Friday, August 22, 2008

Alert IPG to Blog from Costa Rica

One of the best things about teaching online is the ability to take off and work from wherever. This map shows places I have worked from...and tomorrow I will be adding Costa Rica to the mix. This map should not be confused with the map I posted a few months ago about all the places I had been.





I even worked during my honeymoon. This is because a.) I am a workaholic b.) I am a workaholic, and c.) it was too easy not to. :D Plus now I can say "I am the only person I know that made money during their wedding. Except for mail order brides." haha

This week I was busy getting ready to go on family Vacation. Also Chapter 1 of that tiny paper I am writing is due on September 4. So I was busy writing up a storm. Oh and I also picked up a new school so had to do all the requisite paperwork. Which made me awfully stressed trying to cram it all in before I took off.

I will be keeping up with the blog on this trip because I still have to log some dissertation writing time each day. And I really want to be keeping better track of the process. Ten years from now when someone like SD wants an organic recounting of how the dissertation writing process (obviously because she is considering writing one...hypothetically) I want to be able to pull my records and give her an honest unbiased, and unrosied by hindsight answer. I also would like to save that answer for myself.

IPG in Atlanta leaving for Costa Rica in 12 hours

Thursday, August 21, 2008

For SD

Today I was thinking about my SD. I considered that one day she will get married. It also occurred to me that time goes increasingly fast. So I committed today to start praying not just for her and her teenage years, but for her future husband. Perhaps not just for him, but for his mother, and possibly stepmother too.

But more than my prayers for her, and him...I have my hopes. Not just for her marriage, but for her life.

  • I hope that you grow up to chase your dreams, and that you know yourself well enough to identify your dreams.
  • I hope that you avoid the temptation of trouble that you could regret.
  • I hope that the man you marry loves you just a fraction more than you love him.
  • I hope his mother makes him say "M'am"
  • I hope that you love one another with epic proportions. After knowing your father for 5 years, he is still oxygen to me. When I look at his back he resembles Michelangelo's David. His sweet smile, is all I need for my breath to catch in my throat. And it is possible if you find the right person for that to continue forever. My parents still love each other like that even after nearly 40 years.
  • I hope that you major in something at college that will give you a career that you love and not just a job.
  • I hope that you drive safely at 15, 16 so that you make it to college.
  • I hope that you love to travel like I do. And we can take on the world together.
And 1,000 other things. But mostly I hope you are happy.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Insomnia thy name is hysteria- International Party Girl

Random Thoughts

I go to sleep later and later every night. I get up earlier and earlier every morning. Pretty soon I will be getting up before I go to sleep.

My mom has the user name "GobamaXYXYX" for one of her accounts. But people see it and think she means "Go OBama" Rather than "Go Alabama" so she constantly gets IMs all week about her user name. I find that the height of hilarity.

I leave for Costa Rica on Friday. I just might not come home. What is the point really? It is so very nice down there. I could just...sell coconuts and pineapple. Perhaps learn how to braid people's hair.

I am having a plagiarism meltdown in one of my classes. 88% of the students turned in a paper that was at least 70% plagiarized. I will be filling out academic honesty reports until my hands curl up like the wicked witche's feet in the Wizard of Oz.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated. Alec Bourne

With having a fantastic dinner last night, friends visit until late, and then really getting some work done today...I am tired. Not tired enough to go to sleep obviously but still very tired.

I have just returned from a venture to campus. Ostensibly I was going to the library for some research that I needed for my dissertation. In reality though it was the T1 connection that was my siren, drawing me to the ivory tower of higher learning.

I spoke at length today with a friend at another university. After wasting 12 months and nearly 9,000 dollars my friend is going to have to replace his/her advisor. It is a painful and political process, but really must be done in order for he/she continued success and eventual graduation. I therefor am feeling quite fortunate as my adviser is an answered prayer.

Additionally HH and I spent a considerable time today tallying up what is required before the house can be placed on the market. While the list seems to be leviathan it should not be impossible to finish in a few months with out killing ourselves to do chores daily.

I discovered that as I write the proposal for my dissertation I write it in the future tense. Then when the proposal is approved, and will become a dissertation I change it to past tense. It would seem to me though that wouldn't it be easier to write it in the past tense to begin with and ignore the future tense altogether? Perhaps I am just tired and rambling but it seems to me that would be superior. If I come up with a good reason for why it is done this way ...I will be sure and edit this post.

