wispfox

Note that poly is not in the list of things included.

A survey as part of a study that you might want to take:

"My name is Mike Duncan, and I am a doctoral candidate at Pacific University in the School of Professional Psychology, Clinical Psychology program. I am interested in increasing our knowledge base regarding the social support of sexual minority graduate students. Your participation would be very valuable in increasing our understanding of this phenomenon. I hope you will consider participating in the study below.

Sexual minority graduate students currently enrolled in a 3-year (or longer) psychology program are invited to participate in an IRB-approved online survey [IRB # 156-14] that will enhance our understanding of the relation between sense of belonging and internalized sexual prejudice. The survey should take approximately 20 minutes to complete. Participants can choose to enter a drawing for one of three $20 Visa gift cards.

To participate in the study, please click the link below:

http://www.surveygizmo.com/…/Internalized-Sexual-Prejudice-…

If you have questions about this research, please contact the Principal Investigator, Mike Duncan, at [email protected].

Thank you for your time, interest, and participation."

Survey the first:

"Dear Participant

We are Laurel Watson and Franco Dispenza, and we are currently conducting a study along with Greg Brack regarding sexual minority men’s (e.g., gay, bisexual, questioning, queer) social experiences and sexual behaviors. The purpose of this study is to gain a greater understanding into sexual minority men’s social experiences, stress, and sexual behaviors and practices. The study has been approved by an Institutional Review Board (Federal Wide Assurance Number: 00000129)

If you are interested in participating, you will be asked to complete an anonymous online survey that will take approximately 30 minutes, one time only. If you are interested in participating, please click on the following link:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/sexualminoritymen

Or, if you would like further information, please email Franco Dispenza at [email protected]

Thanks for your consideration,"

Survey the second:

"If you are 18 or older and lesbian, bisexual, queer, transgender, or gay, please participate in a national and anonymous on-line survey study on how adult (18 or older) Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer people experience early memories of childhood support and how they relate to compassion, empowerment, and personal happiness. The study is being conducted by Dr. Darrell Greene and Dr. Paula Britton, through John Carroll University and the JCU Education and Allied Studies Department. The study will take about 30 minutes to complete. Benefit to you as a participant involves contributing to our knowledge of how to better help LGBTQ people receiving counseling. Complete the survey, and be eligible to win from $10 to up to $50 in gift cards. If interested, please go to the following surveylink:
http://www.research.net/s/ChildhoodSupportLGBTQ

(IRB# 2013-010)"

Got to see and be at least a little cuddly with underwatercolor, weegoddess, minerva42, and a couple of people who have no lj that I am aware of.

And then, today, 4 hours of quiet chatting and some cuddling with weegoddess, who also got to chat with galaneia a fair bit. :)

And, metahacker was kind enough to help with my "I am so low on cuddle and now aware of it oh god I can't sleep" problems late last night. It's like opening a door and finding a Gaping Chasm Of Doom (or, in this case, painfully aching need for touch)! I definitely need more people to cuddle with regularly, though, as it can be a bit hard on him to only really have metahacker to get cuddles from. Like if he's overpeopled or it's too warm or whatever, you know?

Tomorrow, start volunteering at the lab I'm going to be helping with. Should be good, and it'll be nice to figure out a reasonable schedule (likely not full time, since that's not great for me when I am being paid, let alone when not,). Will also start trying to figure out where to apply to, no matter how much I do not want to apply agaaaaaain.

Did a bit of painting of the porch railing, with more to come. metahacker finished painting the trim in the back room, and adjusted the arrangement of the furniture in that room. It looks fabulous, I think.

OpenOffice apparently cannot export to DOC anymore. It tries, and then freezes, eating all of my CPU.

I seriously hope this works at home, or I'm going to be forced to work in Word. Suck.

Apparently I have no stamina. I can't tell if I'm sick, overwhelmed, or depressed.

