7.17.2006

Appointment with my advisor

Alternate title: I Am Now Officially Panicked.

This is not the advisor's fault, it's my own. He doesn't seem worried at all. I imagine it's a lot easier to be serene when you're not the one doing the writing. Also he is very cool and laid-back (close to retirement). In a lot of ways what you would imagine a tall, distinguished, well-spoken, tweed-jacket-wearing English university professor to look like.

I went in to see him because he just got back from vacation (he's been gone a month). My plan was to have a 3,000 page literature review ready to hand him. This did not happen, possibly because I was the only one who knew about my great goal, and it turns out that I don't hold myself very accountable. So I told him that I needed him to set me a deadline because I was not doing a good job of it on my own. And if I knew that he knew that there was a deadline I'd be sure to make it, see. He laughed as if that were the funniest thing he'd ever heard.

Dissertation Advisor: But what's the point? I mean, it's not as though I'm going to be cruel to you if you don't meet it.

Me: No! Shhh! Don't say that!

DA: You want me to be cruel to you?

Me: Yes! I want you to be very firm with me, very firm. Also stern. That would be good too.

Yes. I am a closet masochist. The whole thing would have been slightly hot if he hadn't been wiping his eyes from laughing so hard.

Finally he stopped laughing and we talked some more, and he said that a good time to have my lit review complete would be by the end of next week. Of course my eyes lit all up at the prospect of a deadline, at which point he fell back in his chair and laughed some more about Americans and their ways.

I've made a timetable now, starting from the date in September when I want to turn the thing in for binding and then going backwards. I've divided up the weeks & days to devote to each section and included my 4 days in Prague. And . . . it's not pretty. Let's just say that extra faith and prayers would not be unappreciated.

Other things DA told me:

  • Don't bother reading books and articles. They cloud your thinking. He never reads.
  • Don't read other people's dissertations either.
  • Also don't talk to people about what they're doing--they don't matter.
  • Recommendations schmecommendations.
  • As far as interviews go, I'm on the pig's back and could possibly make an article out of it later.
  • As for the rest of it, this is where it gets hard.
  • When I'm in Prague, I really should take a while to just sit in a sidewalk cafe.

If I'm still alive by then, I'll probably end up snorting crystallized caffiene off the tabletop at that sidewalk cafe in Prague.

6 comments:

Desmama said... [reply]

Aw, you'll do it. You'll pull it off, I just know it. And I haven't forgotten about those library jobs I promised to look into either. I just had a baby, that's all. Finding leads is my goal for the rest of July and for August.

Cicada said... [reply]

And here I thought I was the only one who had a hot-for-professor problem. Tsk tsk.

TannerJ5 said... [reply]

I had the same problems with eastern hemisphere maps last year.she(aka Mrs. Talbot) gave us like three months to finish a map and I waited until the last night to do them(and never got the coveted A+

Anonymous said... [reply]

Um, who hired that professor? I think he has some wacked advice. I should send you my prof/advisor. He made me cry because he was mean (not to my face--just to my paper).

Good luck Nem....you can do it.

Also, take pics of the caffeine snorting.

Nemesis said... [reply]

Oh. I'm focusing on that sakhmet. I even say it to myself in an Irish accent every now and then.

Desmama, you know how to make a girl feel encouraged. And I'm glad I've got you on the job search! Feel free to give yourself small 5-minute breaks when necessary.

Cici, I can safely say that my problem has not reached the, ahem, realms of yours. I'll let you know if I start dreaming about him, though.

Yep, Tanner, our situations sound about the same. ;-) My brother used to do that--drove my mom crazy.

No fear Kristen, I'll take pictures. Or maybe the paparazzi will and I'll be like Kate Moss and lose my modeling gigs. Only she's in a mascara commercial over here, so obviously her career isn't over or anything.

Mrs. Hass-Bark said... [reply]

oooh! Can you get me some of that crystallized caffeine stuff?

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