I can't believe it's been 10 months since my last post! That's pathetic! I WILL get better at this!
Ok, so a lot has happened in 10 months in the life of an ABD doctoral student. That's right folks, and my folks I mean my two friends who know about this blog... and also know about everything I'm about it write, you read that corruptly, I said ABD, as in All But Dissertation! I think a list would be the easiest way to update this blog, so here goes:
1) November 2011: Went to a conference in Boston. It was my second time in that city, I had been there in 14 years, yet I somehow managed to remember exactly where Edgar Allan Poe's plaque was. It is on the side of a building, above eye, on Boylston St. and Edgar Allan Poe Way, EAP Way is really more of an alley between Charles St. and Boylston Pl. You can see a picture of the plaque below. I found my heaven in Boston, a restaurant in Faneuil Hall called mmMac n' Cheese. Yes, 3 "m". Their Boston Seafood Mac n' Cheese was amazing! And I sat and ate it in front of traditional Peruvian band in Quincey Market, got some free entertainment and listened to Feliz Navidad performed on traditional Peruvian instruments. I had a lot of fun revisiting the city. The conference was good too. I was chairing a session, everything that could possibly go wrong with technology went wrong during my session. The person who was supposed to bring her laptop overslept and got there 5 min before starting time. By that time we had already started hooking up someone else's computer to use. The fill-in computer was a Mac and the hotel IT guy didn't have the projector adaptor for Macs, even though tons of people use Mac, myself included. So we decided to switch to the original computer... that was a Mac too... plus that Mac didn't have Microsoft Office installed so we couldn't even open our PowerPoints (I thought you would be able to that using Keynote...guess not). Then we used a PC from an audience member but the projector did not want to display what was on the screen. So finally, everyone listened to me, the chair, and we just turned one of the laptops around and had everyone in the audience (all of 5 of them) move closer and the my presentation that way. By the time my presentation was over the PC-projector issue was solved and the others gave their presentations the normal way.
2) December 2011: The month I became ABD!!! I had my oral qualifying exam at the end of the semester, I was a bit nervous of course, but I played it up a lot more for my advisor because my advisor likes games and I knew if I looked confident it would be seen as "well let's take that student down a peg!" I had to leave the room before I even started...weird. And then again at the end. I was so excited to that damn form signed, I ran down to the copier and made 10 copies then ran to the Assistant Dean's office to get the form signed by the AD, it was after 5pm during finals week but fortunately the AD was still there. Then I enjoyed my winter break *big smile and Irish jig*
*:--☆--:*:--☆:* (^v^) *:--☆--:*:--☆--:*
I saw the Nutcracker with family during winter, relaxed, worked in my proposal, went on a day trip.
3) January 2012: Went to a friend's house for New Year's.
4) February 2012: Computer died...didn't have files backed up FML. I go to bed earlier without a computer, also life is a little more relaxing. Had a nice Valentine's day with a picnic, movie, and dinner. Also, this month, saw the Chinese Terra Cotta Army in a museum, the exhibit was disappointing, there were only a 3 or 4 soldiers and 1 horse and the tickets were expensive. The rest of pieces in the exhibit were the smaller clay figures.
5) March 2012: Computer fixed, yes it took a whole month. One issue turned to two. Found replacement parts on eBay and Amazon, had wait for them to arrive, etc. Went to a Korean spa for the first time and got a scrub.
6) April 2012: Went to San Francisco for a conference, I didn't have to share the hotel room with another grad student!!! It was so relaxing! It nice to be able to watch my favorite CW shows in the room with my dinner and have to talk shop every night like at other conferences. I re-visted some of my favorite places in the city, tried some restaurants I found on Diner's Drive-ins and Dives, and met up with a friend I hadn't seen in 3 years. It was a nice trip, the conference was ok.
7) May 2012: Computer died again, bought a new one, should be good for 4-5 years. Went to a cabin with friends for a weekend, it turned out better than I expected but it was still hard to go away for 3 days since I have work, dissertation, etc. and when you're that busy, being home and relaxing is much nicer. Finished draft #1 of chapter 2, 2 down, 1 to go! Played paint-ball for the first time. I like playing one-on-one better than group. I sucked at group, but was really good at one-on-one. I shot my friend twice in the head! I also got shot in the head once during the group game...if you were a sniper for the Marines, or whatever, you should NOT be allowed to play against a group of people who have no training.
