Well I actually did this today! :-) Weird, lah.
I am still revising things a bit in the text of my proposal, but as soon as I lock in a committee outside person I will calendar this. It is so close I can taste it.
Well after showing it to several people and completely redesigning experiment 1—making it into 1A, 2 and 1B; and re-working the responses to be collected in my new experiment 3 (= old experiment 2) ... Well, you get it.
I need someone to re-read experiment one tonight, to see if it makes sense. I need a model for experiment 2 and 3. I need to deliver the complete final section to my boss by tomorrow afternoon.
It is going to be a long few days.
I have actually done this twice and hated it both times. But I still want to do it again, I just want to do it right next time.
If you do it, (1) keep a loose arrival date on the other side, (2) travel very light, (3) get your car in tip top shape before leaving, and (4) travel with someone.
Well I have to pick five people to evaluate my research proposal. Four are from my department and one is from outside of my department. I have finalized the four from inside: B (my advisor), G, C, and K.
The outside person is a problem so far. Must send another email today to find someone. I hate cold calls!!!
I was tempted to say that this wasn’t worth doing, but upon reflection I think that it is worth having on your resume. But it is neither as good nor as bad a most people want to tell you it is!
I’ve had enough coffee in SF to call this one done. Just not all in one day. If I get to travel there again in the future, I’ll do this again!
I tried to do yoga, but it hurt my foot. I may try to do it again in the future. I have had two doctors tell me that I have to stop yoga for the time being. Ugh.
Not completely sure what this goal is, but it does sound like a good goal. Bought some lamps for the bedroom recently and that helps the illumination there to be less harsh. No room to build a full-feature dungeon, though.
I have some more leads. Waiting to hear of one of them is qualified. Will have to bite the bullet and call the people I don’t want to call soon if things don’t get much better faster.
I have contributed mostly through editing—there is a lot of information there but it really needs re-writing to make it clear and easy to use.
I went for 100 days between my last two episodes of smoking. Looking to go at least 200 more to the next one. Fingers crossed.
Of course it feels good to do it, but the price is too high, both in the more abstract terms of future health and in terms of $$$.
It is 60 pages or so, and all but one or two figures are in place. I think the three experiments are done, but have to go through it from beginning to end tomorrow. Assuming I don’t get called up for jury duty!!!
I have locked-in three of the five people on my committee. Drs. B, C, and I. Outstanding as of tonight is Dr. S, who I am waiting to hear back from—s/he is at the preliminary request stage. Tomorrow I have to seriously contact some outside-of-the-department people to lock them in as well.
In so far as a vague goal like this one can ever be “done” I think that I am, in fact, done. I am certainly a positive person. After all I am positive life sucks.
(Just kidding.)
(Really.)
I am having some trouble pulling the trigger on this one. Once it is done then the clock is started and my PhD dissertation proposal defense is real. And at my school, like many others, the proposal defense is the harder one. (I actually have no fear whatsoever of the final defense—the work will have likely been published by then!)
So this is, along with finishing the proposal, the last thing to be done before waiting out the calm before the storm.
But then comes some reduction of stress. And I need that.
