Dissertation Confusion and Travel...

While I am ecstatic that finals are over and done with it’s my dissertation that is giving me heart palpitations and nervous jitters. At first I thought a survey would be a fantastic project, since once you get all the data, analyzing the data is a snap. However, finding participants and companies willing to give me the time of day has been a struggle. So, my advisor suggested a thematic analysis, which would only require 10 participants, rather than 200. This I can do. Now I am writing up a new proposal. I may have to do this in the States though, since I don’t even know 10 people here that work outside the university. In the States at least I can possibly use family friends and my old co-workers from Barnes & Noble. So that’s good news. Once I made the decision to switch from quantitative to qualitative, it was a HUGE weight lifted off my shoulders. Ten interviews seem much more feasible, than conducting 200 surveys by myself. I will have to learn quickly how to analyze the data, but luckily this method of research is easily learned, just time-consuming.

Okay, I'm done venting. Other than that, I've been reading and researching as much as I can. I've also been planning my trip with Annie to Germany, Austria and Prague. That trip will be a 10 day whirlwind, since she wants to visit four cities. This translates to about a day and a half in each city with traveling in between. I suggested we only visit maybe three, and that was knocked down. She wants to visit both Salzburg and Vienna. While I agree Vienna is a sight to see (I've been there briefly before) I wasn't too sure whether it was worth the effort to see Salzburg too. Oh, well. The trip should be exciting, if not exhausting.

Weather: It's been sunny for the last four days. No, really. Honest.
Reading: Ghostland by Jory Strong and Queen Emma and the Vikings by Harriet O'Brian
Discovery: The mumbling I've heard next door for months is my neighboor praying.
Mood: Frustrated with the world.
Word of the day: Chunter - (sometimes chunner) to mutter, to grumble, to talk continuously; "What's he chuntering on about?"