MGDC ...

I am busy. No doubt about it. It seems that there are so many steps that I have to do with the qualitative analysis. Tedious work. Yet I have to do it painstakingly one by one with full TLC so that I will not miss a thing.

Basically these are the phases that I have to undergo for the thematic analysis. If the case is not that complex, with only a datum to deal with, it will not take me that long to analyze. Having more than 5 participants plus the written answers that I have to code, it will definitely take time. One thing at a time.

1. Familiarizing myself with the data (transcribing, reading, translating, re-reading, noting down initial ideas)

2. Generating initial codes.

3. Searching for the themes

4. Reviewing the themes

5. Defining and naming themes

6. Producing reports

I am still in the first phase. Going to the second phase slowly... bit by bit....

Meanwhile, I am diverting my attention from my data by writing a paper that I want to present in Glasgow in January next year. I told my SV previously that I want to present paper when I am in my 2nd year or 3rd year. When I have data to present. I never present any paper even at departmental level. Just had presented a poster thingy last year. It seems so long time ago. *sigh*

So, I am challenging myself to do something that I am not used to do. I know that it is not a big deal to present in a colloquium .... yet I want to give it a try. Haven't told my SV about it but I am going to do it anyway. I don't think my SV will disapprove it. As long as I am still doing my work, taking a break from writing to presenting paper should be okay.

I am also challenging myself to finish reading books that I enjoy reading for the sake of reading and adding up my knowledge to other things non related to my research. I have finished reading Oliver Sack's book, The island of the color-blind and cycad island and also another book by Howard Engel's book, The man who forgot how to read. Even though it is not that easy to understand such abnormal phenomena... yet I find that it is very humbling to realise that there are many things that I take for granted all these while. A simple task as reading or writing my own name and reading what I have wrote is so easy. Yet, if Allah takes the ability from me, I don't know how I will survive doing PhD without the ability to understand what I have written as I can only write, but not read. This is what happened to Howard when he has stroke and as a writer, it is frustrating when you can write down your thoughts but not able to understand what you have written. With Sack's book, I have read it long time ago. It is about color-blind people and how certain food can alter our genetic code that lead to such disorder. Yet, people who are color-blind and living with the whole population of color-blind might regard people who are not color-blind as peculiar. We are weird in the world of color-blind people. And vice versa.

It shows how societal values are important in determining what is valued and what is not valued. Most of the time, what we understand and how we understand the things around is based on that. In normal condition, people might retaliate the change societal values. It is as if we are losing our identity. As Yed used to say, to lose our identity, to challenge our way of thinking is frightening. Yet, if we don't do that, we will never change. To change means we are taking risk to lose something that we are comfortable with. Are we dare to do that?.....