Undulations

I’m in first revisions right now. The good news is that 3/5 chapters aren’t hideous to have to rewrite. There’s nothing major, just some additional information and supplemental stuff.

I feel good about that. I hope nothing grave happens when my second set of revisions occur (Monday). I feel like I can breathe a little more than I have been for awhile. The thesis has been so time consuming. Even though I still have plenty of work, I don’t have to go crazy trying to cram it all in.

My advisor returns tomorrow, hopefully with edits for me to do. I was glad to have a two day break. I taught labs, of course, but we had a short lab for the final lab of the session. The students have been very pleasant overall and hardworking.

I’ve also continued my job search. What’s strange is that suddenly a lot of jobs have gone up, even though they must begin for the academic year. I’ve applied to some dream jobs like that, and I wonder if they take their time, if they’re overworked, or if I’m just plain not considered. I find it strange that I don’t have answers about those jobs and that academic year jobs are having ads placed now. I don’t know anything about HR, just that when I was interviewing for jobs in 2006/2007, I would go quite some time without hearing about my status and that interviews sometimes happened so late that I forgot I had applied! Maybe things take longer now, since so many people are applying for jobs.

I went to yoga tonight, which was a great distraction from fretting about my thesis. Even though it is out of my hands at this moment, I am concerned. I obviously stay worried about getting job. The economy is brutal in the US, and I’ve heard from one of my friends who has tons of friends that the only way he knows that people are getting hired is if they have an in with the company. I don’t have any ins . Yoga is nice, because it’s relaxing and I was able to strictly focus on being there.

Let’s hope tomorrow brings some good news on the thesis and job front.

I don’t feel good being done. It may be that I was working 10-12 hours minumum every day on my thesis for the past three weeks. However, I know it isn’t great or even good. Two sections I’m happy with, one I’m tepid towards, and two sections are just not good in my opinion. Unfortunately, the analysis was one of the not good sections. Writing that was remarkably difficult, even though I’d say I fair very well when writing like lab reports.

I sent it to my advisor, because well, I’m stuck on how to make my thesis great. I don’t like doing that, because I feel like it reflects poorly on me and I don’t want to disappoint my advisor or make him think I didn’t take my time. I have really tried. My life basically had stopped for my thesis, and I had put a lot of thought into understanding everything in it.

Let’s hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

I thought I’d throw my 2 cents out there, since everyone else is commenting on this article. The gist of it is whether contests and certifications have validity.

I’m not a competitive dancer, nor do I plan on being one. I’ve never been interested in competitions in general. That just isn’t who I am. Life is plenty competitive enough for me. I have entered a few competitions (arguably, my scholarship was a competition) and been successful, but on a whole, I’m not interested.

With that said, I don’t have an inherent issue with competitions for dance. Some of my dance friends like that the competitions force them to focus on their dance in a different way and that they may get feedback. I don’t know anyone who competes for the glory.  I imagine there may be some people, but what I’ve learned from my dance friends is that it’s more of a personal competition, like running a marathon. Sure, someone wins, but they are always happy that they participated. I don’t know how much of a “measure” it is for a dancer. If the contest is well-reputed and has good judges consistently, I would be more interested in the dancer as a dancer. However, the proof is in the pudding. I wouldn’t go ga-ga over a dancer who wins a contest, simply because she wins a contest.

As far as certification, I think they’re good for when people want to be certified in someone’s style. If the certification requires rigorous training and will fail people who aren’t up to snuff, I think there is a lot of validity in it. I’m not interested in being certified in someone’s style, but certification for a dance teacher isn’t a bad thing. Having switched teachers multiple times, if I had a particular style that I love, certification would be really useful to locate another teacher in that same style. Again, the proof would be actually witnessing the teacher, but the certification would help eliminate going to teachers who aren’t in a style I like.

At the end of the day, I’m rather ambivalent on the topic of the validity of certifications and contests. I think they have a lot of personal growth to offer to people. I’ve interacted with some people online who love the Suhaila Salimpour techniqe and go all out to become certified in it. From what I understand, it’s very much about personal growth, not expecting that the certification automatically makes them a good dancer. Being a goal-oriented person, I can understand that, even if I don’t have the desire to compete or certify in a style.

