Happy Canada Day-ish

An update post, in two parts.

July 4 - Happy Independence Day, USA – or is it? Don’t you feel tied to the rest of the world, whether you like it or not? How independent is that? We ditched "Dominion" back during Charter repatriation...now stand strong and free as Canada...how about you?

Made some progress over the weekend despite warm temperatures and bright sunshine – and a strange finger sprain I fear I lamely sustained during sleep one night. The data lies around me in coloured marker on flipchart paper, and also on strips of paper organized by theme and taped (due to constant whirring of fans and open windows) to the dining table. Now the monumental task begins of turning the analysed data into text, that not only makes sense, has the right voice and grammar, but also incorporates quotes, research and the rest. ACK this must be the hard part of the masters!

Add to this joy (and exactly 11 days to get it all done, minus worktime and Brownie camp), the new summer profs have sent their homework assignment out. Actually I only skimmed it and will leave it until this manifesto is done and in to the editors/advisors. I can only cope with so much thinking at a time right now. As it is I keep forgetting little things, bumping into stuff – I think I am subconsciously distracted and/or stressed (such a surprise at this point). Fortunately I think this blog will answer part of the assignment…which was impressively, yet riskily, always part of the master plan…onwards!

June 28, 2006

Weeks without progress. A clear indication that a break of the proportion my Ontario work trip took, is too long and causes me a loss of focus. Partly in the detachment physically and mentally from the project, and partly in the return for catching up on life, work and laundry. Also in the need to re-learn and re-remember what I have already done before progressing further.

So now in this final week of June the crunch feels on again. A good thing for me – despite the madness of issues at work, and on-and-off presence of family in my house – I am driven to jump into the analysis and make it what it deserves to be. The long weekend lies ahead and although I will observe a small 3rd birthday celebration, otherwise rain or shine shall find me at my desk. I’m so close, right?!?! Time to get into the meat and see what can be discovered about me and my colleagues.

I discovered some things, or at least admitted some things, about myself today during my work performance appraisal. These are supposedly regular annual occurrences in the public service but I haven’t had a proper one with a proper boss since…early 2003? This was also the first appraisal I haven’t had to write myself – finally! Sat down with the boss, always somewhat apprehensive as you never really know what people are going to say about you and your work, does it stem from elementary school trips to the principal’s office or being called forward to the teacher’s desk in class? Eek, there’s some memories I don’t need to uncover any further. Anyway, it was a pleasant and enlightening 90 minutes at the end of the day. I’m working well, I can produce (let’s hope so, thesis-wise), I like and cope well with fast-paced, multi-tasked environments, and other positive observations. I was the one who filled in some of the “needs improvement” ideas, and also reflected on why I do some of the things I do at work like getting involved in all kinds of issues, always happy to help, often challenging procedures or authority…it was all very interesting to think about, in an overall positive way. The power of reflection. Why don't they teach you this in school? Oh wait...