Oh take me back to the start...

Hello All!!

Despite my lack of participation on this board, I do read everyone's posts and you all sound like you are making great progress (in life and thesising)! I have a question about making the table of contents, which I should have learned to do in grade three, but didn't...and I do not have the patience to manually put ........4, ..........5, and so on, in a word document, so here is my question:

How do you make a table of contents using word 2007? Hahaha

Sarah - I know you briefly tried to show me a longggg time ago, but I have since forgotten your words of wisdom. Any help (other than telling me to use the word help tool bar) would be greatly appreciated!

I have section headings in my word document, but have not yet done that weird linky thing at the top of the tool bar (Sarah I think you know what I mean).

Thank you!!

Feelin pretty good.

As you know, I nervously sent a chapter to my adviser for him to review. I just got an email which said, "And I am pleased that you are still making progress on the thesis. I have read, and enjoyed, this chapter."

Yay. There's something about even the smallest words of encouragement that give me a bit more drive to finish!

Not abandoned!

Hi all,

Yes, I'm still alive and working on my thesis. I just sent a draft of Chapter 3 off to Ian! And Chapter 2 is 'almost' ready for criticism as well. ;)

My results chapter 4, is in progress, and shouldn't be toooo difficult to complete. Although, I still haven't worked out how I'm going to tackle my weather adjusted data, which is in a form that isn't as useful to me as I once thought it would be.

My goal at this point - as Ian suggested - is to KEEP IT SIMPLE! I think for the most part I've made things harder on myself by making things unnecessarily complicated.


How is everyone else doing?? Lynz? Marianne?

100 pages!!

It's pretty obvious that the blog has been abandonned by one and all....but I still wanted to post two pieces of exciting news.
1. I cracked the 100 page mark today! Whoop! I know page number mean nothing in terms of content, but it's a mental victory.
2. I have a defence date!! With some committee member re-organization, Ian and I have finally decided on a defence date. The big day will be September 22, 2008, hopefully in the morning. I get back from Peru on the 20th, and will have 2 days to reacclimatize and to prep for the defence. I'll have 4 days to do my revisions, and I should be able to get my tuition back for the fall semester.

The end is in sight!

...and we're back!!

So, I've been neglecting nathewrimo for a while now, but I don't feel too bad because it seems as though everyone else has been doing the same! I thought I would post a quick update just to let everyone I'm still alive and kicking.

I'm currently writing chapter 5, which is my phase 2 results chapter. So far I'm loving the results chapter because all it is is writing down the survey and interview responses that I collected. No analysis, no explanations...just writing down the results! My overall page count is up to about 72, so I'm only 8 pages away from meeting the nathewrimo goal of 80 pages....and only 2.5 months late! I'm still hoping to get Ian and Paul a draft by the 23rd, but I have a feeling that my analysis chapter will be a little shaky. I still have some time, so we'll see how it goes.

In non-school related news, I had an awesome weekend! Thanks for coming out to help us celebrate and I hope you guys had fun too.

Peace.

I've lost count...

HI SARAH! Good to hear from you again. Thanks for the update...you'll get stuff done, and sounds like you'll be really busy! We miss you around here too! I have a random question for you...I got an email from CanSIA yesterday, and it was a news release stating that the gov't and the OPA announced the suspension of the ReSOP pending further review. So...do you have any insider info as to what's going on?? Is your job to be the reviewer of the program?? I can't find any other news release from either the OPA or the gov't, and I'm super curious. Anyways...do you know?

Also...HI MARIANNE!

As far as an update from me....I've lost count as to how many days until d-day...but I've committed to getting a draft to Ian by June 23rd. He's checked with Paul, and it looks like a July defense date could be in the works as long as my draft "is in good shape" by the time I give it to them. I'm going to be working my ass off to meet this deadline, because I would LOVE to get outta here by July. Anyways, I've started writing the results chapter. I think that it will go fairly quickly because it's just reporting results. Just because I've said that it will probably take forever, but I'll let you know! I'm up to page 62...so it feels like I'm progressing. Other than that....things are trucking along.

Good to hear from everyone!

Where's that Sarah girl?

Hi Everyone!!!!!

Yes, I've been absent from the blogsphere for toooo long. And, just in case you don't remember, this is what I look like.

<--- Sarah (at last year's Hillside)

So I've been pretty busy for the last month or so (hardly on the thesis... but more on that later).

I'm working full time for the summer with the City of Guelph in the Waterworks Division. Specifically, I was hired for the Healthy Landscapes Program. Monday thru Thursday I work 11:30-7pm as a Landscape Adviser. I go to people's home for a 30-minute consultation about outdoor water efficiency and establishing a healthy, pesticide-free lawn and garden. Mostly I talk to people about how to keep their grass looking good, and selecting drought tolerant plants. Community Based Social Marketing at it's finest!

It's been pretty fun so far, and I've got to see some wonderful gardens... and some gardens that need a lot of attention. Fridays I'm in the office 8:30-4pm working on a separate project, an energy audit of the Waterworks facility. I'm basically putting together a Request For Proposal, and getting some of the preliminary work done for the assessment.

In other news, I have things lined up for September!!! I had a THIRD interview for a position at the OPA a few weeks ago. This time for a 1-year contract position in the department that runs the Standard Offer Program. And, I was hired ON THE SPOT! I'm very excited, and actually feel a lot more calm about everything. (It's relieving a bit to have a plan for the fall). I will be moving to TO in September, which I am very much looking forward too. Guelph has treated me very well for the past 6 years, but I feel it is time to move on.

IT'S TIME TO BUCKLE DOWN AND GET THIS THESIS FINISHED!!!
I have found it a bit difficult to focus on my thesis. However, now that I have a plan for the fall, it has given me considerable motivation to move forward. My goal is to have a full draft done by the end of July. To get started, here are a few things that I need to do in the short term (1-2weeks)...

• Fix my lit review so that it is decent enough to show to Ian for feedback (I'm not looking for perfection at this point... I just need to know I'm on the right track)

• Complete my methods section. I'm pretty happy with the way it has progressed... it just needs to be filled in.

• Put my interviews into logical summary tables.

• Organize my weather-adjusted data into a usable format.

I will make better effort to post here and keep in touch. I really really miss you girls!!!! Keep up the great work!!!