Calling all PS thesis-tacklers, researchers, and students!

[gwendolyn]

Date: 6/10/2008 3:25:31 PM
Author: pjean
Gwen, that's what the {insert something here} marks are for. I totally freeze, and so I've taught myself that if I'm staring at the page for more than 2 minutes I just put in brackets with {brilliant sentence here} or {2 sentences about physical challenges} and move on. Otherwise, my ability to stare at the blank screen would be pretty much unrivaled.

Heheh!

Yeah, unfortunately I've tried that--trouble is I have to finish by tonight or (at the latest) tomorrow morning, and almost everything else is written...so it's not like I can come back to it later, because this IS later. Usually I do well under pressure, but I just cannot focus right now. So frustrating.

 

[iwannaprettyone]

My class start back tonight

. I am half way through a business master''s!

 

[Delster]

I've had a crappy work day. In fact, I've had a crappy work week. THE TOME is kicking Delster-b*tt bigtime

Gwen that is just THE TOME. There are other tomes that are specific to my area. They are around the same size but they have proper paper pages, not the flimsy vellum style kind that THE TOME has. So they're less intimidating. Still, it's a a lot of reading. Insert sighing smiley here!

Now THE TOME is a fantabulous book and all. I was at a conference once and heard an Australian lawyer describe it as "the greatest human rights text ever written, disguised as a text on Irish constitutional law". You don't often get an Ireland-specific book receiving praise from the other jurisdictions. Anyway. That's another hard thing about studying Irish law - we have to know about the law in all the other common law jurisdictions and what they do. Ireland is so small that we have to take account of what comparable jurisdictions do, as we just don't get the 'hard cases' cropping up as frequently here.

Can you tell I'm feeling very defeated tonight?

I hope your evening has been more productive! And hey, you get to see J tomorrow! YAY!!!

pjean I do the brackets thing too! "The ruling in X v Y supports this assertion. [Insert something more meaningful about stupid X v Y case]"

iwanna welcome! Tell us more about your studies!

 

[Delster]

How''s everyone doing today?

The TOME b*tt-kicking of yesterday resulted in a total breakdown last night and an hours long crying session. Poor BF

And of course, now I''m shattered today. As is BF I''m sure, the poor thing.

Anyway onwards and upwards. It''s pouring rain here today, where is our Summer gone?!?

Hope it''s sunnier in both weather and disposition where you guys are at!

 

[Delster]

How are we all doing this morning?

I went for a wee walk this a.m. to up my positivity and energy levels, and booked a session with a trainer in the gym on Monday. I think some more vigorous exercise should help me out of the doldrums I''m in right now with THE TOME.

We also went over to some friends'' last night for dinner, which was lovely. We had raclette which I''ve never had before and it was yummy

It''s still raining here, but I''ve decided to become oblivious to it!

Amber have you left for the wedding yet?

Gwen hope you''re having a wonderful time with J!

pjean how are you doing with your chapter 2 results section? Go girl go!!!

 

[Lorelei]

Weather is pants here too Del

 

[Delster]

It sucks Lorelei doesn''t it? BF was hoping to have a BBQ on Saturday and he is fuming at the weather!

The Beeb is predicting more rain (Beeb weather forecast is always more reliable than RTÉ)

The back garden turns into a swamp when it rains - we''ll need life rafts or our friends will drown!

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 6/12/2008 7:26:06 AM
Author: Delster
It sucks Lorelei doesn't it? BF was hoping to have a BBQ on Saturday and he is fuming at the weather!

The Beeb is predicting more rain (Beeb weather forecast is always more reliable than RTÉ)

The back garden turns into a swamp when it rains - we'll need life rafts or our friends will drown!

Oh blast...I am so sorry about this pants weather now that you have outdoorsy plans Del, I will be keeping my fingies crossed the rain stays away!

 

[Delster]

Don''t worry Lorelei, we have a house too!!!

Ah we''ll work something out. Irish people are used to rain. Soggy burgers? No problem!

But keep those fingies crossed for nice weather anyways yeah?

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 6/12/2008 7:41:03 AM
Author: Delster
Don''t worry Lorelei, we have a house too!!!

Ah we''ll work something out. Irish people are used to rain. Soggy burgers? No problem!

But keep those fingies crossed for nice weather anyways yeah?

You bet!

 

[pjean]

Delster, exercise sounds like a great idea. Maybe I need exercise... I did actually make my goal, if we aren''t concerned about quality. I have a sketchy but continuous draft of the results section. Hurray! Unfortunately, I''ve done no further work on it since. I''ve been doing literature review, which sounds very productive but is one of those activities that can absorb as much time as you care to give it. So I can feel virtuous without actually having to draft anything.

