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GOGSoc Episode V: The GOG Strikes Back

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Original post by The Lyceum

Do you think this a general thing or affected by class distribution? I.e is the need to be "manly" and engage in these sanctioned activities much heavier in the lower classes as, say, here and in Greece and Italy? I doubt not that it's much more wide spread, just curious

Disclaimer: I've not studied this in detail so its just my opinion. I think class does come into it. South Africa is obviously poorer. Education is correlated with being more liberal, and there's a significantly smaller pool of people who get degrees or go into postgraduate study. I think learning is also less valued. Reading was distinctly uncool among my peers.

I definitely don't want to imply I support a linear way of thinking about 'development', but the UK has had a different history and development to South Africa. South Africa is considerably more religious (a good deal of people think they are 'Christian' to some degree or another), and there are a lot more strong traditional communities. Afrikaans culture has a very strong national identity and is very conservative. And most tribal groups also have very conservative, traditional norms and practices.

In fairness I think the UK is unusually good in terms of liberal values even in contrast to other European countries! And I think national identity/tradition is connected to that. The UK doesn't really have a strong national identity and has a constant mixing of different people from all over, and the makeup of the population is always in flux.
Original post by The Lyceum
let's say I want to go back in time and kick the crap out of 11 year old me. With a shovel.


:console: :hugs: :console:
I wanted to be a scientist, then an author, then an author of science books (kind of like Ben Goldacre, I suppose), and then an airline pilot- until my vision started failing, damnit.

Secondary school, well, I wasn't really sure. I really annoyed the school careers advisor by asking if I could be "a school careers advisor, because it seems to be fairly easy!".

Currently, I dream of running away and selling coal and diesel from a narrowboat on the canal. Quite the opposite of what I'm actually meant to be doing!
My fiance's supervisor-to-be has added him on facebook :lol:
We're doing that 'what we wanted to be as children' thing? We're going there? Okay:

Age 3-5: A fairy, a vet, or a fairy who is also a vet.
Age 6-7: A paleontologist (I must have been going through a serious phase).
Age 8: Chess player who is also a gymnast, who practices vetinary medicine and sings (less serious phase).
Age 9 -11: Actress. I was obsessed with this, and hated any child who thought they could upstage me. It was my 'All About Eve' phase.
Age 12 -15: Violinist. This actually happened for a while.
Age 15-21: Literature professor.
Age 22-present: [ ? ] Like, maybe a writer who looks after rescued animals and also sails? (I think I'm regressing to c. age 8).
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Piggsil
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Original post by the_alba
We're doing that 'what we wanted to be as children' thing? We're going there? Okay:

Age 3-5: A fairy, a vet, or a fairy who is also a vet.
Age 6-7: A paleontologist (I must have been going through a serious phase).
Age 8: Chess player who is also a gymnast, who practices vetinary medicine and sings (less serious phase).
Age 9 -11: Actress. I was obsessed with this, and hated any child who thought they could upstage me. It was my 'All About Eve' phase.
Age 12 -15: Violinist. This actually happened for a while.
Age 15-21: Literature professor.
Age 22-present: [ ? ] Like, maybe a writer who looks after rescued animals and also sails? (I think I'm regressing to c. age 8).

Why not go there? I feel in my element in this type of discussion :redface:

Also, I was sad to read about you feeling intimidated by the weights area in your gym. I think a lot of women fel this way and it's a shame. Certainly a lot of girls posting in the fitness forum mention this as a reason they can't include weights in their routine. I also felt this way. The way I combatted this was to go into the section with someone I knew. I knew what exercises I wanted to do and had researched and practiced them beforehand so I at least looked like I had a clue. Then as I started to train there more often I realised that 99% of the people in there were doing stupid pointless exercises, and doing them badly. I also realised that there was nobody looking at me, and if they were I stopped caring after a few sessions. Who wants to look at someone all sweaty and red-faced with ill-fitting joggers anyway? :p: I have mentioned before that lifting weights has changed my life, I don't say that lightly :smile:
I did the vet thing for a while, then actress for about 3 months. After that it was all about being a classical music teacher (and partially musucian) from the age of 11 until about 17. Until I went on a school trip to DC and thought that seemed like a lot of fun. Applied for an internship out there and oops got it (with genuinely very little effort). After that it was all about the politics, although its only in the last 6 months Ive come to terms with doing it in the UK rather than US.

