The Alchemist

I picked up and put down a very good book in the last few days. I missed reading works of fiction so much, I nearly cried cracking the spine. Ah heavens, it's nice to be a non-grad student.

Defense done, Masters degree finished

You know that feeling when you study for "all the wrong the things" for a test? That's sort of how I feel after finishing my defense this afternoon. Due to some unavoidable travel plans, there were two substitutions on my committee. The people are not in my field (directly), and although my supervisor thinks I did well (and that "defenses never feel like they went well") I myself feel like I bombed on a bunch of inconsequential details. And that there were hardly any far-reaching, broad impact questions I was looking forward to explaining.

My talk was AWESOME, though it is only 17 minutes, so by definition I skipped a bunch of important stuff, thinking that it would get covered in the questions period. WRONG.

So I suppose I'm complaining for nothing, as I passed my defense, my supervisor thinks I did well (given the situation) and the only people who really witnessed my fuck-up on basic (but somewhat tangental) biochemical processes were in that room. And they are my friends. So all in all, I think the champagne will be well worth it tonight.

Too bad I feel a little bit crummy about it though. My research is absolutely interesting and cool. I promise.

Giant pizza slice in the sky

There is a video store in town. An independently-run, gigantic store housed in an old building with creaky floors and multiple staircases. In every nook and cranny, there are DVDs. Thousands and thousands of independent/local/international/blockbuster films. Whenever I visit, employees outnumber customers 2-to-1. There are always customers in there, but given the number of films they stock and the high number of employees, I have no idea how they stay in business. And as if any of those reasons weren't good enough on their own to skip Blockbuster, they will order in movies on your behalf. I went in last week to inquire about this film:


And the dude was like "Hmm..never heard of it. But it's got a pretty good rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so I'll just order it in from Amazon." and I was like "Nah...don't worry about it. That seems unnecessary [seeing as you have one Bajillion movies here I'll never get around to seeing]" and he goes "no, if you want it, we'll get it for you" and he taped away at some form, pressed Enter, turned around to me and smiled. "It'll be here in a few weeks".

Wow. Awesome customer service. Woot!

Aww...J'veux ca.

Would look great with the cinch belt I bought on the weekend for $6 on sale.



Not exactly defense-wear, though. Sigh.

I was reading somehwere lately about the utter lack of grammar or syntax in emails these days. Oh, here it is.

And you know, most of the people I email on a regular basis are not like that. Some of them tend to forgo capital letters, but other than that, even the most basic email still has an opening, a body and a closing.

Surprise and revolt met me as I opened an email from a realtor selling some promising land down in Hometown.

My email:
Hello,

I was wondering if you could tell me more about the lot in XX (the smaller lot). Are there mature trees, has it ever been cleared, or is it cleared right now? Is there running water near or on the property?

Thank you,

Natalie


Her email:

Hi They are putting the sewage thru XX so that is great you would have to have a well dug would be great to sub divide especially now with the sewer and he has more land at the back he would sell let me know if theres anything else you need Thank you for your email Vicki

Uhh, Vicki? How about a period or two.

And you know what the kicker was? No little disclaimer saying "written on the road from my crackberry, please excuse the typos". How utterly unprofessional - I wouldn't be hiring her, that's for sure. Brutal.

Ohhhhh Yeahh.

Thesis is done.

I am:
watching garbage TV (Holmes on Homes)
taking a nap
going second-hand store shopping
ordering more primers
catching up on email


Not necessarily in that order.

I sincerely believe...

that beards make everything better.

Even John Krasinki.

a·mus·ing (a-myoozing) adj.

1. Blatant spelling error on the thesis format check-list sheet the Faculty of Graduate studies sent me this morning with scores of nit-picky corrections to make.

Teehee.

Dearly Tempted

Me: "Oh My God, Dr.Supervisor, I'm so glad your here! *Sob*"
Him: "Natalie, what's wrong? Why are you crying?"
Me: "I think I've lost the data stick I was carrying around with my thesis on it. *Sob, sob* *reach for tissue*"
Him: "Well that's okay, don't you have a back-up on your computer?"
Me: "No. Well, I mean I did. But I haven't updated it in a few days even though I made a ton of changes...and and and *sob* I have to get this in to Faculty of Graduate Studies by TODAY!! *Wail* There's no way I can make it on time"
Him: "Please. Please stop crying..."


Me: *between blowing my nose* "I mean, I'm just so STUPID! I can't believe this is happening to me. I don't know what.....just joking."