what day is it??

So, I spend part of both Saturday AND Sunday at the school, so I'm feeling like my weekend never really happened. I'm sending my stuff to Ian tomorrow, so hopefully he'll have some nice things to say.

In other news, even though I spent some time at the University, many fun activities happened this weekend.
1. REEP open house in Kitchener. It was pretty exciting to see the cool green renos that are planned for the new REEP century houses. One is a demo project, and the other will be the REEP offices. My favourite part of the day was that an 87 year old man born in one of the houses came to take the tour. I love that these houses have been part of this community for so long...if these wall could talk, eh? Also...the City Cafe croissant and coffee were a huge highlight...excellent suggestions from Marianne.
2. I officially kicked off bike season. It is a huge pain in the ass to get my bike out of the shed because I still have to slog through 2 feet of snow in the backyard...but enough is enough, and spring is here as far as I am concerned.
3. Earth Hour also was very fun. A candle lite BBQ should be part of every person's life on a weekly basis if possible.

Good luck with work this week ladies! And great job keeping Nathewrimo alive!

Note to Self: Don't Give Up

Someone wrote this on the black board in the quite grad lounge, and it pretty much sums up how I'm feeling this week. As some of you may know, I'm having an emotional week. It's rough, but I've got tonnes of support and feel truly grateful to have such great friends.

I'm wayyyy behind in my work. Well.... maybe it's all relative. I'm further behind than I want to be, but maybe I put too much pressure on myself. Or, maybe I will never feel 'caught up' until this darn thing is defended and I have no more revisions.

Anyways, I definitely want to keep this blogy going. I love sharing and venting with you! It's been very meaningful to me.

Who votes for a revamp of the site for a new purpose? i.e. lets get ride of the page count (its making me a bit depressed)

Maybe we can create a section checklist?

I can also change the "purpose statements etc" for the site? Or someone else can?

The the games...continue!

Hello ladies!

I most definitely would like to continue with this blog, it's been great reading tips and sharing progress and setbacks. 

Yesterday I guess I had both!

I wasn't able to progress with my last thesis incarnation and it has resulted in a major/minor re-jig of the whole thing, including questions and the way I handle my sections. I can still use al the work I did, but I have to tweak it so it says something slightly different n most cases. In all honestly (as always) I am still working on wrapping my head around it all and have to concentrate harder than I would like to have it all make sense in my head. So, I have an outline written again and I think my next best step is to take what I've written and read it, re-order bits and strike unhelpful bits. 

I feel fine and always happy t make progress, yet naturally a bit bummed at the extra time to be spent on all this.  I think it's part of the cycle and the process, though.

Also, next on the list: I'm picking up my share of term projects to mark at noon, always a time suck sad to say.  I'll try to remember that I'm guaranteed to read some downright hilarious statements in these papers. 

I hope all is well! Stay in touch :-)

4 days until the close of Nathewrimo...

Well, I can't believe it, but we are only days away from the end of Nathewrimo! I doubt that any of us met the 80 page challenge, but I think that it was a really valuable exercise (for me, anyways!). I'm going to be giving Ian my first three chapters on Monday, and I'm not finished yet, but it looks like I'll be giving him about 40-45 pages, which is pretty good I think! I'm relatively happy with what I have written, and I am very anxious to see what he thinks.

Other excellent things that I have gotten from this experience:
1. A new appreciation for the genius of www.phdcomics.com
2. A brand new awesome playlist...thanks Marianne and Sarah :)
3. A raging blog checking habit...again, thanks Marianne and Sarah.....sigh

I think I am going to continue to check this blog regularly (see #3 above) even after March 31st. It's a nice way to keep on top of things, and it's good to see how everyone is doing.

And remember...only 4 days left in the frenzy!

For break times only

I outright copied Marianne's blog idea.

Check out my 'mix-tape'

:)

Two more methods books

Hey all. I picked up two more methods books.

• Social research methods : qualitative and quantitative approaches / W. Lawrence Neuman
• Qualitative interviewing : the art of hearing data / Herbert J. Rubin, Irene S. Rubin.

Let me know if you would like to use them. I'll be keeping most of these books in my locker for the time being (I only need to take a couple home at a time.)

Cheers.

just muddled...

Looks like it was stress-time today! I feel everyone's pain, and have been dealing with my fair share of stress (fun! fun!). Today wasn't much a stressful day as a muddled day. I'm continuing to work on my lit review, and it's getting to the point when I have reviewed TOO MANY articles! It's hard to see the themes and patterns when you've been starting at the same thing for ages. But anyways, it's going okay...and I'm determined to give Ian whatever I have by the end of the month. At this point I am really going to appreciate some feedback!