I kind of wish I had gone thru some odd job phases. I feel a bit weird for never having wanted to be a teacher/pop star/air hostess. Being a fairy seems ****ing awesome.
Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd
:console: :hugs: :console:


Don't get me wrong, there is something....fascinating at being one of the few people actually able to look back almost 4000 years into the past and actually decode some of this stuff. It's exciting. But I just regret taking it for an assessed module since....well....I'm going to get kicked in the teeth basically when the marks come out.

Some of it is really charming, like when you uncover what is possibly an early legal dispute between a priestess and a land owner, or orders for the fitting of a warship etc. Obviously there's also some horrific stuff and even some baffling stuff too, but still....I think it would have better to keep this particular module as a non assessed side interest!

I say this ever year but....from now on I'm going to play to my strengths not what looks interesting. I always jeopardise my marks and now....even if I somehow get a funding offer my grades won't meet it. :s-smilie:

Original post by Craghyrax
Disclaimer: I've not studied this in detail so its just my opinion. I think class does come into it. South Africa is obviously poorer. Education is correlated with being more liberal, and there's a significantly smaller pool of people who get degrees or go into postgraduate study. I think learning is also less valued. Reading was distinctly uncool among my peers.

I definitely don't want to imply I support a linear way of thinking about 'development', but the UK has had a different history and development to South Africa. South Africa is considerably more religious (a good deal of people think they are 'Christian' to some degree or another), and there are a lot more strong traditional communities. Afrikaans culture has a very strong national identity and is very conservative. And most tribal groups also have very conservative, traditional norms and practices.

In fairness I think the UK is unusually good in terms of liberal values even in contrast to other European countries! And I think national identity/tradition is connected to that. The UK doesn't really have a strong national identity and has a constant mixing of different people from all over, and the makeup of the population is always in flux.


I thought that might be the case, though I don't know to what degree I'd agree with the UK not having a strong national identity. Again I think it comes down to class, but also in the UK, ethnic background and maybe even area (which, ok, is tied to economics and class) but obviously I'm just speculating here since I'm not really the one to talk to about modern societies.
Original post by The Lyceum
Don't get me wrong, there is something....fascinating at being one of the few people actually able to look back almost 4000 years into the past and actually decode some of this stuff. It's exciting. But I just regret taking it for an assessed module since....well....I'm going to get kicked in the teeth basically when the marks come out.

Some of it is really charming, like when you uncover what is possibly an early legal dispute between a priestess and a land owner, or orders for the fitting of a warship etc. Obviously there's also some horrific stuff and even some baffling stuff too, but still....I think it would have better to keep this particular module as a non assessed side interest!

I say this ever year but....from now on I'm going to play to my strengths not what looks interesting. I always jeopardise my marks and now....even if I somehow get a funding offer my grades won't meet it. :s-smilie:


:hugs: It's always a hard call to make: choosing between what gets good marks and what is interesting. Ideally one could combine both but often it's not the case :no:
Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd
:hugs: It's always a hard call to make: choosing between what gets good marks and what is interesting. Ideally one could combine both but often it's not the case :no:


Yes well the thing is it's not as if this is going to be a MASSIVE help to me in future, part of me just really wanted to learn an interesting skill-set. I don't think I'd ever make a good archaeologist though, one of my professors always used to say that she enjoyed discussions with me but that I'd be a nightmare on a dig due to my hyperactivity. :o:D:tongue:

Hopefully it will work out for the best. I'm already looking towards alternative career paths anyway.
Original post by The Lyceum
Yes well the thing is it's not as if this is going to be a MASSIVE help to me in future, part of me just really wanted to learn an interesting skill-set. I don't think I'd ever make a good archaeologist though, one of my professors always used to say that she enjoyed discussions with me but that I'd be a nightmare on a dig due to my hyperactivity. :o:D:tongue:

Hopefully it will work out for the best. I'm already looking towards alternative career paths anyway.