8) June 2012: Went to Costa Rica for a week! Saw a howler monkey nursing her young, saw so many capuchin monkeys, and saw sloths and a bunch of other wildlife. Went on a zip-line tour, crocodile cruise, Carara Biological Reserve, Manuel Antonio National Park, Poas Volcano, and La Pas Waterfall and Animal Sanctuary. I loved it there! All the beautiful flora and fauna! I had a wonderful time and highly recommend it! I stayed at a beach front resort, which also had a forest on its property. When I came back I only had to deal with my advisor for two days before having my advisor leave for the summer! Oh, and went to a theme park with friends, I love the big drops and getting soaked! I wanna go again!
9) July 2012: I was really productive this month! I have a draft of my three empirical chapters!! That means I have a draft of my dissertation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hurray!!!!!!!!!! Light at the end of the tunnel!!!!!! *:--☆--:*:--☆:* (^v^) *:--☆--:*:--☆--:*
I also had fun this month, saw Batman, played mini-golf, went to museums, went swimming, got caught-up on my Netflix streaming, hung out with friends, went to festivals, etc.
10) August 2012: I'd never been to a drive-in before and somehow I went to two drive-ins in the same weekend, back-to-back. The first one was a real drive-in, they show current movies every night; I saw the new Total Recall, it made me long for the Schwarzenegger one. The second one was a pop-up drive-in with a portable inflated screen set-up on the roof of a parking structure. I liked the second one better, it was closer, less serious since we were watching Pulp Fiction which has been out for almost 20 years, picture quality was better, my portable radio wasn't static-y either for this one, like it was with Total Recall for some reason. I was worried my batteries would die so I bought a cheap portable radio and used my iPod speakers for sound. I hadn't seen Pulp Fiction in a long time, I think that was my second time seeing it all the way through. I really like the story with Tarantino and the one with Christopher Walken and Bruce Willis' reaction when his girlfriend forgot the watch. Also, now I have draft #2 of all three empirical chapters! Still waiting on feedback from my advisor on draft #2, hopefully they are ok. I also finally formed my dissertation committee, unfortunately a professor I don't like is on my committee because my advisor wanted it that way and I couldn't really say "no". Now, I just need to continue with revisions when I hear back, continue working on my proposal, and set my proposal hearing date before September so I can have my proposal hearing in September.
Well, that brings everyone up to speed. I promise my next post will be a lot sooner and will be more than just listing what I've done in the past almost year.
*:--☆--:*:--☆:* (^v^) *:--☆--:*:--☆--:* *:--☆--:*:--☆:* (^v^) *:--☆--:*:--☆--:*
Ok, so a lot has happened in 10 months in the life of an ABD doctoral student. That's right folks, and my folks I mean my two friends who know about this blog... and also know about everything I'm about it write, you read that corruptly, I said ABD, as in All But Dissertation! I think a list would be the easiest way to update this blog, so here goes:
1) November 2011: Went to a conference in Boston. It was my second time in that city, I had been there in 14 years, yet I somehow managed to remember exactly where Edgar Allan Poe's plaque was. It is on the side of a building, above eye, on Boylston St. and Edgar Allan Poe Way, EAP Way is really more of an alley between Charles St. and Boylston Pl. You can see a picture of the plaque below. I found my heaven in Boston, a restaurant in Faneuil Hall called mmMac n' Cheese. Yes, 3 "m". Their Boston Seafood Mac n' Cheese was amazing! And I sat and ate it in front of traditional Peruvian band in Quincey Market, got some free entertainment and listened to Feliz Navidad performed on traditional Peruvian instruments. I had a lot of fun revisiting the city. The conference was good too. I was chairing a session, everything that could possibly go wrong with technology went wrong during my session. The person who was supposed to bring her laptop overslept and got there 5 min before starting time. By that time we had already started hooking up someone else's computer to use. The fill-in computer was a Mac and the hotel IT guy didn't have the projector adaptor for Macs, even though tons of people use Mac, myself included. So we decided to switch to the original computer... that was a Mac too... plus that Mac didn't have Microsoft Office installed so we couldn't even open our PowerPoints (I thought you would be able to that using Keynote...guess not). Then we used a PC from an audience member but the projector did not want to display what was on the screen. So finally, everyone listened to me, the chair, and we just turned one of the laptops around and had everyone in the audience (all of 5 of them) move closer and the my presentation that way. By the time my presentation was over the PC-projector issue was solved and the others gave their presentations the normal way.
2) December 2011: The month I became ABD!!! I had my oral qualifying exam at the end of the semester, I was a bit nervous of course, but I played it up a lot more for my advisor because my advisor likes games and I knew if I looked confident it would be seen as "well let's take that student down a peg!" I had to leave the room before I even started...weird. And then again at the end. I was so excited to that damn form signed, I ran down to the copier and made 10 copies then ran to the Assistant Dean's office to get the form signed by the AD, it was after 5pm during finals week but fortunately the AD was still there. Then I enjoyed my winter break *big smile and Irish jig*
*:--☆--:*:--☆:* (^v^) *:--☆--:*:--☆--:*
I saw the Nutcracker with family during winter, relaxed, worked in my proposal, went on a day trip.
