Today I've been prepping for my trip to DC tomorrow. I have to get a lighting kit together. Parking will be a strain. Good news: I got connected last minute to the head of the Office of Transportation Management at the Department of Transportation. We will be doing an interview about HOT lanes on Wednesday, after my interview with Adie Tomer.
Things are going pretty well. I'm checking equipment out of filmmakers for the first time...getting a tripod and an HVX.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
Back again
I was on hiatus. Now I am back in action.
Working a lot on the paper for the B. Phil. A lot of ideas are coming together very quickly.
It's weird how, as the deadline approaches, certain parts of writing a paper become obvious. Not in the funny way. Not in the way that you realize you can't be lazy anymore. More like, a strong sense of reality kicks in...intuitions about what is manageable and what isn't.
It's not that before you were deluding yourself at some deeper level. It's more like how you believe a good luck charm works. You will go through a lot to hold on to your good luck charm. You really think it works. But if you have to make a choice that wagers a lot on your good luck charm pulling through, then suddenly it becomes obvious that your good luck charm isn't reliable.
When I'm writing my paper, I'll wonder if going down certain alleys are feasible. Should I look into this point? Should I look for more sources on this topic? Should I email so-and-so with a question? Should I put these points in this order to make the point better, even if that order was not my first impulse?
At the beginning of the paper-writing, these questions can be paralyzing, because in actuality they are legit and their are lots of avenues to explore. And it is hard to know where the margin of exploring/experimenting/investigating is. Because realistically--unless you do the same thing often enough to have rules-of-thumb--, you rely on a feeling of where that margin is.
For me, that margin sense is very weak and confusing at the beginning. That feeling of where the margin is becomes stronger as the deadline approaches, though. The best outcome would be if I truly believed that the paper were due one week before it is due.
Working a lot on the paper for the B. Phil. A lot of ideas are coming together very quickly.
It's weird how, as the deadline approaches, certain parts of writing a paper become obvious. Not in the funny way. Not in the way that you realize you can't be lazy anymore. More like, a strong sense of reality kicks in...intuitions about what is manageable and what isn't.
It's not that before you were deluding yourself at some deeper level. It's more like how you believe a good luck charm works. You will go through a lot to hold on to your good luck charm. You really think it works. But if you have to make a choice that wagers a lot on your good luck charm pulling through, then suddenly it becomes obvious that your good luck charm isn't reliable.
When I'm writing my paper, I'll wonder if going down certain alleys are feasible. Should I look into this point? Should I look for more sources on this topic? Should I email so-and-so with a question? Should I put these points in this order to make the point better, even if that order was not my first impulse?
At the beginning of the paper-writing, these questions can be paralyzing, because in actuality they are legit and their are lots of avenues to explore. And it is hard to know where the margin of exploring/experimenting/investigating is. Because realistically--unless you do the same thing often enough to have rules-of-thumb--, you rely on a feeling of where that margin is.
For me, that margin sense is very weak and confusing at the beginning. That feeling of where the margin is becomes stronger as the deadline approaches, though. The best outcome would be if I truly believed that the paper were due one week before it is due.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Wednesday
Today I had a meeting with my adviser Will Z. He gave a bunch of good hints. I'm about to enter a little break session, since my girlfriend and I are headed to Alabama for spring break on Friday, by way of friends in Charleston and Atlanta. I am getting cracking on the paper that I have to write for my B. Phil. degree along with the movie.
In other news, I got an interview with someone at the Brookings Institute. Pretty excited about that. Now, if I could just get one more D.C. interview, I won't feel weird driving down there.
In other news, I got an interview with someone at the Brookings Institute. Pretty excited about that. Now, if I could just get one more D.C. interview, I won't feel weird driving down there.
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