Babbles of a Procrastinating Grad Student

I'm signing up.

We'll, sort of. A few weeks ago, maderr made a shout out post for a friend of hers that was looking to start a support community for those joining in on mini nanowrimo, and that got me thinking. I've been having a hard time forcing myself to sit down and write this bloody thesis, and based on how determined I was to complete the wardrobe contest this past summer, I've learned that I do well when I'm challenged in something like this.

Actually, that explains my efficiency when I'm doing something last minute.

See, the point of NaNoWriMo is to force you to write a 50,000 word story in the month of November. It's not about quality, it's completely about quantity, and is simply a tool to get you writing. With mini NaNoWriMo, you set your target word count, and people will pledge a certain value of words per day, usually less than the 1667 words/day required for the regular NaNoWriMo.

I need to be forced, to be motivated to write this thesis, and I haven't been thus far. What I've come up with is just crap because I'm over-thinking everything. But by committing myself to a certain word limit a day, I'll be forcing myself to write every day, and I know from past experience that it gets easier to write as you get going. Well, usually. *crosses fingers*

Since I need a certain amount of quality in this, I'm not going to write the whole 50,000 words this month. That just can't happen when I need to do proper research and citation, and generate figures along the way. However, I will set a daily word count for the rest of November (wasn't going to happen in the first few days of this month due to the conference).

I, Heather (bare_bear), pledge to write at least 600 words (or two pages double spaced) of thesis writing every day for the month of November. I will also hold myself accountable by posting my daily word count and status on my livejournal and dreamwidth accounts.

I figured I'd start off with a bang today, since I feel guilty for starting nearly a week into the month. 


The 15,000 value is based on 600 words for the remaining 25 days in November.  However, that does not mean I'll stop writing when I hit 15,000.  My thesis is going to wind up much longer than that!  If I find I can write more than that a day, sweet.  But I know some days I'll be stuck dicking around with graphs and doing lots of research, so I don't want to commit to an impossible daily word count, especially since I struggle writing.  Now I just wish I could write efficiently on the computer, rather than writing everything out by hand and then typing it in.  I killed 14 pages of paper today!

*excited to use all her shiny new nanowrimo icons she gathered last night while procrastinating from the thesis*

Ah, this is more like it.  4 am, cup of tea at my elbow and Pride and Prejudice (BBC 6 hour version) on loop, and sleep deprived enough that I'm no longer stressing about every word and my fingers just type sciencey babble.  THIS is how I will wind up writing my thesis, not in the afternoon like I keep trying and utterly failing at.

Now hopefully I can get this part of the results section done by tomorrow evening for the Super.  :)

Oh man, I haven't posted on here in a while. I blame my thesis. And sewing. Both of which I've been decently productive on lately. If you're interested in some of the projects I've been tackling lately, check out my blog, Sewing on Pins. Or you know, not. :)

My thesis, on the other hand, has been both frustrating and illuminating the last week or so. I've been so bogged down in the details, the other day I gave up and did an art project.

( Markers on poster and thesis babble behind the cut. :) )

After how many months of floundering and panicking about my thesis, I think I've worked out a battle plan, and I now feel like this is finally doable. Thank God.

But because I've been stressing myself out about this for ages now, and I need a bit of time to regroup, I've decided to give myself the weekend off. YAY!

So today I've mostly been just straightening up my apartment and finishing off a sewing project, a short sleeved blouse using New Look 6407. I even managed to get some pictures of it outside in the sun before a wicked storm blew through Kingston.

( Picture behind the cut )

In you're interested in more pictures, you can check out my sewing blog.

I think I'm going to go bake a coffee cake and make a cup of coffee before sitting down and watch an episode or two of Project Runway season 4. Maybe I'll even start cutting out pieces for a second blouse in another fabric.

Tomorrow may be some of the same.  :)  Maybe I'll even sleep in!  Or at least, more so than normal. 

ACK! Going to Trent University tomorrow for a big meeting with the lab that did the arsenic speciation (there are different types of arsenic - they found out which ones) in our water samples. This past week is the first time I've really dug into them in months. EEEP! Not ready for this at all! :(

*goes back to playing with way too many numbers on way too many spreadsheets*



*cries*

There are days when I curse to high heaven that I've come back to do a Masters in a degree I'm really not sure is appropriate for me.


And then there are days like today, when a lunch at the local Grad Club turns into 4 hours of drinking beer and chatting with others on the patio, Grad school doesn't seem that bad.  I mean, this time next year, I'll either be working my ass off in the field or stuck in an office. 


Of course, when tomorrow rolls around and I'm stone sober again, I'm sure I'll have a panic attack over all the crap I didn't get done this week.  But right now?  Feeling gooood.  :D

Optional homework assignment for thesis support group meeting:

In 200 words or less AND using a different written genre (e.g. letter to self,
story, poem, post card, a pitch), explain what your thesis is about. Prepare to
present to someone else.

Research Objectives Haiku:

In this northern lake
as ice melts, arsenic seeps
- does the wetland clean?


Do you think 13 words count?

This is possibly the most useless day ever. Don't even ask what I've been doing all day, because I have no idea. I groggily got to school at like, 10 (I slept in epically, which was my first indication that the day was going to be unproductive), drank ineffective coffee AND expresso, and now magically it's 1 pm and I have no idea what happened to the day.

Except maybe Hyperbole and a Half, but that doesn't even account for all of it.

Why the hell did I even get outta bed this morning.

ARGH END OF TERM ARGH!!!

*le sigh*

Well, at least my 68 PAGE REPORT is finished, as of last week.  Last Wednesday, actually, but it took a few days to recover from that one.  Now it's just a bunch of marking before my TA duties are finished (FOR EVER OMG!  Holy crap, I just realized that).

Then all I have to do is finish a ton of analysis and write my entire thesis before August.

*headdesk*



On the other hand, I just realized that being a Graduate student isn't half bad.  Yeah, I don't really get evenings or weekends to myself without a mountain of guilt and a handful of emails from the Supervisor.  But how many jobs out there can you go have a beer to help you get work done (i.e. marking) in the middle of the afternoon?  :D

...mmm...beer...

I'm starting to realize just how much work I have to do in the coming months.  Which, on one hand, is excellent!  It means that I'm finally aware of how hard I have to work, instead of still thinking 'wow I've got so much time left OOO LOOK SHINEY!'.

On the other hand, GOOD BYE LIFE. 

Oh gosh so busy.  And sadly, I don't wanna do any of it.


Why the heck did I agree to doing this thesis, anyways?