After the Holiday

Ok, I lied. I didn't do any of my list, and now its time to play catchup. The next three days will be a whirlwind as I attempt to finish (mostly) everything before the poster presentation in a few days. 

Tomorrow is the first poster presentations, and I am wondering as to how my classmates' presentations and research have all turned out. It will be interesting to see all the different perspectives and themes. It will also mean that I will have one less day and really do need to get to work . . .

Before the Holiday

So in the upcoming days I will have some much needed rest and I am really, really, really looking forward to it. Did I mention I was looking forward to it? Unfortunately, it won't be all all happiness as I cannot completely ignore my workload, as much as I would like to. Instead, it's time to do my weekly run down of what the heck I need to work on. 

Let's see . . . 

- The meeting with Dr. Gillespie went great and she gave me great ideas as to how to do my poster. Now I just need to walk over to the MAC lab and get it finished. 

- I still need to finish transcribing! 

- I have been working on the ARP, and need to continue working on the ARP. 

- The survey has been distributed, but I need more people to take it! 

- The observation has been typed and needs to be sent in. 

- The poster presentation is next week and this stuff needs to get done ASAP! 

So, once again, to my lament, I will not be simply lounging about during the holiday. As much as I really, really, want to. 

So far, so good . . .

The big news this week is that I have been able to secure interviews with the founders of the SWCA. This is really good news because it was this section of the research project that was really lacking. My goal is that they will be able to tell me a lot more than what I already have about the first decade of the SWCA. 

I will also be visiting FIU's campus to meet with Dr. Paula Gillespie, the director at their writing center. I'm very excited as it will be her research that will probably turn into my multimodal #2 poster about the writing center and the future of its alumni. 

I must say that for some reason the end of the semester feels so far away, yet I know it's only a few weeks away. I don't know what to do with myself, because I have so much to do, but the sheer amount is boggling my mind! 

Burn Notice

Today, I looked through the blogs for my class, and if I had to code them, there would be one significant correlating aspect: burn out. That seems to be the theme going into our last few weeks and I am not immune from it either. I've hit a stall in my project, and I have to figure out how to hit drive once again.

Currently I am stuck in bringing it all together. I have all the pieces there, but I do not know how the entire project is going to come together. Looking at my own previous blogs, perhaps I will get a sense of where this project needs to head to.

The idea that I have in my mind is that I want this project to fill in the gaps of where history seems to be missing from the SWCA context. Unfortunately, I do not know if I have found the material to fill in those gaps. I hope that I have, and perhaps I am just not seeing it, but at this point I'm just wandering the desert on a horse with no name.

So, let's get this sh . . . stuff together:

- I am done with Multimodal 1. I need to finish Multimodal 2 and update the text boxes in it. I need to start Multimodal 3.

- I have transcribed three out of five interviews. I need to code them all.

- I need to schedule interviews with the founding members of the SWCA.

- The ARP needs to be worked on. Specifically, the methodology section and perhaps get a head start on the works cited page.

- I need to make sure the SWCA survey is distributed and I have results by at least November 26th or I will not have time to include it in my poster presentation and my ARP.

- I have notes for the observation. A complete draft needs to be created.

- The poster presentations are in two weeks, so pretty much all of this list needs to be completed in that time span for me to have any chance of finishing my project.

OMG!

Did I mention I'm burnt out?

A Day in the Life . . .

So, literally, the past two days are a blur to me, as my life has been completely thrown by transcribing. To recapture the hazy memories, this blog is a recapturing of the last 48 hours:

Monday:

8:00 AM: Get to school, excited to spend perhaps a couple of hours transcribing and then continue on to the million and one things I have to also do.

9:25 AM: Class time rolls around and some hesitation is starting to creep into my mind, as I've only transcribed 5 minutes of my interview during the past hour.

11:00 AM: Back in the writing lab, more hesitation, as I look at my watch and see that it is almost noon and I had only done 10 minutes of the interview!

12: 05 PM: Considered skipping class to keep transcribing, but figured it was probably only because I was typing slowly that it had taken so long. I resolved to speed it up, get to class and hurry back.

2:00 PM: Started typing away (faster) and reach the 20 minute mark in my interview. It was at this point that my hand started cramping, I reached 6 pages and I began to think, damn, why did I interview for an hour?

