Tuesday, April 08, 2008

RBOC: A Brief Break from the Article That Will Never Be Finished

  • Except actually I am seeing a light at the end of the tunnel now, so the title of this post isn't really true. Whatever. This is taking longer than I want it to take.
  • One reason for this is that I realized I didn't read the fine print on the submission guidelines - yes they want Chicago style, but they want Chicago Style with in-text rather than all endnote citation. ANNOYING. And yet, with the aid of Refworks, which I might love more than any human or beastie, this was not that difficult to manage. Actually, had I had the time to experiment with Refworks more it might have done the whole thing for me, but I haven't had time to figure out all of its capabilities yet. It will, however, be doing my works cited for me. And that makes me want to make sweet love to it.
  • Why has this article been trying? Well, because I really had never thought I'd write an article based on that conference paper with which it originated. Remember: this was going to be the year of no research. But so that has meant that I've had to deal with a lot more organizational irritation than I normally would have to because the thing wasn't actually clear in my mind when I began to transform it.
  • I do not know how those of you with kids - or even with significant others - manage to complete any writing projects. The fact that you do really is so beyond impressive to me.
  • And so yes, I plan to be deadwood research-wise should I ever end up with child. Fuck off. I'll have tenure :) (I'm totally kidding, in case that's not clear.)
  • Today I actually accomplished a great deal, in addition to the article. I did some cleaning up around the homestead, made a vet appt. for the Man-Kitty's annual check-up, made a hair appt., met with a couple of students...
  • Tomorrow promises to be a jam-packed Wednesday, as they always seem to be. This is why the article is taking on great urgency tonight, because I know I won't work on it tomorrow, and I'm sending that thing off by Friday morning come hell or high water.
  • Problematically, this will mean editing it to tighten it on up by about five pages on Thursday. Eww. I wish I weren't so damned long-winded.
  • In other news, A. and I have been beginning plans for VPW 2008. Aw Yeah!
  • Ok, now I really need to get back to work. Life is pain.

2 comments:

Jane said...

"I do not know how those of you with kids - or even with significant others - manage to complete any writing projects."

Heh. We don't sleep. Or we bribe our significant others to take care of the kid(s) for a few hours Saturday or Sunday so that we can work uninterrupted (ha!), for once. And that whole perfection thing goes out the window, out of necessity.

Good luck finishing the article!!

Belle said...

Ah, Jane has illuminated things. A couple of years ago, a much detested colleague earned that status by advising tenure-seekers to 'take a month in the summer and just lock out everything and turn out a research paper.' He has a spouse that did things like, I dunno, fix food? Do laundry?

It's the little things like life that get in the way...