Spring coming for Hannah

Yet another belated post for more than one week. Shame on me… The past couple of weeks have been busy both work-wise and academically speaking. Some quick updates:

• The thesis proposal has advanced a lot, and the topic, theme, hypotheses, research question, introduction and early literature review are complete. Method section is a work in progress, but should be like this until the thesis is actually complete. So far, good progress.
• I can see that the past few weeks have helped me a lot turn Python programming concepts into scripts for data collection. The mere fact that I can stay away from copy and paste is a reason for joy (for my wrists and arms in particular!)
• The Organizational Innovation course is drawing to a close (this upcoming week) and if all goes well (fingers crossed) it should be my last course for the Research Master. That’s not bad.

Other than that, I intend to resume more intensive and structured Dutch study hours, and continue with natural language processing – as that’s where  I’ll really need to see if my novice programming skills will help me with my thesis.

Sun at Flevopark

Today it’s been five years that I was boarding the plane to come to this country. Two large bags, one small carry-on and a one-way ticket. This is one of the decision I take a lot of pride on, but by no means were the initial days/weeks easy. Having good friends, close family and a strong partnership did help – and continues to do so. To celebrate the five years, I did what I tend to do on weekends – read, walked the dog and took care of the balcony (one of my favorite things since moving to this country, even though I do not necessarily excel at gardening, to say the last).

Likely a more regular weeknote would come next week, as this past week has been mostly dominated by carpe diem attitudes. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, I must confess.

The time reserved for Week 8's notes was replaced by this activity.

Somehow I could not find the time or energy to update week 8 in its due time – and its replacement by a lovely offline cooking session -, so here is comes combined with week 9.

Academically speaking the first data collection pilot for the thesis is complete. It seems that the theories that I was basing myself on, and that would state that information would be so very much centered in opinion leaders, don’t have so much power when analyzed in actual social network sites. And considering I don’t want to base my thesis (yet) on null hypotheses, discussions happened and agreed on shifting the focus and emphasis, and also the dependent and independent variables of the study. The cool thing is that the data are collected, and some interesting dependent variables will come in.

Furthermore, while one article I had been collaborating on in the realm of prejudice has been submitted, a resubmission of a communication related article is not going as well as originally forecasted. Short of changing the complete narrative, it may be the time to be clear about a study’s own limitations. More to come on that front. And, to complete the academic rant, the studies and reading on organizational innovation continue in full fledged progress, and shall go on for the coming weeks.

Moreover:

• Android 2.3.6 combined with Samsung TouchWiz and a microSD card is proving to be a reboot-nightmare. Email support was able at least to provide a workaround until an update comes. Other than the reboot, however, the version is not that bad.
• 

  My first krat from DeKrat

  The quest for a healthier and more sustainable living continues, and I am now trying out a trial subscription to DeKrat. First week came with a surprising good selection of local fruits, fish and vegetables – and delicious bread. It also stimulated me for a visit to the NatuurWinkel. Everything delicious but, let’s say, not necessarily pocket friendly.

• My house and its appliances continue to show their age and the inevitable path towards entropy. Or, in other words, the washing machine gave up after almost five years, and a replacement had to be ordered.
• Cultural events on the rise (from their almost absolute non-existence in the last semester). I’ll go to ConcertGebouw for the first time ever, and July MDNA tickets are also in.

Frozen canals in Amsterdam

Academically, this has been a week of intense readings – as weeks of substantive courses tend to be – and great to resume discussions on items on which my interests are, such as organizational communication and innovation. A lot of readings on risk and uncertainty (hello again Beck, Giddens and Castels!) while the data collection for the thesis continues on beta (with new and improved Python scripts) and managed to partly re-analyze the data necessary for a resubmission. Not a lot of work actually completed, but nonetheless a lot of work started and/or progressed.

Work-wise things are good. Busy as ever, but nice to continue seeing a project take shape and to be more specific and detailed on data analysis. And also nice to have a slight feeling not of control, but at least of managing priorities.

Moreover:

• The Dutch frozen spectacle/fascination is indeed an event. And I must say I got somewhat disappointed (in solidarity) with the lack of ability to go ahead with the Elfstedentocht. Fascinating, however, to see how serious – and quite good with communication – the heads of the committee were.
• The freeze itself has shown how non-winter-ready my building is (pipes froze two days this past week, when temperatures were under -8C. Some considerations to be discussed at the VvE very soon
• I have been somewhat struggling to keep the yoga practices. I have been blaming it on the cold (or a cold). Let’s hope for better luck this week.

Finally winter in Amsterdam

A week dedicated to macros, python and moving to another academic phase. And did anyone notice that it was freeeeeeeezing?

Academically speaking this week was – as every semester change week is – about moving from one phase to the other. I just completed the Research Workshop course and started getting ready for the second academic semester. Mixed feelings aside, the course was an eye-opener for the publication process, and also on how to write an article. Great, but maybe a tad too late.

A solid plan for a resubmission has been agreed upon – now needing to be executed – and more progress on the thesis front. Literature review continues, as does the developments in python (now connecting successfully with AWS!). Slowly we get there, and better to start early indeed.

Work-wise the week as good, and a bit more under control. A lot of (re)prioritization happening, and I finally managed to get some time towards the end of the week to actually get back to development and implementation. Always gives a good feeling – especially in comparison to back-t0-back meeting days.

Moreover:

• The workplace redesign was successfully implemented. Feels much better than the improvised desk I was using, and now I can finally see several windows on the same (huge) screen.
• Trying out a stylus for the tablet, and using also to annotate PDFs. Seems promising (and RSI-safe).
• It is freeeeezing outside. Great to see the Netherlands like this, and also the ice skating craze. But not that fun when you need to take your dog out for a walk at 8 am under a -11C temperature.

