I'm back to the dissertation again- main thing apparently is to write everything I'm thinking, and salvage later. I start teaching in two weeks- and been on break for over a week, so have to put my back into it, 16 stitches notwithstanding.
I can stop being lazy and just write a bulk import for TIGER road data- not like I haven't already done this exact task in Visual Foxpro, SQL Server, Access, and MySQL over the past 10 years. Was hoping to skip this part. Too bad I didn't keep any of those scripts!
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Dissertation doldrums
I'm sitting in the library, trying to make progress on my dissertation.
I defended the proposal a month ago, and now feel little progress aside from sketches in my notebooks and a handful of library books to check out soon. I've got 16 stitches in my back preventing me from lifting much of anything for another week or so. One of my retinas is inflamed again, making it harder to read or identify faces right now. And everyone I know right now is going through some kind of hardship, whether financial, marital, job- or health-related. But at least the kids are still ok.
I'm feeling old, tired, and just plain burned out.
But burnout is a state of mind, not body. The intellectual and cultural isolation of living Upstate doesn't help a whole lot, but changing routines sometimes does. The lessons of surviving the doldrums is to find a way to power yourself out if nothing is pushing you. That means giving up on the winds and getting out the oars, I'm afraid.
I defended the proposal a month ago, and now feel little progress aside from sketches in my notebooks and a handful of library books to check out soon. I've got 16 stitches in my back preventing me from lifting much of anything for another week or so. One of my retinas is inflamed again, making it harder to read or identify faces right now. And everyone I know right now is going through some kind of hardship, whether financial, marital, job- or health-related. But at least the kids are still ok.
I'm feeling old, tired, and just plain burned out.
But burnout is a state of mind, not body. The intellectual and cultural isolation of living Upstate doesn't help a whole lot, but changing routines sometimes does. The lessons of surviving the doldrums is to find a way to power yourself out if nothing is pushing you. That means giving up on the winds and getting out the oars, I'm afraid.
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