Data collection commences...
The data collection phase of my research is now starting, and my life is about to go bonkers. The subject recruitment ad is appearing in today's local paper, and with any luck I'll soon be up to my eyeballs in perky volunteers. [/optimism mode]
I'm doing the last minute organisational stuff at present - printing out 50-odd copies of all the info sheets, questionnaires, task instructions etc, sorting out scheduling stuff with the driving instructor I'll be working with, organising room hire for the lab-based bits of the data collection, printing up checklists to make sure nothing gets missed, etc etc etc. And for the next couple of months or so I'm going to be running around in tiny, tiny circles doing three data collection sessions each with some fifty odd subjects, each of which last for 1-2 hours and have to be scheduled for specific times of day... wooo. I get exhausted just thinking about it. Truly. Yesterday afternoon I came perilously close to getting a stress migraine from all the last-minute trying-to-get-everything-working-together figuring-out I'd been doing (cleverly averted by an evening of cathartic orc-stomping on the PC via Battle for Middle Earth 2, my favourite "comfort gaming" game).
So I don't honestly expect to be getting a lot of time in the near future to update my LJ with anything more detailed than "good grief this is exhausting!" or "arrrghhhh! &^$%ing data collection!" I'll be trying to keep up (at least in a skimming sort of way) with reading my flist, but if I don't have time/energy for detailed responses to your posts, please don't take it personally! Frankly, if I get through this without tearing my hair out, smashing fragile items or getting all fangorious at passers-by, I think I'll be doing rather well. :-7
I'm doing the last minute organisational stuff at present - printing out 50-odd copies of all the info sheets, questionnaires, task instructions etc, sorting out scheduling stuff with the driving instructor I'll be working with, organising room hire for the lab-based bits of the data collection, printing up checklists to make sure nothing gets missed, etc etc etc. And for the next couple of months or so I'm going to be running around in tiny, tiny circles doing three data collection sessions each with some fifty odd subjects, each of which last for 1-2 hours and have to be scheduled for specific times of day... wooo. I get exhausted just thinking about it. Truly. Yesterday afternoon I came perilously close to getting a stress migraine from all the last-minute trying-to-get-everything-working-together figuring-out I'd been doing (cleverly averted by an evening of cathartic orc-stomping on the PC via Battle for Middle Earth 2, my favourite "comfort gaming" game).
So I don't honestly expect to be getting a lot of time in the near future to update my LJ with anything more detailed than "good grief this is exhausting!" or "arrrghhhh! &^$%ing data collection!" I'll be trying to keep up (at least in a skimming sort of way) with reading my flist, but if I don't have time/energy for detailed responses to your posts, please don't take it personally! Frankly, if I get through this without tearing my hair out, smashing fragile items or getting all fangorious at passers-by, I think I'll be doing rather well. :-7