ad_exia | Entries tagged with thesis!

So! I feel somewhat more productive today than yesterday. I managed to get up slightly earlier (~12:30 as opposed to almost 3 yesterday) and I went to the grocery store, where I got to have a brief conversation about Band of Brothers and The Pacific with the cashier, who was complaining that his girlfriend didn't want to watch Saving Private Ryan. XD. I then proceeded to make it home and put all the food away without melting (either the frozen food or myself :D;) and am now ensconced at Starbucks where I used my free drink card for a delcious iced mocha and have even written a bit more for my Pacific Exchange fic~ I fear I may have gone off on a bit of a tangent to do it, but hey, there's no word limit, it just has to be over a minimum and I figure no one's going to complain about something longer rather than shorter, right?

Of course, I am clearly currently back to wasting time by updating LJ, but so it goes~

Also, apparently all the midnight showings of The Deathly Hallows Part 2 are already sold out in Gainesville, boo. So I will not be going to the midnight premiere, but I think we are still going to see it sometime opening day. This actually works out better, because Pam couldn't make it to the midnight premiere but she can make it Friday night, so I suppose it all works out in the end. I think we might even be having a marathon of the other movies before then, we'll see how that goes. That is a LOT of Harry Potter. XD Though I have to admit, I'm almost more excited for Captain America in a few weeks - I mean, superheroes and World War II, how could you possibly mash up things I love any better, right?

Okay, back to writing a bit for now, so I can keep feeling productive or whatever~ Now I just have to remember to stop in at my office on the way home so I can work on those thesis edits tomorrow... I'm hoping to turn in the final draft by the end of the week!

Edit: Wait, James Badge Dale might play a soldier in World War Z? OMG this might have to be one zombie movie I have to seeeeee~ XDb

Current Mood: lazy
Current Music: whatever's playing on the speakers in here~

Wow, okay, so Firefox 4 is hella faster than Firefox 3.sixsomething. I kept avoiding upgrading because I knew I'd have to spend a good half hour tweaking things to get them back the way I wanted (because when they moved the "open in new tab" and "open in new window" options around in the right-click menu, that was not okay D:). But now that I finally have... well, thus far, now that everything's tweaked the way I want, I like it!

And yes, I realize I'm probably the last person on earth to have upgraded to this, anyway. So it goes.

This past weekend was pretty good, if not busy - the rest of Thursday was spent eating Larry's Subs, playing the wonderfully entertaning Prince of Tennis dating game with Elizabeth, and dinner at Bento's with Elizabeth and Althea. Friday was Curtis's defense followed by The Swamp and Blue Highway. Saturday I did some chores during the day, and Vicki and Ata had dinner for their gradiating students (me, Soung-Chul, and Roger) which was really nice. There was even an astronomy-themed cake! Then on Sunday, Elizabeth and I finished our game (alas, we never got high enough in Oshitari's affections to get his special ending), had lunch, and picked up Althea and went to the Butterfly Exhibit at the UF Museum of Natural History, which was awesome and despite the fact that I've lived here for so long, I've never gone! I took some pictures with my phone (because I totally forgot to bring a real camera) and then we finished the day with a photography exhibit at the Harn Museum of Art and some iced coffee.

The rest of the evening was spent packing. Thus, I have begun the packing process, and can I just say that I have way too many damn books. And I want them all. I mean, I'm not getting rid of that many of them, because I am a failure. I've been restricting them (mostly) to smaller boxes, because I know they get heavy, but at some point small boxes are a little ridiculous and I really could use just one or two big boxes. But I am starting to run out of boxes I had lying around already, which means I'm going to have to go to the grocery/liquor store and beg for some and at some point I know I'm just going to have to buy a bunch. And then buy some more when those run out. But at least I have a whole month or thereabouts to get all this done, and once all the books are packed... somehow I'm hoping most everything else will go easier. Because have I mentioned I have a lot of books? The Gator Anime Club will take some of my manga and I think all of my Shonen Jumps, which is helpful, and I am definitely making some major donations to Goodwill. I'm not taking my plates, they're heavy and have gotten chipped over the years and were just from Target anyway so I can buy new ones eventually, so that's a big help too. And I wanted a new bed anyway, so the bed's not coming with me either. I'm hoping I can sell that, I should look into how to list it over the next few weeks.

First, however, Jennie and my grandmother are coming down tomorrow and will be here until Saturday; we're spending a few days in Orlando and then two days here, during which hopefully Jennie and I can get some sewing done for her. Tonight is dinner out with the office staff (because they are so nice~), and I should actually get going in a few for that, so I will leave things at that for now. But I do promise to start updating (hopefully) more regularly now, even though the next month is still in some major flux. But thankfully there are only a few small things I need to fix up in my thesis before submission, so hopefully that won't keep me too busy (because everything else related to moving and leaving certainly will!).

