Welcome. :)

Welcome to my blog. Here I share my successes and failures along my journey to becoming an anthropologist. My most prominent interest anthropologically are the new approaches to handing food security/healthy eating in the US, particularly in urban "food deserts". I enjoy the Anthropology of Tourism as well; combining food and tourism has scholarly promise. My other interests which have converted into anthropological hobbies of sorts include converts to Islam, diaspora of Muslims, and MENA in general. I also have some interest in historical archaeology.

I welcome comments, discussion and even respectful debating. I will however keep discussions to a respectable level. I reserve the right to ban anyone from this forum.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

First day of classes

The laziness is over....time to get to work. lol

I drove here super early to work out at the gym. I don't have the syllabi for the classes yet so I am playing the waiting game. I have the computer and a few books to keep me occupied. I am rarely bored in the traditional sense. I go though periods of stillness and quiet without an actual goal in mind. I love those times.

I am reading (1/2over) The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. My sisters both said that book changed their life. I could use a life change so I picked it up. Literally. I had bought it and it was in one of my bookshelves.

Arabic is making me nervous but Culture, Power and Development seems like it will be the bomb.

anthrogeek10

Friday, August 21, 2009

career profile test #2

Here is another one I came across but it so inaccurate!! I repeatedly said I am not proficent at math and they said I would make a good engineer. Umm..no. However, it said I had a "strong match" for being a university professor. lol

CAREER
CLUSTER
BRIEF
ENGINEERING AND SCIENTIFIC COORDINATION
82% Match
CAREER AREA - ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY


Tiffany , you have a 82% match in this career cluster. For more information please click on any sample occupation or related cluster that interests you. Be sure to click the Display Response Summary link below to see how your responses compare to those indicated by the Department of Labor.

Work Performed

Work activities in this group primarily involve planning and coordinating engineering, scientific, and technical programs and activities. Typically, work occurs in a scientific or industrial environment and involves formulating policies and standards, planning and directing projects and programs, and monitoring personnel.

Worker Requirements
Intellectual capacity to comprehend and apply engineering, scientific, or technical principles and methods; organizational ability to plan, formulate, and carry out programs and policies; verbal facility to deal effectively with personnel; and mathematical ability.

career profile test

Went to: www.testingroom.com
This *so* screams anthropologist to me. :)

Career Interest Profiler Overview

Tiffany, your career should be . . .

Analytical and Social!

You are the type of person who is inquisitive, analytical and intellectual. You enjoy investigating and solving problems. Your favorite word is "Why", and you are likely to answer a question with a question. While you enjoy theorizing, you also like working with others and helping people with their problems.

You are likely to enjoy occupations that will allow you to investigate things, explore ideas, conduct research, and involve personal interaction and helping people.

You have a unique set of interests and deserve a career that expresses your uniqueness. Do you want to know what kind of jobs there are out there that will satisfy these interests? Then look no further! Your personalized Career Interest Map is being prepared right now.

More musings on 'What Color is your Parachute?'

Thsi is a great book and in the few exercises I have done I have come up with some interesting findings about myself. The author has a grid system and once it is filled out, it ideally (if you are honest) shows what values you want your life to serve and out of 9, the first three should figure promiently in your career. Here are mine:

1). Will, conscience-Is the human will or conscience your major concern? When your gone, do you want there to be more morality, justice, righteousness and honesty in the world because your here? If so, in what areas of human life or history in particular? And in what geographical area?

2). Heart-Is the human heart your major concern? When you are gone, do you want there to be more love and compassion in the world because you were here? If so, love or compassion for whom? Or for what?

Finally, my third choice (3). Mind-is the human mind your major concern? When you are gone do you want there to be more knowledge, truth or clarity in the world because you were here? If so, knowledge, truth , or clarity concerning what in particular?

So, of course, this is just a start and the other items down the line are less significant regarding the career I choose.

Thoughts?
anthrogeek10

Something a little different for me

I usually do not blog about my worries or problems I am having. I think worries are generally all ego controlled anyhow. Anyway, I have a friend who I went to HS with. back then, I do not remember us being close but we were friendly. I find out she lives in my city now and we started hanging out and she has done some generous things for me since we started spending time together. We have recently come to a serious crossroads in our friendship, albiet very limited friendship. I don't think she knows I have a blog, let alone reads it so I think that I am safe here. lol I just need some objective advice about my problem.

