School Update

So I have had a lot going on lately. So I will take a couple days to update. Todays update school. I've made a ton of progress lately. The biggest is about two weeks ago, I had my proposal defense. For those unfamiliar with the dissertation process, the proposal defense is the harder of the two defenses a student goes through. The proposal is the first three chapters of the dissertation, which sets up the purpose, need, and way an individual will conduct their study. I expected that the committee would give me some revisions that they needed to be done before signing off on the form for me to move forward, but they didn't. I passed with flying colors :) They did have revisions but nothing needed before the final defense. So I am able to move on with my process.

The next step is going through IRB approval, which is the point where the school examines the study and ensures that proper protections are included to protect the safety and anonymity of the participants in the study. It took me about a week and a half to fill out the paperwork. It got sent to the IRB office and then I find out Friday afternoon that I do not need IRB approval since I am not having any interaction with individuals. That would've been nice to know two weeks ago. Now I'm waiting for the dean to give me permission to move ahead.

Unfortunately I have a really tight deadline. For me to get my data this month, I need to send my proposal request to UCLA no later than Wednesday. So I need to hear back from her by that point or I have to wait until May, which would not make me happy at all :(. Keep your fingers crossed for that.

In other news, I had applied for another grant (making two in total) to cover dissertation expenses. I was turned down, which upset me a bit. I feel like I'd be great in the faculty route, but every thing i try which would prepare me for that route seems to not go my way. Grants not going my way. I still haven't heard about publications I submitted etc etc. In the grand scheme of things, the data shouldn't be that expensive, but its difficult enough to break into teaching as it is.

So all in all frustrations are there, but I am making steady progress. Dr. Filter here I come.

29 years young

So I am now 29 years old. And its turning out so far to be a really great year.



I did dinner and drinks with some friends on Monday evening, which was my actual birthday. I had a great time and it was just nice to be around people that I cared about. Friday was the official party. A friend of mine decided to throw me an early "surprise" party. He seemed to forget that I'm the only gay in town that is on time. I even showed up like 3 or 4 minutes early. I knocked on his window so he would come and get me then noticed a sign on his door (there is a glass door in between his door and the outside so I couldn't knock on his door). The sign said "Scott's Suaree" Then I saw the main door was propped open, so I walked in and knocked on the main door and walked in and they were all surprised that I had walked in when I did. But we had a great time. We went to Nellie's ( a gay sports bar) and I ended up closing the place down. Needless to say I slept pretty much the entire next day.



The following day, Saturday, I went to Jewish Speed Dating. I did enjoy myself, but the experience was an interesting reflection on our experience being influenced by how an event ends rather than the entirety of the event. Most of the guys I had a "speed date" with were quite bad at conversation. Whether they were disinterested in the whole experience, or me in particular I don't know. But the conversations should go like this. I ask a question. You answer it and follow it with a question of your own. I then do the same. The amount of awkward silence shouldn't have happened. It wasn't that serious of an event. But the last guy I had a date with I found to be very enjoyable. Instead of discussing the traditional topics (career, length of time in DC, etc) we talked about reality tv programming and the muppets. He was funny and I appreciated his ease of conversation. I told him that he was a great way to end the evening. For those of you who don't know how it works, at the end of the night you circle which of your dates you were interested in seeing again and if they do the same then your contact info is sent to the other person. If only one of you puts something neither of you are notified. So it seems as if he put me down as I got an email yesterday when I woke up giving me his contact info. I emailed him last night at midnight (when I had a second to do so). Now I'm waiting for a response ;)



Also (to continue to show my good fortune so far) I won passes to go see an early show of He's Just Not That Into You. Can't wait!!!!



In other news. School is going well. I finally have commitments from a methodologist and after much harassment, got feedback. I'm moving forward on setting a date for my proposal defense (the week of March 15th).



The gym is also going well. Despite my birthday binging, I feel some changes in myself through the gym. I've picked up a boxing class and yoga as well as increasing my cardio by 200 calories a day. I will be buff by the end of the year.


I guess that's all that's going on with me.
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Forward

things are going well

So work is still going well. Its still a bit too slow for my liking. I haven't figured out if that is just the life of a federal employee, or if its because I'm new. I think over the next couple weeks additional things will happen to make sure I'm not bored. I haven't decided if the federal life will keep me happy for the rest of my life, so there is a strong possibility I will go into teaching once I finish my degree.

I've been able to make tons and tons of progress with my dissertation. The problem is with every step forward, I feel as if there is another mile to go. It never quite ends. But Rome wasn't built in a day, a dissertation isnt written in a sitting.

In good news, I found out that I will have the ability to do my data analysis from the comfort of my own computer. I had been told that I would have to go to Los Angeles for it. Which while i loved the possibility of a long trip to LA, it would have been way too expensive. I emailed them today and they gave me good news that they can send me the information I need. :) Woo Hoo. I may still go out there for a research workshop in August, but we will see about that.

a lot of progress made

As I turned in a major assignment for class today, I realized that I've made a lot of progress this semester. yes, I am burnt out and exhausted, but progress has been made.

At the beginning of the semester, I had 10 salvageable pages for my dissertation. Now I have 97, almost 100. I still have a lot of work to do, but I am definitely making progress.

Two steps forward, one step back.

I feel like the process to completing your dissertation is one of two steps forward, one step back. I made some good decisions about my dissertation in the last two weeks. First, I'm dropping a research question that is only tangentially related to my project (this will allow me to drop a third of my literature review). Secondly, I found an already constructed data source from a university that asks thousands of students questions about my topic (this will make data collection so much easier). But then, as I was going through my chapter one that I wrote last November, I realize its not salvageable with these changes and I have to scrap it. Granted its only 20 pages, but I'm slightly depressed about doing the work again and have found it hard to stop up. And hard to go to the gym, and hard not to eat double cheeseburgers all day. So I've taken two steps forward but then had to take one step back.

goodbye evil doing bank SOB

I know its been a long long time since i've written... My life, incredibly dull. But I do have exciting news on the personal finance front. I have paid off all of my private student loans. When in undergrad, I made the horrible horrible mistake of taking out this direct to student educational loan from a bank whose initials are WF. After years of ridiculously high interest rates (in the range of most credit cards) I am now done with that infernal bank and am glad to be done and finished with them. Luckily, I am in a position to do something about them (as a financial aid counselor) and I will certainly dissuade any student thinking about them from applying for one of those loans.