Writing a Dissertation

Update the bibliography of the dissertation!

It’s that moment of “Oh, yeah, right, everything I need to work on this section of the chapter is downtown. 30 minutes away. Minimum.” Crap!

Seeing one’s article finally come out in print!!!

Research or Write? Research or Write????

So much of the day is caught in between those two things. This morning, however, I was all set to write, but then as I was printing out an article, I found another, and another, and another, and somehow I already have 4 pages worth of notes from this morning alone. Goodness I hope that when I sit down to write I am able to produce as prodigiously as I seem to gather.

So, why have I been so quiet you ask….

Well that might be do to the giant storm that knocked out all of the power on the mountain.  Once we got power back and realized that the internet was not coming up and the network was not coming up we knew we had a far bigger problem on our hands.  I finally got two printing stations set up this morning so that has solved a momentary issue — I am fairly certain it will create a whole other set of problems, but those are not for me to deal with right now.

I’ve escaped to the town-that-is-down and pretty well want to make out with my wireless connection right now.  Oh sweet internet and email and research capabilities, how I have missed you!!!!

Truthfully, I am a bit afraid.  The storm managed to damage the fiber optic pipeline that connects the mountain to the main campus.  I know that we have someone en route right now from another state to start working on the matter, but this is not going to be good.  I am trying to think a back to the big flood of 2008 and I am pretty sure that we even managed to hang on to our connection then.  Next week is our last full week up here, which means lots of papers will be do next Friday and the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday that will follow.  Much research and writing will be going on this weekend, and the hour-long round-trip through construction is just not how you want to blow your downtime… trust me.

Number of pages written today – 5
Number of pages written over the last week – 20

Some days in there were a struggle, a real big struggle – days of only a page. But I wrote each day, and that is what matters in the end.

The goal for this week really is five pages a day. And now that my five for today are done I can drive back up the mountain.

Today’s dissertation writing is brought to you by Cabot Sharp Cheddar.

No I am not kidding you.  I am pretty much subsisting on tiny, little individually wrapped Cabot Cheddar Cheeses in Snack Size form while in the library.  Well Cabot Cheddar and Vintage Seltzer.

But then again, when am I not going through a case of Vintage every week and a half or so?!?!!

So far Vermont and New York are the only places I have found these new little Cabot treasures.  I think they are going for the whole grown-up version of string cheese or something like that.  Regardless, it works for me!

But Vermont… Vermont is the only place where the fires of dissertation writing can be stoked by Flatbread. Oh, Flatbread!  You are the pizza about which I dream during the rest of the year.  That, however, will have to be a whole other post.

I am tired and feeling unfocused.

I am frustrated with myself as I did not get much writing done today… or even yesterday, for that matter.  Somehow my great production of 7 pages in 5 hours on Tuesday kinda killed me for Wednesday and lots of other life-stuff came up today. Yes, these are excuses, and not very good ones at that.  I need to stop making excuses and get back to guarding my time better… you know, like that whole post earlier in the week… yup, like that.

I have been down the mountain working in the library, and it is late-ish, which means I’ve already missed dinner, so I don’t even have  something pulling me back up the mountain at this hour.  Yes there is fun to be had later on tonight, but if I seriously hang out like I want to hang out, then I am only going to get myself in trouble and screw up what could be a perfectly lovely work-day tomorrow.  Why?  Because if I hang out tonight, I know myself… I know when I am in that trouble-seeking frame of mind. I am not there yet, but I am close.

The library opens at 7:30am tomorrow.  I don’t know that I will be here right when it opens, but I am planning on a full, full day of working on this chapter.

Okay, I am skeptical—namely because his whole dissertation is 10,000 words!?!?!?  Oh, please!!  My first chapter alone is 17,000 words, so he can just suck it!

in four hours!!  aw yeah!!