My Shit

Just two more weeks from today and the semester from hell will be over. But what a two weeks it is going to be. I have two papers to present and one final to take. Oh, and I haven't even started writing one of the papers yet. After all of this is over I get to spend a nice long weekend in the north Georgia mountains with my girlfriend (courtesy of her company's Christmas excursion).

Christmas break is going to be rough. I have to teach next semester and I do not have anything put together yet. I do have the book picked out but have not yet read it cover to cover (I still have a few chapters left). The book publisher is supposed to be sending me a bunch of material (slides and test questions) to help me, but I have not received those yet. I also have a ton to read.

I've also decided I am going to quit riding MARTA. When I teach, I can't take the chance that I won't be able to catch a train or will get stuck on a train derailed in a tunnel under Decatur (sound outrages? It happened to me last week). So I'm just going to have to pony up the cash for on campus parking. Good thing I've got those student loans.

That's all for now. Don't expect to here anything out of me for the next two weeks or so, maybe until after New Years at this rate. Have a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

It feel like the crazy-level of the people on the train has really gotten worse in the last few weeks. I don't now if it is because there are more crazy people on the train now that it has gotten colder or what. But I don't like it. For instance: 1) late last week there was a guy on the train, talking to no one in particular, claiming to be the best pick pocket in Atlanta; 2) then there was the guy that got on the train about two weeks ago and just started screaming about Jesus; 3) Today there was a guy on the platform with turrets (at least I hope it was turrets); 3) and a guy this morning was having a conversation with the game he was playing on his cell phone; 4) and the bums, oh the bums ... there have been so many bums on the train lately. And they stink. I got off a train the other day and waited for another train to come because there were three bums in the car I was in and it stank so bad you could hardly breathe.

I skipped my first Ph.D. class today! Well, I skipped one class last year, but I was out of town to a wedding. This is the first one I've skipped because I wanted to sleep and catch up on some other work.

I skipped classes like crazy in my undergrad career. I hope skipping is not like smoking, where once you do it once it just gets easier and easier and then the next thing you know you can't quit. I'm going to have to be careful because the pressures in my classes right now are just crazy.

So today is one of those days I just love to bits when it comes to my career as a Ph.D. student: test day. Most of the professors do not give tests or, if they do, they are simple. But this one statistics teacher loves to drive us into the ground. It is all rather annoying because progress on almost everything else stops for at least a week if not longer. I don't work on my other classes unless I must, and I don't work on anything around the house unless I get so cross eyed from studying I have to take a break. I do realize my "normal" Ph.D. student schedule is far from "normal," but I'd rather be back to that schedule than studying all of the time.

I do have, at least a little, good news. I proposed a project to one of the top I/O Psychologists in the world (I'd tell you who it is, but this is the part where I'm trying to make sure my blog doesn't ever get me in trouble) and he/she said yes to the project. I am now very excited. It is a pretty big deal. When I've told some of the other Ph.D. students, and even some of the other factulty, they say things like "wow," and "that's wonderful." So, it is good. And it is a big deal. And I pray that it helps to get me out of here sooner rather than later!

I'm also, somehow, finding a little time to work on my second year paper. I love how the process works. The professors yell at you to work on stuff, then you work on it (under duress I might add), give it to them, and then you wait. Then you wait. Then you wait a little more. You know, if they needed it so bad, then why does it just sit in their inbox and you have to go harass them for feedback? Anyway, I harassed in a manner that was a little dirty, and I suspect when I get my first round of feedback, it won't be very good. And while I am concerned, because I need good feedback, I'm not all that worried (see previous paragraph).

Well, I have to work at understanding the finer details of principal axis factoring in exploratory factor analysis, so, yeah, see me after the test today if you need anything.