The result
Well we did it. Go team! I was semi-officially awarded my PhD (I need some signatures to make it official, official). But it’s not the end, not quite. There’s still some work to be done and I want to make sure I hit all the boxes. In the Marines we always ended hard training with a strong finish, I’m hoping to channel some of that into the end of this journey. So a brief update, then I’m going to sleep for a few … years.
(more…)Defense day
Five years. Five long, sometimes very painful years. The last six weeks (probably a bit more) have felt like a mad sprint for my life, but if you’re reading this then we’ve reached the final challenge, the defense. I was taught early on that a defense isn’t really an exam exactly, it’s a celebration of your accomplishments to get to this stage, I will tell you now it does NOT feel that way going into it. It feels a bit like going in for a routine surgery, you know statistically everything will be fine, but…
(more…)The final countdown…
What a week, long experiments, surprise experiments, way too much writing, but we’ve done it! Done what you ask, well let’s get right into where things are at the moment and some of the final things that need to happen. Because there’s a list, there’s always a list and when you’re getting ready to defend the list feels incredibly long and never ending! A quick recap for the week and what’s left to come.
(more…)The end of the rope
How does the saying go? Give a person just enough rope to hang themselves? Well I definitely feel hanged. It’s been a stressful week and that’s saying something given the level of stress generally floating around here these days. Frankly, if it weren’t for the fact that I’m barely updating my blog as it is, I probably wouldn’t be spending this time writing, but I figure there are a lot of people out there who are waiting to hear how the progress is coming. So that said, let’s give a bit of a progress update and then it’s back to work for me.
(more…)There was trouble, because we didn’t make it double
If you want horrible and possibly dated Pokémon puns, I don’t have any. What I do have is a set of skills, skills that make me a nightmare for … well myself frankly and even more horrible possibly dated other puns that have been… taken? The time to graduation is coming, three weeks left, less than three weeks frankly, three weeks last Friday, so like 2.5 weeks-ish. Well have I got a story to tell! I wish it were good news, and in some ways it is, but in other ways, not so much. Don’t worry I’ll break it down a bit so we can get the weekly window view of what’s been happening behind the scenes during my (mostly) radio silent era.
(more…)Four weeks and counting!
Well okay to be honest not exactly four, less than four. Oh no, my defense is less than four weeks away. This feels a bit odd… but here we are I guess. It seems like I’m never going to finish, but there has been progress! Setbacks too for sure, but progress nevertheless! Since it’s so close and I’m in a huge panic ALL THE TIME! I guess (reluctantly…) we can discuss the progress that has been made and what’s left for us as I approach the first of the next major deadlines, the format check. Which is just a week away if my calendar is correct (if not, well than oops…).
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Lunatic Laboratories 