Peruvian Nights and Jamaican Days

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE

So....I defended my thesis yesterday. The way it works here is that you have 20-30 minutes to do a presentation, open to the public, and have your defense immediately following that with your committee. Mine was a bit over 30 min. I started a bit after 9, finished the presentation about 9:35, probably, and then went into my defense. By 10:20, they kicked me out to deliberate about my future, and by 10:40, I was leaving the building. Easy. None of my committee members challenged any of my methods, results, or conclusions. They just had 2-4 comments each, and all of them were prefaced by, "Maybe this is just me being stupid, but..." So I could probably get by without really addressing any of the comments, though some of them were useful, so I will definitely integrate some of them. The most major thing actually came out of a question by a fellow student and labmate - will cause me to address another question, probably. But all in all, a day or two worth of work.

Of course, I still have plenty to do - all the paperwork that exists so that various people in the graduate school have jobs, for example. Also, I somehow have to figure out how to pare my talk down from ~32 minutes to about 16-17 minutes, for the AAG meeting next week. I felt like I was hard-pressed to get all the pertinent info into 32 minutes, so don't know how it will work in half that time.

My mom came out for my presentation - she was here for a few days, so we ate out, watched movies, etc. Kind of fun.

Yesterday, we got together at 4 (me, Jenn, Abbie and other friends, my advisor, his wife, and a labmate of mine) and had some beers and snacks, then we drove to Centennial, because we were just sure it would be entertaining there. We were probably the liveliest bunch there (albeit not the drunkest) - it was pretty dead. But it was fun, generally speaking.

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In unrelated news, I popped my ganglien cyst the other day. I was holding a bottle cap, and when I squeezed it in my hand, I felt a pop, which startled me, and then I realized the rock in my finger had disappeared. Neato.

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In other unrelated news, I just got an email from the Wisconsin dude saying that one of the people they interviewed for the PhD assistantship I didn't get didn't end up working out, so would I like to come for an interview.. Would I like to come for an interview?! Cripes, I already HAD 2 interviews. I'm not sure I want to work with someone who is so anal. I had pretty much forgotten about the whole thing, and I'm not sure I'm that interested anymore, since I have what would probably be some pretty nice alternatives, here in Laramie and in Kansas.

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In other news mostly unrelated to any of the above, I'll be staying with my friend (also former professor and former bandmate) in Denver during the AAG conference, which should be good times. I'll also get to see G-Had, Mike, Carmen, and some of the other folks from my days at NWMSU. The presentation I have to give is a minor annoyance. Steve and I may go to see Robyn Hitchcock. I need to listen to his new album. Haven't even heard it yet. Or have I? I've heard the song Television for certain...not sure if it's a remake, or if I have actually heard the album..

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I'm getting a little itchy thinking about re-entering the workaday world. The simple fact that the KS people are much cooler than the people I worked with in Missouri, for instance, ought to make things better, in general. I should have my own office, so I won't be an official cubicle monkey. Plus there are plenty of opportunities for outdoor work on a fairly regular basis, which seems good. I guess what gets me about real jobs is the part where you're committed to spending 40 hours/week for at least ~250 days of the year doing what other people want you to do. I've never really liked rules that much, and I'm not that keen on people telling me what to do, in general. I'm torn, I guess. In many ways, I feel lucky that I've found a job that is as good a fit as this one appears to be, for my background, skills, and interests...like I said, though, it makes me a little itchy under the collar to think about committing the next 5-10 years of my life to doing what often won't be what I'd like to be doing. Some would probably call this laziness, and that's probably fair, in some ways. But nobody would think to call a lion, for instance, lazy, because it doesn't want an office job.

I hope to be creating some art in the next few days..

Thanks for listenin'

-m