Learning a new skill set is always good for transferable/unique skills you can put on your CV, especially for alternative career paths :yes:
Original post by sj27
Ah, that I can tell you as we have looked into this... basically, if he has a work permit, you as a spouse are entitled to live or study there but not work, unless you also manage to convince someone to sponsor a work permit for you. On the other hand, this might be easier to do once you're there. However, I'm not sure how it would work for a post-doc position - as I understand the visa usually issued for post-doc is J1, which is neither a "normal" work (H1) nor study (F1) visa - not sure if J1 is automatic or not when a spouse has a work permit.

Mid-Feb will be here before you know it! Hope you get good news!


Thanks for this info (PRSOM). So do you mean that as a spouse of someone with a work permit, I'd be able to live there on a semi-permanent basis (meaning, they wouldn't make me leave the country and reapply for a visa every 3 - 6 months? Because if so that would be great).

As for post-doc, I'm not sure how my residency status at the time of applying for a post-doc would really apply? Given that I'd be applying for them from over here in the UK anyway, even if I wasn't living in the States? Maybe I'm misunderstanding something. Also, presumably they wouldn't count my freelance writing as 'work'? For instance, if I was getting the odd pay cheque from the Guardian while living in NC, would that be breaking the law to them?! I know what *******s they can be about things like this (NB. recent story about young Irish couple being refused entry to the states because of a tweet about digging up Marilyn Monroe...).
(edited 12 years ago)
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sj27
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Original post by the_alba
Thanks for this info (PRSOM). So do you mean that as a spouse of someone with a work permit, I'd be able to live there on a semi-permanent basis (meaning, they wouldn't make me leave the country and reapply for a visa every 3 - 6 months? Because if so that would be great).

As for post-doc, I'm not sure how my residency status at the time of applying for a post-doc would really apply? Given that I'd be applying for them from over here in the UK anyway, even if I wasn't living in the States? Maybe I'm misunderstanding something. Also, presumably they wouldn't count my freelance writing as 'work'? For instance, if I was getting the odd pay cheque from the Guardian while living in NC, would that be breaking the law to them?! I know what *******s they can be about things like this (NB. recent story about young Irish couple being refused entry to the states because of a tweet about digging up Marilyn Monroe...).


The info on spouses is somewhere in their not-very-user-friendly websites, I'll see if I can find it. But absolutely as a spouse you wouldn't have to re-enter every 6 months! Re the post-doc, you might find better/reliable info from one of the universities about this. It will matter where you are when you apply in terms of if you are there already you will need to apply for a "change of status" in your visa, but I didn't realise you would be applying from the UK. If he gets the job, when would he be expected to start?

I can't see that receiving income from a non-US source counts as working in the US.
Life was so much easier as a child: in primary school, it was being a policeman; computing from age 11 to 14 (even did a course and could build a computer from scratch); then realised I wasn't as good at maths as I thought. From 14 through to a level years it was being a lawyer and an mp then I studied politics at university and wanted to do neither. Now I'll take any job that accepts me!
Reply 314
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sj27
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Original post by sj27
The info on spouses is somewhere in their not-very-user-friendly websites, I'll see if I can find it. But absolutely as a spouse you wouldn't have to re-enter every 6 months! Re the post-doc, you might find better/reliable info from one of the universities about this. It will matter where you are when you apply in terms of if you are there already you will need to apply for a "change of status" in your visa, but I didn't realise you would be applying from the UK. If he gets the job, when would he be expected to start?

I can't see that receiving income from a non-US source counts as working in the US.


Crikey, I know I have seen it officially on a US gov website but can't find it now. Here is a wikik link, which basically confirms what I remembered. btw I am assuming your husband (to be?) would be on an H1B which is the most common work permit; you would be on an H4 visa attached to that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-4_visa
Original post by sj27
The info on spouses is somewhere in their not-very-user-friendly websites, I'll see if I can find it. But absolutely as a spouse you wouldn't have to re-enter every 6 months! Re the post-doc, you might find better/reliable info from one of the universities about this. It will matter where you are when you apply in terms of if you are there already you will need to apply for a "change of status" in your visa, but I didn't realise you would be applying from the UK. If he gets the job, when would he be expected to start?

I can't see that receiving income from a non-US source counts as working in the US.

