November 2008 MeDirected

Lost and Found

Image via Wikipedia

Killed it. Over the past week, that’s what I did. I finally found the focus that had been alluding me. I’m really get at getting things done, just not always the most pressing things. The past 2 weeks have been different though. Last week was especially good. I finished Chapter 3 of my dissertation, finished the literature review for my dissertation, finally got out the remaining videos from the Olympic trials that need to be digitized, finished up a couple photo shoots for some pictures for a pole vault book I’m helping out with, finished the usual week’s worth of training plans for clients and HPC Elite team members, and started progress on a new ecommerce shop for the company store.

The MOST impressive part about this though is that I did it all while getting totally and completely addicted to LOST (the tv show). I had been told for some time that I would really like it but 1) I’m not really one to watch much tv and 2) after season 1, then season 2, then 3 and 4 passed me by I didn’t want to try to come in in the middle of what I had heard was a deeply sequential story. Last Saturday, for some odd reason, I happened to be on the iTunes store looking for some NPR podcasts to download so that I could listen to something on my weekly Sat-Sun trip to my wife’s family farm (where there’s no internet, cell phone reception, and I stay up late as usual to do work). While there I found a purchased Lost season 1.

Well over the course of a week, I’ve now watched all of season 1, and half of season 2 and I would be in denial if I said I wasn’t thoroughly addicted. The odd thing is that what would seemingly be a diversion has matched up with one of my most productive weeks in the last couple years. I’ve got 2 and a half seasons left to watch before I’m ‘caught up’….hopefully I can continue this stretch of focus for the remainder.

aside 8 Nov

Barrack Obama and Change

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Just a quick word on last week’s election- I’m happy Obama won. It feels good. I liked the McCain of 12 months ago but not what he had become over the last couple months. Don’t get me wrong….I’m not Barrack fanatic or anything but I think that he represents something much bigger than himself. He’s become an icon of sorts. I’m not just talking about race (although that certainly is an important part of it). I’m mainly talking about a change from what has brought us to our current low in American international standing, finances and politics; a sense of hope that can be seen across almost the entire country; and a renewed feeling of pride in what it is to be an American. Hopefully for our and his sakes he can live up to the grand expectations that have already been placed on him. I’m sure it’s only normal if he looked out over the tens of thousands of people at his acceptance speech all crying, hollering, and cheering his name to think ‘Oh Dead God….can I possibly live up to the expectations?”

Only time will tell. One thing I do know is that an Obama presidency is definitely the better one for a small business owner like myself. And while that was not the first thing I put on my list when I cast my vote, it certainly is refreshing that even if he does nothing of substance about the economy, his win seems to have given much of the American public hope that dreams can come true and that things are on the mend. This is something that can’t be discounted because after all, perception is often reality.

aside 8 Nov

Dissertation Progress Update

I know, I know. I haven’t been posting too much on here. Or on ELITETRACK for that matter. In fact, even my inbox has been collecting some rare dust over the past 2 weeks. Client call backs are a little more delayed. HPC related business projects are being temporarily postponed.

It’s all for good reason though. I’ve been busting my arse trying to get some serious writing done on my dissertation. Yesterday I finished the final research chapter of my dissertation. As with most things, my fatal optimism and perfectionism got the best of me. Fatal optimism in that I had actually been telling myself “I’ll be done with this today”….for about 3 weeks. Part of the problem was that I ran in to some snags that forced me to redo a big part of it but the delay was also due in large part to my OCD of getting things PERFECT. All in all though, I sent it out to my advisor yesterday afternoon and hopefully won’t have too many revisions to make on it.

Now I just have a conclusion for the three research chapters and then I have to wittle down my literature review a little more and I’m ready for defense. I can’t wait to be finished. I’ve been unusually focused on it the last couple weeks as I’m approaching ‘crunch time.’ The last day I can defend this semester is December 19th and I need to give my 5 member dissertation committee at least 4 weeks to read it before then. So that means if I assume a defense date of the 15th (since no one will likely want to sit through a dissertation defense on the last day of a semester) that means I really need to be done writing some time around a week from today. That’s good and bad. Good because I definitely work better when I’m ‘under the gun.’ Bad in that it leaves me little time for anything else, including errors.