A very tired but happy contessagrrl took a break from Burning Man prep last night to chat with me a bit. While I watched her nearly accidentally invent the peanut butter and marinara sandwich, she told me I seem really happy lately. Actually, she said, "Every time I talk to you, you're like, 'Whee, I have bluebirds flying out of my ass!'" And when I IMed B ( Read more... )

So, I still totally intend to finish my travelogue eventually. But in the meantime, let me tell you about what I've been up to since arriving safely in the Bay Area. (Er, sorry -- I guess there should have been a spoiler alert for the end of my travelogue there ( Read more... )

On a macroscopic level, I am happier than I've been in forever. I am done with grad school (or at least the thesis -- I'm still getting paid to finish papers through the end of August). I am moving to California. I am starting and/or resuming so many projects and activities that I am super excited about but had been putting off due to the thesis ( Read more... )

Yay! I did it! I gave my thesis defense, and the talk went great, and the questions went great, and I passed!

I am done. Done with my thesis. Done with grad school. I still can't really believe it.

I do not have an icon that is sufficiently joyful for this occasion.

Now I am going to sleep. A lot.

Also, did I say YAY!!!!!!!!!?

is getting emails that start out like this: "I am in GREAT need of someone who is proficient in sheep brain dissection".

So, I submitted my thesis to my committee last night. And let me first say: WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! :D ( Read more... )

MyDissWriMo went well: I wrote 40,000 words of thesis. That's not the whole thing, however. In the next two weeks, I need to revise the three chapters that I wrote and add an intro and conclusion. And then I need to write my defense talk. My dreams of emerging somewhat from my thesis cocoon after May are not to be. But after I defend at the ( Read more... )

Today I finished my second substantive chapter out of three that I need to write for my thesis, and met with my advisor about writing the third. I am on schedule to finish up the majority of my thesis this month, then clean it up and submit it in time to defend June 29. It's not guaranteed, but it's looking good. I can't believe how much I've ( Read more... )

So I finally sorted out the conference paper that was giving me vast headaches (though I'm still here at the office tweaking a few figures before the midnight deadline, of course). But that's one thing down ( Read more... )

I posted a long comment in a recent thread that some folks wanted to be an entry in its own right. I've been meaning to comment for a while on why I think grad school is, at best, a very mixed bag, and why a lot of people probably shouldn't go. This comment of mine (made to someone considering grad school in a field close to my own) sums up a lot ( Read more... )