Unfortunately, it's translating to wanting to do anything _but_ my thesis work, which needs to be at a final draft stage before mid-July when my adviser is gone for three weeks. And it's due as in needs to be done and approved by my adviser and second reader by early August. And I just Don't Want To.

Mostly, just tired. Don't really want to do much of anything, and spent last weekend mostly sleeping (which probably means I'm actually sick). I think I may also be sleeping for crap, which may be due to the fact that I have a time pressure that I'm aware of and I feel like I'm not really doing enough about.

Grumble.

Yes, I've done a little meditation, mostly while trying to fall asleep. Not sure if it's helping.

Natural break in my work, and a need to leave in a few minutes means that I actually have time to write a post! Shock!

( because it's polite! )

Hrm. There does not appear to be an introduction to the use of MediaLab from the perspective of a programmer. Very sad. It's very like a scripting language, and I can't tell if I can tell it "hey, use the files in this directory", or if I actually have to specify each one individually. And, as it's typically used by psychologists, I find the help... somewhat less helpful than I would like, mostly because I'm impatient. Ah, well. I shall read it through and hope it answers my questions!

Very much enjoying having a job again. I mean, I _love_ working in the garden. But there's not a whole lot to _do_, and in fact trying to do too much makes the plants unhappy (see: overwatered container plants in our backyard right now). And there's only so much I can learn when I have not the physical space or brain space for the variety of interesting plants out there.

So now I have something to do and learn (make the lab have a website, and get as ready for my Masters thesis as I can before class starts in the fall). Largely, this involves, respectively, having access to the editing software and finding the PDFs of published lab work that aren't already handy, and figuring out MediaLab so as to make the previous work done work with my own (the only real changes are that the photos have changed, but I'd really like to make it easier to update/use/maintain, too). Also, most probably, I can start work on my proposal (which also sort of means that I will have started work on the thesis itself, I suspect).

I'm going to be _so_ busy with classes come fall. Yeesh.

Ok, I have taken multiple hours to get back to this, so I'm going to say I'm done!

I have thoughts that aren't quite solidifying about the confusion people often have when learning about poly for the first time in relation to the terminology one uses for partner(s) of people. Feels related in my head to the idea of there being a single progression path for monogamous relationships, so the idea of having multiple relationships and them being different types and states and such perhaps being even more perplexing. And stuff. Nebulous!

Boston College sent a rejection letter. Since Harvard is unlikely, it's down to Tufts and Brandeis. I realize that acceptances are slower than rejections, but now the distressing possibility of not making it in anywhere won't get out of my head.

I will be taking that time off this spring/summer regardless. And if I cannot get rehired at current place of employment, saving for school does mean I have a buffer. But.

As you may or may not know, I'm trying to figure out what I want to do for grad school, slightly more specifically than psychological research.

So far, I've determined that I don't feel like I have enough of a background in Psychology to _know_ what I want to do enough. Except possibly for HCI/usability, since that is a crossover between Computer Science & Psychology (or at least can be).

So my current school-related activities are trying to find places within Massachusetts (preferably Boston area) which have HCI PhDs or are something that I could convince to become such, which is not about coding (my CS undergrad degree means that I know that I do not actually _like_ coding much), and general master's programs (in case I don't get into the PhD programs, so that I can at least get a better idea of what I would like to do and how to do it).

Finding HCI graduate degree programs at _all_ has been... complex. Lots and lots and _lots_ of conversation with metahacker has helped quite a bit, both in my better understanding that I really don't have any idea what I'm doing with this search, and in pointing me at places that may be right.

I would like to be trying to apply for the 2010-11 school year, which means applying to schools this fall. And financial aid. And such.

I do at least have recent classes in psych stats and some minimal research experience, and a psych research professor at umass lowell who is utterly happy about being a reference for me.

But right now, I'm a bit (not totally) stuck on figuring out where to apply for PhD stuff relating to HCI in eastern MA. Suggestions are welcome, although much of why I feel stuck is that I was overwhelming myself by trying to figure this out in, well, February and January.