Of all of the things in the world which annoy me to no end, perhaps there is nothing more annoying than when you are put in a situation where your success depends upon the work ethic of another person (or people). Since undertaking graduate work in Sociology, I have learned this lesson a countless number of times. Dealing with bureaucracies is bad enough, but when each level of that hierarchy is dead set on delaying their work until the last possible second, nothing but frustration can occur. In August I took my second comprehensive (or qualifying) exam in Environmental Sociology.
The fact that it is my second comp means that once it has been passed I will be done taking classes. Forever. Due to some poor planning within the graduate committee, it was decided that the graders of each comp area have 5 weeks from the start of the semester following the completion of the exam. This means that for those who took their comp in May, and those who took it with me in August, we all should know by the end of the 5th week after the fall semester started. Unfortunately, because we will have had to be registered for classes by then, some students end up in my predicament.
I am now enrolled in a course which is not a part of my Program of Studies (basically my list of classes I needed and would take that I filled out and had approved by my dissertation committee, the graduate chair of the department, and the office of graduate studies), and will be stuck in the class until I find out if I have passed or not. Because my committee has decided to wait until the last second, I have to take this extra class seriously, because if I did not pass the comp, I will be stuck in the class AND have to play catch-up. If I do pass the comp, I can drop the class, no harm, no foul. Unfortunately, because I am now in grad school purgatory, I am yet again, stuck waiting for someone else to complete their responsibilities, before I can concretely know what my next step is.
If I pass, I need to write my dissertation proposal this semester. If I fail, I need to study for the comp again, and prepare to take it in January of 2009 and hopefully complete it then.
When I am in a situation like this, it makes me really stressed out. At this stage in the Ph.D. program, I would like to minimize the amount of unnecessary work that I do as I try to complete what (assuming I have passed the comp) is my last task before becoming a Ph.D. I really needed some release, so I bought a new mountain bike. My old mountain bike is F.U.B.A.R. (which lead me to get my Trek 7200 hybrid almost 2 years ago now), and in my youth I rode mountain bikes most of the time and spent a lot of time in the mountains (Big Bear, Idyllwild, Mammoth, and the dirt hills near my boyhood home). I haven't taken it out on the trail yet, mainly because it's been raining and muddy as all hell due to the last few days of rain, but I am hoping to get it out there soon.
The new mountain bike is a 29er, which is also new to me especially off the road, but the price was right, and it is pretty cool. I will probably get shit for not buying it from a local bike shop, but I figured for the amount I'd save it was worth the hassle. Also, i've become quite handy at maintaining my bikes at home now, and so it will be quite rare that I actually need to go to the shop to get something fixed. I'm anxious to see how different a 29" wheel on a mountain bike feels on dirt compared to the 26" wheels I've always had in the past.
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