Planetfurry BBS

[Aslaug]

Well, as I suppose a lot of you know, I am writing on my university thesis at this time.

'The Causality of the Gunpowder Plot - Cause and Effect of High Treason' is the working title. Somewhat less catchy than 'Transitions' or 'Amat Victoria Curam' I'm afraid...but that's academic writing for you.

Well, the deadline is between the first of August and the fifteenth of September, and as of today, I topped 60 pages. At this time, I have 63 written. Since it has to be between 60 and 100 pages long, it is the first milestone passed. I need to write one more small and one longer paragraph, before I can move on to analysis, conclusions and perspectives...but with two months to go before the -first- day of the hand-in-period I think I'm quite safe, as long as I don't start slacking.

Fortunately, while you have all just seen chapter 64 going up, I have another 10 chapters finished. So unless I completely stop working, you'll get your regular chapter-per-week dosage until I'm all done. Including, naturally, the obligatory two-chapter week next month when I turn four years old...

People think I'm bonkers, writing on my own stuff while working on my thesis, but if I didn't I'd probably lose focus. It's a good way of thinking of something else...

It helps me maintain some kind of focus.

I just hope this thesis is going to end up being good...

[Karou WindStalker]

It also keeps nasty things like Writer's Block from forming.

Having multiple things that can be thought about / written / done keeps the mind fresh and lively.

[shadowjaguar]

[Karou WindStalker]

If furs want something to keep them busy, feel free to PM me and do an OA on the Beta for the story I'm currently re-writing .. it's not in the Sabrinaverse, though. ^_^

And, be warned, I started the story when I was as close to being clinically depressed as it's unhealthy to be.

[Aslaug]

Well, time for another little update on the thesis-thing, I guess...

I'm now down to the final edits. I need to cut it down so that it fits within the allowed size. I have what's called 100 normal pages, where a normal page is defined as 2700 characters...space, letters, numbers...you name it.

My teacher explicitly gave me permission to go as high as 102 pages, which I intend not to use if at all possible. While he may allow it, there's also a censor who has to read this paper and I'd rather not get into trouble with him. However, it IS nice to have those 5400 characters if one needs it.

The working title has changed since the first time I posted on this, since there is no room to deal with what happened after the executions of the conspirators. As my supervisor put it...'that will have to be your next paper then'. He said it tongue-in-cheek, realizing full well that I have no more papers to write, except if I go on to a PhD. So I take that as a -major- show of support.

The paper is now called 'The Gunpowder Plot - Attempted Regicide in early Stuart England'.

I am nervous...obviously...as one should be. But linguistically, I think this is the finest writing I've done academically speaking, to this day. The contents...well, that is not for me to judge.

I'm pondering posting this once I'm done so people can see what it is I do for a 'living'...but I fear it'd bore most of you half to death.

[Karou WindStalker]

I, for one, look forward to being bored, Filly. ^_^

[Teric]

If your writings here are any indication, then I have no doubt that your thesis will be excellent. All the same, I wish you the best of luck with it.

Keep us posted.

[Styx]

One other thing you might consider is that you'd leave self open for academic theft. A friend told me that someone in his class was kicked out because he turned in a term paper that was copied word for word from a paper on the same subject that someone had posted on the net for same reason, to let their friends see what they'd worked so hard on.

[anthony]

Teachers and professors are now beginning to use automated tools to spot these dorks.

Not only do they roam the net, but they also compares the writing with what other students doing the same task is handing in.
(Not all assignments are supposed to be group efforts, after all)
And doing a simple word-replace on a few words is not enough to trick the software.

I've heard about half the class being flunked at some schools...

As for posting it on the net or not...
Aren't these kind of papers accessible from the school library, anyway?
(I know that back when I worked on my programming education, I spent a lot of time in the library, reading through old thesis and pilfering ideas. I actually had to as I was reworking an old system to run on a new computer)

[Aslaug]

Yep, we have to hand in a copy for the archives. If I had handed mine in after September 1st, I would have had to hand it in on CD-rom, so it'd be available to people anyway

[Aslaug]

I've printed it today.

