« January 2005 | Main | March 2005 »
February 25, 2005
Going Away
Yay--I just realized that I don't need to catch the morning train to Copenhagen, but can just take the 11:30 train instead. Ahh, it makes me REALLY happy to know that I can sleep in a little bit.
Posted by madchen at 02:54 AM | Comments (0)February 24, 2005
Basic Human Needs - Subsistence
Fundamental | Being | Having | Doing | Interacting |
subsistence | physical and | food, shelter | feed, clothe, | living environment, |
Subsistence is about physical and mental health. By meeting my most basic human need for food, water, and shelter, I am meeting my need for subsistence. At the beginning of this exercise into my wealth and poverty, I would estimate that the need for subsistence is the one I meet most easily.
First, thoughts about my current state of subsistence. I was lucky enough to have a strong foundation of economic stability. My parents were able to provide a middle-class lifestyle that, while it did not include new cars and fancy vacations, taught us about economic trade-offs and budgeting. I was fortunate that my parents paid for my college education, contributed to my graduate education, and continues to stand by in case of emergency. As for myself, I am finally standing on my own, with money in the bank that is financing my year in
Because I have money (not a lot, but enough), I have the capacity to meet my subsistence needs. To be truthful, I should really be examining whether or not I have overindulged in subsistence-related things. Of all the needs listed by Max-Neef, I imagine that "subsistence" is the one that most people in American have met and exceeded. Let me do a quick personal check-up.
- Water – I have access to clean, plentiful water whenever I want it. Currently, I don't pay for water (and even when I did, it was a pittance), yet I can take long showers, brush my teeth, and wash dishes without worrying about whether I am squandering drinking water. I have improved on this issue lately (now I turn off the water while I brush my teeth and I'm trying to take quicker showers), but much remains to be done. Along these same lines, I don't anticipate water being a subsistence issue in the future.
- Food – if anything, I have too much food. What I need to do is re-evaluate the choices of food I eat. Like most Americans, I eat too much starch and fat, and not enough fresh produce and fiber. I know that this will be struggle for the rest of my life, since I don't anticipate apples suddenly tasting better than chocolate. But at the same time, I don't anticipate food being scarce in the future, so I'm not worried about starving.
- Shelter – for all my complaining about Kungsmarken, I am lucky to have an apartment that is moderately priced, with free heat, and two bathrooms. And even though I would rather live by myself, I am fortunate to have roommates that are fun, even if they are messy.
- Clothing – again, my problem is too much clothing, rather than the opposite. Here, though, I have to wonder if too much clothing is really a problem. Yes, I suppose it just feeds a materialistic society and a vicious consumer cycle. But come on! I go through cycles of clothes buying. My last fun shopping splurge was this past summer, and then there was a warm-clothes spree when I got to
- Work – I'm not quite sure why "work" is on the list of subsistence actions. Maybe because work leads to income, which allows us to purchase the satisfiers for subsistence needs. At any rate, this is the big one for me right now. Because I'm in school, I am devoting my "work" time to my thesis. While this "work" is intellectually stimulating, it is not contributing to my income (the reverse is actually true), nor can I reasonably say that it is better preparing me to generate income. In fact, the more I look at this program, the less I think it will help me in finding a job later on. I would almost certainly have been better off staying at my previous job until I found another one, rather than going to school. But on the other hand, living overseas certainly has its allure on the resume, so maybe I'll get lucky. It's too soon to know for sure, but I'm not feeling optimistic that this program will help me find work in June.
The overall findings: I am meeting my needs for subsistence, and have an excellent chance of meeting them in the future. Because I actually overindulge in most "subsistence" areas, I consider this a "wealth" issue. Perhaps I'm too wealthy and need to cut back a little.
February 22, 2005
Wealth and Poverty
So, last week I started to think about whether or now my current lifestyle is meeting my basic needs. This entry is my first exploration of that topic. I will be using the categories of basic human needs developed by Chilean economist Manfred Max-Neef. Although there are many different categorizations for basic human needs (Malinowski, Maslow, Aldefer,
Max-Neef and his colleagues have developed a taxonomy of human needs and a process by which communities can identify their "wealths" and "poverties" according to how these needs are satisfied.
