Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Synecdochic Fantasy

My adviser very quickly helped me to make the adjustment to the article I wrote for his book, due to be published this year. That was great!
We had a very exhausting and busy weekend. Monday and Tuesday count as part of the weekend in this case because of the odd holiday "Dragon Boat Festival Day" which was on Tuesday. We did lots of home improvement, including installing a new floor in this room where I am now: it's just tile, but to look at it it resembles the kind of old wood floor I used to have in previous homes. Amy did most of this while I panted to keep up. The girls also helped. The weather has been very warm: 33 degrees centigrade the other day, and very humid.
My graduation ceremony--the small departmental one, as opposed to the school-wide one--is this Friday at 4 PM local time. I'm working on the draft and plan to meet my adviser Friday to get one last talk before the defense, which is next Weds. at 2-4 PM.
Gotta keep at it. . .
Chris

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

D! D! D! De-fense!

The Oral Defense date is now set clearly: it's June 27th, two weeks from today, from 2 to 4 PM. This is after the departmental commencement, which will be on June 22nd, 9 days away: next Friday. There's yet another school-wide commencement on the 30th. Amy, Coral, and Eowyn will be there for the first of these. I have to finish up my lovely and complex Works Cited page and the appendices I wish to include in the final draft. There were many small improvements etc. that I wanted to incorporate, but now that the impetus is mainly off and the diss. copies have been sent out, I am much less motivated to tackle such possibly-superfluous projects, though I really ought to incorporate them into the final submission. Anyway, if ever get this published I'll have to, and also I'd probably restore many of the minor analyses I've cut out. . .or have them published as journal articles, perhaps.
Dad caught my mis-use of the adjectival form of "synecdoche" which led from my mispronunciation of the noun form; I've been using "synecdochal" for years but "synecdochic" or "synechdochical" are legitimate, whereas mine was not. I have fixed that for the dissertation but for the "Gypsy Scholar" book I hope I can also get it fixed in the "synecdochic" form before publication.
I've got to let the textbook people know of the graduation date so they won't want my voice recording session then...nor on the OD date!
Take care.

Cups and Cakes
Chris

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

You send me!

Hi! I printed the dissertation at my office on Sunday night, had it bound on Monday, and mailed it out, five copies, to my reading committee on Tuesday morning at 8 AM. I think that the department will get the copies today, as they don't seem to have gotten it yesterday. My adviser says that the defense will probably be from 2-4 PM on Monday, June 25th. Whoo hoo!
Exhausted but pleased. . .
Best wishes to you all.
Chris

Friday, June 1, 2007

Furiouser and Furioser

Hi guyses. I had a pleasant visit with my adviser on this Thursday--my gosh! it was yesterday!--and got the go-ahead to print and distribute the newest version of the dissertation to the reading committee. I have some minor changes to make yet, but tomorrow I am teaching all day and Sunday will have to be the last day of changes for this draft, because I'd best be sending it out very soon. I have to have the draft to the readers 3 weeks or more before the defense committee, and Dr. Lai will be leaving the country after July 1st, so there is just no time to spare, if I'm to follow the 3 week rule. However, we'll just have to go with what the committee decides, follow or no, I'm thinking, because it'll be tough enough to get all five of them together for the meeting that insisting on one more stricture will be possibly too demanding. So I am thinking about printing the mess on Sunday from the office, and then on Monday morning just having a copy shop simply staple or bind the printed pages, so that I won't have to wait for a day or more to pick up the bound copies...making it even more impossible to satisfy all these rules.
But anyway, it can stand basically as it is, and that's a very satisfying thing in itself. I got myself a grand meal at TGI Friday's that evening, with great tunes playing on the stereo and a margarita and a draft and great apps and NY cheesecake and ahhh it was glorious!
But now I'd best get to bed. Rather pooped!
Lots of lots!
Chris