The job market is as ugly as they say… I need a vacation after all the thesis writing and job searching. I need a job, of course, but I think it’s a little too much on my plate right now. I can’t wait until I get hired by someone, anyone, and I finish my thesis. Both are on my mind, even in my dreams.

I’m about a week behind on where I anticipated being with my thesis. Writing the analysis section took longer than I thought. It is daunting to look at piles of results and make some observations. I think two of the chapters that I’ve completely finished are strong. My analysis chapter isn’t quite as strong, but I think it’s okay. I have to finish that and the intro this week.  The conclusion is really the only thing I have yet to touch, but that can’t be written until I write everything else!

1. You really don’t know that much. I don’t want to get tripped up when it comes to defense time, and I’m also curious. I spend a lot of time trying to understand minute details. I’ve been very much humbled by how little I know.
2. Historical papers are difficult to read. One of the big papers for my research is Einstein’s diffusion paper. We’ve had trouble following some of the math, like some assumptions he has made, and it appears no one else can explain the assumptions. They’re just bam! there and they make the derivation work out.
3. You can’t allocate enough time. I work on my thesis at least 8-10 hours a day (hence no blogging), and I’m still behind on the schedule I made. I’m figuring stuff out most of the time. I barely want to take time to eat lunch or go buy it; I’m lucky my assistants help keep me sane and fed.
4. Technology=Evil. With all the stress of everything, technology likes to break down. Mathematica was irritable today and required so many restarts. Latex, the program used to write the thesis, has its days too.
5. You have to make sacrifices. My dancing honestly has been put to the way side. I have skipped social functions just to work on my thesis.  I do fit in yoga, because I need some kind of physical activity. My wrist aches from computer usage. I don’t want to be damaged when I’m finished. I really wish there were more hours in the day to do dance, be social, etc.
6. The thesis engulfs your life. I didn’t anticipate my thesis being on my mind so much, even when I’m not working on it. That was the other reason I am not dancing as much. I can’t shut off the thesis writing part yet. This has overtaken my life.

As part of a “homework” assignment from Danielle, she had me attempt to choreograph something. By talking to her, I have solidified more ideas of what choreography can be, like what you can do with it. I’m curious what people prefer when they see a dance. A dance in general, not just Middle Eastern dance.

I’m just terribly busy with my thesis. My advisor thinks I can defend in approximately a month. The research section is over, now we’re analyzing the data. My life, due to the deadline, has been frozen a bit. I TA, I work on my thesis, I take a brief break at home, and I write more at home.

I have been debating about going part-time with TAing, because we has a permanent substitute TA. While I really want to earn the money, I need a break and more time. I’d gain about 3 extra hours per day, which would be nice. While that may not sound like much, at this point, 3 extra hours would be amazing to take a quick nap or relax a bit.

I’ve been trying to make a point to go to yoga and dance. However, I find myself having trouble to make the time and then occassionally turning off my brain from outside cares. Last night at yoga, it was very easy to resume thinking about what I needed to do with my thesis, even though I normally try to relax and concentrate on breathing and movement during yoga.

I plan on still blogging, but if my posts are less frequent, this is why.

Although it would’ve made more sense to start with Secrets of the Stage: Vol 1, I found  Secrets of the Stage Volume 3: A Performance Course for Belly Dancers by Michelle Joyce on the Bhuz Swap. The deal was good and it helped a lady out.

The Secrets of the Stage series is produced by Michelle Joyce, a dancer in the Bay-area. She has a very good company, dedicated to making quality DVDs for primarily Middle Eastern Dance. They’re a steal at about $20/DVD. She produced last week’s video, Fabulous 4 Yard Veils.

