Weekend wanderings

Though I suppose it wasn't that much of a wandering.  Crystal and I went to Lush and bought some more nice smelling things.  Mostly we needed some more conditioner and decided to pick up some more henna dye for Crystal's hair.  The clerks gave us a sample of what they called  a "foot mask", as in, something like a facial mask, that you use on your feet.  The funny thing is that I recognized three of the ingredients because they are geological: kaolin, pumice, and smectite.  Kinda funny putting dirt and rocks on your feet to make them smell better.
At this point, I need to make some dinner though, so I think I'll cut this a little short.

What's left to do

I am coming very close to the end of my thesis work.  There are essentially two chapters that are still in the editing process, but both chapters are pretty short.  I'm somewhere between 2 and 4 weeks to finish.  I won't know precisely until I get some more editing recommendations from my supervisors.  I've got suggestions from two of three supervisors on Chapter 7.  Meanwhile, my supervisor had asked me to largely rewrite Chapter 8 from some general comments that they had (it was a bit short, and needed to really be focused on the summary of work and conclusions).  I've got most of the edits recommend for Chapter 7 done and have resubmitted Chapter 8.  I just have a few diagrams to draw for Chapter 7 and I'll be caught up on that until my last supervisor gets back to me on that.

This ending process has been very interesting for me.  I'm finally spending time to reflect on the work that I've done for that last few years.  I find this to be very rewarding.  Understanding what I've found in my research (as well as what I have learned about the process of scientific research) is probably one of the best rewards I could hope from this degree.  Certainly I hope to see some monetary rewards in terms of better wages etc., but I don't feel that is the ultimate goal of the work that I have done for that last four years.

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In addition to the thesis work, I have spent some of my free time lately reading Alan Wolfe's The Future of Liberalism.  Wolfe explains in a way that I, as a layman, can understand, the evolution of liberal thinking from such people as John Locke and Immanuel Kant to more modern thinkers and writers.  In all the book is a very good read and balances its presentation of liberal and illiberal philosophies, contrasting them, without demonizing either.  In many ways, Wolfe allows the reader to make his own judgment at each step. The book is a bit long, which means I'm taking a bit of time to work through it, but I'm pretty sure that I will continue to the end.

As the completion date approaches

I am fast coming to the end of my time as a PhD candidate.  The thesis is due on February 26, and although I am making good progress in my revisions, I feel that there is more to do that I really have time for.  I have turned a draft version of my entire thesis into my advisers at this point and am primarily working to revise it to their satisfaction.  My conclusions chapter has essentially been returned to me with the rather simple comment "you need to discuss how your research relates to the field as a whole".  This is, in fact, one of the requirements set forth in the PhD statute for the university.  Its not something that I haven't done at all.  I spent a good portion of Chapter 2 setting the scene for where my research will sit in the field.  At this point, I simply need to connect the new discoveries that I have made the work of other people.  I think I can manage to that without further direction, but I'm worried about the time.

I have just begun revising Chapter 5, which is the chapter that primarily presents my work in the Auckland area.  I still have Chapter 6, where I attempt to tie all of my work together.

I'll leave the post here though.  I need to get back to work.

Christmas Holidays

The holidays have turned out to be great fun, even though I'm spending a lot of my time working.  I took half a day off on Christmas eve, and the whole day of Christmas.  Since then I've mostly been working as normal.  I bought myself some awesome new shirts from Nicholas Jermyn, can't wait for an occasion to wear them. I also bought myself a small moleskine planner to use next year.  I really like the look of it.

I'll be moving to Onehunga next weekend.  Can't believe how quickly that is coming up, but I'm also really excited about the move.

Back to work for me though, I need to get all my notes put together so that I can start writing my next chapter.

No internet today

Gah, no internet (besides email) in the office today.  Someone's borked the proxy system or something.  I guess I'll get more work done today.