I''m doing an experiment today, so I''ll continue to procrastinate about drafting until tomorrow. But tomorrow: the discussion section!

I hope THE TOME is quaking in its boots - I think its days are numbered.

 

[WishfulThinking]

Date: 6/9/2008 6:01:36 AM
Author: Delster


Wishful welcome! But oh my word, you mentioned the F-word in your first post - Foucault!!!

We''ve a lot in common with the style of the research I think. And I didn''t get my first choice supervisor either - that person was on sabbatical the year I secured funding so I was placed under another person ''temporarily''. Yeah. Guess how that one panned out?

Anyway, on the topic of not asking research students about their work, have you seen this? I know people mean well but I swear I want to slap them when they ask ''how''s the writing going?''!

Yeah, the F-man is being a real pal this week. I''m pretty sure I''ve now read every word he''s ever written. The absolutely fabulous part is that the section I am working on right now, my very first one, is practically writing itself because everything is falling into line so nicely! I''m on a streak.

I can totally relate to the sabbatical thing. Actually, I just found out TODAY that another major researcher in my field who I would have had total access to during my writing process in any other year... is... *drumroll* ...yeah, on sabbatical all next year. It''s becoming a reoccurring theme here.
That comic is HILARIOUS! I''ve never seen it before, so now I''m addicted. Of course I''d get addicted tonight when I still have 2 pages of this draft to go through before I meet with a professor of mine who is helping me out. I think she is beginning to realize how useless my actual advisor is.

AnberGretchen- Thanks! I am really interested in this topic, but it''s funny; like you, this area is not really what I am thinking of doing for graduate work. I love public policy issues, though, and it''s something I study a lot of right now, so I think of this thesis as being the finishing touches on this part of my life and studies. I am hopefully going to law school after next year, and it will be a dual degree, but probably in Women''s Studies or Social Justice Studies or something. More law oriented than policy, but the two are so closely connected that I bet I''ll get the chance to dabble in both. I hope. I do have an absolutely amazing friend and mentor who is a professor of mine and is helping me with my preliminary research and writing. She was my first choice for an advisor, but is going to be finishing up her own PhD dissertation this fall, and won''t be around to be full chair. She''ll be on my defense committee, though. I''m meeting with her tomorrow, so I am excited!

 

[gwendolyn]

Bad. Bad, bad, and more bad.

Had a supervision today. So, apparently only 1/4 of my thesis so far is decent--the rest is essentially rubbish. My supervisor said that my stress was showing in my work, and that I had to get a handle on it because I basically won''t pass if I turn in the crap I have now. Awesome!

Although technically I have just under a month left, I have 2 weeks in which I need to rewrite the first drafts to submit them for the last time to my supervisor, who incidentally will be away the week the thesis is due. So instead of having it done for real by the 14th, she wants it done for real by the 6th. FABULOUS. Because exactly what I needed right now to add to the stress of life, the universe and everything is a SHORTER amount of time to FINISH (she says, lashing out sarcastically).

Also, due to a quirky turn of events, I ended up overdrawn on my bank account. This sucks for many reasons, one being I have no idea how much I will be charged for an overdraft fee, two being that I had tried to pay 95% of this thing with cash and the guy just rang the debit card through for the whole amount anyway, AND three being that I had a check in my wallet that, had I deposited it prior to this unexpected series of events, my bank account would have been ok. Hopefully the overdraft fee won''t take too huge a bite out of my money, since I have almost nothing left to live on until I leave Cam for good in four weeks--hence the overdraft problem!

A friend called me to tell me that she is having the same problems and wants to meet me at lunchtime. She spent part of her morning crying as well. I think perhaps we will start a club.

At least my visit with J was lovely and wonderful and fabulously de-stressing. Shame all the good of it is gone now!

Here''s hoping the rest of you are doing better than I am currently.

 

[Delster]

Wishful it sounds to me like you''re making the very best you can of the situation. Your law school / social justice combo sounds amazing, I would have loved that!

Gwen I was thinking about you over the weekend and hoping you were having a lovely time with J. I''m so glad to hear it was relaxing and de-stressing. I hope you got to talk out the supervisor woes over lunch with your pal. Sometimes just sharing these things with someone really helps. If there''s anything we can do support wise, just let us know!!! I have no doubts you can do this. You''ll get through it. I have every faith in you!

On the overdraft thing, lodge that cheque pronto and then explain the circumstances to your bank. Over here, the banks will refund overdraft fees applied to starving students if it happened inadvertently and you say it to them quickly. There is hope!!!

