Today's Procrastination

Check out this site for intriguing photos. Let your mind wander and see where you end up!

Glorious Three Day Weekend

It's 2:00 on Friday before Memorial Day weekend. The news is reporting on all the people headed on vacation for their three days of fun. I remember those days when an extra day of weekend actually meant something. I know I've said this before, but I'm going to say it again: being a student really messes up the gloriousness of weekends.

Try this...

Having problems starting a paper? I got a great piece of advice today. Try focusing on forming a title, a first sentence, and an abstract. It'll help you focus your ideas and give you a jump-start on the paper.

Today's Procrastination

In the spirit of my hobby, I thought I'd lead you to the only story I've ever published. Check out The Clock Watcher. Sure, there are things I'd change about it now, but at least it's out there!

And a piece of advice to ponder: Be on everyone's side. We're all as complex as you.

Dilemma of the day

One of my hobbies is creative writing. When I'm writing fiction, my mind relaxes. I find that I sway between school and fiction writing. Some weeks, researching and writing for school is much more fun than my creative writing. Other weeks, like this week, I find that I'm excited to sit and write, but the thought of having to crank out that lit review puts me to sleep. So, where's the balance? How do I know that I'm destined to be a sociologist? I keep telling myself it provides the best of both worlds: I can use my sociological research to inform my creative writing. Sociology can be my full-time hobby and my creative writing can be what I really love to do.

What would you do if you weren't afraid of failing? For me, I'd become a full-time writer. I'd be a bestseller. Don't take this as pompous. I mean that if I weren't afraid of failing, I'd probably succeed. I do academia both because it's exciting and because I know I'm good at it. I can succeed here. I know how to "play the game." It just makes me wonder what my life would be like if I'd learned how to play the game of creative writing instead.

Today's Grad Gravy: What would you do if you weren't afraid of failing?

Today's Procrastination

A friend of mine encouraged me to start watching Heroes. After the first episode, I was hooked. I spent last weekend watching the first eight episodes. It's an awesome show that keeps you guessing. Anyway, if you're in a procrastinatin' mood, check it out. You can watch all the episodes online for free!

If you're already a Heroes watcher, then check out X-Men. It's a similar premise (although a little more fantastical), with a thought-provoking theme.

Playing with data

So, it's been a week since I last posted. I know I've been slacking, but that just means that I've been productive in other areas of my life. It's no excuse really, but I haven't found much to say about grad school in the past week.

Friday I spent a whole lot of time playing with data. I'm trying to fit my data to the concepts I intend to test. Too many times we are hypnotized by those tables of regression coefficients into believing that numbers are the definitive answer. I'm not saying that quant research is fabricated lies. Rather, we should remember that those enticing tables we see in journal articles are themselves products of the data. Had the variables been operationalized in a different way, the results may not have the same power they have in the published form. Of course, we have to trust that researchers balance the goal of getting the most purchase from their data with an aim to remain true to the original intent of the questions from which the data are derived.

I'm dubbing tomorrow the official start of "end-of-the-quarter-crunch." I promise to keep updating my blog a few times a week as I delve into the homestretch of the quarter. So keep checking!

Today's Grad Gravy: It's all about playing with data.

Pondering interests

Lately, I've shifted directions in my research. My newest project falls into Soc of Law rather than Criminology. The two areas are clearly related, but they come from different literatures and have slightly different focuses. My experience in grad school so far has been marked by shifting interests. I'm sure this happens to everyone, but this morning I think I figured out part of my problem. I'm reluctant to stick with any one area because I'm afraid that as soon as I get too far into something, I'll be pigeonholed into that area forever. What if I don't want to study fear of crime for the rest of my life? Should I switch now "or forever hold my piece?"

The same goes with methods. I really like qualitative methods partly because it allows me to be more creative with my writing. On the other hand, I can also appreciate quant methods because I'm good at implementing them. Yet, by choosing to write my qualifying paper using quant methods, I feel I am abandoning qualitative methods. I guess the solution is to remind myself many times about why I like both methods and make a commitment to return to qualitative for my dissertation. Ideally, I'd like to use both methods. I know a lot of people say this, but I don't think it's done very often. At least, it's not done well.

Does anyone else have this problem? It seems like many of my peers know exactly what they want to study and they just go do it. Maybe they're putting up a front. Maybe I should too. But when does the front become so internalized that we forget what we really wanted in the first place? At least by writing this all out I can remind myself that whatever I choose now I can change later.

Today's Grad Gravy: Remember to assess where you are and where you intended to be so that you don't lose sight of your goals.

Today's Procrastination

Doing Research

Research is social. This is what I've been realizing lately. You can't just sit down in front of a book, or a computer, gather information, and then churn out your master's thesis, or doctoral dissertation. It's more complicated than that.

First, your social interactions inform what you study, the theories you propose, and the way you go about studying your topic. I think we have this stunted idea that academicians sit in their offices and somehow the light bulb switches on in our brains with the next great idea. Really, we need to talk to our peers and professors about our ideas. It's only by talking through ideas that we are able to add depth and understanding to our knowledge.

Second, articles and books aren't published in isolation. If I could put my finger on one thing I've really learned this year, it's that every academic text has a history and context. People publish to tie into broader literatures. They debate using new findings. This is something I never understood as an undergrad just searching for lit review articles to support my thesis.

