Epiphany
At the crossroad
At long last I'm on the threshold of writing my thesis. This week has been pretty interesting, and I have finally started work on writing up my thesis.
I went to a meeting with my supervisor and we spent ages going over the methodology and she feels it will be useful for me to start writing up my thesis using the methodology material as a guide. I feel really quite calm about it all on the one hand and on the other hand I feel really excited to finally be working on the final product of my PhD.
I also started work on the research methods CD for teaching OS studente this week. It will be pretty challenging but because the subject is research methods, I think there'll be some synergies for me and I'll learn a fair bit from the whole process. I am feeling a bit nervous about the writing component of the task, but to be paid for 20 hours of writing is a pretty novel experience for me, and kind of nice.
As a result of training the other week, I'm going to be the Faculty's support for NVivo too, which should be pretty interesting. I hope the workload isn't too full on, but in the end I think it's a good thing for my career. It will make a nice break from research every now and again, and I will enjoy the people contact. *laugh* I'd never have imagined I would miss clients a few years ago :P
At the moment, along with the research, I am also part of a group of researchers applying for a grant for a new research project. It's fun to be listed as a chief investigaotor rather than a PhD student for a change and the other researchers are very experienced, so I will leanr a lot from this too. The deadline for our submission is 6 August, so I have been doing bits and pieces for that over the last couple of days, along with working on my thesis.
I have to get Nina from school soon. I feel a bit restless so I might see whther she wants to catch a film tonight, or maybe we'll hire a DVD. It's a bloody freezing day, so I think tonight will be arctic brrrrrr
I'd better test my webCT logon before I go....... might do that right now, before I forget about it.
A pause for breath
Wow, I can hardly believe it, for the first time in ages I have gotten on top of most things :)
I just sent an amended draft of the ethics manuscript to my co-authors and gave a draft of my detailed methodology to my supervisor at a meeting last Friday. She will give me feedback tomorrow so it all begins again, however for now, I am on top of it.
I've been playing around with NVivo for the video editing project I will be working for the School from today. I made a model of the vidoe questions in realtion to the research methodology framework and it was quite useful. It will take time to use it for my research, but I guess the time spent to set the research up should help me save time further down the track- I have to say though that I think MS Word is more user friendly for some tasks, however rtf is a common format so it's easy to move between them. I have a meeting outlining/reviewing the project plan for the video editing work in about 30 minutes or so, which ought to be gairly interesting.
I had a really quiet week end, I felt too tired to do very much. Training last week went well, as did my meetings and my effort at shmoozing with ITS at the Uni Club.
I have a meeting tomorrow about a new research project, which will be pretty interesting although not directly related to my research. Still I will learn more about the whole research project process from it.
After the research proposal meeting tomorrow ( we are going to apply for funding to support it) I might try and sketch the outline of my thesis and think about how to use Excel, NVivo or something else for data collection and analysis, but I will worry about that tomorrow, for now I will make myself a cup of tea and enjoy feeling very, very, lazy.
I finished all of my reader's reports for the human ethics committee meeting yesterday too, what a pain the reports for the next meeting were... but its done.
I read Mavis'
blogg yesterday, I was very impressed... I has no idea she wrote poetry. I'm a bit blown away by it all.
Sandy started back at school yesterday and he seems really happy about his course. I think he has discovered a career option that won't feel too much like work when he gets a job in the industry.
Looking for a new computer for Mum and San.. I am really enjoyinh their pleasure in all of this... will get Sandy a beast *laugh*
Now for my cup of tea...
Busy as usual...
The break over the last few days has been lovely, if a bit full on. I took Amanda to see the birds at Stef and Robbie's yesterday morning and in the afternoon we went to
Cardinia Dam to see the kangaroos. They close the park by 5 pm in Winter though, so we only saw 50 or so and we had to leave before we really got to check them out properly, nevertheless, Amanda seemed happy enough. She is a lovely child and she and Nina seem to get on very well- in fact I think Nina will really miss her when she returns to Sweden.
I got to my desk just before 8.30 this morning, sorting through new new journal articles, catching up on correspondence and filing has taken nearly 2 hours.
Today I continue with my methodology. As I read my notes from last week I realised I had set up such an unrealistsic deadline for myself, it's no wonder I was feeling a bit stressed about my workload. When working from home last week I began to understand that what I am doing is hugely complex and it takes time to do it well. I am about half way through the stages of my research, so my progress is steady if not as fast as my impatient heart would wish.
I also realised that a document I have been using to jot down notes, the rationale for including and excluding various elements and limitations of my research design along with other ad hoc stuff, is invaluable- it amazes me that no-one ever suggested creating a document like this. It is so useful for listing information that I need to refer to later when writing and I reach a point where I think "Now why did I do that?" or "What was I thinking of here" What is more, it means I just stick and paste from it into the writing up of my various research stages.
