Prospectus Rough Draft #1

That is the name of the file in the folder "Dissertation." It leaves little to the imagination, is somewhat long and maybe even a smidgen unwieldy. But it will assist me in the future to remember which document is which--I fully expect this prospectus to see many drafts, at least three, hopefully no more than nine, and they will all be properly labeled. Changes will be made at this stage that perhaps at a later stage should be revisited.

Regardless of the future tense, in the present tense, I am currently in a holding pattern. I e-mailed my first draft of my prospectus rough draft to my dissertation director only an hour ago, and I await her response with eagerness and anticipation. Yes, my topic has gone through an existential crisis these past several months, but I'm ready now and refreshed, and I believe both myself and my topic find ourselves imbued with a second restorative wind.

My friend Smitty and I were talking on the phone Tuesday night; it was our regularly scheduled weekly phone date. When she asked about my prospectus (she has already begun work on the second draft of hers), I began to mumble and babble a little incoherently about how it's still sitting at 7 pages and how I still have to add some references and quotes here and there. And she asked me why I hadn't finished it last week, like I originally planned. I made up some excuse or other (I always do), but she didn't accept it. So, she asked me what my plans were for this weekend. I told her that I am spending time with my family. She responded, "That sounds nice. You'll have your prospectus e-mailed by Friday evening, then." I said, "Yeah...I guess I could probably swing that." Not convinced by my response, she changed the deadline on me! "Okay, then you'll have the prospectus e-mailed by Thursday. You don't want to be worrying about packing and doing laundry while you finish editing your prospectus." I attempted to disagree with her and beg for leniency, but she relented none. Sighing, I accepted the established deadline. Thursday.

Today is Thursday. After returning from my second class, and feeling utterly wiped out and exhausted, I knew I had to accomplish something, anything, and that Smitty would be checking in with me at some point in the next twelve to sixteen hours. So, sighing again, I opened my old exam notebooks, perused the hundreds of pages of quoted material until I found the sources I had originally referenced (and yes, they're organized with tabs--the search didn't take long), and then I began to insert quotes and citations into the document. Within a couple of hours, I was finished and reading and rereading and rerereading my document until I was satisfied that it was at least typo-free enough to submit to my director with little embarrassment.

And now, I sit in my office, waiting for Robert to return from class, and waiting for my director to open my e-mail and read the little bundle of mess that is my prospectus rough draft. But, in the meantime, I'm going to enjoy my Labor Day weekend! :)

P.S. I must clarify: I do not expect for her to read the rough draft nor even open my e-mail before next Tuesday. Administrators need a long weekend too, you know!

You're owning that track!

Yesterday morning, I decided I was tired of avoiding eye contact with myself in the mirror before and after showers, so I pulled out the $60 game Robert and I bought almost three months ago to help me deal with this very issue. The game is EA Sport's Active for the Wii. The game kit comes with an adjustable leg band, which holds the nunchuk controller and tracks lower-body movements, as well as a resistance band with handles for upper-body resistance workouts.

I strapped the leg band to my upper right thigh, having to use the extender to get the band to stay in place without cutting off my circulation, and put the game in the Wii console. Right away, my skepticism and anxiety whether this could be something I would enjoy or stick to were evaporated. The game greets you with a peppy soundtrack as well as the encouraging and motivating narration provided by physiologist Bob Greene (of Body for Life fame). After making my profile, I selected the thirty-day workout challenge. It comes in three intensity levels: low, medium, and high. Although I had myself up to a medium-to-high intensity level this time last year, I had fallen back to my lazy, couch-potato ways and thought I should ease into the program to increase the chances of my enjoying it and returning to it.

After choosing my trainer (the female trainer for accuracy of demonstrations--women's bodies are different from men's, after all), I began Day One of my thirty-day workout challenge. She started me with a lap around the track at a walk (which looks like marching in place), and then had me do a couple of laps around the track at a run (jogging in place). The best attribute of this game, from my very first impression, is that it is only ever positively motivational. Rather than saying things like, "You can do better than that," the game says instead, "You're doing great! Keep pushing yourself like that, and you'll meet your goals!" Inevitably, when the game gave me a positive remark like that, I picked up the pace. By the time the run was finished (only a couple of minutes at my intensity level), my trainer said, "Wow! Great job! With a run like that, you own the track!" She was so enthusiastic of my attempts that I could scarcely shut the compliment down with a negative thought. This is huge!

Other activities that I did yesterday included boxing (and the strength of the hit determines whether or not the target is merely tapped or broken apart--you want to break the targets apart), squats, biceps curls with the resistance band, rows, and inline skating.

I have decided that the inline skating is my favorite activity of them all yesterday. It required me to hold a squat for a period of time, and the deeper my squat, the faster my character would skate down the hill. Because I was so focused on the character's speed and accuracy, I gave little thought to my actual squat. Scattered on the hill, however, are ramps off of which the character is to jump and do tricks. This requires not only a deep squat (to approach the ramp at top speed) but also accuracy in the jump--if your jump is too late or early, the character is unable to perform the trick, which does affect points earned (as well as calories burned). So, the inline skating is not just about squatting, but it is about squat-jumps more to the point. I enjoyed this one the most because by the time I played the inline skating for the second round, I managed to make 7/9 tricks instead of 5/9.

I also earned two trophies yesterday. The game awards trophies for every achievement. No achievement is too minimal for this game, which can really help those who are highly competitive and need more than an encouraging word to keep going. The first trophy I earned was for starting my 30-day challenge, which was considered meeting a first goal. The second trophy I earned was for burning over 100 calories in that workout.

From what I've understood, the game is highly customizable according to the user's needs and goals. There's even a sliding scale off the profile page where the user can adjust his or her goals at will--meeting goals is another excuse to earn a trophy! Right now, my goals are the default ones given me by the game.

I will take advantage of the customization of the game when I am more confident in understanding my own needs. I believe that if I complete the 30-day workout challenge at all three intensity levels (for a total of 90 days), then I will begin to see what I need more of in order to see the results I'm after.

So, bring it on, Active! I'm ready for you!

P.S. A quick glance over at the EA Sports page for Active, it looks like there's an entire community for players! Also, a new expansion of the workouts comes out in November. I'm excited! :)

EA Sports: Active Website

P.P.S. I forgot to mention the length of my workout and how much I ended up sweating. It lasted about 45 minutes, I think, and I sweated like I was working out outside, even though I had my A/C turned all the way down. I was sore when I woke up this morning, as though I had gone to the gym. I'm really looking forward to seeing more results!