Anyways, good job on the job stuff Sarah! You'll get something great, so stop worrying! (easier said than done for sure ;) )

And Marianne, something you said gave me an idea. I was thinking that it might be useful if we traded documents at some point, just to get another set of eyes on the paper. Not maybe soon, but I would appreciate a new set of eyes, just to ensure that I am making the points that I'm trying to make.

Anyways, let me know what you guys think....and keep on truckin!

unrelated thesis stuff... adding to stress...

I had just pulled myself together enough to open and start working on my thesis when I got an email back from the OPA about the Intern position I applied for.... Basically, I made a really good impression on them, but they decided to give the position to someone else. They said they think that I "can do more than the position requires". So, they have another internship position that they are recommending me for - which is an 8 month contract instead of a 4 month contract. But, nothing is guaranteed.

The position looks very interesting, and I told her that I was still keen to work with the OPA in another position. And, they are getting back to me tomorrow about the next steps.

Boo... more uncertainty! Got to roll with it though because I'm hopeful that things may work out. Maybe maybe.

Now I need to pull myself together again and get back to work!

*sigh*

Stress Bag II

Hello! 

I've definitely got much less on my plate to think about than Sarah, but I seem to be similarly stressy. Rob was away all weekend, so I worked most of the day, every day from Thursday till today. Unfortunately , that resulted in less than a paragraph of writing and a couple of crises on my thesis. Not insurmountable, just...if I try it alone. So I have sent my questions and concerns my e-mail to ML and I am thinking of going for a bike ride to clear my head. 

I still have to write up the notes from that GB UW meeting, which I can't seem to make myself do. I suppose, eventually I will break and get that done. 

Anyhoo, it looks like a time for re-grouping. 

Sarah, don't worry about disappointing Ian, you aren't meant to figure it all out by yourself. Also, even if you managed to fall short, that's life, you're busy and you can count it as motivation to keep moving. Good luck and try not to worry about that. 

We will prevail!

 

Stress bag!

So, how is everyone doing?

I'm feeling anxious and stressed out. I feel like I've gotten in over my head with work. My thesis writing is pathetic. I'm waiting to hear back from the OPA about the policy research position. I have to finish my Teaching Dossier. I'm worried that Ian is going to disappointed with my work. I'm helping FES Alumni Network put together an information booth. I'm helping GEL with their upcoming workshop. I have to take my cat to the vet for shots. blah blah blah...

On the up side, I had a terrific Easter weekend with my family. Good food, and chocolate. mmm. I tried to enjoy it as much as possible even though I'm feeling stressed about school work.

Methods books

Hey ladies,

Wow - the library works quickly. To follow-up with a previous post, I requested some materials that were referenced in the thesis I suggested.

So, I have in my possession now:

• Research decisions : quantitative and qualitative perspectives / Ted Palys, Chris Atchison.
• Mail and internet surveys : the tailored design method / Don A. Dillman.
• Interviewing : strategy, techniques, and tactics / Raymond L. Gorden.
  
• Studying elites using qualitative methods / Rosanna Hertz, Jonathan B. Imber, editors.

If you want to use any of these book, I'm going to leave them in my locker for a bit - I can give you the code upon request.

...
In other news, I managed to get all non-thesis related work done. *phew*

More lists

Here are some words I really don't like to say:

1. mixture

2. mortgage

3. pustule

As for school: I am pretty much starting my week today. I handed a pile of stuff in on Monday and heard back that's it's okay but needs to be tighter, denser and backed up with more references. Not unexpected, still a little disappointing! So, I will spend the next couple of days keeping my head down and workin' it. 

Right now I am in office hours, which is more like solitary confinement in a very cold boardroom with the odd student asking me questions, which I gracefully sidestep.  Heh, some of the time, anyways. 

I hope everyone is doing well

m

reading reading reading

My oh my...yesterday was a bad night for sleeping apparently! I definitely saw 4:30 come and go, so today was a bit of a sleepy day for me. I've got an outline for my lit review that I am happy with, and I have continued summarizing my articles on cue cards. WHY HAVEN'T I BEEN DOING THIS ALL ALONG!?!?!?!? seriously...I can see why we were supposed to have a decent lit review finished a year ago...it would have made my life sooooo much easier. Anyways, it's all part of the learning process....and the next time I write a thesis I am definitely going to do a better job on the lit review the first time around.

Anyways, that's it for me. I did send an email to Ian today telling him to expect 3 chapters by the end of the month....so that's definitely some additional motivation. Sorry to hear about everyone's insomnia/sleep injuries. Here's hoping tonight will be less eventful.

Also, Jackie's birthday is tomorrow, and I think people are going to McMullians for beer on Thursday. This might be old news, but I thought that I would pass the invitation along!

Talk to everyone tomorrow!

Good sleep until...

I was having  nice sleep last night, but was woken up a bunch of times very early this morning, from Rob's alarm, from the cat deciding it was time to get up (it wasn't) and from some kind o very painful damage I seem to have done to my knee in my sleep!

