Friday, January 25, 2008

hard slog

People, the dissertation is getting me down. I feel like I should post more but it will all be, "blah blah blah dissertation blah blah feeling sorry for myself blah stress blah tired blah complaining about stats". That just doesn't seem that interesting. It is weird, I am apparently very stressed, although I don't feel the feelings I would describe as stressed. I am tired all the time. And apparently less energetic and happy than the usual Laurie (others have reported this). And any tiny thing going wrong freaks me out. Like this morning I tried to do laundry, but only one washer in our building laundry room was working and then when I went to dry, all the dryers were broken. So I had to haul my wet clothes to the laundromat. Which actually worked out in the end because the laundromat dryers are way better than ours, and I had an excuse to sit next door in Dunkin Donuts and have coffee and donuts while I waited for my clothes. But the hiccup in laundry routine was like The Worst Apocalypse Ever to me when it happened.

The good news is I have now analyzed almost all the data for my entire dissertation, and all I need to do is write sentences around it. Lately, for me this is the worse part. Six months ago I would have told you I would like to think up projects and collect the data, then have someone else analyze it and give it back to me to write up. Now I have decided I will think, collect, AND even analyze (I have conquered a small corner of the statistics world, I think) and have someone else write it up.

OK, there is one horrible analysis part of my dissertation that is not done and which will take one million years. I am trying to decide if I can just throw it out, but in the meantime I am off to make a little more head way on it.

6 comments:

DancingFish said...

That is so great that you are making progress and are at that point where only writing is left!! I think donuts will play a very large role in my life when I get to the writing stage!

ScienceGirl said...

Hang in there - the slogging is bound to pay off!

Anonymous said...

You can do it! Seriously, I cannot imagine how hard it would be to write up a dissertation, my dinky little masters thesis nearly killed me. :) You are getting a lot done, even if it doesn't seem like it, and happy Laurie will return as soon as it's over.

meeegan said...

Go ahead and write about the diss. experience if that's what's on your mind and heart. We'll be here to cheer you on!

Field Notes said...

You sound like me this time last year, and I made it. Hang in there, eat donuts, drink coffee and write those sentences! It is all downhill from here. I found myself getting so excited about my research when I could start talking about what the data meant. It was invigorating.

Anonymous said...

Mmm... donuts.

More donuts can only help the diss. process, no?

Keep on slogging!