Reviewing notes...

Getting very near the end now of this work and finding old notes. This particularly note, while amusing, brings back no memory as to why I wrote it - heck, I can't even remember writing it except that it is in my hand writing so I know I did. It is a scale that I can't use, but amusing enough to post here.

100 = Most important
90 = Very important
80 = Important
50 = Ambivalent
10 = Damn near don't care
0 = Who gives a rat's a**!

Did I mention that I drink while writing on the weekends?

The Literature Review: Knowing When to Quit

My research companion, Practical Research by Leedy and Ormrod, has a section in the literature review chapter entitled, "Knowing When to Quit."  They say that the novice researcher (me) often asks, "When do I know that I have completed the review of the literature?"  

Their answer:  "In theory, the answer might be 'Never.' "

Lovely.

...and Damn, I'm good!

Dr. Z reported back this weekend that he is incredibly busy and couldn't get to my submission last week as he had hoped.  He did, however, read the beginning.  He said:

"I really enjoyed the beginning of your thesis, a good read." 

I guess that 17th version paid off.  

Damn, I'm fast! (?)

With the Introductory chapter completed, I decided to resend it attached to the already-completed Chapters 3 and 4 (methodology and results, respectively) to Dr. Z for his review.

He wrote back last night:  "Damn, you are fast.  I can't keep up with you."

This is fast?  I feel like it's been dragging on and on.

But I'll take the compliment!   

Above Average

Last night, I finally finished the introduction that made me happy.  That version was the SEVENTEENTH I had written.

An article that Dr. S gave me regarding "Setting the Hook," or writing the introduction to the dissertation, states that on average, award-winning academic journal authors rewrite their introductions ten times.

I guess you could say that I've always been "above average."


(Any wonder why I'm not finished yet?)

Risk! Risk is our business!

Could it be that, after 80,000 words on risk and risk management, the simple yet overly dramatic words of Captain Kirk in Star Trek say it all? 

"They used to say if man could fly, he'd have wings, but he did fly. He discovered he had to. Do you wish that the first Apollo mission hadn't reached the moon, or that we hadn't gone on to Mars and then to the nearest star? That's like saying you wish that you still operated with scalpels and sewed your patients up with catgut like your great-great-great-great grandfather used to. I'm in command. I could order this, but I'm not because Doctor McCoy is right in pointing out the enormous danger potential in any contact with life and intelligence as fantastically advanced as this, but I must point out that the possibilities - the potential for knowledge and advancement - is equally great. Risk! Risk is our business. That's what this starship is all about. That's why we're aboard her. You may dissent without prejudice. Do I hear a negative vote?"

Captain James Tiberius Kirk

Starship Enterprise

Stardate 4768.3

Link:   Risk! Risk is our business.

(or does it reflect that in efforts to overcome the boredom of writing a literature review, one becomes a trekkie?)

Beefeater!

To raise my spirits a bit, I ordered my academic beefeater tam today.