The collected excuses of an absent mind

Transcribed exactly 20 pages today. Roughly 35 more to go, or approximately 6½ hours worth of work, then a day or two for the technical analysis and constructing the tables, plus a few days to whip up something for the analysis part of the thesis and I might just be able to hand in my thesis by Thursday next week. Not bad at all.

Well, as it turns out, I don't have to hand in my thesis this Thursday. Actually, as far as our prof is concerned, any day within the next two weeks or so is fine by him. This means that I'll actually have the time to get the empirical part of the thing into something resembling a half-decent shape. Currently the whole analysis portion is filled with utter crap ^_^;; I thought that as long as I could get the first version done, I could always go back to it later on.

So, I didn't get anything written today, but I did get some transcribing done: a little over thirty pages, which makes roughly a quarter, since the missing data was originally something like 140 pages. And it would be quite pointless to write anything else now, because I've reached the point where I actually need the data for the writing - that is, I'm pretty much finished with the theoretical part of the work.

The schedule is still going to be tight, but realistic. You could say I'm rather relieved by this turn of events.

Incredible. I wrote something like five pages today simply by cataloging different types of onomatopoetic expressions. Total page count is at 45 and whole text pages are at 40. It seems I might be able to reach my goal of 50-something pages O_o. Three more days to go.

This makes me feel almost giddy.

Three bloody pages today! And written while watching figure skating! (Quantity starts to overcome quality at this point). The total now stands at 32 whole pages of text.

I'll make it! I'm gonna graduate this spring! Woot!

I rule !!!

A page and something, didn't bother to count. Although the total count is now to something like 23+ pages, so it must have been more than that O_o.

Am growing so sick and tired of this.

The new working desk arrived today and I spent most of the day assembling it with my dad and bf. The ensemble was integrated to a pre-existing bookshelf and also included some new shelves, so the whole thing took some time. Also, we had to take the old desk apart and move it out of the way. Which is why we now have a stylish black 'cube of drawers' which was previously integrated in the old desk and was the only part of the horrendous thing I ever liked. The new desk is much bigger than the old one, but it somehow seems to fit in our bedroom much better than the old one O_o. Must be an optic illusion created by the light-coloured wood or something...

But the main thing is: I can now spread out ^_^.  I always like to work by scattering all related and unrelated papers and books and whatnot all over the desk and floor and everywhere. I had no room for such a thing on the old desk so I ended up with a heap of stuff on the floor and lots of bending down >_<.

And I did manage to write a page and something today, with some great ideas. Better working position obviously improves the bloodflow to the brain. And did I mention that the whole thing looks so much more professional than the old one? It feels like having an actual office at home.

Only on measly page today >_<. Like George R.R. Martin is fond of saying: life is meaningless and has no purpose.

Augh.

Now I'll go and change the litterbox. Over and out.

Almost two pages today. And I've lost a reference. Or not lost, to be precise, I just can't find the article the bloody thing is in. I can almost remember the whole phrase I'm looking for, and the illustration that was on the same page. But what I can't recall is the exact source, or even the language of the source (I have articles in English, French and German). I tried flipping through the articles in the vain hope that I would miraculously find the part I want, but no. So I just wrote what I remembered it said and try to find the correct reference tomorrow.

Le sigh.

I have two and a half weeks to finish my master's thesis and I'm beginning to feel like I'm not going to make it. To be exact, I have seventeen days and at the moment, I still have to transcribe one quarter of my data and I only have about nine whole pages of something vaguely text-like, when the first version of the thesis is supposed to be a minimum of sixty pages long >___< I would have to write something like...*calculates on paper*... 2,94 pages a day to make it on time - and transcribe the missing data at some point, since I can't very well be writing my analysis part without data to analyze, can I?

It's not that writing itself is difficult, I've written 20-page scientific essays in one week, but it's making myself sit down to write is next to impossible. Take today: I've fiddled with my references and word processing options, read six comic books - my missing data - and written two whole sentences. If I go on like this, I'm really not going to make it. This whole thing has been hanging over my head like some kind of academic sword of Damocles for the past two years and I'm gradually getting sick and tired of it.

But I can't very well give up, since I went as far as to inform the office that I won't be available for translations until the end of month. In the living room, bf's watching television and probably thinking I'm busily writing my thesis. He's been terribly supporting. It would feel so embarrassing and disappointing to give up at this point.

And besides, I would feel like an utter cheat for the rest of my life and wouldn't be able to face myself ever again.

Grrr. I transcribed a whole comic book for my thesis today, but when I was halfway through, I noticed there was a page missing from the translated copy I had borrowed from the city library yesterday. Which means I have to find an intact copy to make a complete transcript file. And I went to get it from the main library in the first place only because the copy belonging to our local library was nowhere to be found. According to the library database it's supposed to be there on the shelf, but no. It's probably misplaced and the library personnel I spoke to said there was nothing much they could do about it. So, tomorrow I'm going to go to our local library and search through every bookshelf if I must, and try to find the bloody copy. If I don't, it means a bus trip to one of the two other local libraries who have a copy, since both of the main library copies are lent out (and one of them is the damaged copy I have at the moment).

It's like the circumstances are working against me: if the local library copy hadn't gone missing, I wouldn't have the damaged copy from the main library (assuming the local library copy is intact), or if that accursed somebody hadn't torn a page out from the main library copy, or had at the very least had the decency to report the damage so the book could have been repaired.

There's a special circle in inferno for people who steal or damage library books.