I consider myself a Muslim and she claims to be a "Christian fundamentalist" (sorry, the most dangerous kind if I do say so myself). I am not a seriously practicing Muslim but prefer to spend time with people who do not have serious biases against people of my faith. My friend whom I will call Jane for this purpose (not her real name)is a strong Christian with Rebublican values, if you get my drift.

I made a (not so nice) comment about a republican figure of the recent past (not GWB but might as well have been) on Facebook (don't bother looking it up. The whole debate/post has been deleted.). Basically the debate surrounded the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (nothing on earth seems to stir a debate like this I guess) and she believes the Israelis should be given "their" land while I believe it should be divided among the two. She felt like I was attacking Christianity, which I don't want to do and I don't believe I did. I attacked the values that Republicans tend to have regarding the world political stage.

She now is "hurt" and needs to think of the future of our friendship. I know it is difficult to make a full judgement based upon this post but I want to know if anyone has dealt with this issue in their personal lives and how you handled it.

anthrogeek10

Saturday, August 15, 2009

What color is YOUR parachute?




I still don't know what my color is. I am learning as I go and one of the tools I am using to learn more about what job/career fit is right for me. A book (10 million copies sold over the years mind you!) titled 'What Color is Your Parachute?' by Richard Bolles. My father, a retired recruiter and resume writer/career counselor has been recommending this to all his clients to have as a handy dandy reference. I decided to buy the 2009 edition the other day so I can do the work required to figure myself out and what I would be good at. I need to make a decent salary considering I will be the (virtually) only bread winner in this marriage. That is a whole other post in itself that I may, if I am up to it actually speak about.

Anyhow, get this book if your having job hunting issues or career issues. Its fabulous!
anthrogeek10

school begins soon

I am on call today. I get paid a nominal wage for doing my own thing. If I do get called in, I get paid the nominal wage and the full day pay. Cool. Well, so far, I am at home and I have all this time on my hands. I don't have alot of money on my hands or I would go used furniture store shopping. I need a wooden coffee table. I would not mind refurnishing on either.
I ordered my books for school so that is behind me. I am waiting for them in the mail. I need to buy a parking pass. I wonder how expensive they will be this year. I think I will buy the one semester one. I am broke! :) I need school supplies which includes a refill of the ink I need for my favorite pen that is so smooth even 4 hours of note taking means nothing in terms of fatigue for my poor hands. I must admit-this semester is going to be challenging. I did drop one class. I am taking 13 hours (that includes 4 hours of arabic). I think that is enough. I am feel insecure about school this time. I do not know why.

anthrogeek10

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

classes

I saw my advisor today. She was kind enough to spend over 45 minutes with me. She suggested I drop one of my classes. I dropped Ethnography of American Indians. I am going to extend my time until I graduate to May 2011. This sucks. She told me that because of my past GPA (prior UCF), I will not be able to get into a "top" graduate school. She really told me how it is straight up. My UCF GPA is about as high as it can be at this time. The overall one is the one she was speaking of.

We discussed getting into public service straight out of school and see if the US government will pay for me to do grad school while I am working. I think that is the way it will be. I really am not keen on living in Washington D.C due to the weather and high expense. I guess I would live in Baltimore or something. This is not the design for my life that I imagined. I want to live in a warmer climate. I guess I could take a position abroad but grad school may be further away.

I am very frustrated with myself and my past choices. I want to just crawl in a hole.
anthrogeek10

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

classes in the fall

Fall semester is fast approaching. I am 3 semesters away from the degree I have been working hard for. Here is my tentative list of classes.

ANT 3145 - ARCHAEOLOGY COMPLEX SOCIETIES
ANT 3312 - ETHNOLOGY OF N.AMERN INDIANS
ANT 3640 - LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
ANT 4702 - CULTURE, POWER AND DEVELOPMENT
ARA 1120C - ELE ARABIC LANGUAGE & CIV I

I am seeing my advisor tomorrow to finalize this. I hope she does not want me to change anything. I like my schedule. I have 2 Middle Eastern Studies classes in the spring and 3 anthropology courses.

I am trying to aquire funding for 3 classes at Harvard in the summer. If I can get the funding and manage to sign up for the classes, I will not be honors in the major at UCF. Well, actually, I may be able to now that I think of it. I can research in the spring and write the thesis in the summer while I am at Harvard. This is all sounding so overwhelming. I am completely thinking outloud here. :)
My honors thesis requires 2 semesters and it is worth 2 electives. I really want to go to Harvard.

anthrogeek10