3) January 2012: Went to a friend's house for New Year's.
4) February 2012: Computer died...didn't have files backed up FML. I go to bed earlier without a computer, also life is a little more relaxing. Had a nice Valentine's day with a picnic, movie, and dinner. Also, this month, saw the Chinese Terra Cotta Army in a museum, the exhibit was disappointing, there were only a 3 or 4 soldiers and 1 horse and the tickets were expensive. The rest of pieces in the exhibit were the smaller clay figures.
5) March 2012: Computer fixed, yes it took a whole month. One issue turned to two. Found replacement parts on eBay and Amazon, had wait for them to arrive, etc. Went to a Korean spa for the first time and got a scrub.
6) April 2012: Went to San Francisco for a conference, I didn't have to share the hotel room with another grad student!!! It was so relaxing! It nice to be able to watch my favorite CW shows in the room with my dinner and have to talk shop every night like at other conferences. I re-visted some of my favorite places in the city, tried some restaurants I found on Diner's Drive-ins and Dives, and met up with a friend I hadn't seen in 3 years. It was a nice trip, the conference was ok.
7) May 2012: Computer died again, bought a new one, should be good for 4-5 years. Went to a cabin with friends for a weekend, it turned out better than I expected but it was still hard to go away for 3 days since I have work, dissertation, etc. and when you're that busy, being home and relaxing is much nicer. Finished draft #1 of chapter 2, 2 down, 1 to go! Played paint-ball for the first time. I like playing one-on-one better than group. I sucked at group, but was really good at one-on-one. I shot my friend twice in the head! I also got shot in the head once during the group game...if you were a sniper for the Marines, or whatever, you should NOT be allowed to play against a group of people who have no training.
8) June 2012: Went to Costa Rica for a week! Saw a howler monkey nursing her young, saw so many capuchin monkeys, and saw sloths and a bunch of other wildlife. Went on a zip-line tour, crocodile cruise, Carara Biological Reserve, Manuel Antonio National Park, Poas Volcano, and La Pas Waterfall and Animal Sanctuary. I loved it there! All the beautiful flora and fauna! I had a wonderful time and highly recommend it! I stayed at a beach front resort, which also had a forest on its property. When I came back I only had to deal with my advisor for two days before having my advisor leave for the summer! Oh, and went to a theme park with friends, I love the big drops and getting soaked! I wanna go again!
9) July 2012: I was really productive this month! I have a draft of my three empirical chapters!! That means I have a draft of my dissertation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hurray!!!!!!!!!! Light at the end of the tunnel!!!!!! *:--☆--:*:--☆:* (^v^) *:--☆--:*:--☆--:*
I also had fun this month, saw Batman, played mini-golf, went to museums, went swimming, got caught-up on my Netflix streaming, hung out with friends, went to festivals, etc.
10) August 2012: I'd never been to a drive-in before and somehow I went to two drive-ins in the same weekend, back-to-back. The first one was a real drive-in, they show current movies every night; I saw the new Total Recall, it made me long for the Schwarzenegger one. The second one was a pop-up drive-in with a portable inflated screen set-up on the roof of a parking structure. I liked the second one better, it was closer, less serious since we were watching Pulp Fiction which has been out for almost 20 years, picture quality was better, my portable radio wasn't static-y either for this one, like it was with Total Recall for some reason. I was worried my batteries would die so I bought a cheap portable radio and used my iPod speakers for sound. I hadn't seen Pulp Fiction in a long time, I think that was my second time seeing it all the way through. I really like the story with Tarantino and the one with Christopher Walken and Bruce Willis' reaction when his girlfriend forgot the watch. Also, now I have draft #2 of all three empirical chapters! Still waiting on feedback from my advisor on draft #2, hopefully they are ok. I also finally formed my dissertation committee, unfortunately a professor I don't like is on my committee because my advisor wanted it that way and I couldn't really say "no". Now, I just need to continue with revisions when I hear back, continue working on my proposal, and set my proposal hearing date before September so I can have my proposal hearing in September.
Well, that brings everyone up to speed. I promise my next post will be a lot sooner and will be more than just listing what I've done in the past almost year.
*:--☆--:*:--☆:* (^v^) *:--☆--:*:--☆--:* *:--☆--:*:--☆:* (^v^) *:--☆--:*:--☆--:*
No comments:
Post a Comment