(no subject)
Ah, April 9th... the day after my Day of Doom (I did the things I was obligated to do - Terpsichore and my early music ensemble concert - but had fun doing both!) No rest for the wicked, though. The end of the semester draws near!
There are really two scary things needing completion before the end of the semester:
My advisor (the one I'm not working for after this semester) had a not so great meeting with some of the higher-ups in the project I'm funded on, and the long and the short is that I need to have something to show by the end of the semester. Would have been nice to know about this a few weeks ago - right now I'm kind of feeling stuck, like no matter what I do I won't be able to satisfy my course requirements and not upset my advisor too much. But I have a to-do list written out, and maybe I can get something out the door by the end of April if I don't drag my feet. I just need to stay on track and not let myself get distracted by Wikipedia. It's strange how easily it distracts me. If I go to the site at all, I inevitably get distracted into reading (or at least skimming) 10 or 20 articles. The only way I can stop is if I notice myself typing "en.wik..." into the address bar and stop before I get to the end. I actually managed to be fairly productive today, but in general it seems like I can only manage maybe two and a half or so real full productive days a week, which would be fine if I only had to deal with research but it's not enough for that plus classes.
It would also help if what I'm doing for my project stays on track and doesn't get distracted into other things. Would help if what I'm supposed to be doing stays relatively constant instead of being elusive.. I think one of the reasons why I haven't accomplished much on this project is because it's never been very clear what exactly the problem I'm solving is. It seems like I'm trying to do things backwards - instead of trying to solve a problem or explain an observation, I'm trying to come up with observations to fit a theory or find problems for particular solutions, and it just doesn't fit very well.
I need to get an A- or better in this class! I didn't do especially well on the midterm, basically just missing the A- mark, so I need to do well on the project and the final. It's not clear how good shape the project is in right now given that it's due the 18th and I'm going to be back in Maryland this weekend (from the 14th to the 17th) and my other group members are going to be at a conference - so in reality it really needs to be done by Thursday, and I need to spend tomorrow making progress on stuff for my advisor. So that really leaves some of Tuesday and Wednesday (which tend not to be my most productive days) and all of Thursday to finish this project. Is it time to panic yet? I think things are in good shape if I can set up simulations to run over the weekend (and babysit them if necessary). I had a fairly productive group meeting today; if other group members can take care of the rest of the remaining stuff besides testing/simulation/analysis I think we'll be okay.
So how did this weekend go? Well, the Early Music Ensemble concert was pretty stress-free - it wasn't the best performance of the pieces we've ever done, but it was pretty damn good, and I think it would be fair to say that it was the best performance I've ever sung in.
The Terpsichore band was technically not nearly as good, but (perhaps luckily) SCA performance standards are ridiculously low and people were very, very pleased. There was at least once dance and maybe two that I screwed up fairly badly, but for the most part I managed not too play too many wrong notes or miss any repeats at the same time that somebody else was having problems. However, it was a lot of music to play (over 40 dances), much of it stuff that we'd never played for dancers before, and I think we acquitted ourselves excellently.
It will be nice to do music stuff without stress and grumpiness now that performances are over, though!
In another bit of insanity, I seem to have decided to run for the Swing Ann Arbor board. I'm hoping it won't be a massive time commitment - so long as I don't end up doing everybody else's job (which I think I'm better at avoiding now than I used to be), I think it should be fine. Also, it's likely Jesse will be ultimately in charge and I think she'll do a better job making sure I don't have to end up doing more than I really have time to do than I would if I were running the show. I'm running because there just aren't that many other students interested in running, and I think it's good to give people a choice. Also, I don't think any of the other candidates have had any experience running a student organization before (I spent some time in charge of the literary magazine at Maryland), and I also think it's good to have a newer (but very committed) dancer in the leadership, looking out for other beginning/intermediate dancers!
Anyway, I think it's time to go to sleep. I spent a pretty good chunk of the day being productive and knocked at least a few things off my todo list. And Jesse came over and graded for a bit, and we finished the spectacularly yummy Chocolate Balsamic Strawberry Gelato from Zingerman's she brought over the other day, and chatted with new friend nique_2003 on AIM for a bit (she's into swing, renaissance stuff, and bluegrass, and is quite the consummate geek - how cool is that?).. Today was a good day.
