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.

Ooppsss

It pays to keep up with your bike maintenance and I found out one of the issues that I have had on some recent rides my not have just been my legs (or lack of legs). I noticed that my front brake was rubbing on the wheel. Yes that can slow you down with out you noticing if you are not paying attention. The brake was not rubbing so much that I could notice it unless I was really paying attention.

I was able to clean my bike this weekend and fix the brake issue by simply centering the brake. While I was cleaning the bike I wanted to try and fix another issue that I had been having with shifting. A couple of weeks ago I broke a spoke on my rear wheel. I took it to a local shop and had it fixed the same day and did not think any thing about it. The only issue was that after I had the spoke fixed was some shifting issues. Now I need to get a new cassette so I assumed it was just wear in some gears I use more. When I really looked at my cassette once I had removed the wheel I quickly noticed the issue.

The order of cogs on my cassette should be 11-12-13-14-15-16-..... However, the order that the cogs was 11-12-13-15-14-16-17....

No wonder I was have issues with shifting. Hopefully I have fixed the issues and will the riding will be much stronger. The moral of the story keep your bike properly maintained.

Why can't we all get along

Today I had a experience that shocked me. One of my friends posted something on facebook that I just could not believe. The exact quote was "you know what really grind my gears? People on bicycles holding up busy roads. Or people on bicycles on winding country roads"

Now as a cyclist I feel very strongly about cyclist right to the road and safety on the road. My friend is not a cyclist and I bet just does not understand what it is like to be out on the road on a bike. The comment resulted in a debate that went on most of the day about whether bikes belong on the road or not. 

I spent the day thinking about how to show him that not only do bikes belong on the road but that people should stop taunting us thinking that it is funny. My main concern is that if I can not convince a friend of this, how can we possibly change all of the drivers out there that we don't know. I know that I don't have the answer but maybe the place to start is to get more folks on bikes. I know that once I got on a bike I realized a lot more about driving and how to safely pass bikes when I am in my car.


So talk to your friends and get them out on a bike. Even if it is just for 1 ride. You never know....they may decide that they really like riding.

Frustration

This past weekend I had two rides that were very frustrating. I am used to getting dropped on my Saturday ride since that ride usually has a ton of racers much better than I am. However, this last Saturday there were several races in the DFW area and so most of the racers were not on the ride. Yet I still got dropped. To add insult to getting dropped as I was chasing back I ran into this guy:

I have no idea what kind of snake it was. I did not really want to get that close. It looked a little like a copper head from what I saw. I was happy that I had good brakes and was able to come skidding to a stop before running over it.  The delay in stopping for it to finish crossing the road made me miss regrouping with the rest of the pack and I road the rest of the ride by myself. It was especially fun given the 25mph head wind with 30-35 mph gusts.

Sunday was even a little worse since I was getting dropped by a group of strong riders but no Cat 1 or 2 racers. Very frustrating.

What is most frustrating is that I know why I am not strong on the bike and how to fix it. Fixing it has been difficult thought. I need to ride a lot more. I have gained some strength in the last month and I am very hopeful that I will get a lot stronger in the next month. I am scheduling my dissertation defense now and will hopefully be done with that soon!!!!

So time for more intervals and lots of time on the bike.