The main contribution that Max-Neef makes to the understanding of needs is the distinction made between needs and satisfiers. Human needs are seen as few, finite and classifiable (as distinct from the conventional notion that "wants" are infinite and insatiable). Not only this, they are constant through all human cultures and across historical time periods. What changes over time and between cultures is the way these needs are satisfied. It is important that human needs are understood as a system - i.e. they are interrelated and interactive. There is no hierarchy of needs (apart from the basic need for subsistence or survival) as postulated by Western psychologists such as Maslow, rather, simultaneity, complementarity and trade-offs are features of the process of needs satisfaction.
Max-Neef classifies the fundamental human needs as: subsistence, protection, affection, understanding, participation, recreation (in the sense of leisure, time to reflect, or idleness), creation, identity and freedom. Needs are also defined according to the existential categories of being, having, doing and interacting, and from these dimensions, a 36 cell matrix is developed which can be filled with examples of satisfiers for those needs.
Fundamental | Being | Having | Doing | Interacting |
subsistence | physical and | food, shelter | feed, clothe, | living environment, |
protection | care, | social security, | co-operate, | social environment, |
affection | respect, sense | friendships, | share, take care of, | privacy, |
understanding | critical | literature, | analyse, study,meditate | schools, families |
participation | receptiveness, | responsibilities, | cooperate, | associations, |
leisure | imagination, | games, parties, | day-dream, | landscapes, |
creation | imagination, | abilities, skills, | invent, build, | spaces for |
identity | sense of | language, | get to know | places one |
freedom | autonomy, | equal rights | dissent, choose, | anywhere |
Satisfiers also have different characteristics: they can be violators or destroyers, pseudosatisfiers, inhibiting satisfiers, singular satisfiers, or synergic satisfiers. Max-Neef shows that certain satisfiers, promoted as satisfying a particular need, in fact inhibit or destroy the possibility of satisfying other needs: e.g., the arms race, while ostensibly satisfying the need for protection, in fact then destroys subsistence, participation, affection and freedom; formal democracy, which is supposed to meet the need for participation often disempowers and alienates; commercial television, while used to satisfy the need for recreation, interferes with understanding, creativity and identity - the examples are everywhere.
Synergic satisfiers, on the other hand, not only satisfy one particular need, but also lead to satisfaction in other areas: some examples are breast-feeding; self-managed production; popular education; democratic community organizations; preventative medicine; meditation; educational games.
This model forms the basis of an explanation of many of the problems arising from a dependence on mechanistic economics, and contributes to understandings that are necessary for a paradigm shift that incorporates systemic principles. Max-Neef and his colleagues have found that this methodology "allows for the achievement of in-depth insight into the key problems that impede the actualization of fundamental human needs in the society, community or institution being studied" (Max-Neef et al, 1987:40)
My goal for the next few weeks is to see if I can apply this community evaluation tool at a personal level. I will fill out my own matrix and see where I have wealth and where I have poverty. I'm aiming towards an analysis of my current life (here in
Of course, all of this will be taking place concomitantly with my thesis work, and my trip to
Back in Town
What a whirlwind trip! We started out on Friday morning when Ronan picked me up in our very sporty Volvo, which we had rented for the occasion. He was appropriately attired with a leather jacket, sunglasses, and driving gloves, and with more than 200 CDs for our listening pleasure. We swung by Polhemsgatan and picked up Kerly and Benny and hit the road.
What Ronan estimated to be a 7-9 hour drive actually took 16 hours. For a road trip, though, it was pretty fun. We drove to Copenhagen, then down through Denmark to the ferry, which took us across to Germany. A foray across Hamburg and Bremen eventually led us to the Netherlands. A couple hours later, we finally hit Amsterdam around 3 a.m. The main reason for the long trip was the terrible weather. Ronan and I switched off driving, and we were rarely without snow, ice, or fog. Even driving a breakneck speed during the patches of good weather couldn't make up for the snail's pace that set our course.
