A promotion, of sorts

30. October 2006 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags:

I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while, but things have been busy and all. But in my life outside of work, I actually got promoted. Last November, I was elected minority inspector (meaning I got the least number of votes, kind of like how they used to do president and v.p.). I had been doing the job on an appointed basis since the 2004 election. Basically, I sign people in to the polling place, and keep an eye on things. Well, our judge of elections, the guy who runs the place, decided to move away and retire. So now I’m the judge. I am in charge of elections in my little precinct. Big things could happen!

Of course, this is one of those promotions one gets because no one else wants the job. But I’m pretty excited about it. I haven’t been able to come up for air enough to think too much about the fact that elections are just a week away, but now I have even more reason to look forward to them. Hooray for wresting power from old guys in sweaters! (Seriously, that’s who runs things around here.) Now let’s hope for even better things next week.

Please consider donating to my efforts in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk for the Cure

Is this still a democracy?

27. October 2006 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,

Via Pharyngula and Atrios, the banning of the Dixie Chicks commercial. What happened to free speech?

Please consider donating to my efforts in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk for the Cure

Things I’ve let go in order to dissertate

26. October 2006 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,

I really can’t do it all, all evidence to the contrary. Here are some things that have slid over the last few months:

  • Laundry–this has gotten really bad because no one likes to do laundry. We’re living out of baskets at the moment
  • My hair–I’m letting it grow anyway, but I’m also letting it go gray.
  • my wardrobe–who has time to shop!
  • real cooking–I’m totally relying on quick and easy food
  • most of my social life, such as it is
  • a lot of blogging–I’m still reading here and there, but not like I did before
  • pretty much anything extra

Mr. Geeky has picked up a lot of the slack, especially in handling the day-to-day stuff with the kids and cleaning. But he doesn’t cook and he can ignore a pile of laundry like the rest of us, so we’re kind of suffering a bit. This is my brief blog break before I go back to reading. I’m reading morning and night. I’ve written a bit, but I’m hoping to begin full-on writing either this weekend or Monday. I’ve set a personal deadline for this chapter of Nov. 15, so we’ll see how that goes. I have some time, but ideally, I’d like to start doing some revisions in December. And I have a few other irons in the fire, as usual.

I’m really looking forward to the return of some of those things. I’m planning a pretty big celebration when this whole thing is done. You’re all invited!

Please consider donating to my efforts in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk for the Cure

Paul Simon

25. October 2006 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,

Mr. Geeky and I spent last evening at a Paul Simon concert. It was pretty fun. We had decent seats and until the very end, there was no one in front of me so I had a great view. People were actually dancing in the aisles. We were decidedly not among the oldest there, as one might expect, but neither were we the youngest. Paul played for 2 hours, which included 4 encores. We heard a lot of old stuff, some new stuff and some stuff in between. I last saw Paul in concert nearly 10 years ago, in 1989 in Paris. I was very close to the front then, in the mosh pit (if one can have such a thing at a Paul Simon concert). It featured mostly songs from Graceland and I pretty much liked every song on that album. To date ourselves, Mr. Geeky says he listened to an earlier album throughout college, either Still Crazy or Greatest Hits. It was a good night out, even if it made getting up this morning a little more difficult.

Our next concert plan is one with the kids (who actually wanted to go to this one). They Might Be Giants is doing a kid show in Philly and we’re planning to go. Should be loads of fun.

Please consider donating to my efforts in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk for the Cure

Power boots, doctors and more

23. October 2006 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags:

Today I wore my power boots–knee high black leather boots that zip up the side. I love these boots. They have just enough heel on them that I go clicking down the hall, but not loud enough to be annoying. They have, dare I say, the sound of authority. They make me feel like I can do anything. And so, I started doing stuff. Mostly, I made a list of stuff, and only got through two items, but I have a good list.

I went to yet another doctor today, this one my ob/gyn, just for a checkup. And I am so firing this woman. All my other encounters with doctors lately have been great, not fun, mind you, but satisfying. They take me seriously. They ask questions and seem to understand that I’m smart and that I’ve thought through what I’m saying, trying to describe things in terms that will help them help me. This woman, upon hearing that a) I was having trouble and b) wanted to change b.c. methods, almost yelled at me. I told her I wasn’t happy with my b.c. and that I suspected it might have something to do with my recent issues. She said there was no way that was possible. Instead of explaining why, she just declared it to be so. I was so taken aback, I didn’t think to even ask. But it pissed me off. She showed no concern whatsoever for any of the issues I’d been having, nor did she consider the possibility that there might be a gynecologically related issue (as some of the other doctors have suggested). Plus, she made me wait and only spent a total of maybe 7 minutes with me, so I’m so done with her. Why do some doctors do this? Treat people like they’re idiots. It’s so insulting.

Aside from this little incident, I’m pretty geared up. I think the power boots just reflected my mood rather than causing it. These next few weeks are going to be pretty busy, but hopefully busy in a good way.

Please consider donating to my efforts in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk for the Cure

Conference Conversation

21. October 2006 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags:

What fun I’ve had listening and talking to people. It’s been a great pleasure as always to talk to Bryan, but I’ve also been able to talk to Kathleen, which has been great. I’ve been able to catch up with old friends as well, including an old friend from graduate school. The thing that always strikes me when I’m able to be around people who are interested in similar things to me is how much I long for this kind of connection and communication. I often feel isolated where I am and feel like I’m fighting all the time, fighting to get people to understand me, fighting for what I think is right, fighting to do the kind of work I want to do. I don’t mind fighting, but it definitely gets tiring. And so it’s nice to be re-energized. I’m actually looking forward to getting back and rethinking some things, getting myself focused on the way forward.