Friday, August 15, 2008

Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart. Confucius

I don't make it a big secret that I believe in the power of prayer. I prayed that God would see me through this graduate process, and so he has. Additionally I prayed for an advisor that would show me the way and keep me straightened out! Again an answered prayer.

Some of you must have read my blog and immediately started praying last night. I met with my advisor this morning. I went away from my meeting with:

  • A sense of importance- My advisor cares about me. She wants me to do well. She is motivated to help me finish this project with whatever tools she can provide to help me.
  • A sense of kindness and compassion- My advisor told me I must walk at graduation. She doesn't want to put all that effort into me with out having the honor of being able to hood me.
  • A timeline- Chapter 1 is due September 4. So I have a deadline to work with that is firm. That is great! I know I can get it done! :) But now I have a goal.
  • An urgency- Merely meeting with her helped me to realize that I had a lot to do. It was time to get going.
  • A timeframe- I know I can graduate in May if I literally put my nose to the grindstone on this.
All in all a pretty successful meeting! I am so excited. I am actually working on my model NOW! :)

Thursday, August 14, 2008

If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere. Frank Clark


I need prayers of motivation. Or if you prefer feel free to come to my house and just kick me in the behind. I will provide a sign up sheet for whatever list you would like to be on. I need dissertation motivation. Thankfully, I am meeting with my advisor tomorrow so I have been forced to cram today. Apparently I am going to have to make an appointment with her every week so that I can stay on track. I am really and truly in a state of total shock. As I have never had this type of trouble EVER.

I am motivated. I am dedicated. I am dependable. I am a self starter. Where is this lethargy coming from? Where is this TOTAL and complete laissez-faire attitude coming from? I just want to get inspired to start writing. Is that too much to ask? I laid on my floor today...watching revolutions of my ceiling fan...thinking...I will just ask to be awarded a Masters. Take my second masters and run. This insanity has no boundaries apparently. I then let my mind wander...making plans to survive if there were ever a zombie apocalypse. Finally I read several (15) dissertations, and marveled how those scholars could ever stomach their topic again.

I swear I am going to quit my job...drop out of school...and move to Ambergris Caye, Belize, braid hair on the beach or something. Get a sign that says "Will work for Pineapple!"

On second thought I don't even deserve 2 lists. If you would like to sign up to kick my behind in motion feel free.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Every choice you make has an end result. Zig Ziglar

Opportunity costs...my brain is short circuiting today. Literally going into short circuit mode. I have been writing and thinking and working all day. But my motivation factor is like 2%.

Some of the good news. I am going to continue to write for the column. I meet with my adviser Friday. I have a job interview scheduled for Monday. ...

Oh and we now have two otters in our lake. I hope we are going to have some baby otters. Hubby says if I can catch them...I can keep them.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years. Abraham Lincoln




I am afraid. I am paralyzed by fear. I have thought for so long that once I got through the classes, got through comps that I would just propel myself through my dissertation with out batting an eyelash. However I swept through comps with flying colors, gave myself a little break. AND NOW I AM STALLED. I don't have a research worthy thought in my head. I spent the last two days 3 hours each day literally paralyzed by the inability to start this paper. I need help. Or a kick in the pants. I would like someone to yell at me. I need a dissertation buddy that bothers me if I don't get something ANYTHING done.

It is a grey day for IPG today. I am going to get through this. I just do NOT know how.

SD First day of School


SD started SIXTH Grade Yesterday.
Here is her back to school pic. ;)

Monday, August 11, 2008

IPG's Newsletter Article

Remember the newsletter I was asked to contribute to? Well here is the first article for the newsletter.

A savvy professor trembles upon hearing the word cheating. It has become a rampant problem not only in online education, but in the ivory towers of the traditional universities as well. The information is available and so easy for students to obtain. For example, there are websites that will write, design, and interpret data for their customers. Students can literally purchase a dissertation on the internet.

While overt cheating does occur the most common type of cheating is plagiarism. Plagiarism occurs when one steals the words or ideas of someone else, and pretends that the work is their own. Perhaps steal is a harsh word, but that is what plagiarism is. It is stealing.

