Good news and bad/gross news
The bad/gross news is all related to me being super sick. But other than that things are going pretty well!
I'm meeting with my thesis adviser tomorrow, and I have my draft back with his comments that we're going to discuss. Well, he's written on it that it's an excellent draft and great progress! That's very encouraging. Makes me feel like I at least understand what I'm doing with this process and also gives me some confidence in my writing too. Hopefully tomorrow I can talk with him about where to go in the data analysis and whether what I'm thinking so far makes sense. I still need to get a second adviser and an outside adviser...I have people in mind, I just uh, haven't gotten around to contacting them yet.
Also some progress on the job front: one place contacted me for an interview. So next Friday I'll be going to the school to interview and also to spend some time in their classroom and present a short lesson. Which is super stressful, since I've never led a class of preschoolers, but it's just a 10-15 minute thing so hopefully it'll be okay? I'm currently thinking read a book + sing a related song (one with motions and stuff, get some activity going). Going On a Bear Hunt is always fun. I don't really know what they're doing currently in their curriculum, so it's tough, because generally in preschool you try to have things all focusing on a theme the kids are exploring.
I also need to get a bunch of references for this, as well. Luckily the person I asked for a written reference has agreed, so I just need to contact these other two people to ask them if I can list them as references (like, for the place to call). Every time I have to ask for references, it's really stressful and makes me super anxious, so I'm actually kind of proud of myself that I've done it so quickly after finding out I needed them. I also have to say, every time I ask people for references, I think to myself how nice people are...because most people actually will take the time to write references. Man, if I'm ever in a position where someone would need a reference for me, I would definitely write them...once you've gone through having to get them, I feel like you'll always sympathize with it, haha.
I'm also still looking for more places to apply to. I really want to stay living where I am now, so I figure I need to really get to work and apply to a lot of jobs nearby if I want to have a good chance of getting one. I don't whether this first one will work out--from the description it sounds like it's more being a lead teacher than an assistant, and I don't have that experience--but I hope that even if it doesn't, going through the interview will be good preparation for doing other interviews in the future.
In terms of my current job, we're currently scrambling to put together a report by the end of the month and also draft a curriculum for a new thing we're doing with the project...it's quite busy but it's actually nice to have things to do every day at work. Early on there were slow periods where I'd just run out of stuff to do, but right now I actually feel like I'm producing meaningful work. And hopefully going through this curriculum-planning process will be some valuable experience.
The only bad thing going on at the moment is this illness...last Tuesday I woke up at 4:30 am with my throat just feeling intensely painful and I was super congested. I figured I had caught a cold either from my roommate or from my boss at work; a lot of people had been sick lately. But then on Wednesday it got much worse, I think I had a fever (I didn't have a thermometer, so I can't say for certain, but I was shivering and at work I was freezing all day when everyone else thought it was too hot), my whole body just HURT, even getting up from my desk to get something right nearby exhausted me, I had a cough...it was really bad. In retrospect I probably should've stayed home, but I really thought it was just a cold and there was stuff I had to finish for my part of this paper we're preparing. Things seemed to get a little better on Thursday, but then over the weekend the cough moved more into my chest and I just started hacking up this gross yellow mucus.
Well, I went to health services today, and actually I turned out to still be running a low temperature. My lungs sound clear though, so it's not bronchitis or anything like that. Anyway the doctor prescribed me some antibiotics and a nasal spray, so hopefully that will help clear things up. I hardly ever get fevers, so being feverish and ill for a week is pretty severe for me. It might be some mild flu-like thing. Well, although there's still muscle pain and I'm still tiring very easily and have this cough and fever, it's definitely not as bad as it was last week, so hopefully that means I'm on the mend, even if slowly. Pretty inconvenient for this to happen when things are so busy, though.
But, overall some progress on various things...which I hope will continue. If I could really make some good progress on my results and discussion sections for my thesis and have a solid draft done in March...well, that would take a lot of the pressure off (the whole thing needs to be done and turned in by April 28) and give me plenty of time to prep for the defense. It feels doable, if I just keep working at it day by day.
I gotta say, habitrpg has been helpful in this regard! Getting to click the button whenever I managed to finish reading an article for the lit review actually did motivate me to force myself through all those articles. And if nothing else, habitrpg has done what years of being admonished by my dentist couldn't: gotten me to actually brush my teeth every night. My dental health probably hasn't been better since I was a little kid. Habitrpg can also take credit for getting me to actually go to bed at a reasonable hour every night except D&D nights. So thanks for introducing me to it, guardians_song! I may have fairly small ambitions, but by God at least I'm now fulfilling those. XD
I dunno, in some ways I feel overconfident...but things do seem to be going pretty well. At the very least, it's encouraging to have strong start for my thesis and it's encouraging to have at least one employer find my resume worth an interview. Hopefully things will keep going pretty well.
