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Today was a busy day. Mostly busy for my brain. After breakfast this morning, I went out into the backyard to hang up some laundry and water the plants. The fig tree was not looking too good (not sure if it was the cold, or seasonal changes, or what), so I went back to water it. While I was there, I decided to jump on the old stick pile, which by now, is absolutely covered in grass. I hope that means that it is actually breaking down. I can't remember how old it is by this point, but it has been there for at least a year.
Anyway, while I was jumping on it, I glanced over and noticed a cozy little hole. SOMEBODY (or some chicken) had created a nice little nest, outside of the coop and outside of our purview. There were TEN eggs in it! She (or they) had been busy doing this, for quite a while. So I sent the chickens back into their coop for the day. This afternoon, I could hear them making that sad, chicken-moaning sound a bit. Silly birds.
Other than that, I've continued to work on Diss Chap 1. By last night, I got to feeling like I had a good idea of how I needed to outline the discussion. Today, after reading somewhere between 12 and 20 million and four additional papers, I was finally able to sit down and bang it out. Boy did that take a lot of mental effort. I think I'm starting to do a good job of situating my research within the body of related research, though, which is a really, really good stage to reach. I first had to remind myself that in dissertation-writing, I'm becoming an expert in a subject matter where no one else is an expert, so I can't depend on anybody else to provide the appropriate context for my work. I have to do that work, myself. It's a good, useful mental exercise, but it's also exhausting. I also just remembered something from completing my comps - I felt like I went in circles quite a lot with coming up with my research proposal, up until I had a solid first draft of the proposal written. THEN there was something for me to talk about with my advisor and committee members. I suspect the dissertation chapters will be similar. Fortunately, for the remaining dissertation chapters, I already have a solid idea of where my starting point is. That wasn't as true for the first chapter, but it's more true now.
So, now it's time to balance out the mental effort with some physical effort, aka the Holiday Challenge. Off to the erg I go.
Anyway, while I was jumping on it, I glanced over and noticed a cozy little hole. SOMEBODY (or some chicken) had created a nice little nest, outside of the coop and outside of our purview. There were TEN eggs in it! She (or they) had been busy doing this, for quite a while. So I sent the chickens back into their coop for the day. This afternoon, I could hear them making that sad, chicken-moaning sound a bit. Silly birds.
Other than that, I've continued to work on Diss Chap 1. By last night, I got to feeling like I had a good idea of how I needed to outline the discussion. Today, after reading somewhere between 12 and 20 million and four additional papers, I was finally able to sit down and bang it out. Boy did that take a lot of mental effort. I think I'm starting to do a good job of situating my research within the body of related research, though, which is a really, really good stage to reach. I first had to remind myself that in dissertation-writing, I'm becoming an expert in a subject matter where no one else is an expert, so I can't depend on anybody else to provide the appropriate context for my work. I have to do that work, myself. It's a good, useful mental exercise, but it's also exhausting. I also just remembered something from completing my comps - I felt like I went in circles quite a lot with coming up with my research proposal, up until I had a solid first draft of the proposal written. THEN there was something for me to talk about with my advisor and committee members. I suspect the dissertation chapters will be similar. Fortunately, for the remaining dissertation chapters, I already have a solid idea of where my starting point is. That wasn't as true for the first chapter, but it's more true now.
So, now it's time to balance out the mental effort with some physical effort, aka the Holiday Challenge. Off to the erg I go.
