I am attempting to cut out three-quarters of my thesis so that I am able to submit the rest to a journal; deadline = two weeks. I am having buckets of trouble. I finally decided what I want to narrow the topic down to, so I just took the document and cut out everything that was not either in that subsection or in the conclusion, which helped for some thousands of words. However, I still had a massive amount yet. I am doing African-American Islam and US politics...I have a ton of material on the history of different Af-Am Islamic movements, most of which needs to go. But what? What is relevant and what is not? I thought it would be fairly easy to make huge cuts, but it's not. I spent a year carefully crafting every sentence of this thesis, put in all the necessary things, made it flow well...hard to just chop it up. So today I tried just cutting out the entire section of history of the movements (the present-day and future impact on politics is I suppose the more major focus of this particular piece), thinking that I could just add back in a summary as necessary, and maybe that would make it easier. Then I just got depressed when I re-word-counted and saw how much that removed (around 7,000 words. that was after I had already tried to cut out a lot of the history section). I also need to re-write the introduction and adapt the conclusion. The statistical analysis section can pretty much remain how it is, I think. But this is hard! My thesis, which I described last year as my baby, seems to have inherited my stubbornness. The sentences are crying out to me, "But how could you cut me? It took you a week to find my quote! How are people going to understand the influences of rap lyrics on the political activism of non-Muslims if you don't include me?"
Ohhhh, they're so persuasive.
Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone. Martins has already chastised me for being sober right now (well, he did so around noon, and now it is 2, so double apologies). I missed the parade though, you see. I slept in (ahhhh....) and then went running. I am ok with that. I am going to go to the Fees' for irish coffee/late lunch and then out to the bars. I think it will be a very good time. And yes, I am wearing green sillies. Socks, underwear, shirt. I have green pants but they didn't go so nicely with the shirt and as my face isn't painted I didn't think it necessary. Not that I have to justify myself to you lot. ;)
So, Bridget found us an apartment in Uptown. I am very excited about it. We're going to be living right by M&A, and by J's new place. And we have set down some very strict rules. (B, I hope you haven't forgotten them yet...)
1. Mary takes care of the plants.
2. When you get home from work, you put on your pajamas.
3. Margarita night is once a week.
Yay!
I need to write a letter to Mary K. down in Paraguay. I was so happy to find her blog, which included her address, last November, and was planning on sitting down and writing her a nice long letter over Thanksgiving. I even burned her a CD (she requested mix CDs on her blog). I wanted to wait until I had lots of time so that I could really write her a nice long heartfelt letter, since I miss her and thought I had lost touch with her permanently!
...And of course we all know I spent my Thanksgiving watching 2 seasons of Arrested Development back-to-back, so that letter didn't get written. And...hasn't yet. But I think I may do that this afternoon. This weekend at least (since I just looked at the clock and I don't know if I will have time before Meg comes to get me for the holiday). I can't email her because it appears that she only gets to the city (and a computer) every few months, judging from the frequency and timing of her posts. But I think that since she doesn't know the letter's coming anyway, she won't be upset. Rather, perhaps even nicely surprised. Anyway, I was thinking about her a little more today because it's St. Pat's, and she's my lil' Irish twin from South Chicago, who is probably pining away for some green beer right now. (Although I kinda get the impression that dates aren't exactly something that you stick tight to down there.)
Alright, going to finish some things, and keep the essay in my mind. Garrr, what do you want to be, you little fucker? (Pardon the language.)
