renate.nu

I talked to my boss today about my possible plans for a master’s degree in history, and at first she just said that well, a master’s degree is always nice and handy. Then I told her the topic I’ve been thinking about for my thesis, and she was all for it. It’s not that her approval will be a decisive factor, but if I can get her behind me, then maybe I can get approval for paid time off to attend lectures, and that counts for a LOT. Right now, I go to lectures 4 hours a week, but that’s time I have to work extra later to make up for.

And the thing is, I might be able to start taking master level classes already this fall. I’m only missing one mandatory course to get my bachelor’s diploma (it’s silly – it’s one of the courses that you’re supposed to take during your first year of studying, I just chose not to). I’d originally planned on taking at least one more bachelor level class in history, to make my bachelor’s degree more uniform and not such a patchwork of different studies, but I don’t know. The thing is, I don’t have to, and if I get a master’s degree, no one’s going to care what courses I did for my bachelor’s. But then I had also originally planned on studying this spring plus the coming fall, and then take next spring off and just work. I don’t know. It might be dangerous to take time off, too, because that will just make it harder to get started again.

Either way, here’s what I should do (later in the year, when I’ve had more time to think):

• Talk to the institute to figure out how I’d need to plan the degree when doing it part time.
• Talk to the professor I want as an advisor for my thesis, and see if he thinks my idea is any good at all.
• Figure out if work will “sponsor” me.

I was doing some research for my term paper, and did a google search on toys/games from the 50s and 60s. I didn’t find what I needed, but I did find a report written by young children, with such gems as these (freely translated from Norwegian):

“Toys are a great advantage to thousands of children.”

“If you’re playing that a cat is in love with a turtle, you look happy. Sounds crazy, but it’s true.”

“Toys and movies and so on are so popular that my guess is they will last throughout the entire history.”

“This is a Nintendo. It’s a game machine that they used about 20-30 years ago.”

“Nintendo has many games to the different kinds of Nintendo, but the older the Nintendo, the older the graphics.”

Also, under the chapter on toys from the 50s and 60s there’s a picture of a hippie van.

So the other night, I had a very vivid dream that the house (with me in it, obviously) was being attacked by Decepticons.

Decepticons. Attacking my house.

I was halfway out the bedroom door, my robe barely on, before I realised that hey, aren’t you being silly? Because Decepticons? They wouldn’t bother skulking around outside your bedroom window before attacking. They’d just crush the house, with you in it.

Silly.

…but as it is, I am considering a master’s degree in history. Yes! Last semester I would say almost every day how yeah, I’d get a master’s degree, but NOT in history, no siree, not EVAH. But now, I kinda want to. I’ve even got some possible thesis subjects on my mind.

This whole change came because of one thing: I moved on from the lower level history-of-everything classes, on to the more specialised ones, where you don’t have to know EVERYTHING within a given time period (seriously, antiquity AND the middle ages? Those are a lot of years to cover.), but rather delve more deeply into a subject (more or less) of your own choosing. Obviously you have to pick from the available classes, but we have a pretty diverse group of classes to choose from. I went with history of work and daily life (HWDL), and history of technology (HT). So far, work and daily life is the best. Really. The professor is so nice, and the group is small. This is also true for history of technology, but I don’t know, for now I just feel more connected to HWDL. Our term paper subject is also a good one: Write a historically angled text about changes that have happened in a field concerning one or more groups of people, as related to work and/or daily life. Meaning? Write about almost anything, as long as it’s well researched and well written. AWE-SOME. I’m probably writing mine about the changes in work and daily life for women over the span of two generations – the first generation being my grandmother’s, the second being my mom’s. We have to find the majority of our literature/other sources from outside the course books, and he mentioned interviews as being one of the possible sources. So I’m going to interview my mom, about her life as a girl and more or less up to now, and about my grandmother’s life. I do wish my grandmother was still alive so that I could interview her directly, but that’s life. Also, my mom said that had grandma still been alive now, her memories would probably have been rather jumbled anyway.

The term paper for history of technology has yet to be given out, but apparently they’re not looking for run of the mill, straight outta the books, this-is-what-I-think-my-professor-wants-to-hear kind of stuff, but rather a more daring paper where we speak our own minds about whatever the topic is, and throw out thoughts and ideas that might seem far fetched. Both professors have specified that they don’t want us to just KNOW the facts and recite what’s been written by others, but that we think, and form our own thoughts, and as long as we can back them up with good arguments – based on our readings, and/or other sources – we can’t go much wrong. I love this. I love it when there is no right and wrong, where I can just let my thoughts spin a web of their own. It’s what I excel at. I’m so much better at that than with spewing out years and names and causes of wars. I like thinking. I like speculating. I like arguing points that the standard history books won’t, because it might take up a whole chapter just to explain it all.

This semester is going to be great. I can’t wait!

In Baudrillard, for example, an analysis based on the production of goods gives way to one based on the exposure and critique of the production of meaning, for instance the ’simulation’ and ‘hyperreality’ that characterize sustaining fictions of the ‘real’ within modern culture. -Patrick Joyce in “Class”

I’ve read it about ten times now, written it two times, and I still fail to grasp the meaning of it. Maybe tomorrow. Now, I will take a non-curriculum book with me to bed – my bedmate (besides the husband, obviously) for the last week or so has been George R. R. Martin’s “A Clash of Kings”, and it’s marvelous. Never too tired for some good fantasy.

So I have this thing that’s on my mind a lot. More or less every day. And I sort of want to blog about it, but then I’m not sure that I want to put it out there. Not because I’m worried about it for my own sake, but rather because of what it might mean for someone else. And could I be any more vague? I’m sorry, but this blogging dilemma is also on my mind a lot. It all comes down to, I guess, the fine line between sharing and sharing too much, although most people wouldn’t count this as too much – on the contrary, several people have blogs dedicated only to this topic.

I want this to be an honest blog, I really do. But this topic, it’s a little scary, it’s complicated, and like I said, involves more people than just me.

…yeah, I didn’t get any wiser either.

I never could seem to keep my New Year’s resolutions, so this year I’m going to list a few goals per month, to make it easier to actually overcome.

My goals for January:

• Go to the gym once a week.
• Finish reading Leonardo to the Internet.
• Read one other book OR article pertaining to my studies.
• Read one fiction novel.
• Make one dinner and one dessert from the recipes in Nigella Express.
• Finish the redesign of Renate.nu.

I’m starting easy.