Once we were there, we meandered around until finding our hostel, where Amy had already checked in. We took a quick walk down to the ATM so we could pre-pay for the night, then settled in and quickly fell asleep. The next morning, we enjoyed a late breakfast at Bean and Bagel, and spent the afternoon wandering around town. We made a quick stop at Baraka Coffeeshop, then took a longer walk to Barney's Coffeeshop, which was the recipient of the 2004 Cannabis Cup gold medal for it's Amnesia Haze strain. Very fun.
By then it was time for dinner, which turns out to be the low point of the weekend. I'm sorry to say that walking down the street, trying to find a place for dinner, we all spontaneously stopped in front of a huge sign reading Kentucky Fried Chicken. Yes, in fact, we had fried chicken for dinner. Feeling rather sick to our stomachs afterwards, we strolled across town and went to see Meet the Fockers. Not the best movie I've ever seen, but it was funny and I was finally able to get warm. A late night walk back to the hostel, and then an even later-night walk back to the only convenience store open that late to buy some water for the next morning, and we called it a night.
The next morning, we split up. I ended up going to see the Van Gogh Museum, which was less than 2 blocks away from our hostel. I spent a couple hours there, which meant that I missed seeing the Museum of Modern Art. So instead, I just met up with everyone back at the hostel for dinner. That night, we visited Wagamama for dinner (I had a forgettable Chicken Kare Lomen), Australia for dessert (waffle and ice cream), and Smokey Joe's for pool. Smokey Joe's was high on the "cheesy" scale, but was fun nonetheless. Benny, who had never played pool before, teamed up with Ronan to consistently beat the girls. I tried a chocolate bar laced with Arjan's Haze (winner of the 2004 People's Choice award at the 2004 Cannabis Cup), which Ronan had thoughtfully picked up for me during his afternoon trip to Greenhouse so that I wouldn't have to smoke anymore (my coughing every time was bringing the group down).
We made it back home and fell asleep, only to get up at 9 a.m. for the return trip. Thankfully, Ronan drove the first half, so I was able to sleep in the car (still feeling a little groggy from the Arjan's Haze). We had great weather and were able to make it back in just over 12 hours. I hopped into bed and reveled in the non-smoky nature of my apartment the next day. Then I opened my luggage to unpack, and the stale smell of smoke washed over me again. I'll have to do laundry before I leave for Oslo on Thursday.
So far today I've taken out some of the recycling (tromping down to the recycling parking lot past Willy:s), gone grocery shopping, and checked email. I'm not quite sure what I'll do with the rest of my day (or evening, as the case may be). Roya and Jess are gone for the week in Germany, so I have the place to myself. Perhaps I'll walk around naked.
Posted by madchen at 04:59 PM | Comments (0)February 16, 2005
Judo Chop
So, I just got off the phone with Dell Technical Support. I haven't been able to connect to any wireless internet networks since I got here to Sweden, and I'd finally had enough. After 45 minutes with Shane, we finally figured it out. Or, at least, we think it was fixed. Tomorrow I'll go down to Wayne's Coffee and test it out. Hurray!
Today was abnormally full of events. I stayed up WAY too late last night (5 a.m.) and was awakened by Roya at 8:30 a.m. for an interview. I'm helping her beta-test an interview for her group thesis, which is about using strategic plannning towards sustainability for the individual. It's pretty interesting, so we'll see how it goes.
Next, I got dressed and headed downtown for a couple hours of judo. That's right. Judo. One of our professors is a judo master and graciously hosted a beginner's session for the class. It was way fun, even if we didn't get to do any throws or punching. They have class twice a week, but it sounds pretty hard core, so I doubt if I'll go again. It made me realize just how out of shape I've gotten since arriving in Sweden. I walk everywhere (and occasionally bike), but I don't really get any aerobic exercise and it shows. I would kill for a gym membership, but it's just not worth it while I'm here. But it's at the top of my list when I finish the program.
Immediately from judo class I went to Wayne's Coffee for a thesis meeting with Ronan. Issues are already beginning to emerge, but I will reserve judgment for another week. Sigh.
