#the ambitious academic

[the-ambitious-academic]

100 Days of Summer Productivity

So, over this summer break, I'd like to have some things I can do everyday, starting tomorrow, so I can look back and have some memories and/or new skills. I have some goals to set as well for this challenge!

So, what I was thinking is that I'll have one goal for learning Spanish, working on my book, and another that is just fun. I'd like to get at least one point for each. Basically, I'll try to spend some time for Spanish lessons, my book, and doing at least one thing for the memories. Here's what I'm thinking:

Spanish

Spend 30 minutes on a lesson relating to grammar, vocabulary, listening, or speaking.

Writing

Spend 30 minutes writing my book.

On a good day, I may aim for an hour instead.

Memories

Find a fun activity that doesn't include an electronic and do it for 30 minutes.

At least once a week, get out of the house and do something fun.

Okay, that sounds like a lot (1.5 hours or maybe even 2), but I don't really have any plans over the summer, so I'll have a lot of free time on my hands, especially if I'll be staying up late. This challenge will hopefully allow me to make the most of my summer rather than letting it pass me by.

#the ambitious academic #studyblr #langblr #writeblr #studyblr community challenge #100 days of productivity

[too-much-imagination]

This is how I’ve been looking since Monday and how I’ll look for the next three days. I’m panicking slightly.

Please, let me be better than ever on all of these tests.

#dark academia #dark acadamia aesthetic #chaotic academia #light academic aesthetic #light academia #chaotic academic aesthetic #chaos #thoughts #my thoughts #writing #books #study #studying #studying hard #study hard #exhausted #this shit is exhausting #stressed #exams #why am I so ambitious? #it should be illegal #please #let me do well #I’ve been studying so hard #I deserve a good mark #but it’s just a mark #why am i so obsessed #oh yeah #there it is #obsession

[innoctemastra]

An ambitious young woman with a good marriage, well on her way to quite some position, and then that man came along and you...melted in front of him... I did not melt.

#his dark materials #marisa coulter #lord asriel #masriel #asriel x marisa #james mcavoy #ruth wilson #the golden compass #two ambitious academics #it was doomed from the start #chaotic couple #mmmm two toxic people just dont mix well #idk who this is for...but hopefully someone enjoys it #young masriel has my heart #marisa probably broke the vase that girl need therapy but i love her #my gifs

[whentherewerebicycles]

okay well we spent two hours doing a small group brainstorming/planning activity using projects from people’s work and that was actually fun—I love doing that kind of ideation and planning work with people. then we had to sit through 30+ min of whole-group debrief where people stood up and monologued breathlessly about feeling held by the collective as we harvested each other’s wisdom which almost ruined the experience. but luckily I came prepared with a challenge to work through in my head lol.

today’s zoning-out project is mapping out the basic research skills class I’ll be teaching in the spring quarter. one of the big problems I’ve identified in my info-gathering interviews is that students can’t do some pretty basic research things (like reading academic articles, evaluating sources, conducting lit reviews on a given topic, etc) and so faculty don’t want to take them on as summer research assistants because it’s a ton of work to train them in those skills AND familiarize them with the faculty member’s questions and methods AND give them a crash-course on the existing scholarship around this topic. so I am trying to pilot a thing where faculty get extra research funds for taking on a small group of summer students… but my office takes them for a quarter first, trains them in those basic skills and helps them build relationships with the librarians, and has them do all their major activities & assignments using real sources/data related to the faculty member’s project. that way students have 10 weeks to practice the skills and learn at least some of the research before we hand them off to the faculty mentors for the summer. I think we will also provide ongoing mentoring + student services-type support throughout the summer so we can continue working on project management and skill-building type stuff with them individually as they are conducting research… but for now I am focusing on drafting a version of the spring course to workshop with the faculty members who have expressed interest in participating. anyway I am at the very earliest stages but today while zoning out I spent some time trying to unbundle some of the skills that go into engaging with academic sources… needs refining (and maybe even some more unbundling?) but here is a first stab at it:

