Babbles of a Procrastinating Grad Student

So much to do this morning, like finish packing up my office and get the boxes containing my crap ready to ship back to Manitoba.  But you know what?  This is the first morning in nearly 3 years that I've woken up with no thesis obligations hanging over my head! 

I don't know how I feel yet.  But it's kind of awesome!  :D

Well, this has sort of been a crap day.  Thesis edits are...not really coming.  I can't seem to make myself look at them.

But whatever.  My thesis defense party is tonight, so I'm going to go chill and enjoy it.  :)  Mediocre thank you card for super Super is mediocre, but hopefully the bottle of scotch to go with it will distract.  Seriously, someday I will hire a writer to do all of my silly little writing things.  I really suck at it. 

Defending my thesis today at 1 pm.  homg.  I'd actually feel better about this if my presentation were behaving itself or if I'd had more time to practice it.  Oh well, it'll go well, I know it!

Off to practice once more, then shower and run!




omg almost done my Masters!!!

I keep putting off writing this post, mostly because I hate writing the important ones.  I'd much rather blather on about ..yoghurt or something like that. 

But anyways, I've submitted my thesis.  I'm sure there's lots of stuff in it that should be expanded on or taken out or re-written or corrected, but I suppose that can be said for any documents or bit of writing, and there's no sense on continually bashing my head over it or else I'd never be done.  And anyways, I'm sure my committee will tear it to shreds give me lots of useful advice and edits. 

Oh yeah that's right, I'm not really done yet.  Will be defending my thesis on June 9th.  For those who do not know what that means, it's basically an oral exam where a committee of people who have read your thesis, does a couple rounds of grilling you with questions about your work.  I've been told it lasts anywhere from 3 hours to when you break down and weep, whichever comes last.

Despite this, I refuse to look at the defense as anything but a Good Thing.  I'm the expert here (apparently), and I sort of like presenting my research and blathering on about it.  I'm better at talking about it than writing about it.  Also, I'm hoping that my committee will have suggestions on how to present some of my data, or locate where the gaps are that I know are present in my thesis.  So...it'll be a Good Thing.

Until then, though, I'm sort of in limbo.  Not really done, but not really not done...if that makes sense.  I just wish it were June 9th already.

Although I have been enjoying some time off.  Took the weekend and basically just relaxed and did things I wanted to do (Torchwood marathon ftw!), so that's been lovely.

Anyways, back to the regularly scheduled inanity after this.

Although I will say...I can't believe I'm (almost) done!  :D

Another list of Thesisy Things To Do.  This time with chapter sections to cross out.  Just to keep me motivated.  Wooo.  (In stupid code because it makes me vaguely uncomfortable to have this stuff on a public post, even if it is (semi) anonymous.)

• Sources of Stuff in The Place
  • The Lake
    
  • The Strip
    
  • The Dust
• Downstream Changes of Stuff in the Water
• Stuff Stuck in the Dirt
  
  • Stuff in Metal Watery Oxides
  • Stuff in Metal Sulphides
• Oxygen-LackofOxygen Conditions in The Place
• Stuff Cycling (ONNA BIKE!)  (Really long ride homg)
• How all this Crap affects The Plan

ETA 2:05 am: This is the dilemma I always run into.  Do I go to bed now since I'm very tired and can't think straight anymore but the words are flowing easily, or do I go to bed and get up early, when I'll be able to think clearly, but will have problems gettin
g those thoughts onto the paper? 

I prefer to stay up and plow through it, since I really need to get this done by tomorrow (afternoon? early evening?  Please?!) and I hate cutting down my time.  But this is an important section and I need to make sure it's thought out clearly.

Okay, that answers it: to bed for me.  But first I'll jot down my thoughts for this next section.


ETA May 11 2:05 pm (haha!): Got 'stuff in metal sulphides' section done and half of 'oxygen blah blah blah' section done while chilling at Smitty's, eating breakfast and cake (not at the same time).  Now parked on the couch and will try to finish up at least this section and the 'stuff cycling' section this afternoon/evening.  I hope.  :)

I am not entirely pleased by this.   Mostly because, crap, now I own a cell phone.

And to exemplify why exactly this is a bad thing, instead of coming home and tidying and making supper and writing my thesis, as planned, I tracked down phone numbers and proceeded to text with my best buddy for an hour and a half.  

And I don't do multitasking.

*headdesk*

ETA: It's a Samsung Linx, if anyone is curious.  Everyone else on facebook seems to be (I don't really know why, but I hate cells, so I'm not an authority on the subject).  

So the Super Super laid down some pretty firm deadlines.  Sadly, one of them was for yesterday afternoon, which I didn't meet because I didn't actually see her email until about 2:30 am this morning.  Crap.

But the other one is my defense deadline.  She want's me to defend the first week of June, at the latest, which means submitting mid-May.  This is because she leaves to do field work mid-June, and then on Sabbatical in July.  It's fair enough and frankly, I want this done asap, but it's also terrifying, you know?  I'm struggling to write my lit review (although it's finally sort of coming along), I have to finish about 1/3 of my results chapter, then the entire discussion and conclusions chapter.  Plus all the final fiddly stuff, like tweaking my appendices (which are mostly done, thank frickin' God) and making sure the references are consistent and complete. 

And I've got about a month to do it.

But on the bright shiny silver lining side, that means I have about a month left of hell thesis work to do.  A very intense month, but only a month.

\o/

Banana-flavoured coffee and rice krispie squares are magical.  They helped me solve the statistical error for my data! 

\o/

I've had an email sitting in my university email account since yesterday afternoon, and I've been terrified to open it.  It was feedback from the Super on Chapter 1.  I finally worked up the nerve to read it, and am now nearly in tears.

It's all good feedback.  She's really happy with it, and says it only needs some minor touch-ups here and there. 

*takes a moment*

Writing is really hard for me.  It's like pulling teeth to get it out, every time, and I'm terrified of being judged for my writing skills.  I know that I can do a good job when I spend the time on it and really work hard on it, but I'm wildly self-conscious of people reading my writing.  Plus my procrastination tendencies don't often leave me with a lot of time to spend on it, although the pressure usually helps get it onto the page (which is why I appreciated using my own version of NaNoWriMo to help with this).

Still, this is good.  I know it needs a bit more work, and I'm going to see if my best buddy will read it over, just to make sure it's sensible to a non-geochemist (plus she's a grammar fiend).  But...it's one chapter down.  Many to go, but it's coming along, and my tears and smile are testament to that.  :' )

( Alright, it's 6 am and I'm to bed. Caution, sleep deprived babble about the Thesis (of Doom) behind the cut.  )

Good night all!