Please consider donating to my efforts in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk for the Cure

The cursed traveler

20. October 2006 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,

I’m in Oregon for a conference, which so far, what little I’ve seen, seems interesting. But getting here was crazy. It didn’t start off too badly. I found my way to long-term parking at the airport, got checked in and, despite a really long security line, made it to my flight without having to run. But then things started to break down. We couldn’t take off as soon as we wanted, so we were delayed getting into Chicago, which meant no time to grab food, but I figured I buy something on the plane (yes, you have to buy food now). Shortly after I’d eagerly consumed my Mini-Mealtm and gotten halfway through Lake House, we were told we were making an emergency landing. Now, under some circumstances, one might panic, but not long before this emergency landing announcement, they asked if there was a doctor on the plane. (And yes, I had visions of Airplane!) So we landed in Sioux Falls, and they took a guy off the plane and we sat there and got fueled up and finally took off about 1/2 hour or 45 minutes later.

Most importantly I finished watching Lake House, which was kind of cute. I also read my entire issue of Wired and almost finished My Freshman Year. So things seemed like they were getting back to normal, albeit 2 hours behind schedule. Then we landed in Portland. We went to baggage claim and watched the bags go around. Only mine never went around. The airline promised to deliver the bag to my hotel. So I walked out the door. Only, it was one of those rotating doors and I nearly got stuck in it. It just kind of stopped and there I was, stuck. Luckily, it started moving again.

Then the shuttle was an hour getting to the airport. But we eventually made it to the hotel and then the conference to catch the end of the keynote and then dinner. I got to catch up with Bryan and ran into an old friend from grad school. Looking forward to more of that tomorrow.

When I returned to the hotel, I stopped by the front desk to ask if my luggage had arrived. They said they’d given away the last of it. As if they had some kind of luggage stash back behind the desk. And then they said they wouldn’t get another delivery until after midnight. Now, if I’m a desk clerk and a guest of mine is without luggage, I’d offer toiletries and perhaps to make a phone call for me. I mean, they’re not the airline, right? How do they know?

So now I’m sitting watching Scrubs reruns, waiting for my luggage. I’ve been assured it will be here any minute. With the luck I’m having I’ll end up with the wrong luggage.

Please consider donating to my efforts in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk for the Cure

My writing process

19. October 2006 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

There’s nothing like writing a big long thing like a dissertation to focus you in on your process for getting the thing done. My process has followed the same basic pattern, once I figured out what worked best for me. This is, I think, the hardest thing to teach people, that there is no one right way to go about writing. It’s taken me a long time to get away from that idea myself. I would find out that some writer I respected wrote a certain way and decide, “Oh, that’s how I should be doing it.” When it didn’t work out for me, I’d blame myself rather than realizing that that method just wasn’t working for me.

So here’s the method I’ve developed for myself. First, I must do the reading, thinking, notetaking part. I treat this just as I would writing and I do it every morning first thing. At some point, I will kick it into overdrive and start doing this in the evening and maybe do a marathon session on the weekend of working out what I might want to write. Then I begin to write. Usually, the reading and notetaking doesn’t stop as I find I need to fill in gaps. I write for an hour every morning. I don’t look back at what I wrote before. I used to do this and I found it paralyzing. Often, at the end of a writing session, I’ll jot down a couple of notes about what comes next.

Eventually, these one-hour writing sessions end with a completed chapter, paper, whatever. Then I start reading and revising. I will either do this as a contintuation of the one-hour sessions or, preferably, take a chunk of time on the weekend to read and revise. Sometimes I’ll print out my document. Sometimes I’ll get Mr. Geeky to read it. It depends on how I’m feeling about it. Then I send it off. This whole process generally takes 1-2 months, depending on the complexity of the project.

Between chapters or projects, I find I need about a week of downtime. I might do a little library research to find new sources for the next chapter, but I don’t do much reading and writing. And then I gear back up again.

It’s been interesting to see this pattern develop over the last year. I used to worry about that week off, for example, but then I realized I just need to rest and that I would get started again. It’ll be interesting to see if this pattern continues to work for me, or if I find a new pattern or different patterns for different projects. We’ll see.

Please consider donating to my efforts in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk for the Cure

A moment of pride

18. October 2006 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags:

Since everyone else is self-promoting. I’ve been thinking about this for a while and I think I just have to say it (write it) out loud. I’m really proud that I’m finishing my degree. I don’t want to jinx it or anything since I’ve still got one more chapter to write, but still. Looked at objectively, the whole process is pretty impressive. I began my degree in 1999. I took my comps in the spring of 2001 and then we moved here in the summer of 2001. I spent the next year poking around on the dissertation, writing one chapter and getting some pretty horrible feedback on it. In the fall of 2002, I decided to give it up and started looking for a full-time job. I got this job in January 2003. I did nothing remotely related to dissertating until last fall of 2005. Essentially, I took two years off. When I finish in the spring of 2007, I will have basically completed my degree in five years, writing the dissertation in about a year and a half, all while holding down a 9-5 job, raising two kids, teaching a class, and blogging. Holy cow.

Please consider donating to my efforts in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk for the Cure

Caffeine-free update

18. October 2006 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,

It’s true. I’m now caffeine free. It’s pretty awesome actually. I sleep better. I don’t find myself dragging out of bed in the morning. This hasn’t completely rid me of all my UT problems, but they’re pretty minor at this point.

As others said, the hardest thing is finding something non-caffeinated to drink when eating out. Restaurants don’t tend to carry caffeine-free coke, for example. I don’t mind drinking water most of the time, but sometimes I want something with flavor. I’m drinking decaf coffee in the morning, which I know has traces of caffeine, but hey, I like the taste.

I highly recommend doing this. I feel kind of like a different person.

Please consider donating to my efforts in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk for the Cure
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