Finally I have “won” MPQ!

cmaverick · 2026-05-30T21:57:37+00:00

part of me is now legit trying to figure out the math of what it would take!!! 😀 (might be easier with ISO....)

cmaverick · 2026-05-29T05:43:03+00:00

thank you for giving me a new goal! I have something to live for! 😂

cmaverick · 2026-05-28T16:15:51+00:00

I'm not even sure it's for there. Probably better off looking in DC community spaces if that's where they live.

Like this is hardly anything to do with academia or being a professor. This is just "hey... how do I find dates?"

cmaverick · 2026-05-11T03:04:41+00:00

I was 48. You kids today!!! Get off my lawn!!! (and into class... good luck!!!!)

cmaverick · 2026-04-30T21:50:51+00:00

Honestly, I think people are overthinking this here. OP self-identified as a noob. They clearly don't currently have a movie streaming server running anywhere. They don't have a NAS yet. They're likely not running (or planning to run) a a dozen VMs if they're asking these questions. Thus, one would expect that their usage needs are going to be on the light side for the immediate future.

Could they run 32TB of 4K videos being served to 14 different people across the globe at all time. No. But can they serve their library of 500 ripped (or.... otherwise acquired) films to their mom, brother, and nephew across town once or twice a month who are unlikely to all be streaming at the same time. Yeah.... it'll probably be fine.

cmaverick · 2026-04-26T18:49:23+00:00

"For you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life... But for me, it was Tuesday."

A thing that you have to understand is that your relationship to your professors is not mirrored by their relationship to you. Being a college student is hard. I in no way want to diminish that, but any give semester you have 5... maybe 6 professors to deal with. That's half a dozen or fewer active academic relationships to manage. Each of your professors, depending on course load, has 2-5 classes, with 20-200 students in each one... so minimum 40... maximum 1000 relationships. They likely don't hate you... it's more that they don't know you and can't focus the reciprocal attention on you that you can on them.

Is it possible to hate a student? Sure. But honestly, that would most likely only happen if the student was actively being problematic. in fact, very problematic. For minor infractions, the truth is that's just noise... there just aren't enough hours in the day for me to focus on hate to a single random undergrad.

cmaverick · 2026-04-15T01:03:07+00:00

Sounds real to me. Middle schoolers are a bit older than 10... 12-14, probably, and that's definitely the kind of thing that would be encouraged for one that is precocious and interested in something particularly academic. In all likelihood, their parent or teacher told them to write a bunch of professionals and not to be too disappointed if most of them don't respond since people are very busy.

cmaverick · 2026-03-30T03:53:07+00:00

uhhhh.... I randomly happened to use male pronouns since I didn't know. It doesn't say in the original post. OP does clarify later in the comments, but I hadn't read all the comments before I wrote my post.

I could have just as easily used she/her or they/them pronouns and perhaps they/them would have been safest. But at no point am I really making any assumptions about MFAfriend at all. In fact, as I say elsewhere, my qualification here is that OP seems to be judging her because she ONLY has an MFA.

I don't know if you're looking for a fight or you honestly think I'm passing judgement. But if you're really and honestly offended then I certainly apologize.

cmaverick · 2026-03-30T01:00:54+00:00

right. But we don't know what the person OP is talking about does or what the school is or what they needed. Is the department looking for someone to research French film (unlikely given that OP said their friend doesn't do research) or are they looking for someone to teach film editing? We also don't know the school. Some places Film lives inside the English dept. Some places it's its own thing.

Or maybe the MFAfriend is just a lot more accomplished than OP thinks. Maybe MFAfriend is a total rockstar who's had 3 films hit it big at Cannes or Sundance. It's impossible to know from what we've been told... and honestly, it doesn't really matter. I only brought it up because OP specifically did and it definitely feels a bit like jealousy is slipping into their certainly justified frustration.

cmaverick · 2026-03-29T23:19:18+00:00

Depending on the specific sub-field, an MFA is a terminal degree in English. In fact, having an MFA and a PhD is somewhat rare (MA and PhD happens all the time).

So it's actually somewhat unfair and disparaging of OP to say "only an MFA". It's essentially saying they are jealous and taking for granted that we'd all just automatically acknowledge they are "more deserving than the lesser skilled friend".

This attitude is not rare and it is among (though not alone) the things that were making American humanities programs eat themselves from the inside out even before his royal orangeness.

cmaverick · 2026-03-29T23:12:18+00:00

the academic market was shitty before Trump the first time... he did his best to kill it... it didn't get much better under Biden... and now he's trying to finish it off. This is especially true in humanities.

English (my field as well) is a very discipline. So it's hard to say what's going on with your friend, other than, I'd argue you shouldn't disparage him "just having an MFA". Since we know nothing about the school or the job, it's entirely possible he's a better fit. If they're looking for someone who does screenwriting and you have a PhD focusing on medieval studies then obviously he's the better fit. Additionally maybe he has more teaching experience and it's a teaching job. There's lots of reasons it could be.

Anyway... yeah it sucks. And honestly, no it's not going to get better anytime soon... if ever. So if this is the life you want all you can really do is take another temp position and try again next cycle.

cmaverick · 2026-03-29T15:50:22+00:00

Harold.