The day after tomorrow, I hand it in to the printers to get it bound and everything.

I've had a couple of drinks and my head is spinning...mostly from the realization that this is it. I got there. I'm not a failure anymore. I'm not a dropout anymore. I'm not someone people can look askance at and say 'oh yeah, she'll say she'll get there but will she -really-?`' anymore. I did it. I completed something I started. Something big. Something important. Something many others couldn't have.

Something I love.

I'm high, I'm crying, I'm drunk and I'm flying...

Hey...that rhymes...

Now I'm going to go make myself a pot of tea...

I did it...

[Styx]

Congrats filly, I never doubted that you'd get there

[Teric]

Excellent, Aslaug! You did it! If there's anything I've learned about you over the last few months of knowing you, it's that you're a hard worker and you will complete whatever you put your mind to, come what may. Take a well-deserved celebration.

When were you ever a 'failure' or a 'dropout'? I seriously doubt you ever were, except in the minds of those who don't see you for who you truly are.

We're all cheering for you here, filly!

WOOHOO!!

[Aslaug]

And so it is done. It's handed in.

And not without drama, either.

I had an appointment at the printer's office this morning between eight and nine. Yesterday, I found a number of misspellings in the paper, and of course that meant I had to make a new print of the thesis early this morning at uni, before handing it in. No problem, I thought.

Then the printer ran out of ink. And I was rapidly running out of prints. and I couldn't BUY more prints until half past nine...ergo AFTER my appointment at the printer's office.

I got it all done...after finding a printer that had ink in it. I had less than twenty prints left on my account, by my calculations, and now -time- was becoming an issue.

So I went and handed it in. I managed in time. After I got the paper back, two and a half hours later, all nicely printed with a jet black cover and back and white letters (seemed fitting for a thesis concerning the GUNPOWDER Plot), I then realized that I had handed in the wrong cover to the printers.

Last night I changed the title very slightly from 'The Gunpowder Plot - Attempted Regicide in Early Stuart England' to 'The Gunpowder Plot - attempted Regicide in 1605'.

It's a minor change but 'early Stuart England is hard to translate into Danish, and on the first leaf of the paper (the aptly named 'title-leaf'), has to include the title in both Danish and English.

The cover showed the old title, the title-leaf the new one.

I paid good money to get this thing printed but the mistake is my own. In the stress of running out of ink and prints, I simply did not spot it until it was printed, and because I asked for a GOOD quality cover, I can't simply have the printers take it apart and insert a new front page. It'd destroy all the pages. So I'd have to pay to get all of them reprinted.

I can't afford that, but if I had to, I'd do it. So...I went to ask the secretaries. One of them was all 'oooh my god, what do you do what do you do?' and the other went 'take it easy. The main title is 'The Gunpowder Plot' and that is correctly spelled. That they screwed up the subtitle is no problem. If your supervisor or censor decide to ask about it, tell them how it is. The contents of your thesis is the same as always. Don't fret'.

So I'm not fretting. I'm just slightly miffed at a dumb mistake like that. Apart from that, however...I still think the contents are -solid-...and that's what I'll be graded on, after all.

And now, I'm taking two weeks OFF! I'm going to write on my own stuff again, and I'm not touching the thesis for two weeks. I need to simply -relax-. All I'll do is call my supervisor on Wednesday when he returns from holidays to tell him I offered to get it reprinted, so he's aware of this UP FRONT, and so that it won't ever have -chance- to become an issue, however minor.

Anyway...thanks all for bearing over with me these past months. I think I must've been pretty hard to bear at times...

Or pretty hard to filly at least...

*goes to collapse on bed*

[Styx]

After your nap go jump into a pint or two you've earned it