Dissertation=Submitted to committee!
The good, the bad, and the…well, good. November 7, 2009
So, bad news first: I received my first job search-related rejection. I’d applied for a postdoc at a really prestigious school that was a close but not exact fit for my skill set. I received an e-mail from the search head yesterday saying that my credentials were strong, but my skill set wasn’t as good of a match for the job as other candidates’. Fair enough. One down, 29 to go.
The good news: Both of my submissions got accepted for Huge National Conference in late April. Better yet, both were accepted as paper sessions, rather than poster or roundtable sessions. This in a year when they were trying to make things more inclusive which necessitated making the paper sessions far more competitive, and I got not just one, but two! The paper I submitted based on my dissertation research got a particularly amazing review. Some quotes:
Classical in tone, definitive in style, and analytical in content, this good paper raises more questions than it answers and that is good.
This proposal also speaks to the program’s theme and reveals a high quality of writing and organization. The paper’s objectives, theoretical framework, methods of inquiry, data sources, and results are all scientific and scholarly. This is a significant piece of work that deserves presentation.
It’s hard not to have a great day after reading those kinds of reactions to your work. As one of my friends said, “That sounds like a testimonial from a book’s dust jacket!” It’s just the boost I need to get my revisions done and to start working on some stuff to submit to other conferences and journals. It’s also a few more lines on my vita when I can certainly use all the help I can get to sell myself as a serious scholar who does work that other people care about.
Pushing through November 5, 2009
I’m wrapping up week 2 of being sick, with a moderate amount of improvement. The Cipro has done weird things to mah belly, and I still have an insane amount of postnasal drip, which makes for unpleasant mornings. Using the sinus rinse has helped a bit, although sometimes I feel like I can’t get the solution all the way through. A blockage or some swelling, perhaps? I had some structural issues w/ my sinuses a decade ago (enlarged turbinates and an obstructed ostium) but I think that it was all permenantly fixed with my surgery.
I’ve found another couple of jobs, one of which excites me to no end given its location. I’ve got another 5 or so applications that I’m sending out this week and weekend, and then I’ll knock out the remainder over Thanksgiving break. Between that, writing up 2 finals, working on some articles and conference presentations, wrapping up my dissertation revisions (more on that in a sec) and prepping for my Asian excursion, methinks I’ll be a tad overwhelmed!
I received my advisor’s comments on my first draft and they were overall very positive. The changes he suggested shouldn’t take more than a couple of days to implement, and then I’m shooting it back his way mid-week for him to have at least one more chance to suggest changes before I send it to committee. My plan now is to send it to them around Thanksgiving, with a request for a list of potential days and times in late January that work for them. Then upon return from the holidays, I’ll e-mail them individually to ask about any particular issues that they want me to address pre-defense, so that the whole defense runs smoothly. One of my committee members thought it was a great idea and expressed appreciation that I was giving them plenty of time to read and think it over. If anything, I need to keep them happy!
Today, despite my ickiness, I taught 2 really good classes. The material covered in the 2nd half of the semester is much more my speed, and I think that translates into more exciting classes. Of course, there’s also the fact that I have more experience than I did at the beginning, and there’s something to be said for that. I feel so much more comfortable in the classroom, and even though I don’t want to have a teaching-intensive (as opposed to research-intensive) job, I really don’t mind that aspect so much. I’m really looking forward to next semester when I’m teaching material that I’ve covered before and I have a whole semester (3 classes) of experience under my belt!
I think I can hack it October 28, 2009
I’m still hacking like a smoker. How did I teach my class today? I have no idea. I let them go about 10 minutes early because my voice (what was left of it) was totally shot. After class, I went straight home and applied VapoRub and a hot compress to my chest to loosen all the gooey bits. Three cheers for Mucinex!
On the job front, I have 25 jobs on my list, and I’ve applied for 11 of them so far. That figure will bump up to 12 by the end of the week. Once I hear back from Huge National Conference about all 3 of my proposed papers, I’ll apply for the jobs that have mid-November and December deadlines. I’m hoping to have all of my apps out for the jobs I currently know about by Thanksgiving. In applying for job #11 (a “safety” if there ever was one…), I found it to be the least clear and most complicated of all of the jobs I’ve applied for yet. It was enough to make me throw up my hands in defeat, but I’m hardly in a position to be turning down opportunities. This job is better than being unemployed, but not by much. I have to wonder about a place that makes you submit copies of your transcripts for a tenure-track position. Trust issues, much?
