Bob Harris Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Earlier this week I got my first academic degree, Magister Artium. It's a continental European thing I guess and kind of equivalent to your postgraduate Master of Arts degree, but you usually have two majors, or a major and two minor subjects. The latter is my combination. The last year was pretty exciting but also pretty exhausting, since it included my final thesis (120 fracking pages!) and oral exams in all my subjects. I took the last one on Wednesday and now I'm finally done. I'm glad I did it and I loved those last 5 years at University. Next up I'll start my Ph.D. project and it seems like I'll get a teaching assignment (don't know if that's the right term for giving classes at university?) next spring semester. Yay! I thought I share this with you folks, not only because it's a big thing for me, but also because this place is great and I was glad to come here and got some distraction whenever I needed it. So, thanks a lot to all of you! And no, I'm not leaving now. :tongue: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karamazov80 Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Congrats, Bob! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turtle Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Congratulations! That's fantastic. Care to tell us about the subject of your thesis? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lobsterman Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 "The Psychosocial Effects of Miniaturized Polymer-Based Avatars on Postmodern Consciousness" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squall Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 congrats bob! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
groundhog7s Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 So, soon we can start calling you Dr. Bob? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turtle Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 I think Magister Bob has a nice ring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hellpop Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Congrats, Bob! I can imagine how much hard work you've put into the last few years. And you still managed to find time to make all those great customs! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boyd Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Congrats! And best of luck to your future Ph.D. quest! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buttheadsmate Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Well done Bob. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luke314pi Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Congratulations! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rheul Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Gratz man! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jatta Pake Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Awesome!! Do we address you as Your Magister-y? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mirymate Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Exactly how does that work title wise- Magister? Magistrate? Atriumness? And heck yeah you earned some bragging rights. Congradulations on the impressive ackomplishment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ImABarRoomHero Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Gratz on the ding! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minivenom Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Congrats on the degree! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youbastards Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Congrats! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nessex Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Wow - Well done Bob! That's some serious hard work and dedication you've shown. Congratulations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TM2 Dinobot Posted October 22, 2011 Share Posted October 22, 2011 Amazing. Way to go! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcastick Posted October 22, 2011 Share Posted October 22, 2011 Congratulations Bob, Bravo! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Harris Posted October 22, 2011 Author Share Posted October 22, 2011 Vielen Dank! Thanks, thanks, thanks, guys! :biggrin: Congratulations! That's fantastic. Care to tell us about the subject of your thesis? I'm a philosophy major - literature/linguistics and politics are my minors - and I talked about animal cognition and different philosophical perspectives on the issue - is there an "insuperable line" between humans and animals, or are there only gradual differences. It's incredible what animals are capabile of, but which of those things do we regard as a scientific proof and why? Something like this. It isn't one of the topics that come to mind first if one things about philosophy, but it's based on the everlasting question on what defines humans and the different methods of science and humanities. I like non-mainstream topics. "The Psychosocial Effects of Miniaturized Polymer-Based Avatars on Postmodern Consciousness" That would have been my first choise, but I doubt they would've let me use it. :tongue: Congrats, Bob! I can imagine how much hard work you've put into the last few years. And you still managed to find time to make all those great customs! I was glad to do some customs to get a little distraction. Making customs is my zen, you know. But I was also really looking forward to do some more time consuming and complex customs (=sculpting is involved) I wouldn't have time for. Now I have that time. :biggrin: Exactly how does that work title wise- Magister? Magistrate? Atriumness? And heck yeah you earned some bragging rights. Congradulations on the impressive ackomplishment. Your Atriumness would be appropriate I guess. Kidding, Magister is the right title. But I guess nobody actually uses that. (Does anybody use the M.A. title?) You need it to be allowed to teach at University and that's all I need it for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drgnrbrn316 Posted October 22, 2011 Share Posted October 22, 2011 So, does this make you a full fledged wizard, or am I getting this all confused with something else? In either case, congratulations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karamazov80 Posted October 22, 2011 Share Posted October 22, 2011 I took a course as an undergraduate in Environmental Ethics that delved a bit into your thesis topic, Bob. We also had a "Comparative Psychology" sub-field in the psych. department at USM, and the most well known faculty member there studied dolphin cognition. These are fairly important areas of study IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Hill Posted October 22, 2011 Share Posted October 22, 2011 Congratulations! That is definitely something to brag about! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Harris Posted October 23, 2011 Author Share Posted October 23, 2011 (edited) Thanks a lot guys!!! So, does this make you a full fledged wizard, or am I getting this all confused with something else? In either case, congratulations. My aim is to become a faculty member at the Unseen University, where the title wizard is said to be derived from the archaic word "Wys-ars", meaning one who, at bottom, is very wise. Full fledged or not. That ain't Hogwarts. I took a course as an undergraduate in Environmental Ethics that delved a bit into your thesis topic, Bob. We also had a "Comparative Psychology" sub-field in the psych. department at USM, and the most well known faculty member there studied dolphin cognition. These are fairly important areas of study IMO. I'm glad I don't work on animal rights and ethics. My experience in those classes is, that somebody starts to talk about this dog his former girlfriend's niece once had, who was able to do this and that and therefore should be regarded as a person. Right after that, the guy sitting in the front is making up one of those amazing and completely unrealistic examples in which that very dog would not be able to make a choice in that specific situation and cannot be regarded as a person and therefore has no rights at all. And than this nice blonde girl comes up with the same situation in which a parrot she once saw in a Hungarian circus while in Prague would without any doubt would be able to not only make that choice and would also solve a puzzle while riding on a miniature bike and everybody has to agree that... Ethics. (Don't get me wrong, I'm a 5th dan vegetarian.) Dolphin cognition sounds interessting. The one thing that caught my attention for the whole subject is a gorilla called Koko who learned to use the American Sign Language. There's this anecdote in which a trainer asks Koko "how do gorillas feel when they die – happy, sad, afraid?" and Koko replys: "sleep". Then it goes "where do gorillas go when they die?" - "comfortable hole bye" - "when do gorillas die?" - "trouble old". I felt this was amazing. And part of my works is/was why this could or could not be a scientific proof. Edited October 23, 2011 by Bob Harris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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