3: 25 PM: Brief water and restroom break (actually feel guilty about it). When I get back, had a little moaning session with fellow classmates and it helps to know I'm not alone.

6:00 PM: I close down the writing center, seeing as even the staff has left, and I had just finished my first interview transcription. Head over to the library to start my second interview. . .

7:15 PM: Call a friend and ask to borrow a laptop. Seriously, cannot take sitting in school anymore typing away my life.

8:00 PM: Get home, eat a bowl of soup and muster the nerve to start typing away.

Tuesday:

12:00 AM: Finish my second interview. In total, 3 hours and 6 pages. Shoot me now. Start the third interview transcribing.

2:00 AM: Finally give up, 3 pages in, and call it a night. Even if it is due in the morning, I would need at least 6 hours to even, perhaps, be close to finishing my last interviews.

8:35 AM: On the drive to school, edit the work from the night before in the car. Carpel tunnel syndrome begins to set it. 

12:05 PM: Good news! Extension til 11:59 PM today to turn in interviews transcribed and coded. I begin to breathe . . . 

1:00 PM: I then begin to stop breathing once again, as I start the third interview. 

3:45 PM: Finish the third interview. Total 9 pages, about 4 hours transcribing. 

It's now 4:03 PM and I have 7 hours 56 minutes to finish transcribing my last interview, and to code all four - actually five, as I had forgotten an email interview. As I deserve a much needed break, I'm heading to my weekly kickboxing class. Maybe I can punch and kick all my frustration out and finally finish this part of my project!

My Day at the Library

Well, I have finished my four interviews and have begun the day of transcribing. I don't believe one day will not be enough and tomorrow I will probably be making round trips to the library between classes to finish all the transcribing that needs to be done before Tuesday.

Today's blog will be rather short as there is only one thing on my mind right now: transcribe, transcribe, transcribe!

On a side note, I have an observation draft due as well on Thursday, but I don't know if on a subconscious level I am hoping to ignore it look enough and perhaps it will go away. So far that hasn't worked, so I really need to do that as well.

Coldplay is playing through my headphones right now, but they are not having the soothing effects that I had hoped they would've had. This was not the time for my school to cancel its yoga classes!

The Bermuda Triangle

In the spirit of elections, today's class focused on the rhetoric that can be employed throughout our multimodal writings. Our professor equated the "triangle of communication" as vital to creating multimodal works that will translate well into our research project.

For example, the elections as portrayed through the context created by the media determines the three points of the triangle. News broadcast by two different networks will create two different news segments. These examples made me analyze my own multimodals.

The first, a brochure, is pretty much complete. We analyzed the first multimodal for audience, text and writer. Below is a copy of the workshop that we did in class that day. The black text is my writing and the read is a fellow classmate's. 

 The loftiest goal I have for this project is to create a 30-second spot for the SWCA. I have a rudimentary knowledge of video production, but coupled with my OCD tendencies, I hope to have a final product that will pass the SWCA's approval. The next step is to create a theme for the segment, ideas for the text and possible music. I think I will make this my multimodal #3 so that I will have the most possible time.

Interestingly enough, I was recently speaking with my professor about possible multimodals and he had mentioned our previous conversations about creating an article for the Southern Discourse. The next day, in the middle of interviewing, my interviewee spoke on the future of the SWCA, and made a little light bulb turn on in my head. Although I will continue with the article, I will be creating themed posters for the SWCA. The writing center at my school has such posters for other programs so I will attempt to draw inspiration from them.

Our next class period is cancelled because our professor is presenting at a conference; I will attempt to utilize the time to transcribe my interviews. At the moment I don't have a computer at home (unfortunately MacBooks don't survive hitting a wall in a car accident), so I have fallen behind in my transcribing. As this assignment is due next Tuesday, I will have to dedicate a day before then to the library. My goal is to finish the checklist I began last week and then begin to focus on the last multimodals and the ARP.

In one of the posters I mentioned previously, there are "Writing Rocks" to inspire students. One recently caught my eye and made me chuckle at how closely it relates to my academic standing. So, in the words of Thomas Carlyle:

"No pressure, no diamonds."