocked, and that's what's in the stew pot.

Cheerio, friends.



*For those of you who've had trouble donating to their awesome program, this should help. And! in the kickstarter spirit, I'm offering a super awesome postal surprise to the first 5 people who donate 10 USD+. So come support a worthy cause and administer that solid kick in the pants you know you've dying to lay on me ever since I was a little jerk-hole in middle school! WIN.

And Meanwhile, on the Application Front

We're in that funny transition period between active school life and "what teachers do in the summer." And guys, it's not what you may have imagined, watching my middle and high school teachers pack up the classroom at the end of the year. We Are Not On Vacation.

Which is fine and all, but does require a sliiight adjustment.

Oh well.

No way man! 'Slight adjustments' means that I get to make new and improved schedules! To-Do lists! Guys, this is MY FAVORITE.

We've implemented bi-weekly "boot camps" (to ensure regular attention is paid to our personal projects) and among those projects is pinpointing departments to which we'd like to apply, and possible sources of funding. We've given ourselves until June 30th to research departments, professors we're interested in working with, and those elusive individuals and groups interested in sponsoring our endeavors.

This ought to leave plenty of time for department-specific research, getting in touch with relevant faculty, and writing stunningly crafted statements of purpose before the Fall Term whisks us back into the fray.

Go get 'em!