i finally got my stuff together enough to produce a suitable masters project proposal (pdf), one that actually represents what i’m doing and what i want to do. marchionini gave the go ahead and informed me of my deadline: March 29, two weeks before the master’s paper is officially due to be sealed, signed, and delivered. count it folks, that’s 7 weeks from today. yikes!

the proposal is very pedestrian. in one sentence, i’m proposing to design and implement a functional web application to replace my Microsoft Access financial system. there’s no cutting edge social science research, no groundbreaking use of technology, no bold assertions. just straight-up design something and build it. i expect to be throughly challenged for the next 49 days.

as a sidenote, today was the first time in this long process that i felt like it’s actually conceivable that i’ll graduate in may…

…which is nice because it means there might be some closure for this long process.

and i’ve got one part left. i’ve got to write at least one and a half pages that describe the “precise statement of [my] (experimental) methodology.” but i haven’t got any experimental methodology.

so i’m taking a break right now to see if any good bs comes to mind. one and a half pages of precise experimental methodological bulldroppings. i think i may need some tricuits first. i think i may need to go into precise detail about my ethnomethodology. then i think i’ll throw in some grounded theory.

god it’s late.

but when i finish writing this last page and a half, i’m done for the semester.

more importantly though, when i finish i can go to bed.

i hope everyone has enjoyed this up to the minute status of my final exams and projects. and of my [in]sanity. shortly this blog will be returning to its original programming. thanks for reading.

update: the problem, btw, when you’ve got one and a half solid pages to write and roughly seven hours to write it in, well, your motivation gets shot to hell. even when it’s 4am. ok. i’m going to start now.

taking a break from studying for the research methods final quiz.

described by jean as the hardest test she’s ever taken and by jason as not the hardest test he’s ever taken, but no fun.

i haven’t given a squat about this class all semester long. so i’m wondering how closely i’m flirting with an “L”–the not good grade in grad school, “where grades do not matter.” probably not at all.

after this stupid quiz, i have to write some sort of 12 page long research proposal as a final project for this class. but it’s totally fake because i’m writing it to satisfy the professor, not my master’s advisor. which i finally got, btw. one less thing to stress about. grad school: how awkward. who knew?

update: several hours and 16 chapters later, here are some cool terms i dredged from babbie: ecological fallacy, cohort studies, snowball sampling, ethnomethodology, anomie, multivariate analysis, chi square

wrote my paper from 5pm til 4am last night.

11 hours, 11 page paper. slept about 5.

so i took the 10:33am bus to campus. got here 10 minutes early.

so now it’s nearly noon, i turned in my paper to the TA, and i’ve been sitting here for more than an hour, waiting, because failure to sign the freaking role–which along with the professor hasn’t arrived yet–means we get our grade marked down.

apparently pizza is coming. i’m told. c’mon, c’mon. i don’t want no stinkin’ pizza!

jason is sitting next to me reading the classified ads.

jean apparently had another medical issue last night and was unable to write her paper. jean. we are seriously feeling for you. look at *all* the fun you are missing. i guess you can turn in the paper up till midnight tonight.

update: The ultrasound technician screamed with glee when she found them. Like it was paydirt. Like it was winning the lottery.

and i’m just starting it now.

length? hmm, not really sure about that. i think if i could generate 10 pages (of fluff) by later tonight i’d be happy. omg, i feel like such an undergrad.

anyway,,, so like tomorrow is the last sils happy hour…and i just thought i’d remind anyone who might be checking my blog and not their email…not that any such person actually exists…that they’ll like, umm, be free bbq and stuff, in honor of…well, me…turning 24 and stuff on friday…which is like, my real actual birthday…but since most of my evenings extend well beyond midnight, umm, i figgered it’d be, like, aok to get the party started early.

anyway, so umm, like now i have to write this paper. so like i’m going to go start writing it. umm, any minute now i’m going to start. i can see myself writing it in my mind’s eye.

ok, i’m starting. really. ok.

really. i am.

i’m starting it.

right now.

just after i go to the bathroom and wash my hands. yeah.