Tag Archives: graduation

Ask and Ye Shall Receive

A few folks have asked if they could read a copy of my thesis (i.e., novella) after it was done.

I have joked that one of the things that everyone who has written a thesis says to every one of their friends and/or colleagues that wrote a thesis is, “I would love to read your thesis,” and none of those theses actually get read.

That being the case, you will not offend me in the least by never reading this.  However, in case you do care to venture down that path, this is the exact copy that I turned in today.  Have a good time, and thanks.

Campaign Season: A Novella

Commencifying and Biogas

I just read an interesting little article about the use of “biogas” (basically natural gas harvested from rotting manure) in India.  Found it via New Scientist.

Also wanted to quickly take this opportunity to mention commencement and open houses for next weekend.  I didn’t just start thinking about it, but I’ve been slowly working on a post about this graduation stuff for about a month now, and it’s too late to finish it.  So:

  • I will be “commencing” in anticipation of a summer 2008 graduation from Oshkosh next Saturday, May 17.  All are welcome.
  • All are also welcome the following day, Sunday, May 18, at Jen and Joe Mundschau’s house at 6425 W Wisconsin Ave in Wauwatosa for an open house event to recognize Joe and me, both “commencing” this weekend.

I understand that is very short notice.  What’re we gonna do?

Closing Up

You’ll probably notice the server going offline for a bit later on today. I start my new job at UWM on Monday, and I’m going to relocate this box to the Mundschaus’ house for a few weeks until I have someplace to live.

Brief recap of my last weekend “living” in Oshkosh:
Met up w/ Knitt and Michelle on Friday. Joe and I had a cigar and a game of darts after he got done with work. The three of us went to Peabody’s, but no one else showed up. *shrugs* We still had a good time.

Yesterday, Michelle and I tried to shop for a Brewers jersey in Appleton, but the only sizes on the rack were for the excessively heavy gentleman. I might have to try ordering something online.

We had dinner at Texas Roadhouse, and then later we went to Dick’s Halfway Inn for Dave Schrubbe’s graduation party. We met his GF, which was neat, and had a good time in general.

OK, well– gotta finish getting ready and then head down to MKE. Next time I write, I will be in a different zip code.

Distracted

I’ve got a bunch of things on my mind this week, and it’s complicating my work and my blog. There’s also the fact that I’m out of coffee at work, and keep forgetting to bring in more. I get caffeine headaches now, which I never used to, and it’s quite a bummer when I’m off the stuff. But I digress.

So late last week, I ran the following numbers:
DATE I ENTERED UW-OSHKOSH AS A FRESHMAN: 9/3/1997
DATE I LEFT UW-OSHKOSH w/ A BACHELOR’s DEGREE: 12/15/2001
TOTAL ELAPSED TIME: 4 YRS, 3 MONTHS, 12 DAYS

DATE I ENTERED MSU-BOZEMAN AS A GRAD STUDENT: 8/26/2002
DATE I TRANSFERRED TO UW-OSHKOSH AS A GRAD STUDENT: 2/2/2004
TOTAL ELAPSED TIME SINCE GRAD STUDIES STARTED (degree incomplete): 4 YRS, (and very nearly) 8 MONTHS

One of my master’s program colleagues was in the office the other day to talk to my boss. He started after me, and he’s defending his thesis this month. That really sort of put some stuff in perspective for me and made me realize I need to quit dragging my feet.

So my plan for this week is to get done with the paperwork that needs to go through in order to start on my thesis. Rindo seems to think I could still get out even as early as the fall. Personally, I don’t know how that would happen, but spring suits me fine, too.

I’ve gotta get back in a writing mode and scrape some rust off my brain so that what I do in the fall is actually worth something. I’ve been so goddamn tired or making excuses for why I can’t work. I really need to kick myself in the ass.

There are some professional distractions hovering around my mind this week, too, and hopefully I’ll have more to say about that by next Monday. Things are coming to a head, I think you could say.

I also totally flaked on the Netflix subscription coming out of my bank account this week, so I’m goddamn overdrawn, and what that basically means is that the sandwich I had for lunch last week is gonna cost me 40 dollars. Stupid, stupid bullshit.

I gotta try to concentrate. If I manage to formulate a coherent thought, you mind get wind of it.