#what am I missing #the big bundles I think we can tackle in 10 weeks are: #strategies for deciphering academic articles #strategies for taking notes + managing citations #using library databases (and librarian support lol) to find articles #strategies for assessing credibility/validity/significance of sources #and then like #what literature reviews look like and why we do them as researchers #and then I think we can begin creating small-scale lit reviews on given topics or questions #this is prob too ambitious for 10 weeks with students this inexperienced #but I think we can make a dent in it

[soldier-poet-king]

But maybe have you considered I DO need an unnamed, amorphous Great Work that I will someday undertake when I'm good and ready

#franposting #i need a purpose!!!! i need a great work!!! #idk what it is but i cant have all this ambition and drive and emotion for it for no reason #i need to create and i need to DO #and i am terrible and both and yet i am defined largely by this hunger for more #and the grief of existence #hunger and grief hunger and grief #more so than even the disability academic vibe. viktor is the hunger for me #and thats why ive latched on so quickly. its the need #i hate that abt myself and maybe i would be happier and kinder to be content with small things #i ought to be #and yet. and yet. i cannot shake it #i am an obsessive renaissance man in the chronically ill mind and body of a contemporary woman. i hate it. i hate the limitations so dearly #why cant i be aggressive and decisive and ambitious and hungry

[thebirdandhersong]

:'))))

#currently editing four papers to submit to our English department's annual academic conference #it's a fairly informal event because. like. well the advertising for the lit department is so bad that literally no one hears about it #and only eng lit people show up anyhow i think #but anyway i am so excited but also so nervous #this is the first time i've tried to do anything that i've already marked in my head as Ambitious and Daunting #but my professor told me to dream big when i went to ask him for advice earlier this week and i was like. okay sir i will #so i am dreaming big (and starting here) and i am trying to be Brave #it's so darn hard but at the same time it IS strangely exhilarating to try something new

[likeabxrdinflight]

I'm slowly realizing there's at least five potential publishable papers embedded in just my one dissertation study...

#I had zero publications before this study #but I think I can get quite a few out of it if I decide to be ambitious #the dissertation itself will be available on an archive but if I want anything published in a proper journal it'll have to be split up #academic journals don't publish 100+ page disserations lol

[jagthesiren]

#office siren #overachiever #yale #beauty and brains #academic validation #successmindset #ambitious

[opens-up-4-nobody]

If you happen to have any requests for merlin related drawings: I am desperately in the thrawls of obsession lmao

#its bc im on a narut0 hiatus. by my system is to watch until it starts to give me a headache #thats why im still not finished after a year. im just rewatching t4skmaster until i get bored and go back #but bbc merlin is currently a tumor in my head lol #probably bc im also slightly obsessed with religion atm and the hypothetical struggle between Christianity and the old religion in merlin #is like so good. but im ya kno a bit. *ambitious wave of hand* overly academic and neurodivergent lol #and posting at 8.30am bc i dont wanna go do my job lol #also im sorry if i ignore requests after asking for them. i have so many that sit in my head #and i love them all but making them exist is a matter of magic and luck lmao #unrelated #hhhh also im so tired and need to focus on my photosynthesis doc 😫 bc i must be doing 10 things at once constantly or i die

[mcmactictac]

So I’m trying to write a paper on the pros and cons of fandom culture for a media class right. And let me just say it makes me SO MAD trying to find sources because there are so many genuinely wonderful things about fandom and there are many complex social issues reflected in them. Yet so many of these articles are all just based so heavily in sexism? Like playing into that “crazy fangirl” stereotype. And listen I get it yk some people are like that. But I want to talk about WHY fandom is so important to so many people.

