climate change activist and science communicator; photographer; mapmaker — advocate for a stable global climate, reduced nuclear weapon risks, and safe human-AI interaction
Generally musings of the day, usually accompanied by a photograph
Between school and my much-reduced role with Toronto350.org, I am absurdly over-stretched and will be at least until I have dealt with my re-comp in December.
As such, from now on I will be declining all social invitations and skipping all non-critical academic and environmental events.
If I can make it through the re-comp, as well as my public policy core course and the comp for that, I should be able to revise my priorities.
My three-year iPhone contract ends in February, and I am thinking about selling the phone. I am tempted to go entirely phone-free, but there are times when having a phone is necessary to get information (like when things are available for pickup) or for coordinating meetings.
Part of my reluctance to continue with smartphones is the cost. My monthly bills were consistently over $100 until I called Fido to try to cancel and they switched me onto a $60 ‘retention’ plan, which provided more than my previous $100 plan.
Another major motivation is distraction. One part of that is the annoyingly intrusive character of all phones. They allow anybody to demand your immediate attention at any time. Mine is usually on ‘airplane mode’ or off, but that doesn’t entirely eliminate the anxiety, since there is always a nagging sense in my mind that someone might be setting down a batch of missed calls.
A bigger distraction issue comes from just having a smartphone with you. Ordinarily, that means getting periodically interrupted by texts and emails. More subtly, there is the constant temptation to take a peek at the news, have a glance at Twitter, and the like. It takes a person out of the present moment, which makes relatively unpleasant tasks like comp prep more difficult and makes relatively pleasant tasks like walking on a cool fall afternoon less immersive.
The constant tracking and NSA / CSEC paranoia is another cause for skepticism about cell phones.
Going phone-free is probably a bridge too far. I would go with that option if I had someone who could take the occasional message for me and pass it on by email, but I don’t want to burden anyone with that, at least until I get an unpaid intern or two. More plausibly, I will get a very small, very cheap pay-as-you go phone for very occasional use.
It’s hard to say whether three years with the iPhone has provided good value for money. It’s certainly a capable device – especially when traveling – and I have made extensive use of the camera, email functionality, tethering capability, Google Maps connectivity, and web access. At $100 per month for most of the span, the total cost to date has been over $3500 – as much as a 5D Mark III (before battery grip and other necessary extras), or a couple of Fuji X100S cameras (one of which would be a gratuitous 30th-birthday-gift-to-self if I had the funds).
Once my contract ends, I think I can shift to paying month-by-month. As a trial, I may try cancelling it for 2-3 months without selling the phone and testing my experience with the pay-as-you-go option. At that point, I can re-evaluate.
I am now well into the portion of the academic term where just doing what is absolutely mandatory from week to week basically uses up all of my time. I have a 16-page take-home exam to write for my environmental politics course by Monday, and a big presentation to give on ‘rational institutions’ for my public policy class on Tuesday. I also need to be gearing up for term-time assignments, while also finding time to prepare for the re-comp. On top, there is all the normal reading for environmental politics, public policy, and Canadian politics – plus preparation for my seminars on Thursday, and the administration associated with their operation and shifting membership. There are also two mandatory scholarship applications to complete, along with a voluntary one upon which I am pinning more of my hopes.
Unsurprisingly, I am behind on photographic projects (like processing and uploading the second half of my shots from the Founders’ Gaudy), and not doing as much for Toronto350.org as I would wish.
Toronto350.org has elected a new executive, with our long-serving director of operations Stuart Basden taking over as president.
It’s a bit tough to be leaving the executive after being so involved with the group, but it’s gratifying that there are people willing to take over and carry on.
Being off the executive should give me more time to focus on preparing for my re-comp, though I will still be helping out with a number of 350 events between now and December, notably our big October 15th movie screening.
I will also be back on campus radio this Friday, talking about our divestment campaign.
Today is the autumnal equinox in the northern hemisphere. By the time of the winter solstice, I should know whether or not I passed the re-comp, and therefore whether I will be staying at Massey and U of T.
In addition to coursework and teaching, I must continue to focus on Canadian politics reading, planning out strong answers to likely questions, and talking with the examiners.
It’s probably best to delay any celebration of my 30th birthday until after the exam.
I hope to put up some photos of the day soon. Most of the photos of this year’s Massey cohort are now online, and I will get at least a few shots at this year’s Founders’ Gaudy next Friday.
Published today: Vogan, Katrina. “Toronto350 calls for U of T to divest fuel shares“. The Varsity. 16 September 2013.
The year is off to a rapidfire start.
As part of the PhD, I need to do a second core seminar this year. I have chosen to take public policy because it accords well with my interests and experience, and apparently has a less onerous reading load than either comparative politics or international relations. I have been advised against taking courses with excessive reading requirements, given the need to re-take my Canadian politics comp in December.
PhD students are expected to take two courses in each term, so I am also taking an environmental politics and policy course. In addition, I am working as a teaching assistant for a course in U.S. government and politics, with three seminars back to back on Thursdays.
At our termly general meeting on the 25th, I will not be running for re-election to the executive of Toronto350.org. Nevertheless, I have some obligations to discharge with them, including two on-campus workshops on divestment and the October 15th film screening (free tickets still available).
In the background at all times, I should be thinking about and preparing for my re-comp in December. I find that I have already forgotten a lot of what I crammed for it the first time. When I re-take it, I will need to demonstrate both a comprehensive knowledge of the literature and an ability to formulate complex and convincing arguments. Toward the latter objective, I should be building up a database of convincing (and conventional, I’ve been warned off controversy) answers to recent comp questions.
My photos from the 2013 Massey College Night of Pretentiousness are on Flickr.
Next up – processing the photos from my cousin Ivanka’s wedding.
I just learned that I failed my comprehensive exam in Canadian politics. I will be getting detailed written feedback on what went wrong, as well as meeting with the graduate director about it. I will also be able to speak with the three people who set and graded the exam. I have the option of re-writing the exam in December. If I fail it then I am out of the PhD program.
The first question all this prompts, not inappropriately, is whether a PhD program is the right place for me to be. The odds are strongly against any particular PhD student ending up with a job in academia, and I am not even entirely sure that is what I would want for myself. That being said, I am sure I wouldn’t be questioning the decision to be in a PhD program if I had learned today that I passed. Failing the exam was essentially a tactical failure: not devoting enough time to preparation, not preparing in the most effective way possible, and not using the right approach to writing the exam itself. Drawing a strategic answer from that – about whether carrying on with a PhD is the right choice – may be a mistake.
The question of whether this is the right place to be is fairly jarring, because I had settled psychologically into the assumption that I would be spending 5-6 years in a PhD program. I have no desire to return to government under the prevailing conditions, and all my pre-PhD efforts at finding an interesting job in the private or NGO sectors were dismal failures.
One preliminary comment was that my three essays were insufficiently strong, in terms of the quality of their argument. My understanding before the exam was that the most important thing was to cite many sources, so I treated the essays mostly as vehicles for doing that. This will still be necessary for the re-write, but I will need to make sure to have a sophisticated and convincing argument as well.
Proceeding on the assumption that it makes sense to persist with the PhD, I should refocus my efforts for the next 3-4 months. It would probably make sense not to run again for the presidency of Toronto350.org when we have our termly general meeting on the 24th. Similarly, I should probably make course selections that are consistent with the need to devote considerable time to comp preparation in the months ahead. This term, I won’t get to audit any interesting courses outside my field.
Right now, I am on the hook to finish the Toronto350.org divestment brief before the start of term on the 9th. There is still a moderate amount of substantive work to do, along with a lot of proofreading.
