thesis chronicles
May. 2nd, 2013 08:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jinianWell, I can see that it'll take me a while to convince my body that I would like to sleep more than six hours a night. Having my digestion settle down will help with that too.
One of the nice things about being awake Too Fucking Early*, though, is that Hex is all cutely active. He also seems more energetic in the bigger tank, so yay me for finally getting that set up.
So what actually happened yesterday?
I woke up fairly early but not ridiculously so and tried to finish the gifts I was making for my committee members. No dice: the sewing machine's tension is too screwed up. Repairs first, then scarves can be made.
Dressed in normal clothes and brought my awesome dress in a bag. What bra to wear had been an ongoing annoyance, as it is now impossible to find longline strapless bras in department stores. (WTF. They suggest you buy from their web sites, which would be marginally acceptable if they had more than two sizes on their web sites.) I ordered one from the Wizard of Bras, but its torso and mine were not congruent so I wound up with weird hip bumps. I'd also found one whose straps at least matched the dress ($18 Nordstrom Rack, less than half price), but I didn't want straps showing and maybe it would make bumps higher up. Underwear inspiration struck that morning, though, and I wore the cheap bra with the straps pushed down and pinned to the sleeve edges. No unsightly bulges, no straps showing, actually comfortable.
Supportive emails!
I walked to school, as usual. The trail was supposed to reopen yesterday, but I was disappointed to find that my assessment of Apr 30 had been correct and they weren't on schedule with it. I managed to convince myself that this wasn't a bad omen. After all, one does the same thing before a defense and after it, right?
Ran into a grad friend when I went to buy water and juice around 9. She was encouraging, and when she asked me if I was nervous or excited I found that on balance I was more excited, which was extremely helpful to know. Spent some quality time in my auditorium, learning projector and light controls, making sure I didn't need to adjust brightness on my images, and making even more changes to my talk to reiterate themes and make the stories smoother.
eub showed up first, so we got to talk a bit, and then other people started arriving. My mom, dad, and aunt all made it, and m-pig and Wim and beaq, as well as my whole in-person committee (whew) and lots of department people. I should have been setting up the teleconference to my committee member who's on sabbatical, but I got all distracted. We started five minutes late because it took forever to come online; I really should have gone with the "half an hour early" plan.
Wim brought me a beautiful corsage, with white roses and white orchids and navy ribbons to match my dress. PI had also dressed up, and she made a great introduction, including the obligatory embarrassing parts, which in this case were the beginning of my video protocol article and her initial impression of me. Apparently she thought I was a giant freak for knitting in my intro bio lab section, but the coordinator explained that I was "very underchallenged" and finished things quickly; then I helped my friends, but sometimes when my friends were too slow I would pull out the knitting. I do not remember this AT ALL. :) She said a few other things that were not quite how events went down, but it was all very sweet.
Then I gave a talk! I did SUCH a good job. I'd worked my ass off on the slides and notes beforehand, but I hadn't been completely sure I'd be able to turn on the charm in the event. It worked fine. :) My non-bio people said they understood it pretty well, and my committee was extremely complimentary. I am told that my initial shakiness with the pointer was not noticeable at all, and the shakes went away very quickly. I said almost everything smoothly, the audience participated well when called upon, and my lighthearted remarks went over nicely. Afterward, there were a few questions that I couldn't address very effectively, but I think I struck a good balance between honestly saying I didn't know and deflection/saying something else interesting instead. I could smell my corsage at intervals through the whole thing, which was very heartening.
PI kicked the audience out and I got examined. No snake wrestling**, really, more of a snake that is large and heavy but friendly toward you. I had wowed them, so what I got were interesting and sometimes tough questions, which were actually fun. Managing the teleconference was the most annoying part; V couldn't hear much except for what I was saying, so I had to repeat questions and summarize discussions for her when I caught on to that. And! They had a recommendation for a very interesting prospective postdoc advisor, who's studying multicellularity in sponges and just got a pile of funding that hasn't been publicly announced yet. That means if I write to her today I'll precede the avalanche of interest, and she might be up for expanding to a different system like my algae idea. (Around the end of this session I realized that the teleconference was showing V all my presentation notes rather than the main slide display. Embarrassing!! but maybe better if she had trouble hearing at all.)
