O.k., so that posted, I think I'm getting the hang of this.

I also recently got pulled into Facebook - which is making me reflect on this whole electronic communication phenomenon. I seem to be on the high end of the age of Facebook users, and everyone I know on Facebook seems to have signed up for it in the last 3 weeks - I think there would be some sort of interesting sociogram-type study to be done there. Perhaps social networks on Facebook develop in a manner similar to the way infections spread. I am not falling into the facebook void, however - I'm constantly amazed at how often people update their sites. That said, it was very fun to find people I lost track of over 10 years ago...

Now, I should establish a ground point, a baseline from which I can compare my progress this summer.

• I am finished my data collection for Study 1.
• I must analyse said data (interviews) to create a survey for Study 2.
  
• I must gain my committee's approval of my survey
• I must find people to whom I can send my survey
• I must achieve about a 50% return rate by shamelessly offering desirable prizes for participating in my study
• I must analyse Study 1 data (qualitative analysis - never done it before)
• I must analyse Study 2 data (quantitative analysis - having done it before, I'm not thrilled to be doing it again)
• I must re-write my entire introduction, update my methods, write up my results, and tie all of it together in a discussion
• Again, I must gain my committee's approval
• Defense

The plan was to send out the survey in May, but I was ambushed by marking for my (slightly overlapping) 3 t.a.'s. And I wondered, why am I insane enough to have taken on 3 t.a.'s? How can I possibly have thought that would be a good idea? I'm finally getting on a role here, I'm interested in what my Study 1 participants have had to say, I'm enjoying boring everyone I know by talking ad nauseum about my first reflections on my interview data, and now I have to put it all away for 4 weeks (which is an eternity to be away from your research when you're trying to figure out what you have in front of you) and mark undergraduate essays and exams, and be disappointed once again in the willingness among these students to plagiarize, and their stupidity in thinking that I can't tell the difference between their writing and the writing of a professional researcher, but then I remember that I need to eat and pay rent, and I sigh and I keep marking, because where else will I make $30/hour?

So, right now I'm in a brief window between marking, and rather than dig back into my survey design ideas, I'm starting a blog. Yes, that's right, I'm starting a blog. Because I need help getting back into the flow, and when you work at home with no one around to chat idly, to toss ideas around, then it's hard to get back in the flow. Especially because I know that in 2 days, I'll be back to marking. Hmm, now I'm feeling guity that I'm blogging instead of reading. Perhaps I'll assuage that guilt by making lunch. A gir's gotta eat, right?