So my right leg is barely load-bearing this morning for no reason that I can imagine, a very small part of the left side of the knee just screams when I try to use its own power to do anything. So I've got a bag of frozen corn on it and I'm hoping it's better by the time I'm supposed to go in to school this afternoon. I have a barrage of more marking coming my way, which is sad.    

School-wise, I sent ML CH1, CH2 and the outline of CH3. I'm expecting lots of comments from her! In the mean time, I've put together my seed order for summer gardening and need to review the assignment I'm supposed to hold office hours for on Thursday (TA job). So this morning I am home bound . I may pull up ethics and see what happened lo so many months ago! 

have a great day!

restless night

I had a restless night tossing and turning with worry about my thesis. Yesterday, I got hung up with some of my stats. I couldn't figure out how to do what the stats consultant has told me to do - so I'm just going to send her an email this morning.

Today, I'm working from home. I'm going to start with lit review for as long as I can stand it. Then, I'm going to move onto my CUT response paper. Then, more stats and prep for my presentation on Thursday.

Image from here.

Monday...

Thanks for the reference suggestions Sarah! I've definitely looked at Tom's thesis before, but it's been a while (like a year), so it was a good reminder!

Today was a successful day for sure. I started rewriting/reorganizing my lit review on friday, and I now have about 9 pages that I would be willing to show to Ian. That, in my opinion, is a freaking miracle. I'm still a ways away from actually finishing it, but I'm confident that I'll have three chapters to him by the end of the month.

Other than that, I've been listening to a sweet mix of tunes today from Feist, Ryan Adams, Metric and Josh Radin...so it has been a good day!

recommended reading - interview methods

For those of you doing interviews (which I think is all of us)... I recommend that you read this thesis. Ian recommended it to me a while back. There is TONNES of detail and references for how to use interviews.

Enjoy!

REFERENCES

This may have gotten lost in my last couple posts, but I NEED HELP WITH METHODOLOGY REFERENCES.

Marianne - how are you planning on analyzing your interview/narrative data. Do you have references for this?

Sarah - in your methods, how are you describing your analysis for SPSS stuff? Do you have references for this?

Thanks guys!

Week goals

Good idea Sarah, weekly goals are cool. You are such a busy bee with so much on the go! Go Sarah!

So, for me this week:

1. Draft chapter 3 today (HA HAAaAA haaaa haaa ha a ah ah hahahahaaaa sigh)

2. Mail in my first three franken-chapters to ML today

3. Draft CH4 plan (more case studies just like CH 3)

4. Go back over my ethics and see where it needs to be updated for interviews and also prepare participant observation ethics addendum

That should cover me pretty well I would say for the week. If I can punch out a skeleton plan for CH 3 today then I'll have lots to keep me busy filling in  blanks for CH3 and CH4 for quite a while. Plus I can't forget the CH1 and CH2 which still need quite a bit of loving TLC. 

 have this nagging feeling I'm missing some valuable connections in my thesis, to housing or whatever so I'm also going to go back over my meeting notes with ML and make sure I'm refreshed on how this thing is coming together specifically. I have a tendency to run off the rails when left o my own devices, and I can lose the thread of what exactly 'm doing fairly easily, so this is definitely a  good idea. 

Anyhoodle, this is me busy for a few days! Good luck girls!

m

This week's goal... lit review!

My goal this week is to get my literature review drafted... FINALLY! No excuses!

I've got other things I've got to do:
1. Prepare a presentation for Thursday - FES Speaker Series/CUT
2. Submit a response paper for CUT by Thursday
3. Meet with UofG Alumni to prepare a display for the Grad Launch event next week

That's fewer distractions then normal, so wish me luck!

A schedule!

Hello all!

Well, the original rules of Nathewrimo have clearly been thrown out the window...but that's okay, because I think we are all getting stuff done. And personally, I like keeping account of what I've accomplished, and knowing that other people (Hi Liz!) are checking up on me. Also, thanks for the play list marianne....awesome stuff!

Anyways, I've been working on summarizing the literature that I've collected on cue cards. It has been pretty helpful, and I think I've sorted out a logical structure for my lit review already...which has been a challenge up until now. I'm also still looking for help as to how you peeps are planning on analyzing your data...so if anyone has good references for SPSS or qualitative interview stuff that would be great.