Then: party! Before the party, though, I heard the tragic story of grad friend M: she had my defense in her calendar but WRONG by an hour, so she showed up at 11:25 as I was wrapping up. Sad! She and other people want to see the talk, and luckily Mom videotaped it. The party was a little disorganized at first, but a lot of fun. Sweets, hugs from lab members, visitors from the department, fizzy drinks, and even ume-shiso rolls bought by Wim! People were gratifyingly shocked at my lingerie ingenuity. Many photos were taken, including of the cake that said "Congratulations Dr. [lastname]" on it. I got more flowers, which I had specifically requested, and pictures taken with everyone with and without flowers.
Uh, also, B.C. looked down my dress. I mean, I would've looked down my dress too, but... B. is a major figure in the study of the plant hormone auxin and one of my undergrad instructors who has written me very nice letters. Disconcerting. I guess even emeritus professors like breasts. He also said I could probably get to be a professor like I want, and apparently he told my parents I'm the best student he ever had. (I am still having kind of a weird reaction to hearing this sort of thing, which... people do say sometimes? I feel that they should not; I am "does not work up to potential" not "best student I ever had." Pretty sure breasts not involved in assessment.)
Still lots of photos to look at from various sources, but my favorite so far came from eub: me opening the "alcohol-removed" champagne (which was actually quite good) with PI behind me. PI tweeted some photos, too, with extra sentiment.
Lunch with family, Wim, and m-pig after way too much indecision by everyone about where to go. I had opted out of deciding, due to no brain left, so I guess I don't get to complain too much. Red Robin worked out fine for everyone, and the waiter was extra-nice and gave me a little hot fudge sundae since he figured out that we were celebrating my defense. I wish him luck in getting into grad school too.
Then I came home and watched "Magical Mystery Cure" again so I could cry a bunch to get less overwhelmed, which worked even better when admixed with laughing at myself for it. I rested a LOT with cats on me and went to bed early.
And now -- informally until the end of the quarter and then for real -- I am Dr. Jinian.
* Awake from about 5am, I am not such a night owl as to complain about the 8 that it now is.
** The snake fight article is now far more hilarious to me than it was when I first read it. VERY BIG, INDEED.
One of the nice things about being awake Too Fucking Early*, though, is that Hex is all cutely active. He also seems more energetic in the bigger tank, so yay me for finally getting that set up.
So what actually happened yesterday?
I woke up fairly early but not ridiculously so and tried to finish the gifts I was making for my committee members. No dice: the sewing machine's tension is too screwed up. Repairs first, then scarves can be made.
Dressed in normal clothes and brought my awesome dress in a bag. What bra to wear had been an ongoing annoyance, as it is now impossible to find longline strapless bras in department stores. (WTF. They suggest you buy from their web sites, which would be marginally acceptable if they had more than two sizes on their web sites.) I ordered one from the Wizard of Bras, but its torso and mine were not congruent so I wound up with weird hip bumps. I'd also found one whose straps at least matched the dress ($18 Nordstrom Rack, less than half price), but I didn't want straps showing and maybe it would make bumps higher up. Underwear inspiration struck that morning, though, and I wore the cheap bra with the straps pushed down and pinned to the sleeve edges. No unsightly bulges, no straps showing, actually comfortable.
Supportive emails!
I walked to school, as usual. The trail was supposed to reopen yesterday, but I was disappointed to find that my assessment of Apr 30 had been correct and they weren't on schedule with it. I managed to convince myself that this wasn't a bad omen. After all, one does the same thing before a defense and after it, right?
Ran into a grad friend when I went to buy water and juice around 9. She was encouraging, and when she asked me if I was nervous or excited I found that on balance I was more excited, which was extremely helpful to know. Spent some quality time in my auditorium, learning projector and light controls, making sure I didn't need to adjust brightness on my images, and making even more changes to my talk to reiterate themes and make the stories smoother.
eub showed up first, so we got to talk a bit, and then other people started arriving. My mom, dad, and aunt all made it, and m-pig and Wim and beaq, as well as my whole in-person committee (whew) and lots of department people. I should have been setting up the teleconference to my committee member who's on sabbatical, but I got all distracted. We started five minutes late because it took forever to come online; I really should have gone with the "half an hour early" plan.
