-MJ's memorial service really touched me. I was on the verge on tears when his daughter spoke. I didn't know the man of course, but many of his songs bring back so many memories (like when I performed "Gone Too Soon" at my 5th grade talent show. I'm not a very good singer and had terrible stage fright, but I somehow made it through the performance).
-I decided to skip my workout today so I can have some quiet time before I have to go pick up HB.
-HB started speech therapy a few weeks ago. So far she's mostly still just babbling, but I think she'll make more progress soon.
-I'm feeling nervous about my dissertation topic again. Mostly due to some comments that its not serious enough. On the surface my topic may seem frivolous, but I know I can make a case for why it's important due to economic, political and cultural implications.
-MB and I are at the final stages of negotiating the details of my fieldwork. I'll be gone for a year starting in late August/early Sept (need to buy my tickets). HB will go with me and MB will join in December or January. The plan now is for him to stay for the Spring semester and then return in May, but he might stay for a shorter period of time (like a month) depending on a couple of factors, mostly related to how well I can balance taking care of HB and doing fieldwork. Luckily MB has family in the area who I will stay with, which will be a huge help. We still need to figure out some logistics though, which includes moving back to my mom's house.
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Monday, June 15, 2009
On the Road
I've spent the last 2 weeks traveling and living out of my suitcase. I first went to a workshop where I got helpful feedback on my dissertation proposal from professors and students in AreaStudies. I then went to ForeignCountry for a way too short trip with HB and MB. Traveling with HB on such a long flight with multiple layovers was not as bad as I thought it would be and has prepared me better for what I need to do to travel with her for fieldwork in the Fall. After the trip to ForeignCountry, I flew across country to attend my 10-year High School Reunion. I'm glad I went as I got to reconnect with people I had lost touch with. I also was able to leave a lot of the leftover bitterness from my high school experience behind for the most part. Lots of fun times these past couple of weeks, but I'm ready to head back home!
Friday, May 22, 2009
HB Update
HB got her hearing checked last week. Everything looks good. She got her speech evaluated as well and they recommended that she gets speech therapy once a week. So they're working on processing that. Hopefully it won't take too long. The speech therapist that evaluated her said that her speech is a little delayed, but she is optimist that she can make progress with a little bit of help. I'm starting to feel less stressed about it. Children develop at their own pace. I'm trying to have her spend more time with kids about her own age, because I think that has something to do with it. Other than that I just have to continue to expose her to lots of language and I'm sure she'll catch up on her own time.
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Neat vs. Messy
I've been working on editing my dissertation proposal. According to Chair I'm no longer supposed to call to it my proposal, so I'm going to start referring to it as my Introduction since its supposed to frame my dissertation. I've gotten lots of comments on it and I'm still trying to organize and process them. Basically they fall into 4 categories: framing, concepts to clarify, methods, empirical questions that I can't answer without actually doing my fieldwork. So I've been trying to go through them and iron out what I can. It basically involves a lot of thinking and reading. I'm struggling with how neat and tidy I want the research design to be before I actually start the research. I know it will change once I actually collect the data, but a lot of the comments I got were that my research design seems too tidy and does not really account for nuance. Which I understand, but it's not as if I can get into every single detail in a 30 page document. Also Chair does not seem too keen on my tidy research design and prefers the messier version that I handed in last summer. But I got comments from others that that version was too messy, which caused me to completely overhaul and re-frame the dissertation. I dunno. I like the neat version better, but I also want to add back some of the messy nuance from the first version. I guess I'm now trying to edit them both together in a way that makes sense to me and I can convince Chair is in the right direction.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Rejected (x5)
On the heels of my manuscript getting rejected a couple months back, I just got 5 rejections in a row for fellowships/grants I applied for. Sigh. I know its just part of academic life, but it doesn't make it any easier, especially when my livelihood is at stake. I still have 6 more to hear from, so there is still some hope but I'm getting more and more discouraged. Two of the fellowships offered comments from the reviewers, some of which is actually useful for me so that's a good thing.
In the meantime, I'm turning my attention to revising the rejected article for another mid-tier sub-field journal. I've been putting it off for way too long. I have to rewrite the Introduction in order to re-frame the paper and also address the limitations of my research design to anticipate critiques. I must send it off by the end of this semester!!
In the meantime, I'm turning my attention to revising the rejected article for another mid-tier sub-field journal. I've been putting it off for way too long. I have to rewrite the Introduction in order to re-frame the paper and also address the limitations of my research design to anticipate critiques. I must send it off by the end of this semester!!
Saturday, April 04, 2009
RBOC
-The MRI showed no problems. I'm so relieved! Now they want to check HB's hearing. We'll see how that goes.
-I just got back from a conference that I felt really guilty about going to initially, but I'm so glad I went! I met another grad student who does research on the same topic and it was exciting to chat about our research. I also met some professors from ForeignCountry who will hopefully help me secure an affiliation with their University. This was the first conference where I felt really comfortable presenting my work and networking. The conference was a nice size (not too big and not too small) and low key. I was able to fit in some R&R so I've returned refreshed and a little less stressed.