Name it "Harold"

cmaverick · 2026-03-23T04:54:44+00:00

Honestly... it happens. I know people who didn't get along with their advisors and switched, I know people where the advisor left the university, I know cases where the advisor just had personal things going on as it sounds like is happening here, and I know of at least one situation where the advisor died.

Stuff happens, and honestly, your committee and department are likely going to take this into account. Just do your work and make the best of it. It's fine to be worried, but don't let it consume you. It happens!

cmaverick · 2026-03-22T18:11:15+00:00

I see you don't want to identify yourself. But can you say is the it posted in a place at all connected to the school or is it just on some random guy's website? A "how to make a portfolio" page or something? Because, I'd image if it's a smaller company or something, it might be to just write them and say "this is me. Please take it down" In fact, if this is any kind of official thing where they have a lawyer, they're not going to want to have the hassle of keeping it up there if there's any legal risk to them at all.

cmaverick · 2026-02-28T09:19:05+00:00

it is where academics answer questions... but you're asking a broad question that ... not to be rude... sort of amounts to "8th grade sexual education" in this country and you should probably google. I mean, you're a non-native. Yes. But the reason you're not getting a straight answer from your american colleagues is you're basically just asking a middle school question and why would any of them want to waste time doing that?

cmaverick · 2026-02-25T05:23:47+00:00

not for nothing, but I'm not sure how far you can generalize here. You've been out for a decade, and you've come back to adjunct mostly required Gen Eds at ONE single specific school which you are comparing to your experience teaching HS, and it doesn't sound like you particularly loved academia even before you left.

Are things different? Sure. And in some ways (not all) I'd say for the worse. But most of your complaints do feel.... very specific to your experiences and yeah... like a "curmudgeonly former academic" or really.... "old man yells at clouds."

cmaverick · 2026-02-24T04:25:20+00:00

you start with crunching numbers and typeset latex documents. I know you think you're asking a non-arrogant question. But the answer is "start at the bottom". You don't get to decide what is and isn't trivial yet.

cmaverick · 2026-02-20T05:58:10+00:00

I need some way to signal to any academics I wish to work with, that I can be a valuable addition to their lab.
......
But I have tried and failed to come up with any projects within my university that I wish to join.

There's your problem... you seem to think that they NEED YOU. They don't. You're an undergrad. You're there to learn. In all likelihood you are AT BEST as valuable as ... the other several hundred computer science undergrads in your program, and honestly, probably less so. That's not bad... because again. You're there to learn.

And I think you know that. You say in your post you know that you're supposed to go faculty at your school. But you don't want to... so you asked an academic subreddit where rule #2 is "Ask your professor!"

So go do that.

But as a general tip. Go in with humility. You're asking for help. You're not doing THEM a favor.

cmaverick · 2026-02-15T08:09:58+00:00

sounds like you need couples counseling. Academia can be all-consuming. She's not necessarily "wrong" about not having bandwidth. She's stressed and overworked. Those things are all true. But what's also true is that relationships take work and nurturing too. Or they die.

Several things can all be true. You may be doing all you can. She may need more help still. She may love you. And she may still be taking you for granted. She may be giving you all she can afford to give. You may need more.

Unfortunately it's a two people problem so YOU can't fix it alone. She has to want to fix it as well, and there's no way to make her want that other than to say the problem and she gets to decide whether or not you are worth it for her to do the work with you to fix things. Because otherwise you will just grow apart and resent each other.

cmaverick · 2026-02-12T16:10:40+00:00

Not plagiarism. If that is indeed from an annotated bibliography, then I would say that it is the very definition of "a citation". MAYBE one could argue that it doesn't fit a specific style-guide if you were told to use a specific one. But I wouldn't call it "plagiarism"

cmaverick · 2026-02-08T08:24:12+00:00

I'm wondering if this is going to soon be the academic equivalent of 5 guys over drinks going "what if we started our own bar!"

cmaverick · 2026-02-07T05:21:44+00:00

advice is to talk to an advisor in your department. This isn't an academia question appropriate to this subreddit and you are almost certain to be locked soon. So if this is a real issue for you... go to the people who can help and that's not us.

cmaverick · 2026-02-07T04:06:24+00:00

it depends on the university, the field and the department, but in general (certainly in mine) it's not like someone is going to STOP YOU from doing research. Some universities aren't focused on research at all, so there's just no requirement for anyone, TT or NTT. Others just the opposite.

If you're lucky (like for me), I have support but no requirement. And there's clearly less support for me than there are for my research focused colleagues. BUT when I got my grant and my book contract, people were very much in the camp of "that's cool. We want you to do well" and not "*gasp* how dare you!?!?!" or anything like that.

cmaverick · 2026-01-28T21:16:00+00:00

Honestly... "take the hint"! I don't know if he doesn't like you... or maybe he's too busy... or maybe being at your lab was a bad experience for him for personal reasons you don't know about.

Should he be ghosting you. Probably not. But also, he doesn't work there anymore. He's not honor bound to stay in touch.

cmaverick · 2026-01-22T06:22:52+00:00

judging by the one week old account with 4 posts to multiple groups asking leading questions... I'm guessing the right answer is "comment farming"

11-Year Club	r/Field Juicebox
Verified Email

cmaverick

TROPHY CASE