on dissertationitis, and other things My friend and classmate T has taken to calling it "dissertationitis"--we want to be DONE with this pesky CLASS thing already and get on with the book-writing. I like my classes a lot this semester, but I've gotta say, I'm really pretty sick of classes in general. Sick of reading several hundred pages for each 2 hour session, sick of listening to people babble about absolute nonsense and bullshit that makes it clear they didn't do the several hundred pages of reading, sick of trying to squeeze it all in every day, for months at a time. And I'm pretty much totally obsessed with my emerging dissertation topic, or topics, which doesn't make it any easier to sit in class and talk about totally different things. I told my new and improved advisor the other day that things are just getting "ridiculously interesting" in Alaskan politics (Alaska is for sure going to be one of my cases, although the other cases are still coming together), and she said that anything that is "ridiculously interesting" makes for a great dissertation topic. It's pretty great to have some real institutional support around here for once.

Anyhoo. I have approximately a bazillion pages of several books to read before Monday, so I best get back to it and quit musing dreamily about dissertation research. I know the day will come when I'm just as eager to be done with it, as well, but right now I just really want to get to the next stage.  ¶ 5:36 PM