Amber how was the wedding? Did you have fun?

I am not updating today as I am still in the trenches with the you-know-what

Tomorrow!

 

[gwendolyn]

Thanks, Delster. You really are such a sweetheart.

Well, for better or worse, the bulk of the rough draft is done. I still have to make up my table of contents and declaration of originality and my appendices and whatever else, but the 20,000ish words are written. I would''ve thought I''d be more jubilant, but I just feel kind of deflated after this morning. I think I will spend some quality time on the phone with J tonight and then get myself geared up to get a lot done tomorrow with fixing my lit review and/or my findings chapter.

 

[iwannaprettyone]

Date: 6/10/2008 5:01:57 PM
Author: Delster
I''ve had a crappy work day. In fact, I''ve had a crappy work week. THE TOME is kicking Delster-b*tt bigtime

Gwen that is just THE TOME. There are other tomes that are specific to my area. They are around the same size but they have proper paper pages, not the flimsy vellum style kind that THE TOME has. So they''re less intimidating. Still, it''s a a lot of reading. Insert sighing smiley here!

Now THE TOME is a fantabulous book and all. I was at a conference once and heard an Australian lawyer describe it as ''the greatest human rights text ever written, disguised as a text on Irish constitutional law''. You don''t often get an Ireland-specific book receiving praise from the other jurisdictions. Anyway. That''s another hard thing about studying Irish law - we have to know about the law in all the other common law jurisdictions and what they do. Ireland is so small that we have to take account of what comparable jurisdictions do, as we just don''t get the ''hard cases'' cropping up as frequently here.

Can you tell I''m feeling very defeated tonight?

I hope your evening has been more productive! And hey, you get to see J tomorrow! YAY!!!

pjean I do the brackets thing too! ''The ruling in X v Y supports this assertion. [Insert something more meaningful about stupid X v Y case]''

iwanna welcome! Tell us more about your studies!

Sometimes I feel like have lost my mind working 50 hours a week, taking 6 hours of management courses and planning a wedding. I need a vacation!

I am currently enrolled in a Logistics and Supply Chain management class where we are running our own fictional business competing against other schools. It is very interesting but alot of work! Class is tomorrow night from 6-9:45 PM at a campus 1 hour from home...yikes.

 

[WishfulThinking]

Oh Gwen, I am SO sorry to hear about all of that! I am sending thoughts your way and hoping the best for you. You''ve come so far already. I can''t believe your supervisor wants it EARLY, though.

What a killer. I really feel for you. We know how great you are, honey, keep up all the good work!

Delster- I love it too! I actually made some great progress at my meeting. For once I had things under control and she ended up loving all of my ideas and the connections I''ve drawn so far between the texts I am using. She is a huge fan of Foucault, and to know that she thinks I''m using him correctly means a lot both personally and academically to me. Unfortunately I haven''t done anything productive at all since my meeting with her Friday.

I hope everyone else is doing well. Hang in there!

 

[gwendolyn]

WishfulThinking--thanks, sweetness! Yeah, it''s rather ironic that I''ve got my supervisor telling me to relax so I can write, and then she tells me, "Oh by the way, you need to have your thesis done a week early." Yeah, because THAT''S going to make me feel calm and relaxed!

Oh well, it is what it is. I am starting my revisions now (a bit later than planned, but that''s because I got called for another job interview for Friday in London! in which I will have to prepare and teach an English lesson to students I''ve never met before, yikes!

). Since I''ve gotten called for a job interview, I''ve got a nice adrenaline rush going at the moment, so I am going to kick some butt today!

iwanna, I hope your class tonight goes well. How exciting that you''re halfway done!

Delster, how''s it going? You ready to kick some TOME booty today?

pjean, how goes it? You making any progress with your experiments?

 

[AmberGretchen]

Hey guys - back from the wedding late last night (delayed flights oh joy - but at least we got out, a bunch of my friends are still stuck in various airports around the country trying to get back to San Francisco

). Wedding was OK - not the most fun I''ve ever had but not horrible either. Visiting the ILs was miserable, as it often is. DH was actually so unhappy on this trip that we decided that from now on we are not staying with them at all, but will get a hotel room in the CITY (as opposed to the strip mall-filled suburbs we both detest), and visit with them there, and have more time to see friends and spend with each other just the two of us, and everyone will be happier.

Gwen - I''m so sorry to hear about your revised deadline and all the other additional stresses. That sounds like no fun at all

I really hope your job interview goes well on Friday though - that''s exciting that you seem to be getting so many calls about jobs

Del - so sorry to hear the TOME is still making you miserable. I hope you''re recovered somewhat from the breakdown of last week and ready to start fresh this week.

