Great Big World Out There

24 and a presentation

So, Kevin bought 24 yesterday and I am watching that while throwing together my thesis defense presentation, just as I planned.

I watched the first several hours of this years season of 24 - I've finally gotten to the bits I didn't see yet.  I love this show.  I love the suspense; I love even more that I don't have to wait a week to see the next episode.  They seem to be drilling a way into the white house as the current hour begin, I could be fuzzy on the details since I'm sort of half watching.  This isn't entirely clever since I could very well be missing stuff - on my presentation and more important - on 24.

I planted a few more flowerbeds today at church.  I had a really bad migraine this morning and it was quite hot to be working in the sun so I couldn't finish the planting.  I also ran out of plants for the area I was working on so that really helped me lose my mojo.  I thought I had more shade plants and I don't.  Alas.  I also might go get some more petunias tomorrow; I have a meeting out of the office that is near a greenhouse I really like and never go to because it is so far away from me.

Then after the meeting I will go set up a wireless router for a friend.  I've never done that before, so it could be interesting.  Then I will come home and plant some more damn flowers and practice my presentation.  I know how to live, don't I?

am flaming wimp

I am going to be lazy and do a random bullets of crap (RBOC) post:

• Found major error in my data yesterday.  Thought I would have to reschedule; cooler heads at the university prevailed and I just need to have updated tables and figures available for the oral part of the exam.  Can't present the correct data in the seminar, which really sucks donkey balls but I will find a way around that.  Not worrying about that until tomorrow though.
• Planted flowers for 4 hours today.  I was at the church from 930 to 330 but took a break to buy more plants and a kneeling thingie for my knees and back. 
• Need to weed and feed the lawn.  The dandelions are at the perfect killing age.
• Had a burger for breakfast and lunch about an hour ago.  That was tasty.
• Found coke products on sale for the party next week at shoppers drug mart.  Their promotion this weekend is a free $10 tim hortons card with $50 purchase.  I'll got back tomorrow and get another pile of coke products and get another card.  That's a good deal, right there.
• I haven't started practicing the music for church tomorrow.  It is confirmation sunday, so that could be a problem.  I looked at the music quite a while ago and it is all familiar.  I just like to put a little extra oomph into things when it is a special occasion.  Am too tired and sore to think about sitting at the piano right now though.
• Need to go feed the sheep
• Need to plant some flowers at home in addition to the piles of flowers I planted at church today.  Oi.  That makes me more tired than I could ever express.
• I spent $200 at Canadian Tire.  Well, not quite, but damn close.  Oi.
• Kevin bought the latest season of 24.  I can watch it all in one go!  I shall begin tonight and I cannot wait.
• Should put up the gazebo walls.  Would require a ladder and climbing the ladder.  Is too much to think about so I shan't do that.
• Dad and brother and brother in law are done seeding.  yay!  Time to party plan for everyone but me.  I must rewrite portions of my thesis this week.
• I should probably spend time studying or similar; I asked a friend if my plan to read the thesis was sufficient and she told me she didn't prepare for her defense at all.  I have to rewrite the thesis AND finish my presentation.  I shouldn't be sitting here writing this.  I stopped caring about 2 weeks ago though.  Ehh, it is what it is.

Sixty Percent

I had my sheep sheared the other day.  This is good for many reasons - the sheep are more comfortable, they look less like a pack of fuzz balls, I didn't have to do it myself, I don't have to worry about it for another year, etc.  So anyway, the sheep got sheared.  I bought a ram late last year - so late I wasn't sure if I'd get any lambs this year or not. 

I'd been keeping an eye on my ewes lately, it being nearly 5 months since the young ram made his appearance on the farm.  The sheep were so woolly, though, that it was impossible to tell if there were any lambs imminent. 

Once the wool was off, it was pretty clear my ram had done his job.  Done rather well, I'd say.  I kind of think we picked up the ram between Christmas and New Year (I say we, but mean my brother did it).  Fast forward 5 months, and you've got lambs.  Almost to the day we picked that ram up (kind of wish I could remember what day I got the ram.  Would make a better story). 