Another accomplishment has been to set a schedule with due dates for myself, which I need to stick to if I want to get out of here before August. So, here it is:
1. March 31st - Finish Ch. 1, 2 and 3 (intro, lit review and methodology).
2. April 15th - Finish Ch. 4 (results and analysis for my summer interviews)
3. May 15th - Transcribe school interviews, and write Ch. 5 (Case study results chapter)
4. June 15th - Finish Ch. 6 (Analysis chapter)
5. June 30th - Finish Ch. 7 (Conclusions and recommendations)

So, obviously this is a ton of work, but I think the due dates are realistic and achievable. I plan to hand my completed chapters to Ian as soon as I finish them , so by the end of June he'll have seen all my chapters. I hope to give Paul and Ian my 1st draft at the end of June, so that they can tear it apart. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep to this schedule, but I think it will help me keep focused as well. So, I have 2 weeks to turn out a finished, decent lit review!

And.....YAY, it's Friday! See you guys tomorrow at the Charity ball and Sunday for breakie!

I made you a mix tape

But it's on the other blog. 

Here.

In school news, I have until monday not until today to do bunches of writing, so of course I've done nothing all day. However, I plan to go to school later this evening. Wheee!

Have a good day you guys.

m 

This is going to be cross posted

Check out this little distraction (ONLY DURING APPROVED BREAK PERIODS)

It's called photoshop disasters. 

Don't worry, it's short but sweet. 

m

More lists

Hey guys, so the write-a-thon is on, and it's going okay. I'm pretty sure I can't hit my goal, but I might be able to not embarrass myself totally, so that's good. 

Here is a short list of words that are pretty fun to say:

1. poo

2. bramble

3. snuffle

4. spandex

5. plinko

Thoughts?

m

and so it goes...

Hilarious!...I love how this blog is now used to share our different procrastination methods. This is awesome, and also gives me so many more websites to check before I get to work. So thanks marianne...I'm up to speed on professional dominatrix activities for now...

Writing hasn't really been happening for the last few days, but today I feel it picking up. I'm planning on using the cue card method sarah suggested to organized my lit review. Also, for my methods section I'm wondering how everyone is writing about how their data will be analyzed. Especially for people using qualitative data...what's the analysis method? Any suggestions??

In other news, the St. Paddy's Day breakie is on Sunday, so don't forget to stop by in a green hat, beer in hand. It'll be good craic, I promise!

Things I do instead of my thesis...

1. Check my email
2. Check my blog and news feed reader
3. Check Facebook
4. Write a blog post
5. Do the dishes
6. Do the laundry
7. Play with my kitten
8. Get a snack
9. Listen to music and watch music videos on Last.fm
10. Look for jobs
11. GEL
12. CUT
13. Grocery shopping
14. Coffee with friends

.... I'm sure there's more....

Image from here.

okay!

I 'm glad you're feeling better Sarah, headache are the worst because it's really hard to fix/ignore them. I hope you have a good day today as well. 

Tomorrow I'm supposed to hand off some materials to ML for her to read, which is a big deal to me anyways because I know how busy she is. Needless to say, what I've got is not ML worthy an muchof it is still unwritten (Natasha Beddingfield, anyone?). So, today is a keeping-my-head-down kind of day...wish me luck and perseverance!

See you ladies later!

m

a down day

Yesterday, I had the worst headache all day!! I could hardly stand to look at the computer for more then 10 mins. Today I feel much better - except that I feel behind and a bit stressed out.

Lets hope today is more productive.

Lists

Hey ladies, 

This is a website of lists called 5ives

It's...pretty funny. I think so anyways.

Here's my list:

5 Things I can do today to stave off my stress-activated "active sleep" dreams

1. Go to the library to pick up books, incorporate with walk to school

2. Go over notes I made for Ch 1 and fix t in the actual computer document

3. Figure out my case study criteria (i.e. write up my final paragraphs in Ch 2)

4. Determine my US/Canada case studies

5. Hash out what Ch 3 looks like

brrrrrrrrrum-ching!

How are YOU doing?

m

I got two turn tables and a microphone

Whoa Sarah, awesome idea with the cue cards! That's an excellent strategy. Keeping myself on the rails when writing is one my my bigger challenges. Once I actually get writing, that is. 

This weekend was more fun than work-ish. With the snowstorm on Saturday I wanted to go snowshoeing and rob wanted to check out a bluegrass band playing at the Duke, we decided to compromise and snowshoe to the duke! It was super fun, and I won a CD from a great band from Montreal.  Anyhoo, that translated into a very late night and a very late morning (not hungover, just way sleepy). So Sunday was a bit of a bust. We also switched from afternoon shift to morning shift so I'm adjusting to less sleep t shift my schedule back by about 4 hours. 

I did some random writing her and there, but my main accomplishment was reading trough chapter one and making lots of corrections and additions and shifting sections (on paper, I still have to transfer it all to type). Today I am adding bits and pieces from articles to beef up some points, then I plan to fix up chapter one in a typed way. Those are both big enough tasks for one day, but let's say there's a miracle and that all happens, in that case I will then put together my criteria for case study selection. This all has to be way backed up with lots of lit and writing, so no small feat. Once I do that I can chose and analyse 3 international case studies (sustainable housing innovators, specifically ones relating to my criteria). Then after that it's on to choosing my K/W case studies and hashing out interview questions for the narratives/interviews. 

