doomsday defense date: wednesday, march 29th, 1:30pm EST monday, april 3rd, noon EST--it is SO HARD to schedule 3 faculty members to be in the same place at the same time!.

i have to hand in the final draft of my dissertation one week from today. mother of god and everything that is holy, that is SOON. though most of me is looking forward to it, and to my defense date, just so i can be done with it already. same as how i've always wanted to go first in auditions/speeches/whatever so that i could get it the fuck over with.

in working towards this ONE WEEK TIL DISSERTATION DUE DATE deadline (it just now occurs to me that 'deadline' has the word 'dead' in it. definitely feeling that way to me these days) i had a loooong meeting with my advisor today. naturally, he hadn't actually read anything but the first (of 3) chapters. i suppose i should be thankful that he even read that much. anyway, the good news is that wrt the first (intro/lit review) chapter he said, and i quote: "it's ready for prime time."

the other two chapters, he admitted he should "just make himself read right now" (um, you think?) so that's exactly what he did. we had this weird meeting that was him reading/skimming to himself interspersed with his comments. weird, but at least we accomplished stuff.

there were some comments, but mostly he said it was pretty good. add in some stats that i totally should have done earlier--i had been coasting on the "eh, the error bars don't really overlap" statistical method, which is, i grant you, not exactly rigorous. make some of the topic transitions a little more clear as to motivation/relevance to my research. fair enough. he even called one paragraph in my hastily thrown-together general discussion chapter "really well-written." now, that's one (small) paragraph in a 118-page thesis, but you takes 'em where you can get 'em.

but then. but THEN, he had to end the meeting (which had been one of the best meetings i'd ever had with him, i shit you not) with some comments about how he couldn't "guarantee it (the diss) will sail through" (to which i said something breezy about crossing my fingers) and that he'd have to see what my other two committee members and him "would think about it once we've had a chance to talk amongst ourselves after the defense." and when i said something about hoping that the 2 weeks i'd have after the defense before my deposit date would be enough to make any changes they'd request, he first said "it should be," but then added "but i can't guarantee it."

WTF? i mean WHAT. THE. FUCK?? i know that OFFICIALLY he can't guarantee i'm going to pass, but that is not the kind of thing you say to your grad student who has been at this for EIGHT MOTHERFUCKING YEARS and who has an ACTUAL JOB lined up starting this summer that is NOT EVEN IN ACADEMIA FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. could i have a little bit of encouragement PLEASE.

i have to go get measured for my "regalia" next week, and i damn well better not have to go and cancel that order because i failed my defense. fucking advisor.

magnolias, cherry blossoms, forsythia

15 March 2006 - 11:00 am

as i left the house this morning, it was snowing. not sticking, and 40 outside, but snow in the air. getting thicker as i drove karl to his busstop. then 15 blocks SW, where i stopped to drop the car off to have its axle replace (again), no snow. none. looked like it hadn't even *been* snowing. now, it's sunny with white puffy clouds. freaking weather.

in flower news, the magnolia trees have started blooming. well, at least the gorgeous specimen tree in the front yard of a beautiful old stone mansion at 44th and Baltimore, that i pass on the way to the car garage, is blooming. we had a very warm few days here (it was 70 (70!) on friday) that have kick started flower season. whoo!

i'll have to go by the magnolia tree in my neighborhood, at 36th and Baring, to see if it's blooming yet. it's also a beautiful specimen, and also in the front yard of a local stone mansion. hmph, all these people with their beautiful old stone mansions and their giant, perfect, magnolia trees...

there's another pink flowering tree that i noticed has just sprung into bloom. i think it's a cherry blossom. i'll have to post a photo and maybe harriet and roadie, my horticulturally knowledgeable readers, can identify it for me. stay tuned.

oh, and forsythia are just opening.

in liberal activist news, the daily kos has a great suggestion on how to combat fundie pharmacists and the red-staters who love them, if the pharmacists continue to refuse to fill prescriptions for PlanB (the morning after pill), and/or if the FDA doesn't just make it an over-the-counter medication already. this suggestion was meant tongue-in-cheek, but i think it's legitimately a good idea.

I recommend a guerilla campaign of vegans infiltrating supermarkets nationwide and refusing to ring up slabs of Midwestern beef because it offends their tender sensibilities.
-SusanG, writing for the daily kos