Not just one lamb, not just two lambs, but three!  Triplets!  Yay!  I told a friend that this evening and she was less pleased and more concerned.  Multiples aren't always a good thing, you see.  Except with sheep.  Ahh, lovely sheep.

So I've increased the flock by 60% today.  I had 5, now I have 8.  Very pleased indeed.  I hope my lamb buyers will be likewise pleased.

***

Am printing booklets for work on my fancy color laser duplex capable printer.  I had to replace a toner cartridge just now, waiting for a bit to replace some paper so I can get a decent pile of these things printed as I sleep. 

***

I have planted 7 planters worth of flowers this evening.  Some of my plants look absolutely wretched.  We bought before it snowed, and had to keep the plants indoors most of a week.  We put them under lamps but it sure did a number on them.  I hope that being out in the wide wide world of sunshine and light will make them happier. 

One can only hope, anyway. 

***

I am tired of sitting here I will just go to bed now, thank you.

a wedding we will go

We had a long weekend of driving, partying, and more driving.  I love a good wedding.  It's fun to see how someone plans their wedding, their friends (if it is a family wedding) or their family (if it is a friend wedding).  My cousin got married - he's a drama major and naturally has many drama major friends.

Who were at the wedding.

Who got a decent drunk on and were thoroughly entertaining.  Hell, they were entertaining before any real drinking had time to erupt.  They didn't do the glass clinking thing - hey, who does the glass clinking to make the couple kiss anymore.  I miss that tradition.  I was at a wedding last year where we DID get to clink glasses and I don't think I've ever been more entertained at a wedding.  Anyway, my cousin chose to have people sing a song about love.

Normally this cuts down the number of PDAs the couple must perform.  My cousin hadn't thought this through, because many friends invited to his wedding are musical theatre types.  That microphone was like a flame to the many dramatic moths invited to the wedding.

There was more singing than there was silence as we ate.  It was hilarious.  We told my cousin later he should have created a list of math problems, or possibly science questions.  That'd have narrowed the field considerably.  Or perhaps not.  Perhaps there would have been theatrical renditions of mathematical and scientific items. 

Which would have been entertaining.  Ironically, I would be educationally qualified to particpate in the singing, the math and the science.  Go figure.  My new cousin has just graduated and remarked that she'd been in school for 5 years.

I hadn't the kindness to tell her that it could be much worse.  She could be me, clocking in at a healthy 11 years as of this year.  I hadn't totted up the numbers until today and I must say, I am kind of disturbed.  How'd it get to be double digits like that?  Ye heavens.  That being said, I've got a lower years to degree ratio, or I will if I manage to pass the defense in a couple of weeks. 

I had a week off of thinking or really sweating about that damn defense.  I cannot ignore it any longer.  I have doctor appointments tomorrow in the middle of the day so I plan to use some accumulated leave to take care of the appointment, do some studying AND plant the flowers that have languished in the sad little shelves in the doggie palace. 

I shall plant my flowers tomorrow.  I shall study tomorrow.  I shall have my sheep sheared tomorrow.  I have things to do!  Including quietly freaking out about the defense to come. 

I am tired.

today

I wasted my morning today writing up a grant proposal.  We're asking for $80,000 for our project, not a huge amount of money but not nothing, either.

Then we discover that the minimum funding request is 500,000.  So.  That was a waste of time.  Also a lesson in why you should always read directions.

***

I have to pack to go off to a wedding tomorrow.  I have a dress, I do not think I have shoes.  This is a problem.  The hotel has a swimming pool so I expect the kidlets will enjoy that.  I will enjoy having more people than just my sister and I to wrangle the kidlets.  When we went to Calgary back in January to pick up the dog from the fancy pants vet clinic, we stayed at a hotel with swimming pool for the kidlets to enjoy.

It was fun, but oi.  Three kids and two adults is bad math.  Sarah did a header into the whirlpool (I actually caught the moment as she fell on camera) and since I was outside of the pool with the camera and Sylvia had the baby in her arms it was a bit freaky.  Sylvia wasn't looking at Sarah at the exact moment she went in so I had to grunt and gesticulate wildy.  I nearly threw the camera into the pool several feet away in my haste to leap in after her. 