Some students honestly do not understand the rules. They may honestly not know that they should not copy information directly from the internet and turn that information in as their own paper.

However I would point out to such students, what a pointless exercise that would be for your professor to assign. What after all is to be gained merely copying and pasting information? How has that increased knowledge? However some of these students are probably misguided. These days though nearly every school is making plagiarism a priority. Students are bombarded with information about what it means to plagiarize.

Faculty members are put in an awkward position. Some institutions do not make it easy for the faculty member to catch plagiarizers or to punish them. Additionally, the arduous paperwork required for faculty when dealing with cases of academic honesty is sometimes too leviathan a task to ask, especially when they are only adjuncts. In fact some adjuncts are not told of the process for turning in academic honesty reports.

One interesting trick students have discovered is to copy and paste giant chunks of text. As an example, eighty percent of the paper might be copied and pasted. However the student will cite every paragraph from the correct source. Is this student plagiarizing or not following APA guidelines? How should the faculty member handle this incident? One solution is for the faculty member to follow is to take points from the student for not following APA guidelines. The second action the faculty should do is to take points away for not including enough original content. This allows the faculty to circumnavigate the academic honesty process, but does not give the student an undeserving grade.

Finally, in order for a student to plagiarize successfully they must have the mechanics of writing down. It is impossible for a student that can not correctly put a sentence together to turn in a perfectly written paper. Unless the paper they are using was taken in its entirety it is impossible to correct the writing styles of the student's writing with the paper they are stealing. Fortunately for the faculty students have not figured that out yet.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

What do you call a grad student who barely squeaks a lousy dissertation past her committee? Doctor

I should rename this blog "Dissertation Deadline Central" Since that is what it is going to become. Because I am planning a move to Phoenix, and because I want to be PHinisheD before I leave Mississippi. It is high time I started writing again, and moving towards graduation. I have devised what will be my schedule until I am officially Dr. IPG.

7:00 AM wake up with hubby
7:15 AM Brush teeth and get ready with hubby to face my day
7:45 AM Oatmeal (it is good for cholesterol, plus I eat it everyday)
8:00 AM Work on dissertation- I am going to spend between 1-3 hours a day working on my dissertation. My goal is to spend 10 hours a week on my dissertation. This means that some days I will be able to spend more than two hours and some days less. Although I would like to spend 45 hours a week on the dissertation I know that is not a realistic number. I am a realistic person. I know that i will work best if I work first. I also know that if I set the goal too high I set it up to fail.

Let me briefly stop to pontificate for a second here. I have often said that education is more about being dogmatic than about being intelligent. With all that said it is important to note here that I will be working from 8 - 11 roughly everyday M-F. I am taking Saturday and Sunday off. As I still would like to spend time with HH. If you know IPG in the real world please don't call me during this space of time. I am going to be blocking off all distractions.

11:00 AM Stop if I haven't stopped yet. From 11 to 11:30 I am going to take care of any of the little chores I need to take care of while researching. I wanted to designate some times for this so that I wouldn't be tempted to do it when I was supposed to be writing.
11:30 am Leave for the gym. Exercise keeps me so optimistic. I have to designate some time for the gym.
1:00 PM Work on my work that pays the bills. I will be doing this until roughly 6 PM most nights. Although I will probably just break for dinner and get back to work.
11:00 PM Lights out. I am going to need my rest to work on my dissertation. I can't be staying up all night like normal.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

“I'm thankful for every moment.” Al Green

SD left VERY early this morning. I have not been back to sleep since she left so I am very very tired. I miss SD very much. The house is not quite the same with out here. However today I also enjoyed spending some adult time with her daddy.

One thing her dad and I love to do is dirty dance in the living room. I don't mean dirty dance as in bump and grind. More slow dance to Al Green, Marvin Gaye etc. It is something we have always done, and I believe that it truly keeps the romance alive. Since this is not the type of thing we need or want an audience for...it was nice to do. I guess this is odd to say, but HH and I both feel that white hot spark you have for someone when the relationship is brand new. After 5 years together we still have a fresh romance spark.