Obviously, this is not all on the plate for today, but as I write it out I get chills...time to brew some (caffeinated) tea and crack the whip...action time!

Good luck everyone!

marianne

where I'm at

Over the weekend I spent a lot of time trying to make sense of my consumption data. I was originally going to present some 'results' to the energy research group today, but in the end I decided against it. I was using data that wasn't weather adjusted, and I would just have to repeat the lengthy calculations all over again. I don't think that it was a complete waste of time though because I trouble shot many problems that I will have to deal with later. Perhaps though I didn't prioritize my time properly because I didn't get ANY writing done over the weekend.

Yesterday, I spent the day at school, and stayed late to work on my lit review. I managed to tidy it up a bit. I wrote out all the themes and concepts on cue cards with the authors - then put them in an order that makes sense. This seems to have helped me out tremendously.

Thanks Claire for letting my use your couch last night!

How's everyone else doing?

Image from here.

Week 2, and it's getting easier!

Welcome to week two of Nathewrimo!! Due to several very late nights over the weekend, I ended up getting a late start today. I'm finding that I don't accomplish very much in the mornings anyways, so I am going to experiment with coming in late (11ish) and leaving late (maybe 8ish?) this week. I did that today, and I have to say that it worked really well! I wrote about 3 pages today, and I am *almost* done the methodology section of my paper. Tomorrow I need to write about how I plan to analyze my data, and then I am putting that chapter to bed. My goal for the rest of Nathewrimo is to get my lit review chapter to a point that I am not embarrassed to show it to Ian. If I can do that, I'll have the first three chapters ready to be torn apart by Ian...which would make me incredible happy.

Anyways, hopefully everyone else is getting into the swing of things this week. I can't wait to hear how you are all doing.

Peace.

the matrix

A sample of my data.... vs....

The matrix...

Can you see the similarities?

Workin' on a Friday night...

How cool am I?

This morning, I got up early to meet with GEL at 8am to work on our EcoMarket. I got home around 11am, and when back to sleep for a few hours.

This afternoon has been filled with my trying to understand my data. I'm trying to get the bulk of my calculations done tonight so that I can spend the rest of the weekend writing and working on my research presentation that I'm giving to this Tuesday's energy group meeting. What's confusing me right now.. again... is the whole Day Light Saving's time thing. My data is given to me in EST, but for part of the year, we are in DLS... and I need to get it straight for my calculations. Doesn't sound like it would be that complicated. I think I've got it right... but I sent off an email to Jer to double check.

Anyhoo... this will be another day with a "0" for my writing page count. No biggy though. I still feel like I'm making progress.

Happy weekend everyone! I hope the first week of NaTheWriMo has been a good experience!

Image from here.

TGIF!

Hey girls!

Well I already at school (hhahaha..."already"...it's 11:30am), and it's is taking me a while to get going. I received another survey back in the mail (wow...3 out of 22...what's that? A 13% response rate, that's what!), so that is a good thing I guess. My goal today is to do some more methods writing and hopefully finish off the skeleton of that section.

Good job Sarah on the job prospect! I've totally had to do the "pre-screening" thing before, and it's not that bad. For mine, it was an "interview" with an automated machine, and you could re-record your answers if you didn't like how it came out. Small tip...there is a finite amount of you can re-record.

Machine: Why qualifications make you suitable for this position?
Claire: I have a degree in International Relations, and I have had extensive experie....oh shit...hahahaha.
Machine: You have re-recorded your answer too many times. Your answer will be submitted.

But, I ended up getting the job anyways, so don't worry about it too much!

Anyways, back to work for me. Good job to us for finishing week one of Nathewrimo!!

NIght crew

Hey yo, still at school over here. 

Doing some writing but also lots of time wasting which means I am lacking in direction. I am starting to think that my next activity might be re-reading and moving parts around as well as clarifying and trimming.   I think that will help me feel a little less like I'm swimming in paragraphs and ideas an more like I'm cutting through it and making it better. 

Nice work with the pre-interview Sarah! Seems like a bit of a process but the job sounds perfect for you. 

Claire, I may be up for drinks tomorrow depending on how my day goes , it might work out if I have a good day, or I might want to have a late night if I suck all day. Could I tempt you to go somewhere in town to work, like a coffee shop or the library or something? 

Anyhoodle ladies, catch you on the flip side! 

m

Tired - but I've got news...

I got home from school about an hour and a half ago... and I'm exhausted... My guest lecture went ok... and I'm happy that I have one big thing off my plate.