Everyone is so quick to judge without getting any understanding of where the sense of attachment comes from. Yes, fandoms have bad people. Yes, there is fetishization, doxing, and a shit load of other problems. It just drives me nuts that those problems are pointed out and no academic sources make an effort to figure out why those problems occurred. Like the relationship between society and fandom is so fucking interesting and its really interesting to see how different fanbases reflect different viewpoints on things.

Also I’m tired of everyone saying we control the media. I have not sat through years of queerbaits; through all of November 5th and the hell that came after it for people to say that producers always listen to fans and give them whatever they want/target everything towards them. Like yes ofc massive media companies are going to take advantage of people cause sadly that’s just how so many of them are. But that doesn’t take away from the genuine meaning and support that media gives us? 

Like brief academic moment here we’ve been talking about Stanley Hall’s model of communication and the idea of encoding and decoding, and how media can have multiple different meanings. I fully agree that people’s own cultural experiences and personal contexts change the way they interpret something. And it’s absolutely fascinating to see how fanbases can have such a large majority of people who draw the same conclusion from media based on their experiences. Especially with queerbaiting and queer coding. I've been thinking about BBC Merlin a lot recently and how interesting that show is not only on its own but in relation to it’s fandom. How so many people can watch it and see magic as something so clearly queercoded, and identify themselves with that characters, and then other people can insist that we’re grasping for straws. 

I just wish it was taken more seriously yk? Like the good and the bad that comes along with it are both very real and intense emotions, especially with so many neurodiverse people in fandom space who become hyperfixated on media. That’s something that has a massive impact on people. Fandom can be a space to connect with others, to explore your own identity, to critically reflect on what you’re consuming, to inspire yourself to create! 

Whenever people outside of fandoms talk about fanfiction it’s always about slash fiction and YES that is a part of it but I have read some truly incredible and impactful fanfictions that has understood the target audience better than a majority of media sources. Fanfiction that can speak to you, reflect your own feelings, provide a sense of comfort or a way to express emotion. Like yes there’s fic’s that are just smut but I’ve seen just as many 100k+ fics that are like focused around found family, mental health issues, AU’s with incredible worldbuilding, fans who put the devotion into creating well rounded characters and expanding upon the foundation placed before them. I’m tired of all that being ignored, because it should be appreciated. I’ve seen so many people who manage to communicate a certain feeling or emotion through fanfiction better than in books I’ve read.

And as so much of adolescent culture shifts online I think fandom spaces are HUGE in terms of self discovery. I’m tired of adults invalidating fandoms because it’s just “made up of obsessive teen girls” there is so much more to that and every day I am tempted to write an essay (not for class) on it because I have so many thoughts on it and I absolutely hate that people refuse to take it seriously.

Wow ok clearly had some feelings there thanks for coming to my TED talk 

#rant #fandom #fandom culture #was this ambitious of me to do for an academic essay? Yes. Will that stop me? No.

[the-ambitious-academic]

Welcome to my Blog!

📚 You can call me Wesley or by my url

📚 I use thon/thons pronouns

Academics

📚 Major: Geological Sciences

Language Learning

📚 What I Know:

English

📚 What I'm Learning:

Spanish

📚 What I Plan on Learning:

Brazilian Portuguese

Swahili

Scottish Gaelic

#the ambitious academic #studyblr #langblr #blog intro

[iishmael]

I went for a run!!! Everyone give me an extra star for being so mental health

#bc the only thing about that was MENTAL health #my cardio is soooo fucked 😂😂😂 #I low-key wanna start running again and do yoga and Pilates again bc #I don’t think I will survive the phd if I don’t do some form of sport #I hate that this is a fact but the human body unfortunately does occasionally need movement #I wish I could just be an academic amoeba trust me xxx #anyway I’m gonna go buy couscous now and make lunch #and then I’m gonna WRITE THE ICE MAV FIC I rlly wanna get past 15k today hehehe #secretly would love to hit 17k but that’s maybe a bit ambitious #shut up Sam