Three more classes to teach, and then a weekend to recover and write. It really can’t come fast enough!
*ahem* October 19, 2009
My self-imposed blogging embargo has ended! (And the crowd goes mild.)
The first bit of good news is that I turned in my first full draft of all 5 chapters on Friday. I’ve been working steadily for the past few months, but it took an 11th-hour near-all-nighter to get the damn thing done. I stayed up ’til 3, woke up at 7:30, taught at 11, and tweaked a few things before turning it in around 2:30 that afternoon. My advisor promised a 1-week turnaround, and then I’ll have it for another week or so for a round of revisions, lather, rinse, repeat. I’m kind of hoping to have everything nailed down and ready to send out around Thanksgiving, so that I can leave my committee w/ a full draft before the end of the semester (and over 6 weeks in which to read and review the whole document). I’ve often scoffed at people who frantically pull together shoddy work to meet a deadline and then give their committee something that barely qualifies as a draft a week before the defense. I want my committee to have plenty of time in which to read it, develop thoughtful questions, and come prepared to make me actually defend my work. I respect the folks on my committee far too much to force them to read some haphazard drivel and then make them sit through a weak and chaotic defense.
Another piece of good news is that an article I sent off for publication a couple of months ago has been accepted for publication. I’m really thinking that I should try to write up the results from the paper I did at a conference back in April to see if I could get perhaps one more pub on my vita before I start interviewing. It would be a stretch, but it may be worth a try! My hope is that with at least one pub and a few refereed conference presentations, my vita will stand out among a stack of others gunning for so few jobs in a tough economy.
The job hunt is also really revving up. I’m finding a few more jobs here and there, and so it looks like that when it’s all said and done, I’ll be applying for roughly 20 jobs. If only one quarter of them have any interest in me, I’ll be thrilled. My goal is to have all of my applications submitted by the time we leave for Thailand so that I can come home with a clear docket (and maybe a few interviews) for the spring semester.
Duck and cover October 2, 2009
So, I’m going into virtual hiding for a few weeks. No blogging, no Gchat (horrors!!), and…wait for it…no Facebook. I feel like I’m at the point where I’ve got so much work to do that these activities can’t possibly contribute to my productivity. Besides, I need some excuses to stop staring at illuminated rectangles every now and then.
In addition, I’m curtailing my “real” social life, if you can even call it that. I figure those who know me and understand my predicament will be cool about it and those who don’t obviously don’t deserve my time. I’ve got a couple of family obligations and a few pre-planned friend obligations, but I’m not committing to anything beyond that.
Why, you ask? (All 4 of you!) In the next 2-3 weeks, I need to accomplish the following:
- Grade midterm exams for 3 sections, about 100 students total
- Grade essays for students who don’t meet the cutoff grade for the exam
- Finish writing my first draft (I probably have about another 15 pages to go)
- Get out the majority of my job application packets
- Work on a conference proposal to send out by the end of the month
- Get cracking on laying the groundwork for a study I’d like to start by the end of next month
I feel like my progress is being hindered by the insane number of distractions in my life, and so I’m taking a proactive approach to eliminating them. It may be extreme, but a lot of these tasks have very serious and direct implications for my (and my spouse’s) future. I owe it to both of us to get my shit done.
Get to steppin’ June 6, 2009
I find myself in somewhat of an academic rut. It’s nothing serious, but I once again have a load of work to plow through over the next few weeks and at times it feels like an insurmountable obstacle, to the point that I’ve spent more time worrying and procrastinating than I have actually working. I’ve been good about doing not doing this recently, and now is not the time for my old habits to resurface. After the hellish April I had coupled with my proposal defense and recovery from surgery, I feel like I haven’t taken a full breath in quite some time. I really won’t have a break until mid-late July, and even then, I’ll likely be busy packing. A busy life is better than the alternative, but when you’re in the thick of things, it sure doesn’t feel that way. By the end of next week, I need to pound out 3 conference proposals and finish up my analysis so I can get my presentation ready by the end of the following week. I’m really chomping at the bit now, but I’m feeling impossibly lazy and unmotivated at the present.
