it's like being trapped in one of those horrid little logic puzzles

[truepenny]

Trying to get four professors to agree on a time when they're all free to meet is a feat akin to balancing the Eiffel Tower on a basketball.

I think, though, that it explains why I've been so unmotivated and unproductive this week. When I'm undertaking something complicated (like a dissertation defense), I like to get each item cleared out of the way and taken care of before I move on to the next. And so the fact that I've been chasing my own tail over the scheduling for most of a week means that I haven't felt comfortable about proceeding with the research, even though the two chores are related only in so far as they relate to the same object, viz., the dis.

Hopefully, the morning of Guy Fawkes Day will be acceptable to all of them, and I can achieve closure on this conundrum and get back to work.

Comments

[renenet.livejournal.com]

Hopefully, the morning of Guy Fawkes Day will be acceptable to all of them

Woo hoo! And afterward there can be fireworks! And bonfires! And burning in effigy! And maybe we can get in the really trippy spinning barrel optical illusion "ride" that was the only thing I could manage to get on at the carnival I attended on Guy Fawkes Day ten years ago. (Although they queue so nicely for nearly everything else, apparently Brits do not queue for carnival rides. It was more of a pile-on situation, and I feared some child's elbow would put out my eye or my kidney or something, so I opted out of the real rides.)

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

I empathize. A large part of my job is organizing MA and PhD comprehensive exams and dissertation defenses. So here is an honest-to-god heartfelt "Poor baby." I'm sorry you don't have a graduate secretary to do the footwork for you.

>pat, pat<

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I appreciate that very much.

Actually, I'm just as glad to do it myself, since the department assistant is dreadfully overworked already, with plenty of headaches of her own. It's just frustrating. Ergo, I vent. :)

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

Let me know if you want me to mail you some fireworks. *g*

[oursin.livejournal.com]

But now you've actually done it, solving the problem of the cannibals, missionaries, river and small boat should be easy-peasy. Glad to hear that it is settled, and that things can now move on.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Except one of the cannibals snuck into the boat with the missionaries.

ONE professor doesn't like Wednesday. They may get stuck with it anyway, as the other time seems to have more problems attached, but I honestly wanted this to be at a good time for everyone, and it seems I can't have that.

[oursin.livejournal.com]

Aargh. 'You can please some of the people all of the time..' etc. I also quote what someone says in John Buchan's The Three Hostages, that you can have success providing you don't go all out for victory: trying to get a good time for all four people may be something that could take well into the next decade.

On dreadful dissertation defences, there's a memorable example in one the Amanda Cross Kate Fansler mysteries, I think it's A Death in the Faculty (my copy of which is not currently on the shelf with the others, a mystery in itself).

[oursin.livejournal.com]

No, it's Poetic Justice.