Chocolate Fish

There's a tradition at the University of Otago: hand in your thesis and you get a chocolate fish.  Today, I went to a workshop on writing my thesis and we all got a fish as a teaser. M'mmmm.  Guess I better get working on that thesis!

Easier said than done.

There's a little quote in The Seven Secrets of Highly Successful Research Students about a thesis being "10% intelligence and 90% persistence."  Unfortunately, lately I've been stuck.  I keep waiting for the magic moment when I feel like I can sit down and write something that will be groundbreaking.  Alas, I think I'm finally coming around.  I'm not trying to cure cancer here (thank you Hugh Kearns & Maria Gardiner, authors of "The Seven Secrets," for helping me see the light).  Therefore, I shouldn't feel bad that I'm actually more effective at writing when I'm plopped down in front of the TV with the Real Housewives of New York City on and Facebook open.  I just don't work well under "ideal" conditions: either in the office in front of a shiny new Mac with zero sound except the humming of the lights (actually, the other day I plugged in my headphones and listened to Guns N' Roses while I edited my manuscript - it was heavenly) or in a coffee shop tapping away on my laptop.

So, that's that.  I should have known that my vision of sitting in a coffee shop as a half-fashionista/half-postgrad student was dashed the day I was still at home packing and couldn't fit nothing but sensible shoes in my suitcase.  From now on, I'll be spending most days sitting in front of trashy TV for hours writing about the importance of researching weight gain prevention interventions.  I can't wait!