I'm meeting with my thesis adviser tomorrow, and I have my draft back with his comments that we're going to discuss. Well, he's written on it that it's an excellent draft and great progress! That's very encouraging. Makes me feel like I at least understand what I'm doing with this process and also gives me some confidence in my writing too. Hopefully tomorrow I can talk with him about where to go in the data analysis and whether what I'm thinking so far makes sense. I still need to get a second adviser and an outside adviser...I have people in mind, I just uh, haven't gotten around to contacting them yet.
Also some progress on the job front: one place contacted me for an interview. So next Friday I'll be going to the school to interview and also to spend some time in their classroom and present a short lesson. Which is super stressful, since I've never led a class of preschoolers, but it's just a 10-15 minute thing so hopefully it'll be okay? I'm currently thinking read a book + sing a related song (one with motions and stuff, get some activity going). Going On a Bear Hunt is always fun. I don't really know what they're doing currently in their curriculum, so it's tough, because generally in preschool you try to have things all focusing on a theme the kids are exploring.
I also need to get a bunch of references for this, as well. Luckily the person I asked for a written reference has agreed, so I just need to contact these other two people to ask them if I can list them as references (like, for the place to call). Every time I have to ask for references, it's really stressful and makes me super anxious, so I'm actually kind of proud of myself that I've done it so quickly after finding out I needed them. I also have to say, every time I ask people for references, I think to myself how nice people are...because most people actually will take the time to write references. Man, if I'm ever in a position where someone would need a reference for me, I would definitely write them...once you've gone through having to get them, I feel like you'll always sympathize with it, haha.
I'm also still looking for more places to apply to. I really want to stay living where I am now, so I figure I need to really get to work and apply to a lot of jobs nearby if I want to have a good chance of getting one. I don't whether this first one will work out--from the description it sounds like it's more being a lead teacher than an assistant, and I don't have that experience--but I hope that even if it doesn't, going through the interview will be good preparation for doing other interviews in the future.
In terms of my current job, we're currently scrambling to put together a report by the end of the month and also draft a curriculum for a new thing we're doing with the project...it's quite busy but it's actually nice to have things to do every day at work. Early on there were slow periods where I'd just run out of stuff to do, but right now I actually feel like I'm producing meaningful work. And hopefully going through this curriculum-planning process will be some valuable experience.
The only bad thing going on at the moment is this illness...last Tuesday I woke up at 4:30 am with my throat just feeling intensely painful and I was super congested. I figured I had caught a cold either from my roommate or from my boss at work; a lot of people had been sick lately. But then on Wednesday it got much worse, I think I had a fever (I didn't have a thermometer, so I can't say for certain, but I was shivering and at work I was freezing all day when everyone else thought it was too hot), my whole body just HURT, even getting up from my desk to get something right nearby exhausted me, I had a cough...it was really bad. In retrospect I probably should've stayed home, but I really thought it was just a cold and there was stuff I had to finish for my part of this paper we're preparing. Things seemed to get a little better on Thursday, but then over the weekend the cough moved more into my chest and I just started hacking up this gross yellow mucus.
Well, I went to health services today, and actually I turned out to still be running a low temperature. My lungs sound clear though, so it's not bronchitis or anything like that. Anyway the doctor prescribed me some antibiotics and a nasal spray, so hopefully that will help clear things up. I hardly ever get fevers, so being feverish and ill for a week is pretty severe for me. It might be some mild flu-like thing. Well, although there's still muscle pain and I'm still tiring very easily and have this cough and fever, it's definitely not as bad as it was last week, so hopefully that means I'm on the mend, even if slowly. Pretty inconvenient for this to happen when things are so busy, though.
But, overall some progress on various things...which I hope will continue. If I could really make some good progress on my results and discussion sections for my thesis and have a solid draft done in March...well, that would take a lot of the pressure off (the whole thing needs to be done and turned in by April 28) and give me plenty of time to prep for the defense. It feels doable, if I just keep working at it day by day.
I gotta say, habitrpg has been helpful in this regard! Getting to click the button whenever I managed to finish reading an article for the lit review actually did motivate me to force myself through all those articles. And if nothing else, habitrpg has done what years of being admonished by my dentist couldn't: gotten me to actually brush my teeth every night. My dental health probably hasn't been better since I was a little kid. Habitrpg can also take credit for getting me to actually go to bed at a reasonable hour every night except D&D nights. So thanks for introducing me to it, guardians_song! I may have fairly small ambitions, but by God at least I'm now fulfilling those. XD
I dunno, in some ways I feel overconfident...but things do seem to be going pretty well. At the very least, it's encouraging to have strong start for my thesis and it's encouraging to have at least one employer find my resume worth an interview. Hopefully things will keep going pretty well.