Since Andy Levy already forced me to announce this on national television, I should probably mention that I’ll be leaving Reason in August to enroll in the creative nonfiction MFA program at the University of Iowa. I’ll still be writing freelance pieces and blogging occassionally at Hit & Run, but I will no longer be a full time staffer. I will also be, um, living in Iowa. On a more happy note, I suspect that I will actually have time to blog here.
Hey, Iowa is a great place……to visit.
Just watch out for everyone with a blue license plate………
Good luck!
How many people can say they’ve lived in both Burma and Iowa? One of these days I’m going to check your blog only to learn you’ve moved to a pirate ship or the moon.
1) There is no greater good than free food.
Asking a grad student “How’s your thesis research going?” is worse than asking a woman her age.
2) See rule 1.
3) Funding comes pretty close to free food, but see rule 1.
4) Your thesis advisor is the enemy to be evaded at all costs.
5) Back when you were their age, you were so much better than those undergrads.
6) Even if you do manage to get some sleep, never admit how much sleep you actually got. It’s far better to brag that you didn’t get any sleep. You’ll get more respect that way.
7) Asking a grad student “What year are you?” is like asking a woman her age.
9) In every department there is at least one student who is wandering the halls getting absolutely nothing done. This is (usually) a rotating position, and he (it’s always a he) is actually a really cool person to get to know.
10) You may think that you have conquered once you have successfully defended your thesis, but there is still one adversary even more fearsome than the thesis committee: The librarian, who will rigorously enforce the most nitpicky thesis format guidelines imaginable. Do not celebrate until you have conquered that final foe.
The smiley was supposed to be 8.
Anyway, those are the rules of grad school. Learn them well, and you shall conquer.
Oh, one more rule: There’s probably at least one student who actually lives in the grad student lounge. This is why the couch stinks: He (it’s always a he) couldn’t be bothered to go and shower at the campus gym.
Kerry-
Iowa City is awesome. Joe’s Place is the requisite hang-out for grad students (it’s 21+, so it keeps the undergrad crowd out), but there is a fantastic live music scene too.
I’m a grad student and leader of a libertarian organization on campus. Check out the website link in my name. (It’s under construction, so it’s barebones.) We host a few events every year. Last year, we had Richard Campagna (he’s local to Iowa City) speak to about 50 people (definitely a record crowd for us, IC is an insufferably progressive city – it’s only fault). Lots of Reason fans in our group, so you’d be a great resource for young libertarians to talk to.
P.S. Thoreau is dead on. I’d add one: Stay away from the students who join the Graduate Student Senate. It attracts the same crowd high school student council did, and it’s just as useless.
Ah, but what about the people who go to grad student senate meetings and sit in the back of the room eating free pizza while reading research articles?
While I’m sad to see you leave Reason, I wish you the best of luck in your new endeavor and I’m glad that you’ll be continuing to blog here, as well as the occasional piece at Hit & Run.
I’ll surrender my title of Eastern Iowa’s #1 libertarian blogger to you. Best of luck.
I moved from DC to Des Moines in 94′ (for my hubby)…Iowa’s not all bad. The weather is awful yet everchanging and airfare out of Iowa is sky-high (forgive the pun). But if you like pork and sweet corn, you’re moving up in the world =) ’cause Iowa’s the place to be for such consumption. If you can, go to the state fair in mid-August…there’s nothing like it in the galaxy…I’m pretty sure of that.
I’ve been reading a few posts and really and enjoy your writing. I’m just starting up my own blog and only hope that I can write as well and give the reader so much insight.