Who You Callin' Crusty?

(C-Day minus revisions, defence) I am working, slowly but surely through the revisions offered me by Supervisor. Some are difficult because I am so emotionally attached these sentences with which I have spent seemingly years. Other revisions are difficult because it is just hard to know what to do with them. I am currently stuck on one of those. Supervisor recommended I read an article (which he also provided me) in order to address one of my thesis concepts. I had an opportunity to spend some time at a cafe, so thought this the perfect time to throw down some intensive reading. Mistake. Not a mistake to read it at the cafe, it was a mistake to read it altogether. This article, from 1986 is an airtight (from my perspective - and I want to refute it) critique of one of my concepts which, up to this point, I really liked. What to do? Well, it dealt with Marxist concepts, so I phoned the crustiest, Marxiest guy I know: (former) Roommate.

In explaining this dilemma to f-Roommate, an important realization came to fore. He asked me "Is this concept really important to your thesis?" To which I replied "Yeah, it is fairly important, and I do like it. It sits really well with everything else, and besides Supervisor suggested I include it when we went over things at my proposal defence..." It was here that I realized something. Supervisor recommended me one useful article, written in 1982, then also recommended the very article, written in 1986 that refutes that article. It isn't like this article just came out and he didn't realize it existed, it's only 2 years younger than me. This is troubling... f-Roommate found this funny, me...not so much.

Fortunately, just hacking it out verbally seemed to help. It was good to talk about it (out loud) and also to hear some ideas on how to address the issue. We will see soon enough if this adequately addresses the issue so that I can resubmit it and then maybe be referred to another article from 1988 that refutes everything else. Can't wait!

'There may have been one of these' song of the day: Communication Breakdown - Led Zeppelin

One Less Book Come the Ides of April...

(C-Day minus minor revisions, defence) You want to know the best part about being at the stage I am currently at? Everything....Well, maybe not everything, but it is certainly better than the last stages. There was however, a distinct pleasure last Friday that was unexpected but definitely welcomed. Allow me to spin this yarn:

As a graduate student I have the advantage of taking library books out for more than the usual 2 weeks allotted undergrads. How much more time? I'm not sure, I think they stopped asking for the books back after a year...well, maybe not that long. Whenever I register for a term, I renew my books and keep them out for another 4 months. I've had some books out for years now. The only time I generally need to return my books is when someone else needs them and recalls them from me. In the wild throes of thesising, Murphy's Law states that the book you require the most is the first book recalled. Also, when you recall it back from them, they will continue to recall it back from you, perpetuating a recall war that no one likes to lose, especially if one chapter's argument hinges on that book. Anyways, so I had to return a recalled book on Friday (Music & Propoganda), but was able to do so without the usual pain of having to recall it again, schlep all the way back to library a week later to pick it up again, and then back to the library once more to return it post-recall, ad nauseum. I returned the book...and that was it! That was it!!! I don't need it anymore! I don't need any of them anymore! This is the beginning of the end. It is a small, simple pleasure, but a pleasure nonetheless.

While the attrition of my borrowed book collection slowly wages on I do have two books that won't be recalled - they belong to Committee Member #3...I think he has forgotten this. I *want* to return them, I really do, but I know that when I do return them he will remember loaning them to ages ago and that it took me this long to return them. He will then probably assume that I read them back to front a million times (let me address this right now - I didn't) and proceed to drill me on their content in the defence. This would be detrimental to my cause. So he might get a 'thanks for passing me on my defence book return gift' or reversely he may receive a 'I can't believe you didn't pass me envelope full of shredded books ' gift. Here's hoping for the former (I'd hate to shred a book - it's not the book's fault).

The 'if they were shredded, it would only be a-' song of the day: Slight Return - The Bluetones

p.s. I think my actual plan is to return the books anonymously with a gift-card and hope he doesn't remember who he loaned them out to... Airtight!