How Not to Write a Short Story

I have been digging up materials I have used for some of the experiments I have conducted as part of my dissertation lately. There were topics I touched on in the dissertation that I still wanted to continue pursuing, as the dissertation still left some open questions. So several years later, I have revisited old backup files and old data from experiments I have conducted, yet haven't published yet. And this reminded me of a very amusing yet not-so-useful participant in an experiment of mine.

Looking Back: Year 2012

The Year 2012 is about to end. So even though the galaxies aligned, and plenty of people thought we're going to die, I am still here. This is my last post for the year. Let me review what has happened for the past year, as I have done so in 2010 and 2011.

Dissertation Submitted

I submitted my dissertation to the Graduate School. I am finally done. Completed. Finito. Finished.

Final Revisions

I defended my dissertation this past July 30. I passed.

The Defense

So I just defended my dissertation. And guess what? I passed!

The Revisions

So my manuscript came back. I gave it to my adviser a while ago, and after a brief lull, it came back with comments. Now I am revising it.

The Lull

So I have a full manuscript. And my adviser is reading it. For the first time, I feel like I can relax, and just bum around for a little bit. I think I like this, a mental break.

The Manuscript

I recently finished the full manuscript of my dissertation. When I printed it so that my adviser can read and comment on it, it felt, simply, whoa. It's a bizarrely wonderful feeling to have in one's hands a tangible proof of one's work, one's contribution to science. Waiting to be read by others.

Dissertating Makes me Fat

So, I think I am gaining weight. And I am attributing it to this dissertation.

The Big Picture

About one month ago, I had a huge change of pace with my dissertation. Up until then, I was actually pulling myself to move forward, but dreading it, writing my chapters but really, not looking forward to sitting down in front of my laptop and typing my manuscript. However, somehow, sometime during the last month, things have changed, that I actually sat down one day, and within the space of one week, added 50-something pages to my manuscript, and felt like my brain is faster than my fingers.

Drawing Limits

In doing research, there are several steps to follow, which depends on what role one has. If one is a PhD candidate, one has to engage in original research, culminating in a big opus known as the dissertation. This dissertation should be an original work, and it takes a committee of at least three professors to read and approve it.

Dissertations and the Scenery

So I have been working on this dissertation for quite a while now. I am finally in the writing phase, as I am slowly working and plonking away on my laptop, writing chapters and chapters of research. Most of the time, I am found in my office, but sometimes, I need a change of scenery.

The Mastermind

The other week, we held an emergency mobile lab. The thing is, my research involves doing experiments, and in order to do experiments, one needs participants. Most of the time, I do experiments with the Psychology Department; my research interests being very inter-disciplinary, I collaborate with the folks in the Psychology Department, and use their subject pool in order to do my experiments. However, there are times when there are more experiments to run than participants. That is when we decide to recruit from other sources. And that is when the mobile lab comes in.

The Dissertation Update

I realized that I haven't talked about my dissertation for the longest time here. I looked it up and apparently the last time I used dissertation as a tag was back in May. So let me provide a little update.

Mozart Ends the Day

The end of the semester usually is the most busy period of my year. Since there's two semesters every year, then I usually experience this rush and hectic schedule twice. And this past semester has not been different.

The Academic Afterlife

So the other day, I was having a meeting with my adviser, and at the conclusion of the meeting, he told me that I should start thinking about my afterlife. I was surprised, but it turned out that it was a good thing.

Super Lab Master

This week, together with another graduate student, we are running the Super Lab. We have recruited from two undergraduate classes in the department and because of that, plenty of people have signed up to do our experiment. That means that we have participants, and that also means that we will have data that we can work on later.

The Spring Break that Sprang Away

So this past week was supposed to be Spring Break. With that, the students went on an exodus away from campus, with big charter buses making an appearance on the campus parking lots to take students to their homes as far away as New York City. I however, found myself just here in Buffalo.

Ascending Stress Levels

It's that time of the semester again. Things are picking up the pace, and things are getting busy. And this past week, I have been finding myself so tired when I get back at home at night that all I want to do is plop down in bed.

Coercing Research

So I have been having a little bit of trouble with respect to doing my dissertation research. Not that I am hitting a dead end, but it is more along the lines of lack of participants for experiments.