My reformation plan is going quite well. I’ve been running, going to the gym, and monitoring my eating habits a little more closely, and it’s paid off! I lost about 4 lbs over the past 2 weeks in part because I’m consuming less salt and way more water, and I’ve taken an inch off my waist, which is a welcome development. Tomorrow is my first long run (I’m training for a marathon and have one “long” run per week.) If all goes well, I’ll peel off 6 miles, but even 5 would be OK. I’ve never done more than 5 before in my life, so I’m curious to see whether I can even do it. Each week my long runs get successively longer until I’m able to do 26 in one try. I don’t see how I can’t substantially shape up when I’m running no less than 12 miles a week, and up to 32 miles in the later weeks.
Weekend re-cap May 30, 2009
The dresser is now residing in our guest room, thanks to the generosity of two friends who came over to help us get it out of the car. It was not easy. I’ve pretty much promised the spouse that I will no longer accept things from my mom that don’t fit into my purse. I understand why she always wants to send me home with things (to feel like she’s taking care of me), but given that we’re trying to reduce our possessions, it doesn’t really help.
This week has been kind of a bust, academically. I’ve been toying with my data a bit, but not in any substantial way. I found some interesting correlations, and in one case found absolutely no correlation when there should have been at least a weak but significant one. One thing that really pisses me off is that the reliability checks on one of my measures weeded out 24% of my sample. To put it in perspective, the usual elimination rate is about 11%. This signals that 24% of the people who took the survey were either 1) stupid 2) lazy or 3) both. It just makes me mad that people who were getting course credit for this couldn’t have bothered to actually follow directions and pay attention. I’m hoping that the remaining data is high quality, but I’m not holding my breath. One big relief is that one of the main hypotheses of my study seems to be holding up, but in unexpected ways. The next few weeks will be fun!
In other big news, we are in the process of selling our house. We have a signed purchase agreement, but nothing is certain until the appraisal and the inspection happen. If everything does work, then we will be out of here around the first week of August and we’ll rent a place here until we move off for good next May. It’s hard to leave this house, but if it means that we aren’t frantically trying to offload the house in the midst of packing, changing jobs, and moving to another state, then I’m OK with it.
First day back! May 19, 2009
I was bored out of my mind for the first half of today. Then I decided that I had too much to do to be bored, so I got to work on such important things as my symposium paper, getting a few more articles for my diss, and generally figuring out what I’m going to do over the next few weeks. After reading my notes from my defense and looking at some articles, I’m realizing that one of my committee members is (perhaps unwittingly) steering me to the very conclusion I’m arguing against. No me gusta! I’m reading the articles this person mentioned at my proposal defense so that I can say say, “Yes, but…” at my final defense without sounding like an utter moron.
This week and next, I plan on getting my candidacy paperwork finished, writing my symposium paper, and finish up on the last of my funding requests so that I can spend June doing nothing but conference prep and data analysis. My trip is really drawing close and I haven’t yet done anything of substance in preparation. I’m not panicking, but I am ready to crack down and get to work.
Enough already! May 16, 2009
I’m officially tired of feeling sore, swollen, and drugged. The first 2 days weren’t so bad, because I still had some anesthesia circulating in my system to keep me knocked out, not to mention the large amounts of Lortab I consumed to keep the pain at bay. I started weaning myself off the Lortab yesterday, which meant I actually felt some real pain. I still have a belly full of air, which feels as bad as it looks. My plan for the weekend is to force myself to start doing things (no lifting) in hopes that I will feel better by Monday or Tuesday.
I’ve been trying to plan out a few conference abstracts that I need to get ready this summer, but it’s significantly more difficult under the influence of narcotics. I also have a 1000-word paper based on my symposium presentation from a few weeks ago due on May 29, and I haven’t really started it yet. Maybe that will be my first task on Monday, assuming I feel up to it. I also need to follow up on some funding requests I put out for my conference trip to see if I’m getting any damn money.
It will be so nice to feel better and be productive. For now, I’ll just enjoy the break.
