Fresh Start

For everyone that has read my blog in the past, I wanted to let you know that the blog has moved.

The blog has now moved to
http://cyclinginacademia.blogspot.com/

This move now reflects the fact that I am no longer a graduate student but the theme- balance in life- remains the same!


Hope to see you over there!

Good News!!!

I have been waiting to share some very good news with everyone until now but now I can share with everyone.......

I have a faculty position in Florida. I will be on faculty at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, FL. YEAH!!! After the years in graduate school I am happy that I have finished my Ph.D. and that I have a great job. I feel very luck to have a job given the academic job market. The fact that it is a job that I am very excited about makes it even better.

So now I will be transitioning from the role of graduate student to faculty member. Plus transitions from living in Texas to living in Florida. I am excited about teaching several classes in the fall and starting up my research. Hopefully, I can still find the balance in life to find time to fit some bike rides in around time with my family and work.

Now we are trying to finish up all of the plans to move to Florida. We have found a place to live, rented a moving truck and are packing up. So it will be an interesting couple of weeks but the end result of the work will be great.

Summer Trip

We just got back from our family summer trip to North Carolina to see our family and friends back in Cary, NC.  It was nice to get back to NC and have some time to celebrate finishing my dissertation. While I did not get to see all of my friends, I did get to meet with a lot of them. I was even able to take my bike on the trip and join in four rides while I was there. The Capitol Cycling Club 4th of July ride in Cary holds a special place in my heart since it was the first 100K ride that I ever did. This year I went with the lead group for the first time. I expected that I would be able to stay with them for about 30 miles but that I would be dropped and find a group of folks I know to ride the rest of the ride with. To my surprise I was able to stay with the lead group for the entire ride!!! We ended up averaging only 22.2 miles per hour but the first hour was much faster. I guess getting my rear end kicked by Cat 1,2, and 3 Texas Racers has made me much stronger!

The trip to NC was much nicer since we had my wife's new car. We got a Honda CR-V and I love it. I am pretty jealous of her new car and the drive to NC was very nice.

Dissertation Defense

Last Friday I defended my dissertation and following the defense I was greeted by my committee with words that I had never heard addressed to me. Before I tell you what they were let me describe the dissertation defense process for those of you who do not know about it.

The first step in the entire dissertation process (after you have a good research idea, examine the literature, and write a proposal) is to have a proposal meeting in which you give your committee a proposal document that reviews the existing literature, describes the research project you want to do, and how you will analyze the data. Assuming that your are able to convince your committee that the project you want to do is well designed and needed, you then start collecting the data (after you have IRB approval), analyze the data, and then write up your findings. Once you have written up the findings and your committee chair (Advisor) thinks that the document is ready to go, you send the manuscript out to your committee schedule the defense meeting (with the committee and notify the department and grad school).

At the start of the defense meeting everyone except the committee members leaves the room and the committee decides if the candidate can proceed with the defense. If they think that the candidate is ready then everyone can come back in the room and the defense starts. During the defense the candidate (student) presents the findings of the dissertation project with probably a good deal of questions. The night before my defense a friend sent me a link about a part of the defense that I was not aware of (the snake fighting portion- http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/faq-the-snake-fight-portion-of-your-thesis-defense They never tell you about the snake fight in the grad school manual but prepare anyway). Thankfully I had time to prepare.

My meeting was scheduled for two hours and given the number of hypotheses I had and number of questions that I received the meeting took the full two hours. Once the presentation and questions are finished, everyone except the committee members leave the room and the committee deliberates regarding whether the candidate has successfully defended the dissertation and earned their Ph.D. I can tell you that waiting in the hall during that time is brutal. Thankfully I had two very nice people waiting with me (THANK YOU SHANA and DANIEL). When I went back into the room I was worried that the committee wanted changes and for me to defend again (I guess it was just a lack of confidence). The committee greeted me with just a few words: Congratulations Dr. Banks.

WOW

For the first time someone was using the words Dr. Banks and not talking about my parents!!!

Following my defense my committee had suggested a new analysis and a handful of changes, which I was able to take care of this week. Today I submitted what should be the final paper work to the graduate school!

So now it is time to celebrate! And there is additional good news that I will share soon regarding what I will be doing in the fall.

So thank you to everyone that has been a part of my success over the last several years.

It all leads up to this

Tomorrow I defend my dissertation and accomplish the last step in graduate school. I started in graduate school in August of 2001 in a developmental psychology program. After several years of classes and research I discovered that developmental psychology was not my main interest and I was much more interested in cognition. Once I finished my masters degree I left the program and worked for several years. The years that I spent working, doing research for a living, changed my focus and interest in research completely. I realized that I loved research and needed to go back to school and earn my PhD. So my very understanding wife willingly moved to North Texas so that I could do so.

After several years of classes and many hours working in the lab collecting data and writing I am almost finished. The last step in the process is to defend my dissertation. Hopefully I will have good news to report tomorrow!

Morning

It may shock some of the folks that I work with but I am not a morning person. I have always been happier staying up late rather than getting up early. However, once I finished my masters degree and started working I switched to an early schedule. I always like getting to work before many other people. When I started back in school to finish my PhD. I really enjoyed getting in to campus before 8am because it usually meant that I could work for an hour or two before there were a lot of other people in the lab. So I was able to get a lot done!

I still like getting in to work early and getting a lot done when it is quiet but in the last few weeks I have been trying to get up a little earlier and go for a run a few days a week. While I like riding in the afternoon when it is hot I can not run in the heat. Now I do not like running but I know that it is good for me so I am trying to do it more. Maybe it is because I do not like running and maybe it is because it is early in the morning but I have had a very hard time waking up early to run. I am still getting up at my normal time to work but getting up earlier to run has not been working.

I am not trying to run five days a week but twice a week would be nice. I do like the way I feel when the run is over and it is a great start to the day. I put a new playlist on my ipod for the run, hoping to encourage getting up to run but still no luck.

So if anyone has any ideas...I am up for suggestions.

Progress

The week has resulted in a pretty good amount of progress for both school and riding. In the last week I have finished my dissertation, set it to my committee, and scheduled my dissertation defense. I started at UNT less than 4 years ago but on some days it feels like we have been here for much longer. At the same time I can not believe that my dissertation is less than two weeks away. Hopefully I will have very good news to report in the next few weeks and until then I need to get my powerpoint for my defense meeting ready.

On the riding front I am feeling much stronger on the bike. Maybe fixing the brake that was rubbing and raise my saddle a millimeter or two made a difference but I am also starting to really feel pretty fresh and able to respond to attacks. Yes I got dropped tonight on the King of Wednesday ride (KOW) but I stayed with the group much longer than usual.