Time Flies Even When You're Not Having Fun

Well, it's been awhile since my last posting. The dissertation is coming along slowly. I've submitted chapter 3 to my advisor, and I hope he'll respond by the end of this week. So, two chapters down, 6 more to go. It just doesn't seem like it'll ever get done. The dissertation is a case study on a Native Hawaiian family and the literacies they engage in. Chapter 4 will focus on the home culture of the participants. Once that is established, I can move on to the actual literacies, which will be covered in chapters 5 - 7. Chapter 1 is the introduction and Chapter 8, the conclusion. Anyway...

On to other things. I recently starting knitting a sweater from the Stitch'n Bitch book. I love the sweater, and decided to do a practice one in cheap yarn. It was all going great until I drop a few stitches. I tried picking them up, but with no luck. I'm going to stop in at a knitting store to see if they can help.

Next up: geocaching. I've been fascinated with reading about geocaching. I've asked a friend to borrow his GPS so that I can give it a go. If it works out well, I'll invest in a GPS and go for broke. If you don't know what geocaching is think of it as a scavenger hunt. You go to the geocaching website and read about some caches in your area (and beyond). Plug in the coordinates into your GPS system and off you go. Use the GPS to locate the cache, and when you find it, you can take something from the cache. Be sure to leave something as well. Sounds like fun, no? Go to: www.geocaching.com to get more information.

Upcoming trips: California in April to visit Susan S., and then off to Hawaii for more data collection at the end of April.

Reading List

No blogging, just a lot of reading. Here's what's on the list:

Dissertation stuff I need to read:
Orientalism by Edward Said
Works and Lives by Clifford Geertz
Tales of the Field by John Van Maanen

Dissertation stuff I'm reading now:
Hawai'i: A History by Kuykendall & Day
The Betrayal of Liliuokalani by Helena Allen

What I'd rather be reading:
Calvin & Hobbes

"Magnet" School

I have a friend who works in a rural elementary school in Hawai'i. Well, this poor school is just a magnet for bad luck (my friend would use another term). Statewide this school has been performing poorly on achievement tests and last year, the school was identified as a troubled school. This month, it was identified as a school in need of an overhaul. The school will be under the watchful eye of a regional school superintendent. One of two things may happen: the school will get the much needed help it deserves, or the regional superintendent will focus more on teaching to the test in order to raise test scores. Of course this all has to do with the No Child Left Behind Act where schools must reach adequate score levels within ten years. Anyway, as if this weren't bad enough, the very next day, the school's cesspool overflows and sends raw sewage seeping into the building. They had to send the children home that morning so that a sanitation crew could come in and disinfect the building. Magnet school. Nuff said.

No Time for Work on the Dissertation

I really had good intentions this weekend. Sort of. Friday was my friend Kevin's birthday, so four of us went to celebrate. He wanted to go out to dinner so we went to the new Ruths' Chris Restaurant at the Hyatt Hotel in Seattle. Everything was fantastic. The decor was modern with a dark feel to it. The food was superb. We started with the appetizer platter (stuffed mushrooms, crab with cocktail sauce, barbequed shrimp, and seared ahi) and moved on to soup (lobster bisque) and salad (tomato, red onion and gorgonzola salad). I had steak for my entree. I recommend the medium rare filet. The steak comes out on sizzling plates. As soon it gets to me I slice up the meat and let it cook on the plate. We ordered mashed potatoes, sauteed mushrooms, and broccoli au gratin. Dessert was a banana cream pie. I ended up taking a large portion of my food home (really, I did). Anyway, with so much food running through one's system, it's not possible to concentrate and write. I called it a night.

This morning I took Kevin to the airport. He was delighted since this was spring break and he would be able to spend it in Chicago with the volleyball team. He's absolutely nuts about volleyball. He's a man that gets easily obsessed. Some of his previous obsessions: basketball, Ruths' Chris Restaurant, Israel, and Hebrew. His current obsessions? Volleyball, of course, and his health. He has many symptoms that are apparently precancerous. This is interesting when you consider that he was formerly a mental health worker.

My friend Teresa threw a karaoke party at her condo tonight. Lots of appetizers, drinks, and songs. Needless to say, the dissertation will be shelved for tonight. Tomorrow is another day.

Corkey's Story

Corkey is from Connecticut - from East Haven. If you ask him, he'll tell you all the reasons why he hates his father, and why he can't stand talking to his mother. I imagine his family is like the Sopranos (he's Italian), only not as nice or classy. In spite of Corkey's upbringing, he has gone on to college and finished his B.A., M.A., M.F.A., and is just short of the Ph.D. But like I said, it's not a degree he really wants since no one is as smart as he is. If it weren't so funny, it'd be maddening.

Back to Work

Well yesterday was a total bust. I've realized that if I'm not out of the house by 5:00 pm, then there won't be any work that gets done. As it turns out, I didn't wake up until 5:00 pm so that pretty much sealed my fate for the day. So today I got up at about 2:00 pm, and got to work by 3:00. Not bad. Today I'll continue work on Ch. 3 (Research Context) and maybe do some reading. I'm trying to finish Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. I'm reading this for a section on Narrative Inquiry in Ch. 2 (Research Methodology). Nuff about that.

I did get to call Petey in Jackson, TN. Petey is a resident at Shangri-La and is doing very well there. By the way, he finished his Ph.D. last year (yeah Petey!). Petey is now into ethnographic research. He was at the Ethnography and Education Conference at the University of Pennsylvania last week. He's going places; not bad for a Shangri-La boy.

Finally, Corkey. Corkey is the third person in our trio of Shangri-La peeps. Unfortunately, he is angry and bitter, and not just about the dissertation. He's angry and bitter that others have received their Ph.D.s when he is clearly smarter than everyone in our class. He's angry and bitter that he didn't have more intelligent instructors. He's just plain angry and bitter. There's no on who caricatures himself more than Corkey, and yet we love the man.

Narrative One

It's 5:24 AM and I'm trying to avoid any more work on the dissertation. I've been at it since 9:00 PM and I've hit the wall. Tonight's work focused on Chapter 3 - Context for Research. I realize I need to get snappier titles but who can think at this hour. As I say good night, I run through the story I lived today - girl wakes up at 1:00 pm, bonds with Bill Herk's golden retriever puppy, has dinner at Jaliscos with Kevin, hits the books, calls Petey in Shangri-La (TN chapter) and goes to bed. I hope this isn't a repeating story for tomorrow.