(no subject)
I've been up for three and a half hours so far today, and I'm ready for a nap. In those three and a half hours, however, I've been pretty productive. I had a shower, and made coffee and breakfast (multigrain porridge), and did a limited number of dishes, and ah, yes, wrote a new version of the introduction to my paper.
Fifth time's the charm, right?
I know I say this every time, but I think this might be the introduction I stick with. After several days of despair over my previous thesis, I sat down yesterday evening with a red pen and the draft of the fourth version of my introduction, and did what seems to work best for reconceiving papers - scribbling my new thoughts in the margins of the pervious previous version. Now I'm going to make an argument specifically about the legitimizing force of Islamic biographical dictionaries, and how that's implied in the early Islamic conception of how knowledge works, and how it plays out in the social uses of biographical dictionaries. I even more or less have an outline. On paper! Or, you know, partly on paper. But it makes sense! And pulls together the hideously disparate historiography!
I really, really hope the fifth time's the charm, because I want to have it done by Thursday. I've written my page this morning (it crept over a little bit into this afternoon), and my plan for the rest of the day involves spending another hour (or two, but I don't want to be too demanding and do nothing as a result) of my choice at it. I also have to go grocery shopping, and maybe do some cooking, if it's not too hot.
Hopefully I can avoid falling back into the crank, and also not feel crushed about my lack of fun long-weekend plans. I went out for a nice lunch at an Ethiopian restaurant in the South End with Z yesterday afternoon, but even that was overshadowed by the crank. Must do better today.
Fifth time's the charm, right?
I know I say this every time, but I think this might be the introduction I stick with. After several days of despair over my previous thesis, I sat down yesterday evening with a red pen and the draft of the fourth version of my introduction, and did what seems to work best for reconceiving papers - scribbling my new thoughts in the margins of the pervious previous version. Now I'm going to make an argument specifically about the legitimizing force of Islamic biographical dictionaries, and how that's implied in the early Islamic conception of how knowledge works, and how it plays out in the social uses of biographical dictionaries. I even more or less have an outline. On paper! Or, you know, partly on paper. But it makes sense! And pulls together the hideously disparate historiography!
I really, really hope the fifth time's the charm, because I want to have it done by Thursday. I've written my page this morning (it crept over a little bit into this afternoon), and my plan for the rest of the day involves spending another hour (or two, but I don't want to be too demanding and do nothing as a result) of my choice at it. I also have to go grocery shopping, and maybe do some cooking, if it's not too hot.
Hopefully I can avoid falling back into the crank, and also not feel crushed about my lack of fun long-weekend plans. I went out for a nice lunch at an Ethiopian restaurant in the South End with Z yesterday afternoon, but even that was overshadowed by the crank. Must do better today.