Thursday, May 01, 2014

Dissertation days


 Well, here I am, procrastinating on my very quickly approaching writing deadline by posting a blog entry. Perhaps it is not procrastination so much as taking a break. Yeah, a break..... 

The last many days (and by that I mean weeks) have been spent in a push of research and writing, trying to pull together a draft of what has become a very large and complicated chapter of my dissertation. If we're Facebook friends, you know that I have dealt with this stress with cookies, jogging, and wine. I really do believe that the combination of exercise, sugar, and booze can cure almost any problem in life. No shame here, people. Perhaps not surprisingly for an art historian, I like to aestheticize my stress as well. Instagram is so great for that. Everything looks better through a nice filter, doesn't it? Pile of books almost falling over? Give it a nice composition and put a filter on it. Day after day of reading articles? Add a filter and a cute pencil, now it's romantic. Sitting at my computer typing for endless hours until I have carpal tunnel? Boom, filter it, add some nail polish, and suddenly it looks so hip. My other means for dealing with stress is music. In times like these I tend to revert to my personal classics of classical during long working stretches, jam bands during breaks and periods of relaxation, and upbeat EDM for short stretch/mini-exercise breaks. Ok, time for another cookie....

 

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