Summer is finally here. Contrary to popular belief, this does not mean that PhD students like myself get to relax and take it easy for three months. As I have spent a large portion of the year so far teaching undergraduates (which I love doing, but takes a considerable amount of time), my own research has been largely neglected. Summer, as a result, is work time.
I have decided that I want to write 500 words relating to my thesis every day, from now until September. If I manage that, I should be in a really strong position for finishing my thesis on time. As I actually want to do it, I have written it here, so that if I don’t, other people will know, and I will be extremely embarrassed!
This is not where my summer plans begin and end, however, and I’d like to mention a few other plans and recent things in my life here.
One omission that has been notable in recent weeks from my blog is any note of the election results. Those who know me will realise that I was – to put it minimally – quite unhappy about them. I was in quite a funk for a few weeks. The day after I shaved my head (hair still growing back now, as seen below), and pretty much stayed in my room for a long time. I do think the results have condemned a lot of people to much more hardship than needs to be the case, and I find that quite regretful.
However, moping won’t change anything. As has been echoed by relevant parties consistently recently, elections are only a small part of politics. There are many other ways that people can make their voices heard. Electoral reform groups have been particularly active recently, noting that the results were the most disproportionate in UK history and calling for changes to be made.
Though the situation may look a bit bleak, we have to keep trying to make the world a better place. We must try to dissuade the government from its harsh austerity measures. For that reason, I have decided to march at the anti-austerity protest in London on the 20th of June. I expect a really large crowd, and hopefully this will demonstrate just how opposed many of us our to many of the changes threatened.
In other recent events, I’ve recently moved house back to McIntosh Hall. I will be an assistant warden here for the foreseeable future. It’s a much more central place in St Andrews than my previous residence (Albany Park), and I get a double bed, which is clearly a big win. 🙂
The last week has been particularly eventful for me. I went to a conference in St Andrews earlier this week, which was great fun. I also had an abstract accepted for a conference in Sheffield in July, and more recently I was interviewed by The Independent about my kidney donation. The article now features on their i100 site.
I do have other plans for the summer as well, which hopefully will lead to exciting updates soon, so I think that’ll do for now!
Peace.
Joe Slater: A Rantspace 