So that's it for now, have a good Monday, all!

Current Mood: busy

Right, SO. Look, I am not dead, disappeared, or kidnapped by aliens. I have, however, been buried under a mound of work called MY THESIS for the past... I have no idea how long (when was it I last updated?). In any case, it's been a long time. BUT the end is in sight, whether I want it or not - my defense is June 16th, so that's... yeah. Not very long from now. I spent the day formatting all of my LaTeX tables (apparently UF doesn't like deluxetable, so I had to change everything over to regular tables and longtables). But I'm actually low on things that need actual writing - everything is currently in to Vicki for edits, so the plan for tomorrow is to read up on papers (because I'm supposed to know what I'm talking about) and make some pretty X-ray images for the appendix.

Other than that... uh, in the free time I do have, I've mostly been watching SG-1, Supernatural, and Game of Thrones, though I finally caught up on most of the Doctor Who episodes that I've missed thus far this season. Oh, and I did actually remember to sign up for the exhange over at

the_pacific, since entries aren't due until August 12th, which gives me plenty of time. I'm excited about the prompts I got, so I'm hoping I'll be able to start them soon. I figure that after the whole thesis is turned in to my committee next Friday, I'll watch the Disney Channel Movie that's premiering that night and work on the fic prompt. And then get back to work on Saturday~ (Hey, even my advisor told me to take the night off after I turn it in, so there!)

And... yeah, you know, you'd think I had more to say, but I don't think I do. D: So I suppose I shall just end this, rather than rambling on about nonsense, right? But I just thought I'd pop in and confirm that no, I'm not dead, and that I do plan to actually use my LJ again at some point in the future. XD Hope you all are well in the meantime! <3

Current Mood: optimistic
Current Music: My Chemical Romance - The Kids From Yesterday

Well, hello, Livejournal. No, I am not dead.

I am, however, trying to write up a thesis. This takes way more work and stress than should really be allowed a person, but so such things go.

There are probably a million things I could actually update about, because I actually don't even remember the last time I posted. D: Which is terrible, by the way, and I really did not mean to fall off the face of the earth. Buuut I really have been nothing but busy thesis-ising, and I'm hoping to defend in mid-June or early July if I can manage it so I don't have to leave and come back to do it, as my advisor's out of town for most of July and my lease is up the 31st. I do have a job lead, though I won't hear back on that until Monday, but I do at least have plans to head off to Arizona and job-hunt rent-free from there if nothing comes up in the meantime. And I will probably update next week once I know whether I have said job or not to consider, so I promise I'm not completely gone for good! But if I'm unmotivated or too busy to post, and not replying much to all your entries, my awesome friends, it's just because I'm freaking out over finishing up in the next month and a half.

jfsdufaoiu THAT IS NOT ENOUGH TIME. D: /SOBS

All righty, well, I'm just getting over being sick, as well, so I'm going to take it easy the rest of the night. Maybe either try to get some more of Chapter 2 done or just pass out, that sounds kind of nice, too...

<3!

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Angel Main Theme - The Sanctuary Extended Remix

Geez, so you'd think choosing a new LJ layout wouldn't be such a hard decision. Clearly I just overthink these things. XD I'm not even postitive I like the one I went with as a final choice, but we'll see. I mean, I'm the only one who routinely looks at my journal, really, so I suppose in the end I'm not really trying to impress anyone, right? In any case, I've also decided my profile is woefully out of date... so one of these days (ideally sooner rather than later) I'm going to update it.

So, Happy... uh, Day After Pi Day, because I was working frantically for most of the day and then went running and just flopped for the rest of it, and now it is no longer Pi Day. But I now have a revised and working outline for my thesis, and even some deadlines to meet (and I really work better with deadlines). Of course, I was supposed to get in my yearly report today, but technically it's due tomorrow so I will just do that in the morning, because I am feeling pretty wiped out now. Oh, and also? Our printer is broken. And there are still a bunch of tests to print this week. Whee? (It's not so bad, but I have a feeling that I will be spending more time than necessary printing them out tomorrow, because the backup printer is at least twice as slow. Hello, four hours of test-printing, instead of two. I think I'm going to bring in my laptop so I can sit in the printer room and get something done while it goes...)

As far as "work" goes, it sounds like I can get paid through May and maybe even part of June, but I'm on my own for July. I suppose that's okay, really - I can cover one month's rent, and I'm trying to cut down on the extraneous things I buy/do, though whether it's stupid or not, I'm not going to just stop spending money. I'm just worried that I won't have a job lined up by the time I have to get out of here, which will really suck, but I'm going to work my hardest to make that not happen. Which means job-hunting in earnest, probably this weekend because this week is looking a bit crazy in terms of both workday and after work activities. Eesh!