From Wayne's Coffee, I went to Wachmeister Mall and paid my March rent and internet bill. Then I grabbed the bus back to campus and stopped by the International Office to pick up a letter from Amy. Unfortunately, the lady who had the letter was out of the office, and the other lady couldn't find it. So after 20 minutes of standing around in a futile effort to call the original lady on her cell phone, I left my address with the understanding that they will forward the letter to the apartment once its located. That settled, I went to our common room and caught the last 2 hours of a class meeting on social sustainability, which I thought was excellently facilitated. There were lots of great questions and comments, and I wish we could have explored it further.
By then, however, it was time for dinner. Several of us tromped through the snow to the pizza place down the road, where I ended up having kebab med brod (yum). Then we turned around and headed back to school for a screening of Cry Freedom, which is an excellent (if heartbreaking) film about Steven Biku and Don Woods and their role in Apartheid South Africa in the 1970s.
Having only had 3 hours of sleep, I gratefully caught the bus with Roya back to the apartment, where we (shamefully) threw out the compost with the rest of the garbage, the snow keeping us from stealth-dropping it in someone's compost bins (since Kungsmarksvagen doesn't have its own composting).
After Roya checked her email, I got on the computer and checked my email and the news. Nothing very exciting. But in a fit of sleep-deprived brilliance, I managed to track down the Dell Service Support number and made contact with Shane, my new best friend in India.
It's now after midnight and I have to be back at school by 10:30 a.m. for a thesis meeting with Karl-Henrik and Dave. I'm not enthusiastic, since I'm already feeling grumpy about the thesis progress so far.
That's all for now. In the next two weeks, I'll be looking at whether or not my "basic human needs" are fulfilled with my current lifestyle. More on that next time.
Posted by madchen at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)February 15, 2005
Grr.
Grr. My entry just got deleted because of an internet malfunction, so let me briefly recap. Today has been spent on thesis work. First, I reviewed the 17-page literature review and made sure it was cogent and well-organized. Second, I read several articles that made me want to take a nap (like environmental accounting, arguments for/against corporate citizenship, etc.). I valiantly resisted the urge to sleep and instead exchanged emails with GRI, who provided me with a list of 2004 GRI reporters--all 441 of them. For the grand finale, I spent two hours looking up each individual company on Hoovers to determine if it was publicly traded, and if so, what exchange and ticker it used.
By 10 p.m. I decided it was time for a break, so Roya and I watched an episode of Alias. We've taken to watching several episodes a week. Roya's never seen the show, so she's quite excited, and I'm just happy to space out in front of the computer.
Now its just after 11 p.m. and I'm back at the computer. I still have just over 200 companies to look up. I'm hoping that the expanded list (with securities information) will be helpful when it comes time to look for a correlation between sustainability reporting and economic performance.
Posted by madchen at 11:01 PM | Comments (0)February 14, 2005
Happy Valentine's Day
I have been scolded for my overall lack of communication lately, so I thought I would take 20 minutes (before the guests arrive for an impromtu potluck) and write down everything that's been happening lately.
I got a new pair of earrings from my Mom today. She has an amazing ability to send things so they arrive on the special occasion, and today was no exception. In honor of the new jewelry, I put aside my grubby sweatshirt in favor of a pink sweater AND make-up. Sure, my legs weren't shaved, but I can only do so much.
I had a thesis meeting with Ronan today, and we had our first teleconference with the GRI people. They seemed interested in our project and will be providing us with some information tomorrow. Then, next week, they will have a meeting in London that will hopefully give us even more background information. So right now I'm feeling pretty good about the whole thesis. I'm still working on the literature review for my section (the history and trends of sustainability reporting), which is now up to 17 single-spaced pages. I've formatted all the old articles, now I'm just going through the 20 or so additional articles that I've compiled to make sure I haven't missed anything.
Tomorrow my goal is to write to my old company and see if they will provide me with financial information on our sample group of companies. I know they have the databases that house the information we have, so it's just a matter of playing on their goodwill.
Also tomorrow, I am going to draft a final email to Tarkett, the company that we worked with last semester for the Strategic Management class. We're going to try and get feedback from the Environmental Communications guy, and to wrap up the project. At this point, we are frustrated (and a little bit--no, make that VERY--angry) at what we see as manipulation by one of our fellow students who is trying to leverage this project into additional consulting work. I hope that we can resolve this without it turning into a big mess.
