March 24, 2004

Cereal with a Fork

Posted by Brian

Over at Anggarrgoon, Claire is worried about losing the hidden benefits of graduate school.

I finished my dissertation today. … What excuse will I use now when I try to eat cereal with a fork? or have no clean clothes? or when I eat porridge for dinner? probably that I’m making the most of it before I stop being a grad student and have to be respectable… , dissertations are so useful….

Here’s a true story. When I was reading that a few hours ago, all the talk of food made me kinda hungry. So I headed over to the kitchen, washed a bowl, pulled out the cereal box, and then looked at the clock and realised a bowl of cardboard-flavoured cereal wasn’t what I needed at that time of day. But had I not noticed the clock, I think I’d think that being an academic would have been a pretty good excuse in the circumstances. So provided the job market for Australian linguists is as strong as it should be, Claire will have all the excuses she needs for a long long time.

More seriously, congratulations to Clare on finishing the thesis. I wonder how many people there are so far who have finished a PhD while maintaining an academic blog?

Posted on March 24, 2004 06:44 AM UTC
Comments

Well, I managed it (see here); I wrote virtually all of my dissertation while I kept up the blog. So, it can be done.

Congrats to Claire on making it through!

Posted by Chris Lawrence · March 24, 2004 06:53 AM

Me too hopefully in a year’s time. argh. It’d probably be 6 months time if I didn’t spend so much time on my blog.

Posted by Duckling · March 24, 2004 10:22 AM

I started my blog a year and a month before I finished the dissertation.. and no, I would not have finished it before, although of course I cannot prove that.

Then again, I also chaired the Grad Student Gov’t at Princeton while preparing for and taking my Generals so maybe these things help my productivity.

Posted by eszter · March 24, 2004 11:07 AM

You mean it’s possible to blog and finish writing? Congratulations, Clare!
Blogging is so much more fulfilling in the short term that it’s an easy distraction. Maybe I’ll return to this post by May of next year to tell you all that I did it, too…like Eszter, I don’t think the time I need would be shortened any if I were to stop blogging.

Posted by Heather · March 24, 2004 02:33 PM

The wife and I were hungry at 11:30 last night so we each had a bowl of Frosted Mini-Wheats. What do non-academics do?

Posted by J. Ellenberg · March 24, 2004 03:53 PM

I’m a tenured full professor, and I still sometimes have cereal for dinner. However, I do eat it with a spoon.

Posted by Elle · March 24, 2004 04:53 PM

give me until Sept. and I’ll have blogged throughout almost my entire PhD, minus the first six months.

Posted by trish · March 24, 2004 05:35 PM

Hey, hey, I’m working on it! Stop harrassing me!

;)

Posted by Cleis · March 24, 2004 05:56 PM

I don’t blog, in part since reading blogs seems to be slowing down my dissertation enough. My dissertation is currently in a ‘bad dog’ phase, though, so I’m probably looking for excuses.

Posted by DJW · March 24, 2004 06:24 PM

I’m in the home stretch, and have been blogging through the entire writing process (started when I was wrapping up my field research). These days, the blog has suffered a bit as my writing has ramped up, but I’ve also been told that I’m “increbibly brave” for posting a daily running word count on my blog’s sidebar (makes me accountable to both advisors and family, though it’s debatable which exerts more pressure on me)…

Posted by Josh · March 24, 2004 07:41 PM

If I ever finish my dissertation, will it mean that I stop subsiting on a diet primarily composed of coffee?

Posted by Kikuchiyo · March 25, 2004 12:03 PM

Well I’m in the middle of the course work for my masters and will start the dissertation later this year.

the purpose of my blog is to keep me focused on language and also to write something everyday hopefully improving my writing.

Posted by Blinger · March 25, 2004 10:57 PM
Followups

→ Dissertation.
Excerpt: It is possible to finish your dissertation and blog at the same time!!! Even more evidence of this in the comments over at Crooked Timber. Very encouraging news. Actually, I think the blogging actually helps. For one thing, I think writing a little bit...Read more at Keywords
→ http://poker-hands.psxtreme.com/.
Excerpt: You may find it interesting to check the pages about Read more at
→ http://poker-hands.psxtreme.com/.
Excerpt: You may find it interesting to check the pages about Read more at

This discussion has been closed. Thanks to everyone who contributed.