Kicking Some Chapter 4 Butt, The Sequel

Well, it's barely before noon -- but I'm up. That's got to count for something. Today, I woke up all tired and stuffy instead of well-rested and able to breathe like yesterday morning. The plan is I'm going to work for two hours, take a shower, see WSF and help him with his CDs and caffeinate myself, maybe eat some brisket, and then get back to work. Tonight the local club has their 80s night, but I'm not sure I'll quite get myself to go. It would be lovely to finish up Chapter 4, then celebrate by jiggling my graduate student spread around. We shall see.

In dissertation news, which I realize is the most fascinating news-worthy story around (I watched the Lehrer News Hour the other day and was surprised and fascinated that the whole world has been continuing on without me -- no more Tony Blair, the cutest and most well-spoken Prime Minister ever): I worked for an additional hour or two post-blogging adding what I believe may be the most self-indulgent self-aggrandizing tripe ever. I'm thinking of leaving it in because I'm worried this chapter is going to be a little short -- and because it's Peppy Advisor's job to tell me what's interesting and what's not.

So today I need to work on getting the chapter to flow, add in a paragraph of explanation where there is a hole, add in a whole bunch of examples, and put in other voices where they need to be. So basically, way too much. So the question is: what can I do in the next two hours? I think I can work on flow and assembling materials. So that's the plan, Stan.

You? Go do something fun.

***Update 3:01pm***

Okay, I have now pretty much done everything (no parceling out of each task for me!) for two sections of this chapter. I only have one to go. I hope it won't be too painful. But whatever. I'm taking a break. It looks like I will turn in this puppy tomorrow, which means that I will be addressing the issues that Peppy Advisor already noted for the Intro and Chapters 1 and 2 tomorrow in preparation for the Great Turning In of Pages to Readers, Part 1 on Tuesday. What a riveting life I lead. Even I'm sort of bored by it, unless I think of it not as a dissertation, but as a book. Then it sounds interesting. This is then my second book, and my master's thesis was my first. Granted unpublished, but that's no biggie.

When I got together with Similarly Self-Reflective INFP Friend the other night, she said that I sounded like I was grappling with all the usual issues of a novel. I like that. I always wanted to write a novel, but I thought I'd never manage because it was too long and I didn't have the stamina. Writing a dissertation proves we all have stamina, people. Maybe I could write a novel after all. (A short novel.) I won't be able to tell myself that old saw about not having the stamina anymore! YAY! But I'm not going to start a novel today, if it's all the same to you. I'm tired. =)

***Update 11:51pm***

No, I haven't been working all this time. I went over to WSF's and organized all his CDs for selling. He's preparing to leave town for six months, and because he wants to travel light, he's decided to get rid of them all. Yes, all. So I took whatever I wanted. I think I doubled my CD collection, which is totally stupid since I'll be moving soon enough -- and probably rue the day I took all of them and loaded myself down with them. But many of them are classical or post-punk, so basically I had to take them. I think there's a law written somewhere.

I came home around 7ish and go back to work and have been working on and off (had to talk to SO twice, had to call the Mom for Mom's Day), mostly on, since then. And except for two figures I have to drop in to Chapter 4 and then figure reformatting, because they pretty much ruin everything, I'm done. Yes, you heard me. (Almost) Done.

So in order to celebrate (Sisyphus, where's that ice cream???), I've decided to count the pages:

Intro: 21 pages
Ch. 1: 30 pages
Ch. 2: 40 pages
Ch. 3: 43 pages
Ch. 4: 43 pages (but maybe 1 or 2 more tomorrow)

Grand total of Earnest English's dissertation today 13 May 2007???

177 pages! Now I'm going to sleep. Mr. Tabby has an early-morning date at the v-e-t. I'm sure Peppy Advisor will want to work on Chapter 4 all week long before getting it to the readers. ACK! And tomorrow I'll have to fix up the Intro and Chapters 1 and 2 in preparation for giving the stack to my readers.