I re-arranged my room last night, so now the bed is in front of the window and the desk is directly next to the door. I decided to do this primarily so I can work on the internet from the desk, which was previously impossible because the internet cord wouldn't reach all the way to the window. So for the last 2-3 months, I've been dragging my computer over to my bed whenever I needed the internet. Now that I'm doing hard-core research for the thesis, sitting slumped on the bed for hours at a time just wasn't making sense. It took me forever last night to fall asleep--I kept getting disoriented and wanting to look out the window at the snow, which has continued to fall.
Right now, there are 3-4 inches of snow on the ground, and there is a constant sleet/snow falling. It's that really tiny, biting snow that doesn't really accumulate, but it painful to walk through--particularly since I lost my hat on the bus last week. I LOVED that hat. I got it on the road trip up to Oregon before my freshman year of college. So now, almost ten years later, I was very sad to be missing it. Not the least of which is because it is not expected to get above freezing this week.
Nothing much else is going on. Jess is now involved with another classmate, so she's not home much. It's very cute, even though they aren't "officially" together and not too many people know. But I woke up the other morning to him singing in the shower, so I suppose it's not too undercover. Roya is in a fit of group planning, scheduling potlucks, group trips to Germany (which I am skipping--I couldn't care less about integrated transportation), resume-improvement meetings, and movie nights.
I'm thinking now that I won't go home in March, but will instead use the time to travel around here. In my grand scheme, I will tour northern Europe (doing a 2-week Stockholm-Helsinki-Riga-Tallin-Vilnius trip in March) this semester, and then do southern Europe after the program ends. Maybe this is the solo vacation I've been wishing for these last few years!
Let's see--10 minutes left. Perhaps I should stop now and go help Roya prepare some food. More later...
Posted by madchen at 07:02 PM | Comments (0)Morning Song
I'm sitting at the kitchen table with a mug of lukewarm tea, my book facedown next to a bag of apples. The orange of the paperback stands in sharp contrast to the speckled green of the apples. I am lost.
After months of gray weather, it has finally snowed; a meager inch which has already melted on the balcony yet is judiciously shoveled from the sidewalks leading from the apartment doors. I stood on the balcony, watching the snow swirl around me, defying gravity and landing in my hair, and then I tracked wet footprints into the kitchen, my slippers making sticky sounds as they dried on the dirty floor.
The sun is now up, or at least there is enough light outside that the kitchen lights are redundant. I leave them on, noticing that two of the cupboards are slightly open, adding to the slovenly feel of the room. The dishes in the sink are dirty, but I ignore them, choosing to focus on how the wallpaper, a pale shade of beige with innocuous pastel fruit, is beginning to peel away at he seams.
I put my head down on the table. In the silence I can hear a dripping noise. It's not from the kitchen sink, maybe it's the melting snow outside.
I am alone. My roommates, sleeping just feet away from me, aren't real. Behind their doors they cease to exist, like a version of Schrödinger's cat. Schrödinger's roommates—I feel quite witty. Schrödinger's cat, Schrödinger's roommates, Schrödinger's purpose in life; if one cannot observe an object directly…
The profound thought escapes me and I stare out the window. Occasionally, a bird swoops by, wheeling against the gusts of wind that keep the snow dancing in the air.
Posted by madchen at 12:02 AM | Comments (0)February 11, 2005
What I gave up karaoke for...
A throbbing headache.
I've learned several valuable lessons tonight.
- One cannot go from "slug" to "productive" all in one leap. Reading 15 sustainability reports in a single go is one thing. To follow that hell up with another 3 hours of "literature review" is just asanine. If I have to read another report about "financial outperformance" I think I might go crazy. Luckily, the penalty for axe murder in Sweden is only 10 years in prison.
- One should not keep a fresh package of cookies near oneself while attempting to be productive. No matter how rarely one reaches over for a new cookie, after several hours the package is empty.
- Should one ever decide to become a nuclear power in order to gain the world's respect, one should choose the announcement day with great care, lest it be overshadowed by celebrity wedding news.
