Ready for Vacation

A week from tomorrow I will be taking my son and mother-in-law for a vacation to Gatlinburg, TN to see the Great Smoky Mountains national park.

My goal is to finish the methodology chaper and my drafts of my job search materials this week so I have them out of the way before the trip.

Probably Half Done with Methodology Chapter

Now I've got sixteen pages written on this chapter. I am hoping to finish it and turn it in by the end of the day Monday. I may not quite make that, but I do think I will be close if I don't

A Good Day

It's 11:15 and I have already written three and a half pages and submitted a book chapter proposal based on research that is part of the dissertation. Perhaps Monday will also be as productive a day.

Plan for Tomorrow

I think I've made a bit of progress on the first chapter of this dissertation. But I would like to focus on submitting something to my major professor before classes start up again on August 23. So, my plan for tomorrow is to begin drafting a methodology chapter. I want to finish it soon so I can get past this psychological road block of worrying about whether and when I will submit a first chapter.

So, tomorrow's plan is to write about data collection and analysis as well as write about narrative and ethnography as inquiry methods for learning about second language writing.

Recommendations

I spent much of today on recommendations, in preparation for the upcoming job search in the fall. I found four people willing to write enthusiastic recommendations for me. And I spent some time updating my CV and drafting application materials. One person who is starting a tenure track job this year told me that the job search, like all of graduate school, is about stamina. I don't know how much stamina I have, but I do know that I intend to be ready for things before they come.

For those who might also be getting ready for the academic job search, The Chronicle has an almost infinite number of helpful pages on the topic.

Moving Toward Finishing This Thing

OK. Some of you might have noticed that not every post was about my dissertation.

Yesterday I met with my advisor, and he gave me some good advice about looking for jobs. I don't think that anything he told me to do was really all that surprising. But it's good to see the big picture. All this shows me the importance of planning and persistence. One especially nice thing he said about when someone asks him if I'll really finish when I say I will. He said, "I'll tell them yes."

Also, since reading the book Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day, I have been doing well writing two or three pages every day. It's generally not three pages of finished work, but it's progress. I must be up to about nine pages now.

A New Era as a Father

Remember back in the 70s when the best bikes to own were made by schwinn? Today we bought my son a new Schwinn Aerostar. He went on his first ride today and is likely to ride it a lot more in the future.

Need Advice Before Going to Prison?

Apparently David Novak, who was sent to federal prison for a
"white-collar crime" in the nineties, offers individual consultations
for former executives just before incarceration.

Two Pages

After a certain lack of progress lately -- hey I have had a virus for the last few days -- I made some progress. Today I wrote two pages. My goal is three pages at least five days a week. I was feeling inspired by some of the advice in the book Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day. OK, the correct amount of time is more like four hours. But when you haven't made any progress lately, fifteen minutes of work every day is saying something.

Lunch

Had lunch with a couple of friends today -- one in the same PhD program, the other just finished. We sat and talked for quite a while about things we were interested in. That was nice.

Now it's time to go back to work

Today I happened to listen to an episode (poultry slam '03, episode # 252) of This American Life I had downloaded from audible.com on my ipod. And, I happened to hear a wonderful episode of Chickenman. Episodes of Chickenman can be purchased from this link, if you are interested. Great stuff.

Days off

It's nice to be at home with the family for a few days on the fourth. Last week I made more progress on the literature review -- mostly reading. But I can see that I need to think of actually writing that chapter and making sure that I am actually writing something everyday.

I checked out a dissertation written by a friend who just finished and had the same advisor as me. She had 300 pages, I don't think I'll write so much.