Secrets of the Stage is different from other DVDs or even classes, because the DVD is dedicated to performance, not dance technique. If you are a student of Middle Eastern dance and want to go professional, classes may not offer all the behind the scenes information it takes to be a professional dancer. Michelle uses real working dancers to help present topics that working dancers should know about. Most of the DVD is like watching a movie with the commentary turn on; there’s video in the background but a voiceover, discussing a topic. The topics for Vol 3 are “Dancing to Live Music,” “Inspiration and Creativity”, “Your Professional Image”, and an extra section on some Arabic that’s useful to know. Rather than discuss the DVD in bulk, I thought I’d go section by section.

• Dancing to Live Music. Like many dancers, I haven’t had the opportunity to work with live musicians. The dancers and the musician in this section gave hints and overall, encouragement, in dancing to live music. They all made very good points about how handle the situation so that everyone (musician, dancer, and audience) is happy. The only thing that would’ve made this section better is if the comments were more about what was going on on screen, rather than simply general comments about working with live music.
• Inspiration and Creativity. I liked this section a lot, since this is one of the many places I get stuck. I thought the tips were excellent, some new, some not new. Again, I would’ve really liked more comments on the actual performances of the dancers, rather than just general tips. I was hoping this would be more “Behind the Dance” type thing, where each dancer would explain her specific motivations and inspirations. I think my favorite part was when someone (I forget who) said that it’s important to create, even if it isn’t perfect. Being the kind of person who wants something perfect, I appreciate reminders that I should create, rather than wait and worry to make something perfect.
• Your Professional Image. This section contained info on makeup and photo shoots. The dancers narrated how she applies her stage makeup. The makeup section I thought I would be more helpful if they were more broad tips, like the difference between stage makeup and more up close work, like restaurants or how lights can affect how your makeup looks. The photo shoot advice was helpful for someone like me, who has never had a photo shoot. Michael Baxter (a photographer) provided information how to get the most out of your photo shoot, from setting the background to creating good poses. My only other comment on this section is I wish there had been more about creating a professional image. I thought the start was strong, but I would have liked to have seen some information on other professional aspects, like websites, business cards, ads, etc. Perhaps another DVD?
• Survival Arabic. Leyla Lanty is too cute! The survival Arabic is just a small taste of Arabic, to help dancers know a few words. I like languages and I like knowing what the lyrics are, so I wish that this section had been longer. Evidently, Leyla Lany teaches a longer survival Arabic workshop for dancers, so if you’re like me, strapped for cash and time, that may be a good supplement to this section. I found the section a little helpful; I know a few Arabic words, from teachers giving me a little crash course in words that frequently appear in lyrics. I didn’t know, however, the word structures or about the lyrics in general. Leyla Lanty seems to know a lot about it.

This DVD offers quite a bit. If you have no one around to help you with your budding professional career as a dancer, there is a great deal of information that is important and helpful. If you are more like me and have spent ample time on the Internet and learning these things via class and workshops, I don’t think it is as necessary but still has information to offer. I found the DVD very enjoyable to watch and liked hearing different dancers’ takes on their topics.

It’s Independence Day in the US. I unfortunately have decided to skip the barbeque I was invited to (weather in Chicago is quite dismal right now, and it looks like inevitable rain) to visit the people at the hospice and work on my thesis. I took yesterday off to lounge around a bit (applied for some jobs, watched a DVD that I’ll review tomorrow). It’s difficult to “keep my eye on the prize”, because I feel a little burnt out right now. I haven’t had much of a vacation in years. By vacation, I mean break of sorts. Just a week or so to sit around, walk places, etc. It would be nice to travel, but I think I need more relaxation than hop around a bunch of different places, feeling obligated to see everyone and everything.

Part of me considers quitting my volunteer work to allow for more “me” time, but it really takes about 3 hours out of my week, including travel. Not that much, in the grand scheme of things and supposedly visiting Alzheimer’s patients helps them with their loneliness. I could slow down the thesis, but I’m hoping I have job come Sept/late August, so I don’t want to have the adjustment of a new job with a thesis.

I really just need to keep myself going. Anyway, I hope everyone else has a relaxing holiday.