And now, not so much a valuable lesson as an interesting fact:
- It takes about 4 days of continuous leg hair growth to pass from "prickly" to "soft and fuzzy." No, I don't have any self-respect. No, I don't have any chances for love here in the freakishly cold, rainy, and foreign place. No, I don't see how the two are related.
On the bright side, my thesis meeting with Ronan has been pushed back to 3 p.m. Apparently, he is in the middle of Dan Brown's Angels and Demons and can't be bothered to get his work done. As he wrote in his email, "go robert! go! and save that nice italian girl while your at it!"
Posted by madchen at 03:03 AM | Comments (0)February 10, 2005
Respite
Over the past 48 hours I have been a total slug. The weather has been crap, and that always makes me want to stay under my covers and hibernate. (Speaking of hibernation, I can't seem to find a solution to an ongoing computer problem: my computer won't wake up after being in standby or hibernation mode. It's extremely irritating, as I can't close my laptop without having to manually power down and then restart, which is NOT good for the computer...but I digress.) I had big plans for today, since I was supposed to have a meeting with my little writing club, but then it was cancelled and I was off the hook.
Given that I was down to a single can of beans and two tomatoes, I finally dragged myself out of bed and went to the grocery store. After that, feeling quite productive (and having just barely escaped getting bedsores), I proceeded to update my resume, write several cover letters, and send out two job applications. In addition, I also managed to draft two letters of recommendation for myself, which were sent out to the appropriate references this afternoon. With any luck, I'll get a call back on at least one of the jobs.
And then, after making a delicious dinner of chicken curry with pasta, I settled down to work on my thesis stuff. I sent out the revised thesis proposal (fingers crossed!) and downloaded and read 15 sustainability reports. This time, however, Ronan and I had narrowed down the criteria which we were collating, so it was a much easier process than before. We have a meeting tomorrow at noon, at which time we'll move along to the next project--the literature review!!
It's just after 10 p.m. now, and I'm torn between playing around on the internet and listening to my new audiobook (The Sunday Philosophy Club), or perservering and working some more on the thesis. I have about a dozen studies downloaded on the topic of sustainability reporting. If I was smart, I would get started on it before this weekend.
Posted by madchen at 09:04 PM | Comments (0)February 08, 2005
Catching Up
I've been slacking in my journal lately—not for any good reason, just that I've been doing other stuff. I spent a huge number of hours last week reviewing almost a hundred sustainability reports from the Global Reporting Initiative's (GRI) website. Then, after having a two hour meeting with our project leader, we have revamped our thesis proposal to largely eliminate the work I've done. Part of me is irritated at time lost, but I remember a similar feeling during my other M.A. program. Once I got over the fact that the focus of the research changed, I was better off having dumped the old research. So when Ronan and I meet tomorrow afternoon, I will try to focus on how to make the most of our shift in emphasis.
I was also supposed to have a conference call with the GRI people today, but my main contact was sick. So I suppose we will just reschedule for later in the week. It will be very helpful to sort out what type of information we can get from them, and also where we can add value to their organization.
I went to a Superbowl party last night at Kristoffer's house. I was the only one cheering for the Eagles (I felt that someone should be on their side), so I was sad when they lost. We didn't get to see any American commercials, since they overlaid the same three Swedish commercials during every programming break. The party started at 7 p.m. with a kick-off time of 12:30 a.m. The game ended at roughly 4:30 a.m., which was unfortunate because there were no taxis running at the time. Because I had come straight from school, I didn't have my bike and was forced to walk the 2 miles home in the freezing weather (it was -4 degrees Celsius) by myself. OK, to tell the truth, I was encouraged to stay over with some friends until the buses started running, but I was determined to sleep in my own bed. And it was totally worth it. Sleeping on other people's couches is just not my idea of a good time.
Yesterday afternoon (before our thesis meeting with the program leader, and before the subsequent Superbowl party), we had a Girls' Spa Day in the basement of our school building. We got the keys to the sauna, set up a couple tables with spa products, and enjoyed a variety of spa snacks (ranging from the very healthy fruit platter that Renee brought to the pile of candy bars that Roya procured). Nearly a dozen of the girls from our program came, and we spent a fun couple of hours doing all the grooming we had neglected for the past 4 months. In the end, we decided that there was too much work to be done, and that we would need to schedule a regular spa day for continuous upkeep.