I got a fair bit done to my consumption data, and should have it ready to be sent away for weather adjustment - another big thing to cross of my list. But, I'm way to tired to write (boo....)

On the plus side, I have another job prospect! I just got an email from the Ontario Power Authority about a Policy Research Intern position. They want to set up a 'pre-screening' phone call before they do an interview. Yikes!

Tomorrow is going to be another busy day. I'm meeting with GEL at 8am in the morning, to help with plan an EcoMarket for 'Earth Day' in April. It's a good thing that we are meeting early, so that I have enough time to get work done in the afternoon.

I plan to do a fair bit of writing this weekend.

methods, methods, methods

Today I spent most of the day trying to make some progress on the methods section. I'm finding it rather tough because (as I mentioned before) I have to keep saying WHY I've done the things I've done. I'm actually feeling quite muddled, but this is a good exercise to get me sorted out.

My plan for the next couple days:
1. Keep writing
2. Start listening to my interviews and making notes
3. Keep writing.

Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday...anyone up for drinks??

Who'd've thought?

Who would have thought that keeping track of the lives of 200 households would be so complicated!?! Right now I'm trying to figure out, of the consumption data that I was given, which of it needs to be cut out because people moved in and out during different times during my study period. Basically it means that for some of my units I won't be able to perform all the statistical analysis for all of the units. Gotta love it...

On the agenda today:
1. Prepare for Lecture - I need to figure out what I'm saying and add some images for my lecture today at 4pm
2. Get my data ready for weather adjustment - it needs to be sent off asap
3. Write SOMETHING...

Productivity....

I have to say, I was more productive today than I would have been without having to report on the blog. I guess that's the point.

So, today, despite carpool cancellations and having to scramble last minute for a ride and take the bus home, I managed to make it on time for a 15 minute meeting.... ugh. Fortunately, I did manage to get a fair bit done. I compiled a list of data 'availability', I discovered and solved a data discrepancy, I reviewed my lecture for Bob's class tomorrow, AND I got three pages written in my methods section! Yay! I wrote up a brief summary of the organizations that I interviewed and a few points about selection criteria. Not a heck of a lot, but it sure did take me a lot longer then I thought it should.

Anyways, I hope you all had a happy and productive day!

Image from here.

...and I'm back!

Hahaha....thanks for the laugh Marianne! God...you can find EVERYTHING on the internet!

So, today was definitely more productive than yesterday. I'm eating soup and saltines, which is a giant improvement over nothing and water from yesterday. I spent a good portion of the morning entering the last of my survey data into my excel spreadsheet (yay data entry!). Thanks to Sarah for helping me out with some SPSS stuff...I should be ready to do some fiddling (aka analysis) with my numbers fairly soon.

I also did a bit of writing, but somehow I wrote and delete (bad Claire!!), so I'm still sitting at about 28 pages. I probably wrote about 1-2 pages, so that's not too bad.

In other news, the Gentle Ninja Bears won our last soccer game, so we're off to the playoffs. GO BEARS!!

I'm loving this blog...it's great to keep up with everyone...and it's definitely encouraging me to at least accomplish SOMETHING everyday. Thanks guys! :)

Funny ha-ha, not funny-weird

Hey everyone, I hope this is funny for you. It's called Garfield Minus Garfield. 

I found it to be way funnier than Garfield plus Garfield :-) Enjoy!

xo

m

Today is going to be a good one

Or else, I'm rocking in a corner, holding my temples. 

Just kidding! Mostly!

Hee hee. Wow, Sarah that sounds like a real scare. It's fortunate that you were so well prepared and organized...I'm glad you were able to sort it out. It must have been an intense few minutes though! 

So, today:

- Fill in the blanks of stuff I've already written. I have some section headings with no words

- Come up with lit-based criteria for interview questions. 

- Start conceptualizing the literature-base why's of everything: which cases I want to look at, how that makes sense, what those cases will tell me specifically towards answering my questions.  

These goals are my over-several-days goals. I guess I need to start with number one thereand psych myself up for the rest. It seems...overwhelmy a bit. So, slow and steady wins the race. 

Also tonight I'm expected in the class I TA for from 7-10. Generally that means a semi-efficient 3 hours of typing and rolling eyes with the other TA's.  Should be  good. 

God luck ladies!

Data confusion...

This morning I was sorting thru my mountains of data. I was attempting to match up account numbers, consumption information and questionnaire data... and I had a bit of a scare. 38 of my account numbers didn't match the original account information that I had been given. Which either meant that I have been given the wrong data for 38 units, or the original account information I was given was incorrect.

'Luckily', it the original account information I was given was incorrect, which means that I only wasted about 2 hours of my time and I don't need to do any recalculations (that would have been a waste of ~15 hours of work).

