Wow

Wow because it's been a year. A whole year. Since I started this blog and this project.

Wow because I am so eminently distractible. This is going to change, starting today. Diss comes first. Everything else comes second.

Consider this my official working diss/research journal. I have already created a timesheet and am going to clock in every day. Goal is to have a working draft of the substantial chapters of the diss done by the end of August. That's three months, with two weeks of teaching in between. Can I do this? Of course I can do this.

There are several assumptions that I am going to make that will be accepted as true (as in, questioning my premises is now a waste of time, and I am to spend as little energy as possible on this):

1) My subject is important

2) My subject is still current and of interest

3) Number 2 remains true because I will be able to use the methodology I create to apply to any subjects/important issues that come up. There fore it will remain current and of interest.

Okay. That's the first piece. The second piece is as follows:

1) Not being done yet does NOT make me a loser!

2) I am going to finish

3) I am going to finish quickly, because my full and undivided attention is on this now, FIRST

4) This is first priority (except for basic life issues such as eating, sleeping, paying bills, taking care of health, etc.--all of which support this project). Everything else comes second after the dissertation.

The third piece is as follows:

1) I am to spend 4 hours minimum, six days a week, working on this.

2) I will track my hours.

3) The reward will be the pleasure as I get deeper into the project.

Now to the software issues. AntConc 3.2.0m for Mac seems to be the best analytical software I've found so far. It took me the better part of a week in early March, it seems, to find it, and an hour this morning to relocate it on the Internet (for some reason, it's not transportable to the computer), and to compare it to other possible tools, and decide I'm sticking with this one for now.

So here's the plan for the rest of the week:

1) Reread doc 2

2) Analyze as thoroughly as possible using "naked eye" analysis. Look for word usages, logical fallacies. Track all four levels.

3) Concordance and collocate as thoroughly as possible using software.

4) Write section for diss chapter.

5) Do the same for Docs 9, 12, 36. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Once that's done, I should be able to write. This should take me until the end of June. Then I rewrite the intro chapter and lit review, and write the methodology chapter. That chapter I'll have to research, I think, because it would be fun to sort of make it the detective work chapter; a recap, perhaps, of the CCCC presentation.

I think I haven't done "any" work in a year, but actually that's not really true. I'm fine. Leo is taking longer. Casey is NOT going to beat me. It's all right. I will get done.

So now, time to get to work.