Wim brought me a beautiful corsage, with white roses and white orchids and navy ribbons to match my dress. PI had also dressed up, and she made a great introduction, including the obligatory embarrassing parts, which in this case were the beginning of my video protocol article and her initial impression of me. Apparently she thought I was a giant freak for knitting in my intro bio lab section, but the coordinator explained that I was "very underchallenged" and finished things quickly; then I helped my friends, but sometimes when my friends were too slow I would pull out the knitting. I do not remember this AT ALL. :) She said a few other things that were not quite how events went down, but it was all very sweet.
Then I gave a talk! I did SUCH a good job. I'd worked my ass off on the slides and notes beforehand, but I hadn't been completely sure I'd be able to turn on the charm in the event. It worked fine. :) My non-bio people said they understood it pretty well, and my committee was extremely complimentary. I am told that my initial shakiness with the pointer was not noticeable at all, and the shakes went away very quickly. I said almost everything smoothly, the audience participated well when called upon, and my lighthearted remarks went over nicely. Afterward, there were a few questions that I couldn't address very effectively, but I think I struck a good balance between honestly saying I didn't know and deflection/saying something else interesting instead. I could smell my corsage at intervals through the whole thing, which was very heartening.
PI kicked the audience out and I got examined. No snake wrestling**, really, more of a snake that is large and heavy but friendly toward you. I had wowed them, so what I got were interesting and sometimes tough questions, which were actually fun. Managing the teleconference was the most annoying part; V couldn't hear much except for what I was saying, so I had to repeat questions and summarize discussions for her when I caught on to that. And! They had a recommendation for a very interesting prospective postdoc advisor, who's studying multicellularity in sponges and just got a pile of funding that hasn't been publicly announced yet. That means if I write to her today I'll precede the avalanche of interest, and she might be up for expanding to a different system like my algae idea. (Around the end of this session I realized that the teleconference was showing V all my presentation notes rather than the main slide display. Embarrassing!! but maybe better if she had trouble hearing at all.)
Then: party! Before the party, though, I heard the tragic story of grad friend M: she had my defense in her calendar but WRONG by an hour, so she showed up at 11:25 as I was wrapping up. Sad! She and other people want to see the talk, and luckily Mom videotaped it. The party was a little disorganized at first, but a lot of fun. Sweets, hugs from lab members, visitors from the department, fizzy drinks, and even ume-shiso rolls bought by Wim! People were gratifyingly shocked at my lingerie ingenuity. Many photos were taken, including of the cake that said "Congratulations Dr. [lastname]" on it. I got more flowers, which I had specifically requested, and pictures taken with everyone with and without flowers.
Uh, also, B.C. looked down my dress. I mean, I would've looked down my dress too, but... B. is a major figure in the study of the plant hormone auxin and one of my undergrad instructors who has written me very nice letters. Disconcerting. I guess even emeritus professors like breasts. He also said I could probably get to be a professor like I want, and apparently he told my parents I'm the best student he ever had. (I am still having kind of a weird reaction to hearing this sort of thing, which... people do say sometimes? I feel that they should not; I am "does not work up to potential" not "best student I ever had." Pretty sure breasts not involved in assessment.)
Still lots of photos to look at from various sources, but my favorite so far came from eub: me opening the "alcohol-removed" champagne (which was actually quite good) with PI behind me. PI tweeted some photos, too, with extra sentiment.
Lunch with family, Wim, and m-pig after way too much indecision by everyone about where to go. I had opted out of deciding, due to no brain left, so I guess I don't get to complain too much. Red Robin worked out fine for everyone, and the waiter was extra-nice and gave me a little hot fudge sundae since he figured out that we were celebrating my defense. I wish him luck in getting into grad school too.
Then I came home and watched "Magical Mystery Cure" again so I could cry a bunch to get less overwhelmed, which worked even better when admixed with laughing at myself for it. I rested a LOT with cats on me and went to bed early.
And now -- informally until the end of the quarter and then for real -- I am Dr. Jinian.
* Awake from about 5am, I am not such a night owl as to complain about the 8 that it now is.
** The snake fight article is now far more hilarious to me than it was when I first read it. VERY BIG, INDEED.
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