***

I spent my afternoon working on my defense presentation.  I've gotten the first couple of slides put together, complete with images.  I'm a big time fan and believer in using images to make your points, rather than throwing up teeny tiny fly shit sized text on a powerpoint slide.  That's annoying, of course, the small print, but when you see someone read that shit verbatim?  That's annoying x1000000. 

I've only recently learned of powerpoints multi-screen presentation setup.  You can have your presentation on one screen and all your slides, a timer AND notes on your laptop.  I've never actually been able to use this feature when giving a presentation before since you don't usually get to use your own computer at big meetings.  When I give my defense, you bet your ass I am going to use the fancy setup.  I hate nothing more than going through a slide and realizing that I've said something out of order or forgotten a key little detail that changes everything. 

I'm not going to write things out exactly as I will say them, but rather, I will have the notes in the order I want to present things on the slide and that will be my guide.  I'm kind of excited. 

Not excited enough to bring my computer along to work with on the weekend, but excited enough to think about things.  And take some relevant photos for the presentation.  For which I need a light box, which I think I need to build. 

***

I went to a new restaurant at lunch today.  A vietnamese noodle house - I love vietnamese food.  Salad rolls to die for.  The noodle bowl was pretty good too.  Way too much food.  I wisely stopped half-way through because it was too greasy to eat the whole thing.

***

Stopped at home depot on my way home to try to find some plants for favors for my mom and dad's anniversary party.  I think we'll come up with something cool and my mom is kind of excited to plant the flowers in the little pots.  It'll be good.  I wonder if you can get neat little pot covers?  I should look into that. 

***

I should go pack. 

my heart can't take this

So.  The mail came today, as it does every business postal day.  We have 2 season ticket accounts with the eskimos, the reasons are long and dull and unimportant. 

We have two sets.  I pay for one.  It's what I do. 

Only 1 set of tickets came today.  Odd, I thought.  Then I was stricken with a sudden terrible horrible thought - had I renewed my tickets?

I have 3 seats together, and odd number.  They are one row up from my parents seats.  Another lovely thing. 

I logged into my account, and the invoices were all screwy and warning me that I needed to renew by Feb 28, 2009.  I thought I had renewed.  Prices went up this year and I wanted to beat the price increase.  I just couldn't find anything in my account that explicitly said I'd paid the invoice with all the angry writing.  It said it had a payment applied, but it wasn't clear what date it had been paid. 

I started to sweat.  The cold cold sweat of fear.  I freaked out.  I freaked out the rest of the family.  I dug through credit card statements.  I could not find the charge on the statement I thought it should be on.  I called my sister.  I told my brother.  I freaked out some more.  My mom, she was disappointed.  I was disgusted with myself.  I could not do anything about it as the ticket office was long since closed.

I thought I would not sleep tonight.  I thought I had lost the seats we've had for years. 

I kept looking through statements.  I really thought I'd paid the damn statement, after all.  I wouldn't want to pay extra for my tickets, as that would be foolish.  I thought I remembered getting my statement from the team and heading straight downstairs so I wouldn't forget.

And bless the clever habit of mine for filing things, because I found the statement with the charge from the eskimos on it.  For the amount I owed for the 2009 season. 

I literally galloped through the house to share the good news.  The relief was palpable.  One could cut it like a ripe apple. 

I called my sister.  She was relieved too.  My brother suggested that I call the ticket office tomorrow to set up automatic billing for the 2010 season and all the seasons to come.  I think I shall.  I think I took at least 10 years off my life. 

Ahhhh.

I'm still kind of keyed up though.  I shall waste some hours playing games and trying to switch off my brain.  If I had some booze in the house I would probably have some.  (I have tons of booze in the house but none of it is something I feel like drinking).

and.... print

So the thesis got handed in on Friday.  It took a couple of hours and reams of paper to print the damn thing.

I have since done as little as possible.  I should be cleaning, packing up the crap in my workspace to take back to work tomorrow morning.

You know what's funny?  I've been working ridiculous hours, much more than an average day at the office.  Not that one doesn't work hard in the office, but one is caught up in things like 'coffee' and 'lunch' and 'ooh, look, someone wandered by and I must chat with them.'  I worked exclusively in the presence of TV shows on DVD and was incredibly productive.  Some might say that is impossible.  I disagree. 