Academically speaking, I finally got the grades for the Research Design course – and they weren’t so disappointing after all. And it is refreshing to participate on a method course where you really feel you grew as a researcher afterwards – and I can see the difference on how I am now able to better critique my own work, and from others.

A promising – or disappointing – result from the peer review of the article I had submitted last year after over six months of research. It really depends on how you see it, but the points of critique are sharp and fair, and yes, it means some more work for the coming weeks. Lots of python-ing for the thesis, and I feel I have a workable process for data collection. Not yet exactly what I want, but a good backup plan should everything else fail.

Work-wise things are fast, yet good. Prioritization is the word of the day (week? year?), and it seems after some time I am starting to learn how to take control over my own agenda and priorities – even if my lovely inbox might not be at zero at all times. Nice to have also had face to face meetings, and to see a project move forward. Patience and resilience.

Furthermore:

• It’s somewhat weird to be with a semi-functional oven after so many days. At least now the oven does not completely shut down my electricity (nice feature to save energy, by the way!), but made me realize how dependent I am on some ways to cook. And how convenient it is to have an electric oven.
• Planning some changes in my workplace and made a somewhat big purchase this Sunday. Hopefully it will look good – both functionally as well as visually.
• Getting ready for my first week of winter (negative temperatures!) this season. Can’t wait!

Academically speaking the week started with a somewhat disappointing news from a conference – although, yes, it was a long shot, and more promising news on the article that I am working on regarding prejudice. Reviewed the last version and we seem to have something solid for submission – let’s see how it goes! The thesis work is ongoing now, and the first scripts in Python are running and I guess I have somewhat of an idea of where to go next. Much optimization ahead… but fun nonetheless.

Work-wise things are fine, and taking a step back and focusing on the basics is helping. Some high-powered, intense meetings towards the end of the week may not have helped me start a relaxed weekend, but gave me enough food for thought to try and see whether I want to show that I am always right, or whether being more tactical is at times better. Let’s see how the next week goes. And the week showed me that, while I love to work on a focused manner, I still enjoy a lot workshops and presenting or discussing with several people – and we could get to quite good results this week with that.

Moreover:

• Got some new fishes and plants for the aquarium, after a long hiatus. Never mind that one of the fishes already died, it’s nice to do something outside of the PC (or of the walking the dog) routine from time to time;
• Several ideas for decoration, but little time to get them executed. In any case more DYI coming soon;
• Impressed by this video about the iPhone Economy and its impact on the job market (and social divide) in the US. It’s easy to try and disregard this, but the stats are quite clear (as the dataviz aspect of it).

Academically speaking, having a class twice a week is indeed too much, especially when considering assignments from a week to the same week. Easy to conciliate with work, eh, excuse me? Nonetheless the first deadline – review of an academic article – has been met and somehow it is comforting to see someone else’s draft prior to publication. Talk about a rough gem.

Saturday wasn’t at all that productive, but Sunday was good for some thesis planning, and getting started with AWS and Python using boto. Yet far and far away from where I need to be (SSH connection refused anyone?) but at least is a start. And a game plan is ready for the upcoming week(s).

Work-wise all is getting busier and busier, and time to prioritize has come. Great projects going on, nonetheless, and it is an exciting time to be where I am. Lots of talking, lots of training, lots of creating new things. The only reason to complain, I guess, is not having enough hours on a 36-hour week.

Other than that:

• My oven now decided to short-circuit the entire house (fun!) and needed to be checked by a technician. Solution is… in the air for now. Still need to find a a specific part – and I am in need for non-oven recipes!
• Started – and somehow kept the rhythm – to do 10 sun salutations a day. Goooo Yoga. Would have just been better not to do them at 3 am in the morning, but what can one do when one has insomnia?
• Tested a few project management tools for the thesis and concluded that… I will use Evernote anyway.

Work related activities have resumed in their always fast pace, but I’ve been managing to keep at least a good balance and step back from things. Some planning has been completed, and lots of meetings scheduled. Let’s see for how long I can keep the commitment of no more than 5 meetings a day. By looking at the calendar, it may not last long, but…

Academically speaking it was quite a productive week. Final paper with research design was delivered, and at the same time the effort helped me refine the hypotheses and literature review. Whereas the result is a far cry from what my thesis should be, at least I start having a general idea of what I don’t know and what I need to go after. The upcoming Research Workshop about academic articles is opening up a new realm of possibilities – and showing me new paths for things I have done differently in the past when submitting articles (and struggling while doing it).

And…

• Started with the 30 day cleaning routine suggested by Apartment Therapy. Looking good so far.
• Loved this article on how to have the best year of your life (stolen from Dani’s Twitter stream)
• A little bit bummed out that my yoga books by Iyengar were left in Brazil, but started reading something along the same lines via Kindle. And hopefully I can get back on track.

New Years Eve - third year going to Loveland – very close to our place, which is convenient. This time, however, the music quality started to make me wonder if the focus on convenience hasn’t been exaggerated this time.

Research – the thesis proposal, aligned with a final paper I need to deliver on research designs is going well although yet unfinished. The topic will definitely be diffusion of information on social network sites, which opens a great door to sharpen (or rather develop from scratch?) my skills on data mining and data analysis. Definitely more to come on that.

And…

• Started the year with some level of house cleanup – not yet at the level I want. But several things are (or have been) donated. Declutterization process started!
• Amazed by the utility of Zotero, particularly when combined to Chrome and WebDAV backup. Definitely a keeper, and more stable than Mendeley (let’s of course not even mention EndNote)
• Agenda for January is defined. Even with pt days the rhythm will be intense. Let’s hope for the best.