It sounds like wishful, pjean and Iwanna you guys are all making really solid progress - here''s to that!

I came home to e-mails that my trial run of an experiment that should have worked apparently didn''t, so I''m going to try to sort that out today. Hopefully it won''t be too long and painful to sort out, but I''m not holding my breath. I''m determined to go to the gym today (and for the rest of this week) though in the hopes that that will help to keep me from getting too stressed out about it - I absolutely HATE troubleshooting experiments, its my absolute least favorite part of bench science (which I pretty much detest anyway

). So fingers crossed that it can be sorted out without too much pain, but as I said, I''ve no reason to expect that to be the case, so I''m not holding my breath...

I''ve also got to run around doing errands today - both my dresses I wore this weekend I spilled on them so I''m really hoping the cleaners can work miracles and get the stains out because they were both brand new dresses that I love

I''ve also got to get us re-stocked with groceries, etc...

 

[gwendolyn]

AmberG, I''m sorry I didn''t ask how things are going with you! That sucks that your visit with your in-laws was miserable, although it''s good that you''ve got a plan for next time so it won''t be so bad. I hope you are able to sort out what happened with your experiments relatively quickly and get to work out at the gym--sounds like the past few days have been rather frustrating for you!

 

[AmberGretchen]

p.s. this is the best shot I have of me and the DH from the wedding - taken during cocktail hour, which, like the rest of the reception was fiercely air conditioned - not sure why, but it was just freezing in there!

 

[gwendolyn]

Wow, what a gorgeous couple you are! I always wondered if that was the two of you in your avatar--it looks like it could be straight out of a movie!

 

[AmberGretchen]

Awww...thanks Gwen. I''m blushing

That is the two of us in my av - that was one of our engagement pictures, which I really loved. I would really like to do another photo shoot like that at some point, because I like those pictures way better than our wedding photos, and its really hard to get good shots of us otherwise, because the lighting etc...at events and stuff is never that great, and I''m usually the one TAKING the pictures

 

[Delster]

I''m seriously having a bad, eh, month. I haven''t written a word in a week. Nothing is making any sense to me these days.



Amber that photo is gorgeous!!! Oh my goodness, how hot are you two?!?

 

[pjean]

Oh, no, Delster! That doesn''t sound good. It sounds to me as though you need to take a step or two back and come up with a new plan of attack. Can you let the TOME stew in its own juice for a bit, and work on a different section?

Gwen, I''m sorry to hear about your revised deadlines, too. That stinks royally. Wishing you and Delster both some PS dust for good progress.

AmberGretchen, I hear you on the joys of bench science, especially trouble shooting. That''s another fun thing with my advisor - he doesn''t really recognize the need for it. Either you can make the experiment work or you''re useless. What do you mean, it might take a couple of weeks to straighten out?

I so need to graduate... I have a thesis committee meeting on Monday, so I''m trying to get as much as I can pulled together for them, in the hopes that they won''t ask for much more in the way of experiments. Keep your fingers crossed for me on Monday, if you can.

 

[AmberGretchen]

Thanks Delster - sadly, due to the killer A/C we were more cold than anything else

, but the compliment is definitely appreciated

pjean - TONS of PS dust coming your way for that thesis committee meeting. They are so stressful - I really hope yours goes well!

 

[Siamese Kitty]

Date: 6/17/2008 12:37:00 PM
Author: Delster
I''m seriously having a bad, eh, month. I haven''t written a word in a week. Nothing is making any sense to me these days.



Amber that photo is gorgeous!!! Oh my goodness, how hot are you two?!?

Ditto on both accounts!

Hi all-

I can''t justify the procrastination to read this whole thread, but I just wanted to thank the thread-starter! I''m taking a break and saw this and thought-I''m not alone!!!!

I''m struggling to finish a PhD thesis in the Humanities before I start my awesome new job across the country in August. EEK!

Good luck to my fellow busy ladies!

 

[Delster]

pjean you are right and I am taking your advice. I am putting THE TOME away for a bit (to stew!) and changing to something more reader-friendly. How could anyone possibly be intimidated by a book as wee and as cute as this???

 

[Delster]

Siamese Kitty welcome!!!

Another Humanities casualty, yay!!!

C''mon, you know I''m longing to hear more about your work and how the whole Humanities PhD experience has been for you...

And how''s everyone else getting on this morning?

 

[gwendolyn]

I am wrestling with my literature review again, and I think it is slowly improving! I am feeling better about it at least, which is something...

I hope everyone else is doing well!