That's it for today; tomorrow Duy's showing Serenity (well, we did miss Can't Stop The Serenity last year) and Wednesday is Vampire Night (well, which really just means watching lots of Angel). Friday I have to be at Public Night, and then there are all the exams I'm proctoring during the week. AND I've decided I really need to get writing again, even if it's just small, short things - I haven't really written much lately (yes, I realize it's because I spend all my free time RPing, but it's fun!) and I should be. Especially if I'd like to look for a more writing-related job. So I'm going to go back to my very old goal of trying to write a little bit of something every week, be it a paragraph or twenty pages, fanfic or original. And we'll see how that goes.

Also? Chai tea is delicious. I knew this before, but ever since I randomly bought a box at the grocery store I have rediscovered this fact, it seems.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: The Secret of Kells - Aisling Song

Oh gosh, I am so braindead. oo; I spent alllll day futzing around with X-ray fluxes, but something wonky is still going on. I think I know that what I'm doing, in principle, is right, but there is still something strange up and hopefully the helpdesk will be able to tell me if I'm nuts or not. I do have to say, while CIAO's webpages have not always been all that clear, their helpdesk staff has always been pretty awesome. Here's hoping I won't need them so heavily when I get to the k-correction part of this, but then again, it's k-correcting, so... :x

Right. SO NOW, IN ENGLISH. XD I think I am going to spend tomorrow not doing X-ray stuff for at least part of the day if I can manage it, and maybe take a look at my CV, turn it into a resume, and update my webpage and whatnot. I need something that's not brain-hurty after today. ;; Although I am going to go veg at a movie here shortly, we're going to see I Am Number Four in about half an hour. (Well, I have to leave in about fifteen minutes, really.) And I guess I really don't actually have all that much to say in the meantime, so yeah, there's that. Um. Maybe I'll have more to say tomorrow or something, when my brain has maybe had some time to recover, eesh.

Current Mood: braindead

Well so, let's see... My computer has just departed Memphis, TN, so at least it's in the country now! (It shipped from Shanghai, China, after all.) They still have not charged my credit card for the full amount, which is strange, but hey, as long as they'll give it to me I don't care when they charge me, right? (There was a bit of a mix-up around Thursday, when the credit card company called me to see if the charge was real, given that I, uh, never make purchases that large. It was very nice of them, but since they'd put a hold on my card until the issue was sorted out, it delayed the shipping, I think. Regardless, it's been dealt with, obviously, enough that they decided I could have my computer, yay!)

In the meantime, I am tethered to the wall here at Starbucks working on a computer that is, sadly, very slow when it comes to pulling up things on the internets, which is sad because I've been working for the past hour or so to get all my bibliography stuff sorted for my thesis (at least, what I have written thus far). MANY THANKS to Nathan for telling me about the wonderful, wonderful "Bibtex entry for this abstract" function on NASA ADS, because even with a slow computer it has made my life SO MUCH BETTER OMG. I did have to download a different bibliography style which I am hoping will not utterly confuse the people at the UF thesis submission office, because I would be very sad if I had to redo it. BUT let's just assume for now that if I send them the files, they can figure it out. (I realize this assumption may be incorrect, as they seem to have issues with LaTeX despite the fact that they claim to support it, but such is life, I suppose.)

Also, I think about this time I should be making a thesis tag. So I shall be doing that now. :D;

The weather has been gorgeous today, for the record - it's 81 today, and it's been in the 70s at least for a few days now. Not too hot, but not cold, sunny, and soooo nice~ I hope it stays, though I'm not sure it will - it is only February, after all! And, and, and! I GOT UP AT 10:30 this morning! I was so proud of myself, if one discounts the fact that I got up at 12:30 yesterday and, seeing as it was my night off public night and Vicki canceled our meeting, I took the afternoon to get my laundry done and my bathroom (mostly) cleaned and some other things that really needed doing, in anticipation of doing some work today (which, look, I have been doing, even if it's just writing). Also, Ken was awesome and actually got CIAO 4.3 installed this week, and I have gotten my very first (test) X-ray flux! I think the easier method will get me in the right ballpark, which is really all I care about, so I am hoping that by early next week, I will have X-ray fluxes and be a very happy girl, indeed~

And it turns out Frank is coming down for the shuttle launch Thursday; if I can get out of Extragalactic-ph I'd really like to go with, but I have already had to do some MAJOR schedule reshuffling for the next few weeks... but I'm hopeful! I've never actually seen a day launch from up close, weird as that is!

All rightly, I think that's it for now - or, at least, it should be! I might actually try to start updating in smaller chunks - I always feel like I want to wait until I have a decent amount of stuff to update with, but then I either a) never get around to updating or b) have huge updates (see this very entry for an example, heh). So maybe if I do it smaller updates, it'll all work out better. We'll see!

Current Mood: impatient
Current Music: Ella Fitzgerald - A Fine Romance (or, at least it was when I started)