So, in a nutshell, we need others to advance our research. Don't be fooled by the stereotypical image of the lonely student frantically trying to understand exactly what she's doing. Talk to others, get their input. They probably think about things in a slightly different light. That new perspective can make all the difference.

Today's Grad Gravy: Academics is a social enterprise.

Ugh to Quarters!

Around the country, my lucky friends in semester systems are finish up their final papers and getting ready to enjoy summer. Alas, I am stuck in a quarter system. Those of you in the process of choosing graduate schools, think hard about what kind of system you will work better with. I did my undergrad degree at a school on the semester system. I enjoyed nearly a month break between Fall and Spring semesters, and a real week of Spring Break. Here's how the quarter system works: We start at the end of September, have 7-10 days between Fall and Winter quarters, a 4-day weekend for "spring break" and end the Spring quarter in mid-June. Aha, you might say, that's a long summer! Yes, it is, but I have to make a plea for starting a few weeks earlier in the fall and having more time between quarters. By the time summer comes, we're all so burnt out that it takes a few weeks before we've recovered enough to enjoy the sunshine.

Now, I'll be optimistic about quarters. Rather than two research papers, we write at least three per year. It's nice to feel so productive. If a class is awful, we only endure ten meetings (once per week for ten weeks). As TA's, we only have to come up with nine plans for section. So, it's not all bad.

Today's Grad Gravy: There's always a bright side.

Today's Procrastination

This could really take up your spare(i.e. procrastination) time. By the way, don't blame me if your email becomes overrun with customized monk-e-mail replies.

Ode to Weekends

Wherefore art thou, weekend?
I long to be free from the grasp of reading,
yet the weekend brings no relief.
Weekend, weekend.
Wherefore art thou weekend?

Yesterday I heard myself say, "Well, at least it's Friday." Like Fridays really mean anything. Saturday still requires work, as does Sunday. It's not even that I have to do work on the weekends. For me, it's just that my week is so unstructured that the weekend just doesn't feel like anything different. When I think back to my full-time office job, I remember the sense of relief upon waking up and realizing that it was Friday (or, even better, Saturday). Saturday and Sunday meant a complete break from the weekday routine. I could spend the day doing whatever I wanted. Now, any day is like that. When I wake up on Tuesday morning and don't feel like working for a few hours, I don't have to. Likewise for any other day. Of course, the lack of outside structure is a definite plus to being a student. On the other hand, imposing your own schedule just makes the weekend that much less exciting. Still, I don't envy my old office worker self.

Today's Grad Gravy: Celebrate your weekend time.

Conference presentation

I'm excited that I've had a paper accepted to the American Society of Criminology conference in November. It will by my first presentation. I'm ready for it, but a bit anxious as well. The conferences I've attended so far while in grad school have given me a lot of ideas about how I would not like to present, but few ideas about what a good presentation looks like. I'm adamant that I will use Powerpoint sparingly, if at all.

This brings me to one of my major pet peeves: people who rely too much on Powerpoint. I've seen too many presenters reading from slides. I can read, so if everything is on your slides, please just email me the presentation. I am a firm believer in using Powerpoint as a visual aid, not a crutch. People seem to think that they can bumble their way through slides and make up for lacking presentation skills. Instead, why not sharpen your skills as a dynamic speaker? This goes for classes too. I think using Powerpoint for college courses is ridiculous. It gives the students too much. We don't require them to listen to a lecture and pick out the important points for themselves. Lecturers who put the important information on slides are practically asking students not to pay attention. The best classes I had as an undergraduate were with professors who kept my attention not through slides, but through their enthusiasm and dynamic speaking. All I'm saying is that we should not rely on Powerpoint to be the presenter.

Today's Grad Gravy: Powerpoint does not speak for you.

Motivation

Today will be a good day. This morning I have a suggestion for sustaining motivation throughout the day. Make a list of things you would like to accomplish before you go to bed tonight. Be realistic, but challenge yourself as well. I find that if I write down what I plan to do, I have much greater success in achieving my goals. Refer to your list during that afternoon slump when it feels like absolutely nothing will get done. For me, 2:00 to 5:00 is a time in which I can never force myself to do any sort of brain activity, including thinking of what I should be doing. A to-do list takes that piece of the work out of the equation. I'm not really talking about a schedule, just a list.

With that in mind, here's my list for today:

Stretch out my brain with a little creative writing
Go to the gym
Write my blog (woohoo, one thing down)
Read for class tomorrow
Read for independent study
Spend a couple hours on my RA work
Pay bills (ugh)
Write a short summary of the argument I will make for my final paper
Go to meeting tonight

Of course, I will also do other things today, but these are the things that I feel I must accomplish. That reminds me, a couple of posts ago I set a goal for myself of revising a book review I had written. That day, I sat down and accomplished that goal. I really do believe that writing a list is like a contract with yourself that feels more binding than simply having goals in your head. One last piece of advice: don't erase an item on the list when it's done, cross it out instead. At the end of the day it's nice to go back and see what you've accomplished.

Today's Grad Gravy: List your goals for the day and refer to the list when you're feeling unmotivated.