What else have I been doing? This whole entry is totally out of order, but rather than spend a lot of time organizing it into a coherent chronology, I'll just write it all down and be done with it.
I am getting really excited about my trip to Oslo, which will take place February 24-28. Trish and I will spend a couple days visiting the fjords, and I'll spend a day on my own taking in the Oslo scene. Scotty has been so kind as to give me a whole list of things to see and do, although I'll have to pare it down given the time constraints.
On the budget front, I have been keeping good track of my expenditures. I realized that my main problem here in Sweden is that I'm operating on a cash-only basis. I have always been terrible at keeping track of my cash expenditures, so I've resorted to taping a couple pieces of paper to the wall, where I write down what I've spent at the end of each day. It's been about two weeks, but so far, so good.
I also got a great new haircut. Laura came over to give Jess a haircut last week, and I spontaneously decided that I needed a new look. Actually, I've gone back to an old look, but one that I think is very flattering. It's still long enough to put in a ponytail, but there are shorter pieces in the front (like long bangs) that sort of frame my face. I would post a picture, but I seem to have misplaced my camera battery charger, so no pictures for a while.
Things are kind of weird with no regular classes. This past week I've been swamped with thesis work, and I assume that will continue as the weeks progress. But now that we are changing our methodology, I'm not sure what to expect. I'm also working on a writing project with a couple of other students. This week we're focusing on the idea of leadership. Normally, I'd post this sort of thing, but since our goal is to get published at the end of the project, I think I'll hold off. I'm still in the very rough stages of the paper (which will ultimately be about 10 pages long), but it's really interesting to see how my thinking has evolved over the course of several days of writing. I'm eager to see everyone else's initial efforts, as I think we will approach it very differently.
I've also been reading a lot. I've finished Margaret Atwood's "Lady Oracle" and have moved onto her "Bodily Harm". She is one of my favorite writers (I know I've written about her in the past) and I'm sad to realize that I've now read more than half of her stuff. Soon I'll need to find another fantastic writer to scour the library for.
And now, looking ahead to the agenda for this week:
* Meet with Ronan and review our thesis proposal. Figure out a new methodology and divide up the work. Set a new schedule for project completion and arrange a new time to meet with the GRI people. Rewrite the proposal and submit for approval.
* Figure out travel plans—do I really want to come back home for a couple weeks? I probably should be taking this time to see Europe (or will I do that this summer after the program is over?), but I will be able to get more work done by going home and working during the day and seeing friends at night. Going home for a couple weeks will also give me the opportunity to set up some job interviews. But it will be a lot of money, money that I should save for later.
* Laundry. I'm going back to the crappy laundry facilities in the hope that I can get a couple loads of sweats (ahh, happy sweatshirts!) washed and dried during our regularly scheduled laundry day. If not, I'll need to borrow the key to the "special" laundry facilities again.
I think that's about it. It's 3:30 a.m. (I've fallen into my typical thesis-writing schedule of working from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. with some regularity) and I should get to sleep since I have to be downtown at 3 p.m. for my meeting with Ronan and grocery shopping must be done before then.
Posted by madchen at 03:05 AM | Comments (0)February 04, 2005
Busy Living
Busy Living
I haven't written anything lately. Taking some advice from Kevin, I've been spending more time actually living my life, rather than writing about it. Suffice it to say that in the past few days I've:
* Gone bowling at the ever-so-fun Karlskrona bowling alley.
* Made plans to visit my friend Trish in Oslo.
* Taken the bus out to Ronneby to pick up airplane tickets to Oslo.
* Spent hours and hours downloading sustainability reports in preparation for thesis work.
* Had several thesis meetings focused on finalizing our data capture methodology.
* Put aside "The Line of Beauty" in favor of Margaret Atwood's "Lady Oracle"--which is excellent.
* Gone to karaoke, where all the girls sang Abba's "Take a Chance on Me".
* Met with a small group of people to consider writing a book.
And that, I think, is about all I can remember at the moment.
Posted by madchen at 06:06 PM | Comments (0)
