Wednesday, August 4, 2010

The Never Ending Pile

So... just got back from a meeting with Dr. Supervisor.

My dream of finishing my thesis draft by this friday and having 2 solid weeks off is fast disappearing. My composite scale does not hang together, so that means I have to throw out some of my analyses and start over seperating out and reporting on all three questions that previously made up the scale. (It's actually very common for scales with less than 10 items to have this problem.) I need to find an undergrad or two to do some reliability coding for me. AND Dr. Supervisor wants me to report all kinds of shit from the qualitative analyses. This means that she wants me to go back and work on the analyses in such a way, let's call it "sensible way #1" which is exactly how she told me not to do it when I set up the database.

"Oh, no, Psyche! I know you've never done qualitative analyses before, but whatever you do, don't organize it in a way that makes sense to you! Take 80 hours to free code everything and THEN end up taking another 40 hours organizing it the way you wanted to afterwards." That is more like the "So un-sensible you must have a pickle soaked tea towel for a brain way #62." Dr. Who said that time is not linear, that is more like a big egg filled with wibbly wobbly "stuff." I wish I could go back in time and leave myself a note to kidnap David Tennant and make him write my thesis for me.



Sigh... I know it is NOT Dr. Supervisor's fault. It is the nature of the beast. And this beast is just a malevolent ontological paradox (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blink_(Doctor_Who) that has me trapped in a never-ending do-over.

I also had a clinic assessment fall in my lap this week. Normally, I would be thrilled. I'm the only student available, so no working with anyone incompetent, annoying, or competitive. And it is with one of my favorite profs EVAH, Dr. Second Reader. BUT... now that I have all this extra thesis work to do, it's going to be hard to find the time to learn some new tests I have to administer. So, if anyone wants to join me, maybe on Saturday or early Sunday before work, and let me practise administering some memory and executive functioning tests to them over a pint, let me know.

I think I need to just select a two week block of time before classes start in September, block them off in my calendar, and if necessary, pretend I was hit by a truck and am in hospital while I really take a much-needed vacation.

Who wants to hide me at their cottage or beach house?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

what time is work saturday? I'm off that day, and would be happy to come in and help you.

Niz B

Anonymous said...

"Who wants to hide me at their cottage or beach house?"

While neither cottage nor beach house, there is always room for you here (in a part of the province that is not (currently) on fire).

PS in BC