This appears to be the standard dance of the dissertation - just when I think I'm making progress, I get a note from my advisor. It's weird, because I really enjoyed his classes - it's one of the reasons I wanted to work with him. Of all the teachers I had, I thought we would get along well and that he'd be good to work with.
I swear the man is bipolar.
Either that or he has severe memory problems developing.
Because this note basically said that he's not sure what I have here is an idea worth pursuing. Deja vu anyone?
So...I'm fiddling with this latest deliverable for him but also realizing that my original timeframe that I'd hoped to have for actually doing my study is, most likely, the pipe dream of a pipe dream. (Why do pipes dream? I've never really understood that phrase. And are these plumbing type pipes? Or smoking pipes?) So that leaves me wondering what I need to do with respect to contacting schools and getting agreement to participate - do I wait until I have dates I can suggest? Do I try to schedule something later and let them know it's tentative? Do I just rip every hair out of my head and stomp on it in frustration?
In other random news - the creature that was under the front steps made its way into our garage yesterday. This at least convinced Tim that it existed. It also reminded me how fun panic attacks are. He relocated it and then also confirmed that it is of the harmless variety. I'm sure it'll wiggle itself back up to where it really wants to be (though Tim is actually not sure it will for sure have lived through the relocation simply because of why he was able to capture it in the garage and relocate it...it was caught in one of our insect traps. This makes me sad. As much as I despise them as a species and wish them dead, that's wishing. I really hate to think that even obliquely I'm responsible for having killed one. Poor thing. Anyway, I'm not pondering that and am, instead, stalwartly believing that it will be fine and back to torment me another day.)
And, as is just about right for this point in our class: many of my students are officially donuts. I knew it was too much to hope that the whole class would have it together.
5 days ago
Let me give you some unsolicited a$$vice (as they call it here in the intertubes). It's time to get a little more assertive with your passive- aggressive advisor. I have been there, believe me, and sometimes you just have to say. "Hey, this is MY project. I think there's plenty of data potential, I think I'll find something interesting that can be followed up. And if I don't that's a result, too, and we can move on from there. The time has come to set it up and do it. I refuse to be doing this STILL 10 years from now because YOU keep asking me to change my project"
ReplyDeleteGood luck, whatever you decide to do.
Thanks, CTG -- I've actually been considering that. Some of his points are valid (frustrating, but valid) so I'm going to clean those up and THEN let him know that I really think we need to chat about whose dissertation this is. :) Because I know he's not super thrilled with my idea...but that doesn't mean it's not a good one! (Which is why he/my committee approved my idea paper.)
ReplyDeleteOnce you have approval for it, just do it. If the advisor's not helpful while you're working on it, you can always ignore him until you give him a finished copy....
ReplyDelete