Research can be fun, at times.

This morning (as in Monday 1-3-2011), I spent several hours working on my research for my dissertation. The process is slow and very time consuming, so I had set myself a goal of completing 20 items of data entry per day. This would put me at the 200 items of data by Sunday January 9th. But today, inspiration came and I not only did my 20 for today, but also did 13 extra. That may not seem like a lot, but considering the amount of searching I have to do for each data item and then transcribing it into my spreadsheet, I think I am doing pretty good. In fact, my advisor had expected me to complete about 25 data items PER WEEK. I have also been lucky that I have not had much to distract me from the task over the last few weeks, as I have been working on getting my diabetes in check.

My last visit to the doctor was not very good. I had not been taking my diabetes medication properly, based on my odd working shifts and class schedule for the fall. In fact, I wasn't eating properly as well and the medication has to be taken with food, so my doctor lectured me and his nurse yelled at me, and when I informed everyone else, I continued to get lectured and yelled at for my improper control of the diabetes. Suffice to say, my doc put me on a leave of absence from work so that I can get a better grip on the situation, and I will say that I have been eating more regularly and taking my medication as the doctor prescribed.

In addition, I have been rewarding myself for the better eating and medication by allowing myself more time on the xbox. I have really gotten into the Lego Harry Potter years 1 - 4, for some reason, but when I tried playing the Harry Potter: Half-Blood Prince game, I was less than enthused. In fact, I quit playing it and went back to Lego Harry Potter. I have also been playing Mass Effect A LOT lately, having fun changing the settings and going through the adventures with different characters and powers. I have even upped the difficulty of the game and am currently set on Hardcore mode. It is much easier to advance in difficulty on Mass Effect than it is on Guitar Hero.

Anyway, this post has gone on longer than I anticipated and I want to get back to more research. I am going through the states alphabetically and am about to start on the state of Missouri.