I'm too tired to even care about packing up my stuff right now.  I'll do that later, when I've got the hockey game on.  Ahh, how I love hockey season.

***

Canada's worst driver makes me crazy.  How do these people get out there in the world and not kill people?  Their utter lack of personal responsibility makes me even more nuts.  It's someone else's fault you can't see a giant wall in front of you and stop? 

Oi.

Don't drive into the wall, moron. 

***

I am baking cookies.  They're fundraiser cookies - with a twist because they are pre-portioned.  You just drop them on the cookie sheet and bake for the requisite time.  Couldn't be more lazy if I tried.  Awesome.  Now I hear the beeping so time to run...

beauty in the details

I've been writing for the last several weeks, all day, every day.  With the odd exception of mothers day and when I need to sleep from having been up for 40 hours. 

A lot of writing, when I don't know what the f*ck I am talking about, is a bunch of disconnected sentences.  I write a sentence, cite it properly, and then go back and read more.  Write another sentence.  Realize the two sentences make no sense next to each other and I must read more.  With more papers.  I find a paper, I have to stick it in endnote.  I am in a serious love/hate relationship with endnote.  I love how it works, but I hate that it doesn't always display things properly.  I hate that I have to go back and check my references.  I am going to hate that with a flaming passion.  

So anyway, I've been writing a lot of disjointed crap.  I've finally gotten to the point that I bring together all of the sentences into a perfect potsticker of an argument.  I love those moments.  Several times I've just had to slightly change the order of the sentences and voila, a masterpiece. 

I typically celebrate these moments with a modest fist-pump and a trip to the bathroom/fridge.  I know how to party. 

I'm going to bed in an hour, or when I finish the chapter I am working on.  Whichever comes first. 

Things I must still do

I am getting close to finishing my thesis for real - I have to be close because I must hand it in on Friday.  That is good and bad - I will have my long weekend for ME and only ME.  I might celebrate by putting away the clean clothes I washed last weekend - or I will go to a movie - or I will go have dinner with a friend.  Because it is fun and it has nothing to do with writing a thesis.

But before I get too carried away with plans for freedom - I am not finished.  I have comments on most of the chapters and will get the last set tomorrow afternoon.  Whoo!  I've addressed the major thing in the lit review that was lacking, the rest is mostly cosmetic.  The other chapters need some prettying up in the writing department, but that is doable. 

I'm not sleeping.  I made an ill-advised decision to drink a coke a couple of hours ago and I am all jittery.  So what remains to be done?

1. make sure all the data has pvalues.  Make sure they are all the same p vs P
2. Retitle all figures and tables.
3. check references for formatting
4. content revisions chapter 1
5. content revisions chapter 2
6. content revisions chapter 3
7. content revisions chapter 4
8. implications done
9. teeny paper written
10. number sections
11. combine all the separate files
12. page numbers
13. table of contents
14. index (optional)
15. words consistent throughout files - PMtm, RM, et al, PMjr
16. tables in correct order to mention in text
17. ROS to every chapter it is appropriate

Star trek explode-y goodness

I celebrated being done the major draft of my thesis by going to see the new star trek movie with my brother and sister.

OMG.  It was so much better than I expected, and I've been a star trek fan for most of my life.  There were explosions, the dialog was snappy, there were funny funny moments and did I mention the explosions?  I laughed and snorted and giggled my way through the whole thing.

It wasn't perfect, there were a few kind of 'uhhh, right' moments where my disbelief, it could not be supsended.  I didn't care.  It was awesome.  And they're all so pretty. 

The best part was going with my brother and sister on a Friday afternoon to the movies.  I'd have felt guilty about not working, but since I'd worked from midnight to 630am to finish the draft I was totally guilt-free.

I should go to the movies more often.  I should not be staying up to all hours writing theses; it has messed up my sleeping something fierce.  Last night I fell asleep around 2am and slept til 1230.  Lovely lovely lovely sleep.  I'm not staying up to all hours tonight, but I sure as hell will be finishing the final draft of one of my chapters.  I have a lot of comsetic changes to make and a few comments to respond to.  Happy happy day.  Yay!