I still havent gotten around to starting the writing up of my thesis or to the ethics article. I got some feedback from Virginia so I need to amend my model slightly as well, and then amend my survey questions based on changes to the model.
Training in NVivo all day this week, plus another
mWard meeting on Friday and a few other shmoozy bits and pieces to get through *laugh* there's just no slowing down at the moment, but I am getting there...
I miss coffee with Mavis and I need to see Eugenie before she leaves as well, not to mention catching up with Stephanie (to say g'day and fetch my scarf), Andrew, Johann and Denise- to complicate things further, Sandy's birthday is on the 14th.. o shit that's on Wednesday...
Methodology stuff
I had a lovely weekend, dinner in Carlton and then went to see
The Triplets of Belleville. On Saturday I took Nina shopping for clothes and we had heaps of fun and on Sunday we did some work outside in the garden after I slept in a bit. It was a really nice, relaxing, weekend.
On the work front I have discovered that I don't need to do the presentation for our visiting lecturer, which is a nice surprise.
I started my methodology yesterday and found that I had already done a fair bit of the work in earlier versions. I'm a bit stuck describing some of the stages of my work but I think that is because I am a little unclear about it in reality. The main problem is stage 1, the security model, in that I'm having difficulty articulating the basis for developing it, though its beginning to flow now.
I spent ages this morning sorting through my paperwork, filing and organising my resources. I thought I had lost a really valuable document with hand written notes from my supervisor, but thank heavens I found it again. I got a bit of a fright, so I think the time spent on organisation was pretty worthwhile.
Nina's friend Amanda is flying in from Sweden to stay with us for a few days while her father is at a conference, beginning tomorrow. Nina is so excited that I cant help looking forward to it too. I'll take the girls to
Luna Park on Thursday and on Friday we'll head for Flinders and stay there overnight.
Working from home tomorrow.... need to finish the methodology this week (that means tomorrow *ack*) if I can... I had better get back to work if I want to enjoy both my days off... hmm cup of tea first though :P
Running as fast as I can (continued)
I'm still working flat out. Today I have decided to catch up on a few organisational matters, update my calendar and review my questionnaire. There is just so much to do, but then I am making progress slowly.
The first draft of my model is finished, though I'm a bit concerned that its so unwieldy. The chart is 2 A4 pages, but the explanatory text is more than 3 pages of size 8 font. I know its probably impossible to synthesise the information any further but I need to find a way to depict it so that my analysis is clear. However its great to finish a complete draft. I plan to review my questionnaire using the model later on today so I can get on with drafting my methodology next week. Then I'll spend some time with my supervisor reviewing the lot and once we are satisfied, I will consult statistical services for their feedback. Then its on to ethics and who knows, by October or November, I may be collecting data, which would be fabulous.
Also, Vicki has loaned me some of her texts so I can overcome a few grammatical humps in my writing. I always thought I was an adequate writer but the last journal article experience has left me feeling a bit scarred. I need to spend some time looking over those texts today and copying a few bits and pieces for future reference.
Virginia gave me a copy of an really early draft of her thesis and a template for writing a thesis, so I am going to get started on that too- just a rough version, but it will be good to start on the writing up as soon as I get a breather, even if I start with the easy stuff, like the acknowledgements page.
I haven't even begun to look at the ethics paper, but it just has to wait a couple more weeks or until I can afford a mental break from writing the methodology, actually the thesis draft is awaiting the same kind of pause in my workload.
I also have to write a presentation for the annual visit of an adjunct Lecturer from Yale. Although its not too difficult to draft the thing because I will use earlier presentations as a template, I have done a fair bit of work and will need to incorporate it into the paper. I know the discipline is probably good for me, but it feels like so much extra work...
There's heaps of training over the next 4-6 weeks too, plus a bit of obligatory shmoozing at faculty events and the fact that every bit of work I out out will come back for review... *laugh* it feels like you never finish anything at all sometimes.. it's all on some kind of circular conveyor belt and the more work you do, the more work you create for yourself to do.
School holidays and Sandy's working hours just complicate stuff even more, so I have to compress a lot of work into relatively short bursts of time when I can concentrate, although I have to admit, the down time with Nina is fun and forces me to relax. Yesterday I took the girls and a school friend of Nina's to see
Mean Girls and tonight we'll have dinner in Carlton and go to see
The triplets of Belleville which will also be fun. Next week Nina's friend Amanda arrives from Sweden to stay with us for a week. We will probably go to Flinders for a night and take them to the Aquarium and Sandy will take them to the snow for day trip too.
I really need to update this more often so each entry is smaller, but more accurately documents what is happening because as I read over this, I realise that there is so much I have to leave out because of time- it's already 10 am and I have 2 research proposals to review for
scerh, plus some other bits and pieces and I want to have lunch with Mavis today and then spend the afternoon on the research questions.
