My most amazing husband gave me tickets to the opera for my birthday way back in January. We have a new opera house that is supposed to be acoustically perfect, and we were both excited at the prospect of hearing a new type of music (both of us being opera newbies) and checking out the building. Then, even better, my most amazing husband came home from school with the news that we were being given 2 free tickets to La Traviata, and the opportunity to nose around a bit, if he would just spend a half hour setting up some sort of equipment that measures the sound in the orchestra pit. How cool is that! I'm so hyped! Now, what ever should I wear?...
As for using this blog for keeping track of my progress, I believe that I have been conspicuous if only by my absence. My only excuse is that I have done almost nothing but marking for the whole month of April. I'm in the last leg of one of my t.a.'s - the prof decided to add some short answer questions to an exam that is always m/c. And, to top it off, he didn't just add a few questions, he added 10. And the marking scheme is very vague (likely because this exam usually doesn't have short answer questions). And, as this is a survey course, that means I'm looking at 150x10=1 500 question to mark. In a week. While I have marking for a graduate level course. Yesh. However, I took a stack of exams into the backyard today, and at least enjoyed the sunny, sunny weather while I marked. It made the time go by more pleasantly.
And, I had a meeting with my advisor on Wednesday, which went very well. I finally found someone to transcribe for me, and she has been a wizard at it, and so starting on Sunday (once the aforementioned exams are off my plate), I'm going to go back into my interviews, coding for evidence (or lack of evidence) of the main themes I've identified for my dissertation. I think that, if I move quickly, I'll be able to pull together a survey in about a week and a half. I've already gone through the interviews once, but with the goal of identifying themes. This will be a much more focussed look at the data. The only snag is that I'm having a hard time figuring out how to include the idea I'm most excited about in the format of a survey. It's really another interview question, and then maybe a survey. If only I had the luxury of unlimited time. But, given that I don't plan on continuing in research, I feel a little less pressure to make this project perfect.
Also motivating (tho also scary), I attended a friend's defence, which was amazing. 3 studies, difficult to access population, lots of application. Interestingly, tho, it's taken her so long to get through the program (tho not too long, IMHO), that her perspective on her main theory has changed based on her experience with the population. I think that's so exciting, a demonstration of the dynamics of ideas and paradigms...
Well, I'm off to the opera - will post later...
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