Also, it was fortunate that when I was doing my questionnaires I made up a 'project reference number' that matched the address and not the incorrect account number. Even though there was a mix-up with the account numbers, I'm still able to match up my questionnaire data to the correct household. Phew!

.... I really like having this blog to vent too!

On todays agenda...
1. sorting thru consumption data and accounts
2. meeting with observer for my lecture tomorrow
3. Writing - I'm going to try to tackle some of my methods section, and summarize my interview findings. Hopefully this will help bring up my page count ;)

Hello from up North!

Hi fellow thesisettes,

Everyone seems to being doing well (minus a few snags and vomit episodes)! Sarah-In terms of interviews, I think I am using Yin suggestions and also possibly some information from a book on interviews that I think you told me about. I also might be able to give you a journal article about expert interviews when I get back to Waterloo if you can hold out until then (I don't have it with me here to send).

I won't be posting my daily/weekly totals on the page tracker thingy, as I don't have a google account and refuse to sign up for anything else related to email/internet, but I will give you verbal updates as I go along and write down my page count on paper.

I will be back at school next monday and I am sending along happy thoughts to you all as you plug away!

Lyndsay

Interview methods - sources?

Does anyone have any sources for interview methods? I've hit a bit of a snag - I'm trying to write my methods section on "expert interviews", but I'm realizing that the sources that I have kinda suck....

Any suggestions?

Anything good I can get online?

my day will be starting soon!

Well, my favourite new line has definitely become woofing my cookies. I might just start substituting it randomly into my speech, or maybe in my head at least. Like smurfing or something. Heh. 

I'm super sorry to hear about the end of the chili and the reason that delightful phrase was brought into my life. I hope you feel way better soon claire!

My day has been a write of so far as well, but for far less excellent reasons. Rob's on afternoons and he doesn't leave till 3ish in the afternoon, so this morning was spent doing errands and laundry and other fun stuff. I think I might make a batch of crackers to snack on and then try to boogie on a few pages on transformational leadership. 

Good luck with your interviews Sarah! I'm sure you are an exceptional candidate. I don't really know when I'll be defending so I'm a little leery about job hunting, though it may be something worth thinking more about. Maybe when my draft is being read/passed around.

Right-o, good luck guys, catch up with you soon

marianne

Maybe I'll get some writing done tonight...

So, today I had my job interview with the City of Guelph. It wasn't the best interview I've ever had, but I still think it went alright. I'm a bit out of practice. Good thing I decided to take another interview for a job in another department as well.

Also, today, I worked on finishing up my notes for the FES Alumni Network. So, at least that excuse is out of the way for the time being.

The rest of the day has been a bit of a write off so far... P decided to take a few days off work, and I've been procrastinating.

I think I'll get a some writing done tonight when he goes out.

curveball!

Well, I should start by saying that I made a completely lovely pot of chili last night, and I remember commenting that "this is my best batch yet".

Unfortunately, something (could have been the chili...) gave me a lovely dose of food poisoning, and I was up all night feeling completely wretched and "woofing my cookies" as my mom likes to say. I spent today also feeling wretched, but at least I've been able to get some sleep. Agustin has felt completely fine, but as a precaution I've chucking the rest of the chili.

All and all...this is the first time my computer has been on today, except for this afternoon when I watched a few episodes of 30 Rock. I'm obviously feeling good enough to update this blog (which wasn't true this afternoon) so I'm hoping to be on the thesis-writing wagon again by tomorrow.

How did everyone else do?

Just keep pushing!

Hey, it's not a shaky start...it's a start!

I'm totally counting stuff written up till today towards today's total. It's a gimme, like a "welcome to nathewrimo" gift from me to me :-)

I had an advisor meeting today and we established that I need to get my buns in gear. I'm glad someone mentioned spacing, as I've been using double spacing. I like 1.5 much better, as it seems like a more reasonable amount on a page without being overwhelming. The writing I have coming up is a little more of the establishing lit reviewy bits, but then really digging into the justification of the whole affair. The why and how that have been brought up already. Jeez, what's with everything having to make sense? ;-)

I have about 35 pages written in some kind of order, but it's not dense...like, there's words on a page but not necessarily the depth and support needed to make it valuable. So, while I continue writing I suspect my page count will be going down simultaneously. Like that exercise thing where you gain weight from muscle even though you are losing fat. So, I suppose I will have to "trim the fat". 

I think I will count pages written but not subtract pages trimmed (if that happens, no editing!) in order to avoid demoralizing myself. Plus, progress is progress. 

Alright. Good job so far! I'm going to throw a number in the spreadsheet. Remember that the goal is to write 80 pages/have a draft by the end of March.  Growth happens in fits and spurts. 5 pages a day is a nice idea but some days will be big days an others lean, and we will succeed! 

later alligators

m

A shaky start...

