Saturday, December 02, 2006

Academia

Beforehand, I had wine in the Gramercy Park Hotel with my advisor and a group of intellectuals. As such, they talked of intellectual things. In a certain regarded film studies department, a professor explained the ongoing research of his students. One was quickly emerging as a preeminent voice on Fat Studies. Yes, it’s called that, and apparently it’s really hot right now. Grants are being handed out like hotcakes for Fat Studies.

Another was the western influence on Turkish commercials of the early nineties, another was recording train sounds in South America, just train sounds, to highlight the impact of industry (how you ask? That remains to be seen). Excuses just to visit these places under the guise of thesis and research? You be the judge.

But the best, by far, was this: the symbiotic analysis of tampon commercials. With a long and verbose study entitled: Blood on The Page (Male Writers and Menstrual Sex).

This is not a joke.

So I went to my math class. On a Friday night, I went to a math class. Dorkery abound. I need the extra help for when I take the GRE on December 19th.

And then today I took a practice test on-line. My math score jumped 100 points. My verbal score was not so lucky. That one went down more than 120. I wondered why so I looked at my notes.

Without edits, I present to you the following, my shorthand, for one of the reading comprehension sections where we are to put notes in our own words for quick reference later:

Pocket vetos. Return. Pocket. Too much power?

No! Different. Support is pocket = democratic.

Flaw is loophole. People want president to just chill for congress. Pres wants to delay. People think he’s a jerk.

Leg. supremacy goal? Then pocket bad.

Deliberation goal? Pocket good. So it’s good.


Academia, here I come. And my dissertation on the role of jellybeans flavors on society may just be right around the corner…

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I met a girl last year who received a grant to travel to Malaysia to study shadow puppets. I'm 100% serious.