Daily Musings
(Maybe not daily, but they’re still musings)
I know, I know…I am not
keeping up with my musings. I do however find myself blogging
more and more. You can find the link to my blog on
the front page of my site or simply click here. Some time in the near
future I will figure out some simple and unobtrusive way to integrate the link
into my writing site without totally doing away with my musings, which are more
personal in nature than my blog, which is (or was)
primarily used for classes. Maybe the answer is a second blog?
Today I finished a solid draft of my introduction. I
also contacted a few colleagues about getting together and restarting our writing
workshop. With my being on leave this semester it will do me a lot of good to
take some time and get some feedback/constructive criticism from other folks.
If I sit and write and read my stuff over and over again of course it makes
sense to me, I WROTE IT!!
Got an email from an editor this week to let me know
that I will be receiving a copy of an anthology that has one of my articles in
it. It’s a piece that deals with minority students and computer mediated
composition. Maybe I’ll post the citation here when the book actually comes.
Well, the cam and the diary are back online. This is
a project that had kind of fallen by the wayside until I received 2 emails in
the last two weeks from people who still visit the site. Okay, so guilt kicked
in! I am on research leave this semester and am working on a book project, so I
should be here in front of the computer more and more. I will do my best to
make sure that I am semi-presentable and the cam is on. Right now I am getting
back to work!
Much has happened since my last posting. In the months that have passed I have started a tenure track job at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN where I teach Rhetoric and Composition (of course). The move from an urban metropolis to small town America has definitely caused culture shock, but I grow more and more used to it every day.
Most importantly, after lots of stops and starts (and inconvenient rescheduling) I finally finished and defended my dissertation! After all of these years of working towards this one goal the moment was somewhat anti-climactic. I think that I was more in a state of shock than anything else. It wasn't until the day after the defense that fact that I was now officially a PhD hit me. And hit it did, like a ton of bricks. I had instantly lost my status of graduate student. I was now irreversibly an adult, one who now has to concentrate on getting tenure! So my task begins anew. From now on the disscam will be known as the TenureCam. So check back often and see how my writing and research is going.
I would like to thank everyone for your encouraging emails and instant messages. Without the great, supportive Pholks over at PhinisheD I may have never made it through periods of writer's block and multiple all night writing sessions. Many thanks to my PhinisheD PhrienDs for allowing me to vent and encouraging me when my spirits were low. If you are a graduate student working on a thesis or a dissertation remember that you are not alone. If you do not have a real world support system consider joining a virtual one like PhinisheD, you never know you may run into me there.
Lots has happened since the last post (sorry folks). On Friday I handed off my first four chapters to my entire committee. After a marathon editing session I dragged myself in to the department to turn that monster in. It was a wonderful feeling to turn it in and feel that I was that much closer to “phinishing”. Now all I have to do is to buckle down and format my appendix and write my conclusion while I wait for the comments from my committee. WooHoo!! It feels good to see the end in site.
It has been a while since I have posted but things are moving right along. I am working really hard to finish all revisions of all chapters with the exception of the conclusion for submission to my diss. chair within the next week (okay maybe two). Now that the semester is finally over I have more free time (if there is such an animal) to work on my diss. Things are going along at a pace that I did not necessarily expect. Many days the writing goes better than I thought it would and then some days are a total waste. So, I am convinced that if I could talk a M.D. into a caffeine I.V. I could finish this thing in no time flat! What do you think? (hmmmmm…
Things are definitely moving along. I have gotten chapters back from my advisor and am finishing up the revisions so that I can pass them along to the rest of the committee! All I have to do now is finish up the last real chapter and write the conclusion. I am starting to feel like I have accomplishing something real! I am off to a conference on Wednesday and I can hopefully use the spare time that I have there to work on my current chapter. I am just ready to go ahead and finish this thing up. It has been both fun and challenging, but it is definitely time to move on. Well back to the books J. See ya’ later.