I also had a shaky start to writing. I started the day with every intention of spending time fixing up my literature review... but after a few minutes of flipping back and forth thru the word doc I gave up. I've got thirty pages or so 'written' but its not in any order that makes sense. And, as I said previously, I told my advisor that I'd have a chapter written by the end of the week.

Today, I spent most of my time organizing my energy consumption data in preparation for being sent off for weather-adjusting. My data set is massive and overwhelming... and needs to be 'cleaned' up before it can be analyzed.

As for 'writing', I got some information into my methods chapter. No fresh material though, just cut-and-paste from other documents into appropriate sub-headings. I guess there's no sense re-writing anything, so I'm going to count these pages. Claire, I can totally relate to how your feeling. The 'whys' are killing me!

On a side note, what line spacing is everyone using? I don't know how important this is.. but I don't want to feel behind or a head of anyone if I'm actually not. I'm using 1.5 spacing.

Also, for the other NaTheWriMo participants, if you are having trouble posting on the blog, feel free to contact me!


Image from here.

This is harder than it looks....

Whoooooeeeee...day one of NaTheWriMo was off to a slow, grinding start for me. I realized this morning that a funding application that I had forgotten about was due today, so I spent most of the morning working on that. I did get some writing done this afternoon, but it is HARD to write without editing. I'm trying to resist, but I think that I wrote one, maybe two, pages today. I'm off to a slow start, but it's a start!!

My lit review is a mess right now, so I decided to start with the methodology section. I figured, how hard can that be?...I just have to write what I did. Turns out, it is actually pretty hard when you have to think about WHY you did every little thing. HOW did I pick the schools I did? WHY did I do it that way? Was there a better way? How does this affect my results (whatever they may be...)? Anyways, I probably did more think than writing...but that can't be bad either.

I also decided to try to work from home today. It worked pretty well, although I did end up taking an extended lunch to fix myself something nice, and I ate 3 muffins (delicious!). I'm going to go to school tomorrow to see how that works, and also because I need to use SPSS at some point tomorrow.

Anyways, that's it for me...How's everyone else doing?

Would you look at that logo!

Wow!

Nice job Sarah, this is perfect!

A a Facebook hold-out and  definite blog participant, this is awesome. Here's my starting block situation:

I have tonnes of stuff written, pages and pages. Sounds awesome except not a heck of a lot of it is solid stuff and I am definitely missing key sections/info. So I still have a bunch of writing to do.

I have done no field data collection except some participant observation stuff. This is not a crisis because I'll be talking to a couple of people to complement the other research I'm doing rather than surveys or other mega-time consuming stuff.  Still, it'll be nice to finish that off. 

My boyfriend is working the evening shift this week which means so am I, so I'm up late and work late (Hopefully ;-). It's past 11 a.m. and I'm just getting up, so my schedule is totally wonky this week. However, I have an advisor meeting today and so today's goal is to get as much done to minimize embarrassment. Hah!

Generally my plan is to focus on writing just absolute reams of thesis and then mercilessly cutting it down. 

Good luck everybody and don't forget to post your numbers this evening before midnight. 

Wheeeeee!

marianne

Thanks Sarah!!

Thanks to Sarah for getting this blog up and running...this will probably work better than the facebook page, since not everyone is actually on facebook (good job to the hold outs!)

Anyways, it's 10:30 and I've just made a fresh pot of coffee, and I've run out of places to procrastinate online (well...once I'm done posting this message, that will be true). So, day one of NaTheWriMo is underway. Good luck to everyone, and I can't wait to hear how you're all doing!

Welcome to the NaTheWriMo!!

Ready... Set... GO!!!!

I'm very excited to get this started! I really need the motivation to get this thesis drafted and completed. I've got a long way to go, but I think if I break it down into manageable chunks, it will be a much more enjoyable experience.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to strictly focus on writing this month. Here's a list of things that I've got on my mind:

1. A job interview tomorrow. And possibly another one next week.
2. My adviser wants a chapter 2 asap --> therefore, I'm going to have to spend a bit of time this week editing (I'm already breaking rules)
3. I'm doing a guest lecture for a forth year class as part of my certificate in university teaching
4. I want to start my teaching dossier for the same certificate
5. I'm helping organizing "Earth-Day" activities with Guelph Environmental Leadership
6. I'm preparing notes and attending a meeting for the Faculty of Environmental Sciences Alumni Network
7. I've got thesis data... mountains of thesis data.. to organize and evaluate (and hopefully write about)
8. I'm presenting two research presentations this month.

Phew... It's going to be a busy month. But, if I take a bit of time every day to write a few pages... this thesis will be done that little bit faster. And you guys watching me is just the motivation I need!

Please use this blog to post your concerns, frustrations, and successes. Tips and tricks. Motivational quotes. Funny pictures. Whatever you need! This space is yours.

Good luck everyone!

-Sarah