New Blog Header

Look! The Langham Project got a new blog header.

Judd designed this for us the other day.

What do y'all think? We both have wide screens so we are not sure how it looks on other computers.

Can you see it? Is it centered? Any suggestions?

I Can’t Get No…Diss-er-ta-tion

I hope you folks have figured out that when my blog gets to the point where I am writing like a third grader about the Westminster Dog Show (of which I didn’t even get to watch in entirety) that I must be at a breaking point.  Yeah, sorry about that last post.  I was even embarrassed as I was publishing it.  I am (and have been for about the last month) totally consumed with attempting to plan and write my Ph.D. dissertation prospectus.  I am hoping to have something to show my committee approximately two weeks prior to my prospectus meeting date of March 19th.  Do the math.  That is REALLY soon.  I am starting to panic.  At this point, I really don’t have anything that I am proud to present at the meeting.  If you have some room on your prayer list, please add me to it.  I am getting so tired and frustrated.

If you don’t know, the prospectus is the first “mini” draft of the first three dissertation chapters. It is usually about 20-30 pages.  If my prospectus is approved, then I can begin preparing for and writing my official proposal (the first full draft of Chapters 1, 2, and 3), take my comps, apply for IRB approval, set my proposal meeting date, and apply for admission to candidacy.  Once I achieve candidacy status and get IRB approval I will be allowed to start my data collection for chapters 4 and 5.  I am hoping that I can do all of that this semester (or at least the 8 weeks of it that are left).  Keep in mind that I am still taking three classes and working full-time.

So, that is where I am at the moment.  This arrived in my in-box last week.  It was an attempt to bring some humor to the situation that my fellow Dissertation Divas and I find ourselves in right now.  If you are a doctoral student in the early dissertation phase or if you know a doctoral student experiencing this or if you know one who has experienced this then you might find the video below funny (and sad), too.  Pay close attention to the words.  The lyrics are pretty clever and depict my feelings at the moment.  At least, by the looks of this video, I am not the only person who has ever felt this way at this point in the process.

I find myself particularly relating to the “I don’t have a prospectus and I think they are starting to suspect this” line.

Source: You Tube - (I Can't Write) No Dissertation -Metrics Gang

Westminster Dog Show Winner

Happy Valentine’s Day, y,all.  I hope your evening was so much more fun than mine.   I hope you spent it curled up next to your loved one (be it human or canine).  I spent the evening away from my one true love because I was in class.  I did manage; however, to get home just in time to hear the winner of the Westminster Dog Show.  Judd and I always get a kick out of watching the show.  Last night, we caught a few tidbits of it.  While watching we saw this beautiful, and exceptionally hairy, fellow.  He won tonight.

After watching him win, we looked down at our own sweet four-legged boy.  We couldn’t help but laugh.   You just couldn’t ask for a better dog.  He is SO loving and sweet. But, his breath and goofiness would take him out of the running for sure. 

This was the facial expression he was making prior to us watching the announcement of the winner.

 

This was after we praised and commented on the other dogs.

He was really into the show this year, himself.  Can’t you tell?  I don ‘t think he appreciated us laughing at him.  Nor did he appreciate my commentary on the other dogs.  He huffed and puffed and pouted and eventually went to sleep with his favorite baby.

Feed My Starving Children

A few weeks ago my colleagues from UAB’s Office of Planning and Analysis, Judd, and I had the opportunity to package food to help feed starving children throughout the world.  The organization that facilitates and plans this effort is called Feed My Starving Children (FMSC).  The site where we volunteered was Shades Mountain Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL.  Shades Mountain offered its Christian Life Center gymnasium as a site for the mobile meal packing session.

One of my colleagues, Mary Beth, mentioned the opportunity to participate to us.  The entire office eagerly agreed to volunteer.  She told us that Feed My Starving Children “is an organization that uses volunteers to pack dry ingredients in such a way that they can be distributed to areas where there is no food and provide several nutritious meals.  It is a fascinating project AND process that the Shades Mountain Baptist Church family loves being a part of.”

Here is a link that shows more of what FMSC is about.  http://www.fmsc.org/page.aspx?pid=232.”

This year Shades Mountain Baptist doubled its level of participation and attempted to package over half a million meals.  When the entire event was finished, Shades Mountain’s pastor announced that the FMSC goal had been exceeded and lots of great volunteers packed more than 545,000 meals over the several days of the MobilePack event.  That is enough meals to feed 1,494 children for a year!!!

I’ve included a brief video about Feed My Starving Children.

 

I didn’t have my good camera with me that day; however, I did manage to capture the moment using my iPhone.  After all, who would want to forget how we all looked in hairnets?  We all had a great time and look forward to helping with FMSC again next year.  Go FMSC!  Go Shades Mountain Baptist!  Go Office of Planning and Analysis!  Whoop-whoop.

If you would like to volunteer for a MobilePack event click on the link below to see when Feed My Starving Children will be in your area.

Link: Feed My Starving Children MobilePack Event Dates