-I've added another member to my committee for a total of 4 members. I had wanted to add Outside Member from the very beginning, but had not worked up the nerve to ask yet. I asked a couple weeks ago and OM agreed to be on my committee. I feel like it's important to have OM on my committee because he is a scholar of ForeignCountry (no one else on my committee is really a specialist on this region) and I need a scholar with some expertise in the region to be taken seriously I think. So I'm hoping that the committee works well together. I'm not quite sure what the dynamic will be yet.
-I just got back from a conference that I felt really guilty about going to initially, but I'm so glad I went! I met another grad student who does research on the same topic and it was exciting to chat about our research. I also met some professors from ForeignCountry who will hopefully help me secure an affiliation with their University. This was the first conference where I felt really comfortable presenting my work and networking. The conference was a nice size (not too big and not too small) and low key. I was able to fit in some R&R so I've returned refreshed and a little less stressed.
-I've added another member to my committee for a total of 4 members. I had wanted to add Outside Member from the very beginning, but had not worked up the nerve to ask yet. I asked a couple weeks ago and OM agreed to be on my committee. I feel like it's important to have OM on my committee because he is a scholar of ForeignCountry (no one else on my committee is really a specialist on this region) and I need a scholar with some expertise in the region to be taken seriously I think. So I'm hoping that the committee works well together. I'm not quite sure what the dynamic will be yet.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Look Who's Talking...
Actually the title of this post should be look who's not talking: HB. She might have two words now (mama and dada), but I'm not even 100% sure about that (She definitely says them but not always necessarily directed at me or MB). Her doctors are a bit concerned.
Let me start from the beginning. During her 12 month check-up we saw a pediatrician that we don't normally see because we had to reschedule at the last minute. The ped. asked us the normal questions about HB's development and I mentioned to him that she didn't really seem to be saying anything coherent as of now, although I was fairly sure she used to say "hi" and "dada" and then stopped saying it. He was really concerned with her loss of language and asked a few follow up questions. He referred us to: a neurologist, an early intervention program for developmental delays, and scheduled us for an MRI. At the time, I thought he was over-reacting a bit and he admitted that he tends to be aggressive about this type of thing.
I called up the early intervention center as was told she was too young for them to see her (they don't see patients for language delays until they are 18 months and she was 12 months at the time). They did send me some useful information and told me to call back in 6 months if there was no improvement. I went to the neurologist who said there were a couple of items that gave her pause but she was not overly concerned (namely HB's eye condition). At the time she did not recommend going ahead with the MRI.
As HB's 18-month birthday fast approaches, her doctors seemed concerned about her lack of language. She has a lot of jargon (basically baby gibberish) and she communicates with pointing and whining for what she wants. She also understands a few simple commands like "come here" "give me a kiss" and can name a few body parts. I've also been experimenting with baby language, but I haven't been as consistent as I should be. She has managed to pick up the signs for milk, all done, eat and water, but she will mostly only use them at my prompting (e.g. I ask "do you want to eat?" and then she does the sign for eat). Anyways the bottom line is that she's scheduled for an MRI next week and they also want to follow up with hearing tests. Her neurologist says it's just a precaution and that I shouldn't be losing sleep over it, but I'm starting to get worried. My gut has been telling me that there is no big problem, that she's just doing things on her own time. But I'm in such a vulnerable state right now with other family matters that I feel like another bad situation is just around the corner.
Let me start from the beginning. During her 12 month check-up we saw a pediatrician that we don't normally see because we had to reschedule at the last minute. The ped. asked us the normal questions about HB's development and I mentioned to him that she didn't really seem to be saying anything coherent as of now, although I was fairly sure she used to say "hi" and "dada" and then stopped saying it. He was really concerned with her loss of language and asked a few follow up questions. He referred us to: a neurologist, an early intervention program for developmental delays, and scheduled us for an MRI. At the time, I thought he was over-reacting a bit and he admitted that he tends to be aggressive about this type of thing.
I called up the early intervention center as was told she was too young for them to see her (they don't see patients for language delays until they are 18 months and she was 12 months at the time). They did send me some useful information and told me to call back in 6 months if there was no improvement. I went to the neurologist who said there were a couple of items that gave her pause but she was not overly concerned (namely HB's eye condition). At the time she did not recommend going ahead with the MRI.
As HB's 18-month birthday fast approaches, her doctors seemed concerned about her lack of language. She has a lot of jargon (basically baby gibberish) and she communicates with pointing and whining for what she wants. She also understands a few simple commands like "come here" "give me a kiss" and can name a few body parts. I've also been experimenting with baby language, but I haven't been as consistent as I should be. She has managed to pick up the signs for milk, all done, eat and water, but she will mostly only use them at my prompting (e.g. I ask "do you want to eat?" and then she does the sign for eat). Anyways the bottom line is that she's scheduled for an MRI next week and they also want to follow up with hearing tests. Her neurologist says it's just a precaution and that I shouldn't be losing sleep over it, but I'm starting to get worried. My gut has been telling me that there is no big problem, that she's just doing things on her own time. But I'm in such a vulnerable state right now with other family matters that I feel like another bad situation is just around the corner.
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