Best (Academic) Day Ever

Today could not have gone any better. It started out with an MA thesis meeting that I was more than prepared for. It went amazingly well, my senior adviser was really happy with my progress on my univariate and bivariate analysis. I probably overwhelmed him with the massive amount of information that I brought to show during the meeting.

After the meeting I had about ten minutes to grab a bite to eat before heading to one of the classes I TA for. The class is two hours long and then directly after that I have my office hours. I rushed down stairs to one of the cafeterias and hoped to have time to grab something decent. As it was 12:20 PM the places where you can order freshly-made meals were pretty backed up. Glancing down at my phone I saw that it was now 12:25 and I needed to hurry. I quickly perused the area for anything edible that I could just grab and go. To my great fortune I found a ratatouille pizza. Piled high with zucchini, onions, green and red peppers, tomatoes, garlic, and most exciting eggplant. I have developed a great love for eggplant in my time as a vegetarian, despite the fact that it has little nutritional value. It looked and smelled so good, so I grabbed a piece and headed to the cashier. Upon arrival at the cashier station, I found the most amazing chocolate cookie that had both chocolate chips and white chocolate chips. I had to get it.

I got to the computer lab where the class is held and found a seat in the back (so that I can see if anyone is having problems with their computers or following along). My pizza tasted as good as it sounds (which means it tasted awesome for those of you who can't appreciate good food when you hear about it) and the cookie was moist and chocotastic. Class went by faster than normal and after class ended the professor had an argument with one of the students about opportunity and social stratification. She was saying that everyone has the opportunity to go to college and that those that don't are just lazy and blah blah blah. Chris (the professor) explained that it wasn't that simple and went on to explain social justice and how the system doesn't truly provide equal opportunities to everyone. I think he really got through to her. Every point she raised, he explained how it was fallacious and unsupported by research. He was really nice about the whole exchange and I appreciated the length at which he went to make her understand the biases that informed her world view.

Afterwards I chatted with Chris about his insane obsession with technology. He hates paper. He is in his late 20s to early 30s and has sworn off paper. To this end he has just found out how to scan his last 75 books into his computer faster than he originally thought. He was explaining how he has four widescreen computer monitors that he has turned horizontally for his computer. This is so that he can read an article (or a book that he has scanned in), run a statistical analysis program, work on whatever he is writing on, and watch TV all at the same time. I expressed that him getting rid of the physical copies of the books was blasphemous for an academic. He then explained that he is scanning them at a high enough resolution for them to be able to have them optically scanned and put into a database. This would allow them to be searched easily, enabling you to find whatever you were looking for easily.

After my class I went to check my mailbox in the Sociology and Anthropology office and ran into my second adviser. Last time I ran into him in the hall, I don't think he knew who I was. I should preface this by saying that we have only met once because he forgot about the committee meeting that we scheduled a couple months ago. He not only recognized me today but he also chatted with me for a bit about the meeting we have next week and one of the readings that he recommended for me. Most excitingly, he offered me an excellent opportunity to be involved with an amazingly interesting research project. The project involves examining the health of guest immigrant workers from Mexico. It will also involve examining the role of government policy in protecting the workers. The project is within my area of interest and on a topic that I can imagine myself working on, but from a U.S. perspective, when Heather and I go to D.C. A guest worker program is probably the next big step in the immigration debate in the U.S. and it would be interesting to be able to play a direct part in creating that policy, using the experience I have gained from studying it here.