While I miss SD miserably, having such a warm day with her dad makes me grateful. I missed this closeness with her daddy. I don't ever want her to feel left out. I always keep her included. So I am glad we planned this special day today...a chance to reconnect and keep me from feeling so blue that she is gone.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Blugh Sick!

Ok last week SD had a stomach flu. IPG thankfully did not get sick. Until today....

My stomach has not been right since SD had the flu. Then today I was fine just hanging out in the den until I saw a picture of corn on the web, and it made me throw up. Um...ok. I am either repeating that stomach bug or I ate something. Never have I reacted so strongly to a picture. It was weird. Maybe I am having a little nervous stomach cause SD is leaving.

It really breaks my heart that she has to go. I know her mom wants her back, but it really is so sad that one of us has to be unhappy for the other to be happy. Thankfully moving to Phoenix will solve all that.

In my mind last night I started kinda freaking out. I am NOT going to fit in ...in Phoenix. I am a southern gal. I like football (SEC only please). I say Ma'm and Sir. I eat Pork BBQ. I still call my dad Daddy and my mom Momma. I am a member of the Daughter's of the Confederacy. I like hanging out with women and couples like hubby and I.

So before I let myself freak in full blown mode. I made a list of all of the organizations I can get involved in, and what Phoenix has going for it.

  1. SD is there. It should go with out saying this is a huge thing.
  2. My aunt lives there, and I already know 2 other ladies that live in Phoenix.
  3. There is an Auburn Alumni association in Phoenix. The membership seems quite large. So I will at minimum be able to watch Auburn Football with like minded folks. ;)
  4. My sorority is at Arizona State so the Alumna Chapter should be active. I was heavily involved in the Alum chapter in Atlanta, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
  5. I have been researching churches that should have large Sunday Schools.
This list should help me get started putting down some shallow roots in Phoenix. So ya! :)

Anyone can do any amount of work provided it isn't the work he is supposed to be doing at the moment. Robert Benchley

That quotation describes any dissertation writer EVER. I swear. Or...not just dissertation. Lots of other stuff apparently. I worked hard at administrative work today. For those of you that have no idea online adjuncts must do quite a bit of administrative work.

Let me give a list....those online adjuncts or just plain adjuncts feel free to add to this list. I won't mind.

  • Filling out final grades
  • Filling out midterm grades
  • Verifying rosters
  • Taking attendance
  • Signing contracts
  • Filling out outreach reports for missing students
  • Trying to find missing students
  • Emailing students (special news not just regular stuff that gets sent every week)
  • Writing announcements (ditto...see above)
  • Doing grade changes
  • Filling out incompletes
  • Writing letters of recommendation for students
  • Updating resume
  • Applying for jobs
  • Sending updated resume to current jobs
  • Filling out continuing education or yearly planning information
  • Attending faculty meetings
  • Attending training
  • Attending in service
  • Entering a time card
There has to be more...I know there is. But the important part of these activities is most of them are not for pay. You are on your free time, which means that these days can be particularly annoying. I try to save up several of these activities and do them one morning a week or every other week. Otherwise I feel like these activities are sucking the life out of me.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Bikinis Turn Men Into Boobs

And today in this is NOT news.
You may have known this all along, but now it has been demonstrated scientifically: bikinis make men stupid.

Did we really need research on this?

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Sometimes, when one person is missing, the whole world seems depopulated. ~Lamartine

SD leaves in 5 days. I don't want her to go. We saw her grandmother off to the airport yesterday, and today must begin the arduous task of packing her up for her return to Arizona. While I would like to write a longer blog post. About what I am doing with my dissertation...Nothing. How work is going...same old same old. I really am just overshadowed by the fact that SD leaves in 5 days. Our decision to move to Phoenix has helped to act as a salve for me. I managed to not get upset until yesterday rather than a week ago.

Catching up from the weekend. HH's mom came in on Friday. SD had the stomach flu so we were unable to go with him to get her. We did manage to have a good time Friday despite the bug. Saturday was a full day of boating at the lake. SD got to tube with her grandma and hubby got to ski. Everyone was happy. Sunday SD got baptized. Pictures of the baptism will be posted soon. Then finally yesterday we took HH's mom to the airport and wrapped up SD's back to school shopping. She got clothes, shoes, backpacks, etc. The best part of the day was driving home from Jackson and that long talk SD and I got to enjoy.