[allthisheaven2]

its unreal how much time i spend on storygraph. adding books to my to read pile. looking at other peoples reviews + to read piles for inspiration. never picking up a fucking book and instead switching to the ao3 tab to refresh the rory gilmore slash jess mariano page. i am my own biggest enemy

#currently reading wuthering heights for a class + bought NW by zadie smith + need to pass by the library to borrow jane eyre + anything by #george eliot also for a class. im being so so ambitious rn!!!! #nw i probably wont get to i havent had time for non class reading in. ages. and when i do it will be for the yearly secret history read #missing my little academic freaks rn. particularly henry and richard this time around #cant wait to dive back in + reading tsh always gets me going writingwise. ugh so much to look forward to #(im literally so barely hanging on but well. call me sisyphus)

[polaraffect]

I need to learn to carry the energy I have about academics at the beginning of the semester into the rest of the term because if I did I would have a much better time keeping up with my work

#damien.txt #me at 1 a.m. planning out my entire undergraduate degree and including some very ambitious classes #like an advanced latin literature class. do i really think at the end of the year when i've taken two more semesters of latin #i'll actually want to sign up for that? who knows! probably not! in theory it would be cool though y'know? #i value academics so much i just have a really awful problem with procrastination because it's been engrained into me #from years and years of not having to try that hard #but uhhh i'm taking 5 senior-lvl classes this semester so 😎 i think it's sink or swim time #i had my depression episode Last Semester so i should be good for this one right? .....Right? #it has to be true bc i need this semester to go well <3 i want to have a good academic life or whatever

[papervo1d]

i never talk about my ocs because i only write every two million years and i cant draw people for the life of me so i'm just gonna rant about my main 4 in the tags

(i actually ran out of tags!!! lmao. feel free to ignore this post)

#seren is my love and my life #she is a sorceress who worships the moon and studies moonlight/spacey sorceries. very powerful and intelligent lady #she teaches younger sorcerers and is very well known/respected sorcerer. but also very ambitious and dabbles in forbidden sorceries #she's ginger 5'1 and ready to kick your ass #her best friend is equally as chaotic #his name is astel (like the boss from elden ring....) #(he was unnamed for a very long time) #he's awful at social situations. man says and does whatever he wants #he's more of a battle sorcerer instead of an academic. still very smart to the point of being cruel #astel and seren are the definition of mlm wlw solidarity #individually they are incredibly smart. together they share one braincell #they're my favourite dynamic i love them both so much #now. azura is very special to me #she was actually inspired by susie from deltarune!! but her personality is not quite the same as susie's #big sword lady. very honourable knight. the most open minded person you will every meet #and by big sword lady i mean. big sword lady. she's 6'3 #seren and azura have a healthy respect for each other. a power duo #azura also goes by azi and is a huge lesbian. is very much in love with the queen she serves #and din!! din is one of the first ocs i ever made #they are originally inspired by the faceless men in game of thrones and has kept a lot of those qualities #also partially inspired by the aes sedai from wheel of time #they are an assassin for a death cult. they see death as a merciful thing #they are incredibly serene and calm. to the point of appearing cold #but they are true to their word. if they say they will do something then you can guarantee it will be done #din and astel clash big time because astel eventually becomes their target #but din and seren get on to some level. its a rocky relationship but they can rely on each other #their friendship is ruined once din tried to kill astel #astel has a rough backstory that seren is unaware of. and so she protects him without knowing why someone might target him #meanwhile din and azi are the best of friends and azi feel pity for din #din is also partially inspired by kris from deltarune so. the friendship din and azi have is the same as kris and susie

[djmousewife]

i need to learn languages again

#kankum #top contenders atm are #arabic (probs syrian bc thats the textbooks i have) yiddish romanian or if im feeling ambitious farsi #but also from a purely i like being able to read academic stuff standpoint #french & german would be very useful #tho ig i can cross the german bridge once im better at yiddish #problem w farsi is ive been told i pronounce it like arabic which is embarrassing lmao #maybe ill do a poll