The presentation yesterday went well. I enjoyed the experience. No pictures though, so apologies for that. I’m toying with the idea of making the presentation a podcast or a youtube video or something. The google powerpoint leaves a lot to be desired…

Found this little link on the web and found it interesting that other tourist resorts are dealing with similar issues to what the Bahamas dealt with all those years ago.

I’m pleased to report that the presentation in Toronto went well. Here are a couple pictures of the event with me in front of the presentation machine.

Now that I have returned back to ‘life as usual’ I have to come to terms with my being almost a month behind the schedule that I established for myself in September. The schedule went something like this:

• September – Send in my applications for funding / ethics approval.
• October – Read all of the Ferguson scripts that I have and create notes on them.
• November – Get my research trip planned.
• December – Go on that research trip to Nassau.
• January – Return to Ottawa and begin writing the thesis.

At present, I’ve read all of the Ferguson scripts that I have. (Well all except one.) And I have taken notes on 20 of them. So I’m half way through with that.

I just got approval from the ethics board. And my funding applications have been in for awhile. So Septembers to-do list is finished.

So here it is at the end of November and I’m not finished my October to-do list. Not good.

If I must assign blame, I can think of two reasons why I’m behind. First has been my TA assignment. This year I’m a marking-only TA, but thus far there has been a good deal of marking. I just finished marking another mid-term exam, so this term I’ve marked over 150 pieces of work. Although this work-load is substantially less than what I did for last years TA assignment, where I was leading two tutorials, marking weekly assignments plus two 5-6 page essays per term, it still takes its toll on my schedule. For example I’ve essentially been marking papers non-stop for the last month. This takes a chunk out of your productivity.

Second, the Conference in Toronto, while being a wonderful experience did take a lot out of me. There was the weeks before, getting my paper and presentation together for it, (while marking of course) and then the 5 days that I spent in Toronto which were so sleep deprived I was sick on my return.

So there are my excuses. Both are non-issues going forward. For instance, my TA work drops substantially in the coming months. There is only one other assignment to mark, and that comes in March-April. Conferences won’t be a problem again. Although I have signed up for another two conferences, I don’t have to re-do the presentation or the paper. And the aforementioned conferences are in Ottawa, so there won’t be any travel involved.

So looking forward, things are good. And truth be told, by forcing me to write that conference paper, I have a jump on some of my work for a thesis chapter. I’ll discuss this more later. For now, I’ll try to get back on track.

I thought you would like two little links here. This is the conference website and a link to the panel where I’ll be presenting.

I think that’s enough for now, I have to go mark some papers.

I’m in Toronto, and the only thing left to do are practice, practice and practice. I just finished putting up the paper on the site, (with end-notes!) And now I’m going to share the presentation in its present form with you.

I will probably incorporate this in the essay page, but that will have to wait. But for now, here it is:

This is the presentation that I gave at the end of my 5001 “Historical Practice” class, April 2008. I think it gives you a good idea of where the project came from, how it evolved and where I was at the time.

Enjoy.

News ladies and gentlemen. I have a presentation to prepare for. I’ll be at the CERLAC Graduate Student Research Conference on Latin America and the Caribbean 7-8 November 2008, York University, Toronto. I’m presenting on the “Fergusons of Farm Road”, a.k.a. my research to date. Research that I will be sharing with you here as time goes on. So basically I have a month to prepare. The sound you hear is me hyperventilating.

This week went well as far as work was concerned. I went through 3 episodes, note taking and annotating. TA duties took away a good deal of my moxie this week. I severely underestimated the time it was going to take me to mark a map quiz. Thank God that another TA is now working with me. I was quite glad and grateful to give her half of the stack.

Going through the episodes this week, what stood out to me was that the character archs could be a source of meaning. For instance, there is a character named Samuel, and he develops from an irresponsible carouser into the assistant manager of the hotel where he works. Remember that while the show was running the Bahamas was going from a colony to an independent nation. Could that Character’s story have any greater meaning? Could he be a metaphor for the country’s development? I have to read more to find out for sure. But this angle looks promising.

I’m also working on a thorough redesign of the site. Should be done in a couple weeks. I’m trying to get it done before the conference. Hopefully the work on that doesn’t interfere with me getting my presentation together. Just a hunch, but I think that is more important.

(Although a redesign would be so very nice.)