It’s 9:35 PM. I have just finished the second page of the 6-8 page paper that needs to be done before I sleep. Note that these first two pages are heavily padded with large margins and extensive footnotes.
I am dreaming of the days when I could read some books, then throw together a paper using the general knowledge I gleaned from them. Ah, high school! What I wouldn’t give to go back to the days when I didn’t have to find a legitimate (read: not wikipedia) source for every. single. fact.
Dear Academia,
I like you better when you’re about science. The kind of science that comes from a textbook. Also, reading. I like to read.
No love,
Janet
10:00 – There are no snacks in the lounge. My planned snack break will not occur. Writing will continue. I have approximately 2.25 pages.
10:20 – Yeah three pages! I am potentially half done. But I am confused about footnoting, citing, bibliographing, etc. In celebration, here is a quote on the ideal way to learn that I came across today in my research:
“You don’t ingest units of knowledge; you transform how you see reality.”
— Arthur Zajonc
Isn’t that nice?
11:11 – Have reached an emotional low point. Really don’t want to do this anymore. Have no alternative. Have the ability and mental state to cry, but will not.
11:52 – I feel better now. Things are proceeding slowly but surely. 4.5 pages. Am irritated at WordPress’s post-writing editor. Why the lag? Why the inability to create single line breaks without editing the HTML?
12:18 – Have thought of a title! “The Science of the Buddhist Mind: Western Research Popularizing Secular Meditation.” Or something. I hope that I am nearing the end of the research and nearing the analysis, in which I can bullshit for a page and a half or so about how Westerners only trust scientific things and such.
1:36 – Almost done! Just ned to wrap things up and read it over. But my brain is increasingly fried. And I’ve used varieties of the word “increasing” way too many times in this paper. Also, 73/1413 of my paper so far is the world “of.” I write riciulously circuitous sentences, I think. They are very passive. They never taught me about active voice in high school.
1:45 – I feel done, but I only have about 5.3 pages, and my ending is kind of weak. Does it count if it’s on the sixth page, but not to its bottom? Probably not, espcially since I never changed the left and right margins from 1.25 to 1.00. I bet there’s more I could say, but I can’t think of it. I will stop and go to bed. Last minute read-through and printing and such can happen tomorrow during lunch.
