I've a fairly firm date set for the submission of my final revisions (well, final before the defense, anyway, there is generally a bit of tinkering after that). That date is the second week of June. I do have a summer class to teach, and I'll still need to be visiting my mom every couple of weeks... but I'll also, finally, hopefully have both ( Read more... )

I am easily distracted.  Most famously by cleavage, but by video games, books, daydreams, home improvement projects, ideas for novels, political websites, science, shiny sparkly stuff, and a variety of other things as well.  This is not always a bad thing - I think that it is related to my sense of curiosity and wonder about the world, which is ( Read more... )

I was reading this rather gloomy article in the Times today ( Read more... )

I did a bit of work re-wiring my basement today.  Pulled a badly-mounted and located circuit, moved it to power my workbench and the TV area.  No problems there - safely grounded and everything.  Then, I tested it by plugging in a clock radio.  The receptacle where I'd plugged it in began to emit a low but mysterious buzz.  I was terrified!  Was I ( Read more... )

One downside to having students with whom I get along is that they will talk to me after class, and distract me.  Yesterday, this led to a failure to pack up my netbook.  Fortunately, it was picked up and turned in to security... and the 'robots without orders' sticker on it made it *very* easy for me to uniquely identify over the phone...

I'm startled by the amount of concern being caused by the new TSA safety procedures.  I don't think that either turning me into c- grade porn or having a bored tsa guy pat me very thoroughly will make me any safer... but at the same time, I'm startled and a little annoyed by the fact that this issue has gotten far more coverage than many of the ( Read more... )

The beginning of my day went very well - good progress on academic matters, finished the window-well backfill, and everything looks snug on that side of the house.

The commuter portion of my day has been more vexing - first, and most importantly, I forgot my delicious turkey sammich for the second time in a row!  Grr!

Perhaps more actually importat ( Read more... )

As many of you know, my basement has had a few water issues.  I'd previously determined a large part of the cause (one collapsed window well, one below grade window well).  Today, I think that I figured out most of the rest... after much dawdling, I replaced the second window well on the east side of my house.  It was, as I'd expected, a pain in ( Read more... )

Two pages written today.  Will do more after I've fed.  Made it back to the gym.  Ran errands of various sorts.  It feels good to be doing things - after the couple of days of cranky, and far too many days of sick ( Read more... )

So... I've been serving as a secondary shelving facility for the U of I for a long time now...  and being pissed about having to constantly check up on my library account, when I don't really do much of anything else through the U of I at the moment.  I'd return all of my books, and check them out again later, but I'm only about 20 pages from ( Read more... )