The woeful negligence of this blog has partially been me over-committing myself this school year, as well as making good progress on my research project. The thing with research is it has its highs and lows for a million reasons. The plus side of being on the “high” side is I’m making progress. The down [...]

Last semester, I realized that I needed to take a break from working on so many things. I didn’t take a true break, but I allowed myself more time to just do nothing. It was a good move. Having a more leisure schedule for work/research/outreach was wonderful. Additionally, because everyone else is on break, Boston [...]

I have been working on a pilot study this past semester, which entail visiting other campuses and doing interviews. There are things that are more obvious to have along with me (batteries, a digital voice recorder), but some items are less obvious but still rather essential to me. They are: Comfortable, professional looking shoes. I [...]

Being a Gates Millennium Scholar comes with a ton of perks beyond the financial aspect, which is obviously significant; I don’t know how I would’ve gone to college. I’ve met some of my favorite people through them, and they provide amazing opportunities which include the chance to go to conferences. Last weekend I was in [...]

My pilot study goes through periods of activity and periods of inactivity. This wouldn’t be a problem except I cannot anticipate when one will hit; with doing interviews, I have to go when people are available. The pilot study was a good idea, as my methodology is slightly changing; for those who don’t know, a [...]

As of Tuesday, I enter my third year of graduate school for my doctorate. I’ve been busy the past few days organizing my apartment to primarily work from home. From a snafu not of my doing (long story, rather boring), it turns out I need to enroll in one more class. That means I only [...]

This summer has been going by so quickly, with the unusually hot weather and ample work to be done. My dissertation proposal/research things are going. A new aspect I’ve telling people about is there is more management and organization of my committee from my end. Professors, as we all know, are typically overworked and overcommitted. [...]

Now that I’m completely work from home, my sense of time is strange. I work every single day. Not a lot, but every day consists of my part-time job, research, and fun things. I’m starting to get a little lost on which day is which; yesterday, I repeatedly checked my calendar to ensure I was [...]

Finishing off my last finals (hopefully ever) feels strange. While work certainly hasn’t ended, the amount has substantially decreased. It felt odd this evening to have more free time. Odd but good. As much as I’ve enjoyed taking classes, I’m inevitably glad to be out of classes. Beginning research full-time is going to be an [...]

I’m closing out the last of my graduate school classes. It has been a fun ride in many respects, and I’ve read some fantastic things, had some great conversations, met lovely people, but I’ve been feeling a bit restless. I enjoy learning but there comes a point where I want to do more than write [...]