Okay, so I had a moment…okay, more than a moment when the thought of finally finishing actually scared me and sent me into one big ol’ writer’s block, but it passed. I am feeling much better now and am working on the last revisions before I turn everything in to my committee as a whole for final suggestions. Wow! It seems strange that after all of these years I can go back to being a real person…or learn to be one. I am beginning to wonder if others have felt the same way. If you have email and let me know that I am not alone. I took the time today to set up my laptop to run the disscam because my old desktop is just running too slow. So you should be seeing me live on a more regular basis again. Aren’t you glad? J Well, I am off to grade some student essays before it is off to bed for the night. See you (or me) later.
Well things have been going along swimmingly. I am at the point that I feel that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I seem to have found a happy medium between working and writing. I have also started to get used to the idea of moving and have everything set up in the new locale now all I have to do is to get everything done on the old home front. I just spent a week finding a new house and getting to know the town and I feel much better about the whole move. I was feeling a little skeptical about moving from the “big city” to a smaller more rural area, but now I am sure (at least I think that I am) that I can do this relatively painlessly. Well now that spring break is over and I am back I am back to buckling down for the finishing stretch! Well back to work!
Okay, so I have been slacking off again on my journal entries, but I have been writing. I have written a solid draft of 16 pages in the last 5 days. I know that doesn’t sound like a lot but I have also been teaching, grading papers, and getting ready for conferences. I plan to finish nailing out this chapter within the next couple of days and I will make a promise to myself to come back and let you now if I actually get this done.
For some reason this chapter was just not working for me, until tonight. Tonight after writing this chapter twice and totally trashing it the first time (just to start anew) this chapter actually fell into place for me. I was actually able to see exactly how this chapter fit in with what I have written so far and exactly how it needs to progress, and more importantly end. I was really beginning to think that I was going to have to drop this one and come back to it when it had rested a bit more in my mind. I am looking forward to the next chapter, which is in essence already written (in my head at least). I just need to go back over some of the texts that I am referring to and solidify my argument. I figure that this next one should be done in two weeks tops (A girl can dream can’t she?)
Here is a word of caution to anyone who is supposed
to working on any kind of project with a deadline…stay away from the simulation
game The Sims. It’s by the makers of
Well hello there! Did you think that I had dropped off the face of the earth?? Well after 5 states in 3 months it was beginning to feel like it. I am just happy to be home and working again. I spent a week at Howard finishing up some archival research and now I find myself wanting to go back and add multiple pages to chapters that I had already pronounced complete. I have to stop myself from doing that because I will otherwise never finish. Oddly, enough I find archival research totally fascinating and have a hard time concentrating on what I there for :> but I do seem to get what I need to done. There is something about the smell of old books and being able to look through documents that tell me so much more than any history book ever could. It’s like holding a little piece of history in your hand.
Oh yeah, and the writing ain’t going so bad either :>. I am starting to feel that this thing will actually be done! I am now able to see the forest and the trees! The ideas that I had about the historical race theory chapter are coming together for me so clearly that it is at times scary. I want to stop reading and write every single thought down because I am afraid that they might be a serious of flukes and I will never be able to remember them when it is time to commit these thoughts to paper. This is odd because as a writer I find that it is easier for me to read and process several books at a time and to write the paper in my head and then sit down and commit it to paper. I have tried to do it the old fashioned way and write, revise, and write some more but I find that what I get is a piece that seems to piecemeal for my liking. I can only get the best from myself when I do it my way. I wonder what will happen if I ever start to go senile. I guess I will never be able to write again...oh well, back to work.
Wow!
It’s been a while since we have had two postings this close together. But I
found a little free time (okay I’m just slacking off) and decided to update
certain parts of my site. The new semester is off and running and that is one
less thing to worry about. Now comes the travelfest. I have a couple of places to visit and a little
research wrap up to do in the next couple of months so there are times when I
will be down for a bit. My colleague DKP is a lifesaver, she is going to cover
for me during this hectic period. What would we do without friends?
