I kept meaning to post my thesis here, and at last I have finally remembered. I have been warned that my acknowledgments were unnecessarily long, but considering how unlikely it seemed to me that I would ever make it out of grad school, and how important my friends and family were in helping me make it through, I think they acknowledgments were ( Read more... )

I joke about California being the land of magic and infinite joy (especially when trying to lure friends here from across the country), but it seems to be true. There are plenty of things that should be stressing me out (no income, no health care, no home, no idea when any of this is changing, and so much work to do), but all I've done since being ( Read more... )

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... )

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!!!!!!!!!?

I think I just lost my wallet somewhere on the way to work. The bad news is that I lost about $50 and one of the modules of Duct Tape Backpack (I wasn't wearing it at the time -- just carrying a few modules in my pocket). The good news is, because I carry my cash separately from my credit cards and my ID, it's not really that big a deal. Still, ( Read more... )

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

I think the thesis might be causing hallucinations ( 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... )