35 posts tagged “dissertation”

After 6 days, including yesterday with 3 kids doing much of the grunt work, here is my new classroom/physics lab:

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And my desk, now in the back corner so that when kids aren't there I can work in privacy from the hall traffic and not have to look directly across the hall at Princess, TTFH:

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Getting it all to fit was a project.  Along the back wall to the left of the desk and then the adjacent window wall are 4 moveable cabinets with the physics equipment 4 groups ( I have 18 this year) will need for Physics, and an 8-foot table for each group.  The aquarium, sans fish, is at the opposite corner of the room.  It got fresh water yesterday and needs to cycle awhile before I move the guppies.  I will move most of their current water with them so that will be helpful -  but I think the filter pump that was in their new tank that we moved is shot, so I have the huge filter in their right now.  I'll move the actual filter with them as that's where all the good bacteria are.

And the view from my window while sitting at my desk is not bad........  At least I'm not having to look at someone who irritates me while I am trying to work.  And when I lock my door at night, she can't come steal my stuff. 

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I know that she was unwilling to give up her lab because she feels that it makes her look important to be in there. I know that it's just an insecurity thing, and I know that she will use it to make herself feel very important in the eyes of the kids.  I only wish that the kids thought she was important.  They truly don't like her. I'm sure that some of them learn something, but they sure don't learn to like science and they sure don't learn that they are good at it, even when they are.

On another note, the dissertation is getting there, too.  It seems the more I run, the more motivsted I am to write.  Interesting thought.  I have a bit of data analysis to do before I go back to school today, and a bit of laundry to put away as well.   

Honestly, I was looking for the journal info on a paper that I need to cite when I found this:

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In the rebuild of my laptop, I, the Queen of Backups, neglected to save my copy of Endnote X1 on the MyBook backup drive.  I have absolutely everything else but for the last 4 photos of Owen and I posted them here, so they are easily replaced.   In desperation, I emailed the company and although they have no obligation whatsoever to do anything, they are overnighting me a new disk.  Overnighting.  What a totally amazong company.  They had no reason to do this except that they are awesome.   Kudos, Thomson Reuters! My dissertation will now be saved and I don't have to spring for  $99 replacement upgrade.  

The HD on my revered MacBook Pro died.  In the middle of a keystroke, it froze, never to move again. 

I hopped on Spouse's MacBook and made myself a Genius bar appointment for an hour later (It was already 7:25 PM), dashed over to the store, and had a nasty experience with a new Genius - my first in 20+ years of Apple loyalty.  I left the MBP, after having been told that they did not have the correct size HD in stock, and if they did would not be able to repair it for a few days because the University VIllage store is being remodeled and is sending all their business to Tukwila and Bellvue. They were able to tunnel into the HD somehow and get out the last few days' work which was ot backed up, and put it on my iPod, so that was a relief. 

I called yesterday morning just to verify that it had indeed been sent out that morning as promised and no indeed they were very busy with iPhones and it had not gone anywhere, adding a day to my 5-7 dasys of no working on the dissertation and no work on the NB Renewal freelance job. I mentioned this, and asked, did my 20+ years of Apple loyalty and the fact that I ahve purchased 3 laptops, 3 iPods, some software, and a small fortune in miscellanea from their store mean more than a 1-time iPhone customer?  The lead Genius got on the phone and said he would do the repair that day, and agreed to call me.  So, I sorted articles that I had printed from my backup MyBook and Spouse's MscBook, and waited for a call.
No call.  Finally at 6:30 I called the store to discover that yes indeed it was finished.  So I scramed on over to retrieve it and have been rebuilding ever since.  I'm only missing my most recent update to Endnote which I am sure that Thomson will be able to help me out with tomorrow AM when they get back to business hours, and the Office 204 version of Excel because MS in thier moronic wisdom released Office 2008, which I own, without Visual Basic package of statistics tools.  Argh.  Not even a measly Chi-square test on this excel - what the h#ll kind of spreadsheet IS this????? Worst case, I do the spreadsheets and have to go put them on a WIndoze machine to crunch the numbers.

I hae yet to move a file or re-sync my iPod. And I haven't yet instaled the new Time Capsule yet - I will figure that our on Monday night.

I found this in some of my orientation papers from my doc program.  I have no idea who wrote it.

You know you're a graduate student if.....
....you analyze the significance of appliances you cannot operate.
....your study carrel is better decorated than your apartment.
....you love the fact that you get to choose *which* twenty-two hours out of the day you have to work.
....you are startled to meet people who neither need nor want to read.
....you have ever brought a scholarly article to a bar.
....ditto for working an equation on a napkin during a discussion.
....everything reminds you of something in your discipline.
....you have ever discussed academic matters at a sporting event.
....you have ever spent more than $50 on photocopying while researching a single paper.
....there is a photocopier in the library that you consider "yours."
....you actually have a preference between microfilm and microfiche.
....you look forward to summer vacation because you are more productive without the distraction of classes.
....you regard ibuprofen as a vitamin.
....you consider all papers to be works in progress.
....professors don't really care when you turn in work anymore.
...you find the bibliographies of books more interesting than the actual text.
....you gave up trying to keep your books organized, and now just try to keep them all in the same general area.
....you have accepted guilt as an inherent feature of relaxation.
....you reflexively start analyzing Greek letters before you realize it's a sorority sweatshirt, not an equation.
....you find yourself explaining to children that you are in, "20th grade."
....you start referring to stories like. "Snow White et al."
....you frequently wonder how long you can live on pasta without getting scurvy.
....you look forward to taking some time off to do laundry.
....you have more copy cards than credit cards.
....you are constantly looking for a thesis topic in novels.
....you wonder if APA styles allows you to cite talking to yourself as, "personal communication."

Today was beautiful and sunny and the mountain was out. There was a tiny bit of haze over the Cascades which the TV news attributed to the smoke from the California wildfires.  Wow.

The iPod arrived yesterday. I charged it and put on 1244 songs, leaving something like 145 GB free. I ran for 45 minuter this morning and listened to maybe 12-13. I don't think I know 38756 more songs.  So I'm downloading podcasts from MIT.  I selected like 140 of them this morning and currently have 112 more to go.  At that rate, I will be done by next week when I have to drive to a workshop thing each day.

Day 2 of the National Board facilitation for the school group.  All 5 are working hard. The difficult part for me is that one of the candidates is TTFH (see posts from last fall and early 2006.)   I know that I am supposed to want candidates to certify, but this person should have been coached out of the process this spring.  Problem is that I tried, but since she doesn't listen to anyone, it was pointless.  If by some fluke she DOES certify, the process will completely lack credibility with me and I will want to send my own certificate back.  THe process will lose credibility in our district as everyone knows she is pitiful in the classroom.

The house is spotless.  It's obvious that I am avoiding the dissertation.  I thought a day off to make my surroundings clean and peaceful would help my concentration.  I'm sure they will. once I make myself go back to that desk and start writing.  I think my first steps tomorrow will be to clean off the desk and read some articles to add as citations to support a few points I made.

Bike ride today - 27 miles on the Orting bike path.  Fire, or something, in the Spar Pole or a nearby building.  Didn't stop to gawk.

Have 1200+ songs ready to load on the iPod when it arrives and still going strong.

Edited.  Then edited more.  Still not done, must add the grounded theory crap.  

Sorted articles
Read grounded theory stuff
Sorted and cataloged more articles
Ordered the biggest baddest iPod made.

A lot.