10.08.2009

Funny Thing About Weekends When You're Unemployed...

...they don't mean quite so much.

That's from an old Primus song, off of (I believe) Frizzle Fry, their first major-label album. I listened to that tape a lot in the summer after my freshman year in high school, and I foolishly wasted about two years learning to play slap bass like Les Claypool rather than just concentrating on learning to play actual bass lines.

Anyway.

I have yet to find a metaphor, or even a general point of comparison, to describe what it's like writing a dissertation. I have days, days, during which I accomplish precisely nothing. Then I'll have a day during which I write pages of stuff or do the citations for a whole chapter or the equivalent. There is neither rhyme nor reason to the (lack of) productivity in this process. I have some vague hopes for today, going through some interviews with Gorz and plopping citations throughout the body of the thesis...

My mom and stepdad arrive this evening for a four-day visit. This is where the Bonny Doon house-sitting gig really comes in handy - our apartment is fine for friends, but there's something about entertaining the parental generation that just doesn't work in a small one-bedroom. Instead, we will kick it up here in the redwoods and all will be well, as long as the weird heating unit underneath the house doesn't blow up.

3 comments:

Ransom said...

I've become a big fan of recognizing the periods where I'm trying but nothing gets done (whether it's because something is more rusted/mangled/recalcitrant than I expected, or just because my brain needed to stare blankly at it for a while) as being a phase that had to happen. Nothing visible may have been achieved, but if I'd just procrastinated that long and then started, I'd still have started with the same chunk of "wasted" time. It wasn't really wasted, it was just a step I hadn't previously considered in laying out my plan.

Beetlegirl said...

...and it will be a lovely weekend as long as your wife also doesn't blow up from the toxic yellow pollen cloud that is hanging over all of Bonny Doon.

kungfuramone said...

Yes, that too. Good point, sweetie.