IRB-Less Publication

 

Recommitting to Daily

I'm going to start daily writing here again . . . Why? Well, for several reasons. 

1) I do better with daily activities in my life. I saw my son working on his sit-ups the other night, and I remembered that when I was his age, I had a daily goal of 100. Every night before I went to bed, I had to complete 100 sit-ups. It could be 3 sets of 30 with a kicker of 10 at the end. It could be all in one go. It could be 200 one night, then skip the next time. But, there had to be 100 a night. I think I did that all throughout high school. When I joined the Army, I maxed out the sit-up portion of the PT test. 

Since I'm in London and Oxford I thought 

Thursday, March 17, I spent the morning in anxiety, the afternoon in ecstasy, and the evening unconscious. Thursday night, somewhere between dark and dawn, I slowly surfaced into a nightmare which might have been all right if I’d been asleep.

Noveling and First Lines (again)

I've been making progress on the fourth novel, Sunset Perfect, in fact, I've found a writing buddy, or accountability partner, so I felt another good thing to do would be to keep the blog going as I move forward. 

BUT, this first post is not about that. This post is about my reading. Right now I'm reading 1984, again. I've read 1984 several times, and each time it's a bit more eye-opening. 

Tizzy Moments

I think it's funny how little things can throw us for a loop. For example, I felt like I was doing great yesterday. Working hard, moving forward, enjoying my work, etc. Then BOOM one message from my boss, and everything is thrown into a scrum. 

In this case, it's such a silly message too. 

Poor Fit

I got a chance to sit behind my old colleagues for a short flight back home. I didn't "try" to listen in, but I did hear. And each successive sentence made me realize how happy I was to have left. I listened to them say this and that and then this again,  . . . (then that again) . . . and I swear I didn't want to roll my eyes, . . But I may have. 

It made me think about the report I wrote several years ago. I tried to get it published. I thought it was good enough to be published, but it never was. I remember I got a somewhat poor grade on it, and I was furious, . . . apparently Dr. Priest is a better grader than I thought. No one else thought it was any good either. 

Autoethnography, Question 12

Can you describe an instance where emotional support from the group directly affected your academic progress?

Emotional support. That's an interesting one. I think as I've explained, that having Darron around and Andrew at the beginning helped me with a sense of "let me tag along with these smart cats and maybe i can get by." So there was that. Then with Anne, I felt a sense of belonging from another professional. So in terms of "imposter syndrome" having the group helped me over come those things. 

But then I also think about the number of times that William would express, "Don't worry, we promised we'd all get through this." Again, I don't remember making that "promise," but it was great that he reiterated it so much that it became a promise. And I think that underlying sentiment certainly helped me persevere when I might have considered stopping. 

Showmanship

I am not a showman. I can stand up in front of a class and provide training. I'm quite good at it at times, in fact. I think I trained myself to be comfortable with training, but it doesn't come naturally. When I'm done, I'm usually smoked. I think I've written before about energy and extroversion and introversion. Some (extroverts) are able to gain more energy from crowds or presentations, others (introverts) expend or waste that energy. I'm an introvert. 

So I'm not a natural showman. I'd much rather operate in the shadows rather than be a frontman. I was discussing this with my wife the other day when she was telling the CFO of the company she works for why it wasn't necessary for her to come in and meet the C-Suite. They were so appreciative of her work that they wanted to thank her. They didn't know that, like me, you thank me by not doing that. 

Buccee's Culture at Chick-fil-A?

Today I suppose I want to discuss organizational culture. It's always been interesting to me, and it's been a slow-burning interest overall. Culture, first for me, came into play around esprit de corps in the Army. There was a ton of competition for "best" battalion. Who had the fastest runners, who were the best at CQB, and which squad was best at combatives? Everything was a competition, and that competition raised everyone's standards. And we all thought ours was the best. 

It wasn't until later that I realized that all Army units have this same culture. Every single one thinks they are better than the others.