Saw Obama at ASU's graduation last night

[drmeow]

AWESOME!!!!! And the heat and the wait weren't very bad (I got there very early and was through security in about 1/2 hour). Like an idiot, though, I took the wrong camera. Even though my seats were directly opposite the stage, all I had was my point and shoot - not my SLR. STUPID!!! I'll try to remember to post what I did get later.

[OregonBlue]

1. How big was the crowd?

[armyowalgreens]

4. About 70,000 or so. The stadium was full when I got inside.

[drmeow]

5. Interestingly the section I was in,

the Loge section, was less than 1/2 full. They must have only given a few seats in that area. The rest of the stadium was pretty much at capacity and, of course, the field was full of graduates.

[Thrill]

2. Yeah he was fired up last night.

Iowa and NH fired Up

[azmouse]

3. Ok... I'm jealous.

I saw the speech on tv and it was wonderful. Lucky you to be there! :hi:

[drmeow]

6. You want to talk jealous

I got hooded (got my PhD) in 1997 and I didn't get to shake the President's hand (let alone hug him)! I don't even remember who the speaker was at my graduation (either of them).

And those ROTC officers who gave their oath directly to the Commander in Chief - they must have been having mini orgasms!

I do feel lucky to have been there. At least I didn't get laid off from my job before I could take advantage of it to get the tickets (I'm losing my job at ASU on 6/30!).

[AndreaCG]

7. You have your Ph.D and you're getting laid off?

What is it that you do and that you have no tenure, assuming you've been working there since getting your degree.

[drmeow]

9. I'm a research scientist on a grant

and its case of last hired combined with being f**ked by department politics.

All grant employees are on 1 year contracts with the possibility of renewal, PhD and non-PhD alike. My contract is not being renewed.

Also, have not been working here since I got my degree - I was a post doc, research scientist at U of A, research scientist in a different department at ASU, and now this job. Every job has been a 1 year contract with the possibility of renewal. This is why is SUCKS to be on "soft money" (paid off a grant) rather than a "hard line" (paid by the state). Given that it took me 3 years to find this job (cause I didn't like my last boss - turned out to be a bit of a case of frying pan to fire) and that I'm grossly over-qualified for most of the jobs being advertised, the only reason I'm not royally screwed is cause my spouse is tenured! I expect to be unemployed or under-employed for a number of years at which point I will have reached an age where I can add older to over-qualified as a barrier to getting a job.

[AndreaCG]

11. Sorry to hear it.

It's good that your wife is tenured but still that limits your ability to move around. Good luck with something new.

[drmeow]

12. Thanks

Arizona, unfortunately, is a sucky place for an academic "trailing spouse" - a non-tenure track PhD type. The one "good" thing about the whole situation - I actually didn't like this particular job all that much and the politics were (are) a nightmare. If the economy were better I'd feel like I was making a great escape (since with higher employment I could get one of those jobs I'm over-qualified for much easier). Another recently minted PhD is only staying because she can't leave AZ until her daughter is in college but she's looking around locally (no luck for her, either, but at least she's not losing her job ... she's been there for 7 years and has been a grad student employee).

[drmeow]

13. Oh, the other pissy thing about it

I was deliberately doing my part to help the economy by actually increasing my spending slightly since I still had a job. That pretty much came to a screeching halt in Feb when they told me!

[azmouse]

8. I'm sorry to hear you're losing your job.

I hope with one door closing another will open for you. Good luck to you.

[drmeow]

10. I'm hoping that same

but am feeling very down about the whole thing right now. If I hadn't left my last job, I wouldn't be in the boat.

[Cha]

14. How historic and

FUN to be there in person..listening to his awesome speech.

I was stuck here reading how he's just like bush.