Geek sleepaway camp
16 November 2004
Woke up without an alarm at 6:30 AM today. Of course, today we weren’t going to be leaving until 8:30. Kakali and I immediately started talking qualitative methodology for reasons I can’t remember exactly. She went to take a walk and I took a shower. When I went to pack up my computer from Suseela’s room, I checked my e-mail, posted quickly to the blog, and signed onto IM where I surprised a few people with quick hellos before heading upstairs again for breakfast. Breakfast this morning was reheated scones and muffins from yesterday’s tea break. Very yummy. And strawberries. I wrote out my postcards from yesterday while eating. Tom had burned CDs of his pics from the weekend, so I took them with me to give one each to Chris and Dan.
When we got to the hotel, everyone settled in a lot more quickly. Johan and I were made “light committee” and we did our best to arrange the room so that today it could be brighter in general, without too much glare on the screen. The workshop went better today, and I was able to sort of help most people. Some of them thanked me profusely at the end, which always strikes me as weird since I don’t feel N6 is exactly a strong suit for me. During the coffee breaks, I walked both ways from the hotel, trying to find stamps. Chris came with me the second time, and we were successful. It was a beautiful day here, so I was happy to have the excuse to go for a walk.
After the workshop, Lyn rushed off to the opera, and Chris and I stayed to help Fiona shift tables and computers in preparation for the NVivo workshops. We’re going to have 20 participants instead of the 10 we had for N6. That puts trainer to participants at 1:3 instead of more than 1:1. Still, I’m looking forward to it. Should be faster paced, and I’m more invested in NVivo anyway. And Fiona is lead teaching. I really like her as I get to know her a little more. She seems to have a good sense of humor. I’m glad to have faces for these people I harass with technical questions periodically and no doubt will continue to do.
Chris was feeling beat, and interested in a beer, so we walked to the liquor store and bought a six pack. I figured that would be cheaper than going to a bar. We brought it back to the hotel and booted up my laptop. It was consultation time. I described VIA in detail, and our logging process and NVivo-ing, pointing out where I felt things were lacking or not working as ideally as possible. Chris caught on nearly immediately and started offering great suggestions, working through them with me in one of our projects, and brainstorming nearly faster than we could keep track of things. At 7:30, there was a knock on the door. Dan. He wanted to go to dinner. We gave him a beer and hoped he’d jump into the conversation. He didn’t; just watched. Then, five minutes later, said, “My beer is empty. Can we go now?” We decided that since Chris and I were working away like crazy, and he was working on a paper that we’d walk and get take-out. We debriefed a bit about the workshop on the walk to and from the sushi place. Thirty seconds after returning to the hotel, Dan knocked on Chris’ door again and came in with a bottle of red wine, offering us each a glass. We accepted, he poured, and left, and our NVivo discussion continued. After dinner, we tested a few courses of action, and scribbled frantically about the results of each. We now have a whole host of complaints for Lyn, and a whole wishlist for NV3. Exhausted, we kind of collapsed for a few minutes. “I haven’t thought that hard for a long time!” said Chris slowly. Dan knocked again. He’d managed to work out free internet in the hotel manager’s office, so we went down to take advantage of it. I got online first, so Chris went back upstairs to add a memo to the project we were working on. After I was done, Chris got on the computer, and I had the front desk call me a taxi. Although I got home at 10:45, Kakali wasn’t back yet, and I was glad for the time to catch up on writing.
She came home in the middle of that last paragraph, around 12:30, and we talked about the workshops and our time here and qualitative methods for another two hours. It’s 2:30 AM and I’ve been immersed in qualitative research discussions for nearly twenty hours straight. Am I at geek sleepaway camp or what?!
Woke up without an alarm at 6:30 AM today. Of course, today we weren’t going to be leaving until 8:30. Kakali and I immediately started talking qualitative methodology for reasons I can’t remember exactly. She went to take a walk and I took a shower. When I went to pack up my computer from Suseela’s room, I checked my e-mail, posted quickly to the blog, and signed onto IM where I surprised a few people with quick hellos before heading upstairs again for breakfast. Breakfast this morning was reheated scones and muffins from yesterday’s tea break. Very yummy. And strawberries. I wrote out my postcards from yesterday while eating. Tom had burned CDs of his pics from the weekend, so I took them with me to give one each to Chris and Dan.
When we got to the hotel, everyone settled in a lot more quickly. Johan and I were made “light committee” and we did our best to arrange the room so that today it could be brighter in general, without too much glare on the screen. The workshop went better today, and I was able to sort of help most people. Some of them thanked me profusely at the end, which always strikes me as weird since I don’t feel N6 is exactly a strong suit for me. During the coffee breaks, I walked both ways from the hotel, trying to find stamps. Chris came with me the second time, and we were successful. It was a beautiful day here, so I was happy to have the excuse to go for a walk.
After the workshop, Lyn rushed off to the opera, and Chris and I stayed to help Fiona shift tables and computers in preparation for the NVivo workshops. We’re going to have 20 participants instead of the 10 we had for N6. That puts trainer to participants at 1:3 instead of more than 1:1. Still, I’m looking forward to it. Should be faster paced, and I’m more invested in NVivo anyway. And Fiona is lead teaching. I really like her as I get to know her a little more. She seems to have a good sense of humor. I’m glad to have faces for these people I harass with technical questions periodically and no doubt will continue to do.
Chris was feeling beat, and interested in a beer, so we walked to the liquor store and bought a six pack. I figured that would be cheaper than going to a bar. We brought it back to the hotel and booted up my laptop. It was consultation time. I described VIA in detail, and our logging process and NVivo-ing, pointing out where I felt things were lacking or not working as ideally as possible. Chris caught on nearly immediately and started offering great suggestions, working through them with me in one of our projects, and brainstorming nearly faster than we could keep track of things. At 7:30, there was a knock on the door. Dan. He wanted to go to dinner. We gave him a beer and hoped he’d jump into the conversation. He didn’t; just watched. Then, five minutes later, said, “My beer is empty. Can we go now?” We decided that since Chris and I were working away like crazy, and he was working on a paper that we’d walk and get take-out. We debriefed a bit about the workshop on the walk to and from the sushi place. Thirty seconds after returning to the hotel, Dan knocked on Chris’ door again and came in with a bottle of red wine, offering us each a glass. We accepted, he poured, and left, and our NVivo discussion continued. After dinner, we tested a few courses of action, and scribbled frantically about the results of each. We now have a whole host of complaints for Lyn, and a whole wishlist for NV3. Exhausted, we kind of collapsed for a few minutes. “I haven’t thought that hard for a long time!” said Chris slowly. Dan knocked again. He’d managed to work out free internet in the hotel manager’s office, so we went down to take advantage of it. I got online first, so Chris went back upstairs to add a memo to the project we were working on. After I was done, Chris got on the computer, and I had the front desk call me a taxi. Although I got home at 10:45, Kakali wasn’t back yet, and I was glad for the time to catch up on writing.
She came home in the middle of that last paragraph, around 12:30, and we talked about the workshops and our time here and qualitative methods for another two hours. It’s 2:30 AM and I’ve been immersed in qualitative research discussions for nearly twenty hours straight. Am I at geek sleepaway camp or what?!
posted by Jen at 11:43 PM
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