The
writing is coming along and I feel a little less stressed out (emphasis on
little). I have made a pact to myself that I will sit in front of this computer
and at least think about my project instead of running off when I feel the
first case of writer’s black. Today I even found myself listening to sound
clips pf speeches by Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. DuBois.
I was trying to motivate myself so that I can get through this chunk of reading
that is less than interesting to me right now. J Well back to work, I will keep you updated.
Okay,
so whose idea was it that I had to get a job? This whole process is a true time
drainer. If I have to eat cold pizza, cereal, or canned food one more time I
think I will cry!! Every time I clear one hurdle there are more on the horizon.
But on a good note, is that after all of the craziness of the last couple of
months things are calming down a little and I am finding more writing time. Of
course the more time I find to write the more I find that I feel that I “have
to” read. Sometimes I just have to learn to say “Enough!”.
Well
I hope that you all had nice holiday seasons and that your
New Year will be happy and prosperous.
Feeling much better and back at work
full steam ahead. I
have truly appreciated all of the get-well messages. Things are going well with
the dissertation. I just have to learn when to say enough! I seem to keep
finding more interesting and relevant tidbits to add to chapters past (The
ghost of chapters past has taken up residence in my office). Since the last
entry I have finished that last chapter…um, twice J. So now it is on to finishing the
next. I intend to use the holiday break to get major revisions done. Hey, I may
even get to see my family.
Back
to the doctor’s office again today! Had more chest x-rays and blood tests done.
The medicine that they gave me last week was just not working so them switched it today. Perhaps I will feel better in a
couple of days. Been typing out notes whenever I am lucid to
complete this current chapter. It feels like type 3 pages…sleep 3
hours…type 1 page…sleep 8 hours.
Hopefully I will be better in a few days and ready to go up and at ‘em!!!
Still
welcoming good vibes!
It
has been a while since I have written, but the cold that I caught in
Hopefully
things will be back to normal soon. Send get well vibes my way, I need them
right about now. Gotta’ get ready for MLA and
interviews!
I’m
back and after spending 2 weeks in
I
didn’t get a lot of diss work done while I was gone
but I think that no work is sometimes the best solution, now I can go back to
it fresh and invigorated. Wish me luck!
It
has been a really busy week but things have gone well. Got a letter approving
my request for travel funds (YEAH!!!). Got feedback on
job materials and revised them one last time. Came in under the deadline and
got my first set of application letters finished (now all I have to do is mail
them out!). Got a minimal amount of work done on the diss
this week but I guess this will change now that the job search hub-bub has slowed. Another productive couple
of days. “I love it when a plan comes together!”
Today
was a good day. Got two essays finished and ready to send
out. Still waiting in final feedback on my job materials so that I can
get them all sent out. Finally sent out application for travel funds for a
conference in April (money is good). Hopefully tomorrow will be as productive
as today.
Haven’t been doing much work since
Friday afternoon. I
seem to have contracted this strange flu like ailment that seems to be going
around. Lots of body aches and fatigue. Still kinda’ achy but feeling better today. I hope it holds out,
because after 2 days in bed I really have a lot of work to do!
Today
I realized that job application deadlines are quickly approaching and that I still
have to write letters of application for like a gazillion jobs. So, I guess I
will actually have to manage my time better so that I can write the
dissertation and work on job search materials. Still reading and writing
away for the last couple of days though. I really like the SamCam/disscam
and the cool and encouraging messages that people are sending (even those who
catch me sleeping on my desk) J. Well, back to work.
In
the last few days I have been able to concentrate more on my dissertation and
less on the job search. I am back to reading and writing. I still have some
fine tuning to do on the job materials but I hope to be done by the end of the
week. My goal for this week is to turn in 2 chapters to my director. We’ll see
how the week progresses.
I
have been making progress on this page. Today I got the disscam
up and running, finally. Progress has been slow but steady. For the last 2
weeks I have spent more time working on job search materials than on writing
the dissertation. This has to end soon! I have, however; had time to work on 2
pieces that I am sending out for publication.