Archives for: May 2009, 25
2009-05-25
Frustration
I spend most of my time these days working on my thesis. I've written close to 650 pages now, but I'm only on chapter 6 out of 9. I had initially set out to finish my thesis by June or July 2009; I'm way, way off the mark. I have a massive amount of work left to do, and I just can't see the end of it. I'm going to have to ask for an extra six months or a year to do it in, which I was really hoping not to have to do. Added to that is the problem that it's going to end up being ridiculously long, despite my leaving out many things that I'd have liked to include. It's... frustrating.
Equally frustrating is a presentation I've agreed to do at an international conference in Paris, where I'll be talking about the evolution of the perception of non-indigenous New Zealanders on Maori (basically; I'm calling it "From the 'white Maori' to biculturalism?"). I found out, belatedly, that I would have only twenty minutes to talk in. I've been struggling for ages to condense my notes into something that I can present in that short amount of time, without it becoming devoid of all meaning. My notes now are, for the most part, pages of crossed-out text, and I still can't find a way to cover the topic meaningfully with so little amount of time at my disposal. Either I'm going to run out of time while talking, or I'll just be giving brief mentions of vague facts and trends without figures or quotes to back them up. GAH!!
Anyway... As you may have guessed, I'm feeling frustrated.
And I've got nowhere else than this blog to vent my frustration. 
