Sorry for not updating the blog lately, it's just that there's not much to tell. I've been working so hard on the dissertation that I'm empty of other things to say.
On Friday I was able to send the first two chapters (but I later realized that I want to write an interesting paragraph to begin chapter two since the one I have is too boring). On Saturday night, while my whole family went here with a large group of friends, I stayed home to work. Then on Sunday K took the boys here and I didn't go. Kelvin is already complaining that "You don't go anywhere, mama!!" and when I tell him I have to finish the dissertation he whines "But you're never going to finish, never!"
Oh boy...
Yesterday I sent of the third chapter and I hope against hope that I can finish the rest today. :-(
Problem is, you have no idea how much feedback from my third reader, Dr. Contrarian, I have had, and still have to deal with. It's excellent feedback, by the way. She doesn't take anything at face value and following her suggestions will help my dissertation be so much stronger.
Last week, or two weeks ago... I can hardly remember... I had to smile at your suggestions (Libby's, I think) to "strive for bad." Well, my friends, I've been trying to strive for bad, but my committee members are SO helpful and tuned to detail that they won't let me get away with bad :-). Apologies for the lack of modesty, but I'm secretly hoping that I can get one of those dissertation awards... I just don't know how those things work. Well, if I don't, at least I'm sure it'll be published as a book in Brazil, if not here (I'm already doing part of the work for that by including all the Portuguese citations in the original Portuguese in footnotes).
OK, see? I'm not really empty, I'm only full with the dissertation, and all that talk must be boring you. I'm actually surprised at how I'm not "hating it" at all, on the contrary, I like it more and more even though it still WILL have faults because I do want to get done. I'm not striving for bad, but I am, striving for done, as you guys said. (sorry for no links, I'm really tired right now)
And I know I'll get done, and if what's done can also be good, wow, then it will be awesome!
More later... (now I want to keep writing, but I have to go back to work. I think I've never written a post this early in the morning, btw... but last night at 11:30 [which is really early for me] I was falling asleep in front of the computer and then I went to bed.
P.S. Oh yeah, I have news about family members, but I'll leave those for another post!
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3 comments:
By "strive for bad," I meant strive for DONE. Any dissertation is never as good as it "could have been" -- but any dissertation that is unfinished will never see its glory in any case.
All dissertations are probably good in many ways (I actually ended up liking mine after it was done), but I venture to guess that all of them could be much, much better.
Tracy, sorry for now acknowledging the comment correctly. I keep trying to leave the bad parts relatively bad, but the detailed feedback I have makes it darn near impossible!!
Only today I started to simply deleting some comments and moving on... so I can get DONE, like you said. Of course there will be infinite room for improvement in there, it's impossible for there not to be, but really... the kind of feedback I got is tiresome in its "detailedness." OH well... gotta go back to work.
keep at it, you're doing great!
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