Dave and I were having a big debate about whether to get non-legally married in order to protest against the injustice surrounding privileges that married couples get in comparison to those in civil partnerships.
I agreed with the principle but told Dave that it might be too much of a sacrifice if we wanted to move to another country, and being officially married might make the visa thing easier. Dave's argument was that if it did turn out that we needed to be 'officially' married for some really crucial benefit, we could just pop down to the registry, as and when needed :p:
In the end all of this speculation evaporated because apparently there isn't any way to be non-legally married if you have an Anglican service, because CofE weddings are automatically state recognised :dontknow:
Original post by The Lyceum

I say this ever year but....from now on I'm going to play to my strengths not what looks interesting. I always jeopardise my marks and now....even if I somehow get a funding offer my

No don't! I hate people who are all instrumental about what subjects they study/questions they choose for the exam etc. etc. :grumble: I knew lots of people who got perfect grades that way, and it really bugged me how undeserving the whole thing was. People who genuinely cared and were immersed in the subject for its own sake get punished :colonhash: And it also seemed like the instrumental types would also argue the line they thought would go down best too :grumble:

And funding isn't completely about grades. A lot of it is to do with references and how well your proposal 'fits' a particular supervisor and department. My funding offer was unconditional, and all I had to show at the time of application was a 2.1 at undergrad. So be too fatalistic.
However if you're only applying for very competitive Universities, it might be wise to put in a back up. A lot of Universities only have funding deadlines round about late-Feb.
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 316
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hobnob
14
Apparently I wanted to be a professor when I was 4 years old, but I don't remember that, so I'm a little suspicious of that story.:erm: I don't actually think I had any very definite career plans as a child, I just had a vague sense of wanting to be surrounded by books...
I guess you're right Craghy, I mean I want to get the best education that I can, but then I look around at what most of my fellow students are doing and feel like kicking myself. My supervisor even told me not to take a module since it would blatantly be a very easy distinction for me.

Not all the people here are doing that, I hasten to add, I know quite a few more who are choosing based on interest and further research aspirations. It's just...ah I wonder sometimes.

It's not at all bleak, by the way, it just seems that it would be odd to come here and all talk about everything that's going great. :tongue:
Wanted to be a Vet for most of my childhood, the decision to take Architecture came relatively late, after thinking about graphic and product design. Then when I started the Architecture course I realised it was exactly not what I wanted to do, which was kind of annoying! Luckily I drifted my way into research (after a year working in a shop) through contact with an old supervisor!

Also just had some fantastic customer service from Dell, regarding James' laptop which he bought in September. It has never worked and he's been borrowing mine a lot which has been difficult. He'd not got around to doing anything about it (to be fair he has been so incredibly busy) but I thought that the issue might be with the connection to the screen so I took it to a repair shop hoping for a quick fix. Turns out the motherboard is badgered. Esimated repair cost £200. (original cost of [refurbished] laptop: £200). Rang Dell, and turns out the machine was still under warranty! So, they are going to collect it and fix it for no charge! And they were really helpful. Pleasantly surprised.
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 319
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apotoftea
OP
19
Original post by the_alba
Thanks for this info (PRSOM). So do you mean that as a spouse of someone with a work permit, I'd be able to live there on a semi-permanent basis (meaning, they wouldn't make me leave the country and reapply for a visa every 3 - 6 months? Because if so that would be great).

As for post-doc, I'm not sure how my residency status at the time of applying for a post-doc would really apply? Given that I'd be applying for them from over here in the UK anyway, even if I wasn't living in the States? Maybe I'm misunderstanding something. Also, presumably they wouldn't count my freelance writing as 'work'? For instance, if I was getting the odd pay cheque from the Guardian while living in NC, would that be breaking the law to them?! I know what *******s they can be about things like this (NB. recent story about young Irish couple being refused entry to the states because of a tweet about digging up Marilyn Monroe...).


Just as an aside, a friend of mine married an American last year (had lived in the US for 3 years when they met obviously, came back then went out again, then came back because of visa issues). She's only just got her working visa & that's got a max amount of years on it and it isn't many from what I remember her saying. And despite being engaged (at the time) she still had to prove she was marrying him, they shared a dog, spent Christmas together blah blah blah

ETS: I could probably put you in touch as she's a walking book on the subject of US visas as a UK national!
(edited 12 years ago)

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