There are really two scary things needing completion before the end of the semester:
My advisor (the one I'm not working for after this semester) had a not so great meeting with some of the higher-ups in the project I'm funded on, and the long and the short is that I need to have something to show by the end of the semester. Would have been nice to know about this a few weeks ago - right now I'm kind of feeling stuck, like no matter what I do I won't be able to satisfy my course requirements and not upset my advisor too much. But I have a to-do list written out, and maybe I can get something out the door by the end of April if I don't drag my feet. I just need to stay on track and not let myself get distracted by Wikipedia. It's strange how easily it distracts me. If I go to the site at all, I inevitably get distracted into reading (or at least skimming) 10 or 20 articles. The only way I can stop is if I notice myself typing "en.wik..." into the address bar and stop before I get to the end. I actually managed to be fairly productive today, but in general it seems like I can only manage maybe two and a half or so real full productive days a week, which would be fine if I only had to deal with research but it's not enough for that plus classes.
It would also help if what I'm doing for my project stays on track and doesn't get distracted into other things. Would help if what I'm supposed to be doing stays relatively constant instead of being elusive.. I think one of the reasons why I haven't accomplished much on this project is because it's never been very clear what exactly the problem I'm solving is. It seems like I'm trying to do things backwards - instead of trying to solve a problem or explain an observation, I'm trying to come up with observations to fit a theory or find problems for particular solutions, and it just doesn't fit very well.
I need to get an A- or better in this class! I didn't do especially well on the midterm, basically just missing the A- mark, so I need to do well on the project and the final. It's not clear how good shape the project is in right now given that it's due the 18th and I'm going to be back in Maryland this weekend (from the 14th to the 17th) and my other group members are going to be at a conference - so in reality it really needs to be done by Thursday, and I need to spend tomorrow making progress on stuff for my advisor. So that really leaves some of Tuesday and Wednesday (which tend not to be my most productive days) and all of Thursday to finish this project. Is it time to panic yet? I think things are in good shape if I can set up simulations to run over the weekend (and babysit them if necessary). I had a fairly productive group meeting today; if other group members can take care of the rest of the remaining stuff besides testing/simulation/analysis I think we'll be okay.
So how did this weekend go? Well, the Early Music Ensemble concert was pretty stress-free - it wasn't the best performance of the pieces we've ever done, but it was pretty damn good, and I think it would be fair to say that it was the best performance I've ever sung in.
The Terpsichore band was technically not nearly as good, but (perhaps luckily) SCA performance standards are ridiculously low and people were very, very pleased. There was at least once dance and maybe two that I screwed up fairly badly, but for the most part I managed not too play too many wrong notes or miss any repeats at the same time that somebody else was having problems. However, it was a lot of music to play (over 40 dances), much of it stuff that we'd never played for dancers before, and I think we acquitted ourselves excellently.
It will be nice to do music stuff without stress and grumpiness now that performances are over, though!
In another bit of insanity, I seem to have decided to run for the Swing Ann Arbor board. I'm hoping it won't be a massive time commitment - so long as I don't end up doing everybody else's job (which I think I'm better at avoiding now than I used to be), I think it should be fine. Also, it's likely Jesse will be ultimately in charge and I think she'll do a better job making sure I don't have to end up doing more than I really have time to do than I would if I were running the show. I'm running because there just aren't that many other students interested in running, and I think it's good to give people a choice. Also, I don't think any of the other candidates have had any experience running a student organization before (I spent some time in charge of the literary magazine at Maryland), and I also think it's good to have a newer (but very committed) dancer in the leadership, looking out for other beginning/intermediate dancers!
Anyway, I think it's time to go to sleep. I spent a pretty good chunk of the day being productive and knocked at least a few things off my todo list. And Jesse came over and graded for a bit, and we finished the spectacularly yummy Chocolate Balsamic Strawberry Gelato from Zingerman's she brought over the other day, and chatted with new friend nique_2003 on AIM for a bit (she's into swing, renaissance stuff, and bluegrass, and is quite the consummate geek - how cool is that?).. Today was a good day.