So I'm trying to write weekly-ish updates ( Read more... )

Last night when I checked the mail after walking Mr Fluffypants, I found mail from UMN. Unlike the last letter which informed me that neither the Director of Graduate Studies nor my advisor signed everything they were supposed to, this one informed me that I have been cleared by the Graduate College to make an attempt to get the hell out of Dodge ( Read more... )

When working on the dissertation or a paper always back up on a regular basis. Because one day you'll find out some assmonkey has been screwing with your computer in the office and will delete 160 gig of data and analysis. If I find out who did that I believe we might have a little meeting of my foot in someone's backside ( Read more... )

Right. . . .so last week I got the referee's report on my paper. All in all I thought it wasn't too bad even though the advisor started worrying as soon as I sent it to him. Yes the paper is controversial. It's going to be even worse after my next paper which is making me want to headdesk. But the comments from the referee didn't make me want to ( Read more... )

All systems are now go with my PhD committee with an anticipated defense approximately one year from now (I said Winter 2009/2010 in my email). Forms are going to be submitted this week with all the required signatures ( Read more... )

So about a month and a half ago I signed myself up to give a science talk here at the institute. I did it because I thought it'd be a good kick in the proverbial pants to get as much science done as possible. I figured I'd have my ultra snazzy code running in 2 weeks and I'd have most of my results at the end of last month. Funny how it never works ( Read more... )

So. . .the other week I talked about having a crisis of dissertation faith. I had it, it's over. It was a minor thing really- just the realization that my dissertation was going to be using in excess of a terrabytes worth of data if we continued on the path we were taking. Now the sheer volume of data scared me. I mean really, how many astronomers ( Read more... )