Friday, January 27, 2006

I'm Back!

I returned last night from my last out-of-town interview. Well, that's a little misleading. Let's say, from my last interview, full stop!

I have to say that yesterday morning was possibly the nicest morning I've had since the holidays, of course not counting the spousal absence bit. (I wish he could have been there to enjoy the languor.)

As I had two visits on the other side of the state, one on Wednesday and one on Thursday, I stayed in a hotel near Grand Rapids the night between. My Thursday appointment wasn't until 2pm, so I had all of Thursday morning to myself.

Although I awoke at 6:30 despite my best efforts to stay asleep, I managed at least to stay in bed until 8, at which time I leisurely slouched down to breakfast. The buffet had the usual "cereal and bagels" kind of options, but they also had an array of cups of waffle batter and waffle irons set up so patrons could make their own waffles, which I did.

After lingering over my waffle, I meandered upstairs and dozed on the bed for another hour and read some of my current book (Sorcery and Cecilia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot). it was a shame that checkout was at 11, because I could really have dozed for another couple of hours. Even the shower had great water pressure. I didn't check out until the absolute crack of 11. Yep, most luxurious morning ever.

So now I'm back, and have to get to the tsunami of duties that have been on hold since before the holidays. [drowning not waving].

Oh, and there's also that pesky task of rating all the internship sites on various weighted characteristics and entering them into the computerized APPIC system, to see if the places that I liked, liked me. (Once you've entered your rankings, you're legally obligated to accept the site that it pairs you up with, so you have to be pretty certain.)

9 comments:

Tim said...

What a minute. You have to rate them and they have to rate you and the one that the computer matches you with is the one you have to take? Did I read that right?

This sounds way too much like computer dating to me...

liz said...

Yes. You create a ranked list of the one(s) you'd be willing to accept, and they do the same with their applicants.

It _is_ like computer dating, only backwards: you meet _first_ and _then_ the computer hooks you up.

Believe me, it's a much better system than existed up until 7 or 8 years ago, which was all by phone.

Yep, you'd have to wait by the phone all day on Match Day and hope a site would call. If it wasn't your first choice site that called first, you might be able to put them off for an hour or so while you waited to see if that first-choice site was going to call, but there was always the possibility that everyone _except_ that one would call.

And if you put them off too long hoping for the #1 site that never called, you'd have to wait another year.

But if you accepted a lesser site and then your first-choice called, you were just screwed and had to take the one you'd agreed to.

So I'd say that the computer ranking system is way better.

Tim said...

Wow, it is like computer dating! Thankfully, I didn't have to endure such a system with Library Science. Actually, I didn't endure any system at all, because I wasn't required to do said internship.

I remember looking into the process for physic grads though, while I briefly contemplated pursuing Cosmology. It seemed similar to the process for getting into a college, though way more competitive (obviously). In the long run, it didn’t matter, as I realized that physics would soon be replaced by conservatism (ahem).

Oh, if you haven't been by already, I do have my site and blog back up. So stop by when you get the time. If you go to geistweg, just click on the blog link in the site guide; you will have to sign-in to post comments, but doing it once sets your username (etc) and then you'll not have to do again (theoretically -- keep your fingers crossed).

liz said...

I know. You guys have both gone all non-linear, confusing me terribly.

Tim said...

Actually, I did one of those things where I downloaded the WordPress software back during the holidays but then didn't change over right away. I left it there on my server and didn't change until I found a template I liked.

And frankly, I just couldn't pass up the category ranking system that Squible uses. That's just too cool for school.

If you just can't stand the non-linear aspect though, just click on my archives and view the entire site that way. It's the same entries, only in a linear format.

argotnaut said...

Or you can use an aggregator. I like http://www.netvibes.com/ to collect my personal front page.

I need to upgrade both WordPress and Squible. But no time until -- I dunno, spring break?

Tim said...

Oh, and they just released a new version of Squible (Beta One) with all manner of new features. I'm going to hold off on upgrading until they work out the bugs though.

liz said...

That's how I'll approach the inevitable Neuromancer-style brain chips.

argotnaut said...

I want to go first! Memememe!