less nothing

Didn't come in to work yesterday, which was just bad.

Today, did a little bit of admin: made sure that all my PhD committee people have plane, train tix and hotel bookings (all this already taken care of behind the scenes by super-on-top-of-things IB). That slightly loosens the knot in my stomach.

Made a checklist of things that have to happen for the defense.

Still haven't worked on my slides. Slightly improved one of my diagrams. Really really need to get on that, especially since they will have to be translated to French... uh... when? Crap.

Worried about the pot. Need to get a head count. Need to figure out where food and drinks are
coming from.

Wrote a good bit of mail: dear so and so, are you ok for tix? dear so and so, can we have a microphone (maybe) and projector on the 14th november? dear so and so, you are invited to my defense.

Updated my CV with recent publications (the new job wants a recent CV).

Not much else.

It's funny how amazingly little I can accomplish in two days.

more nothing!

Hey, got in to work before lunch today. Right before lunch :-/

Then spent my whole afternoon working on one of the FAQ pages of the darcs wiki, definitely not what I should have be doing.

Bad eric. No cookie for me.

moo

More laziness. Did some more admin: got my room reservation stuff almost completely settled (still need to get a microphone, videprojector, etc for two days). Confirmed that the defense will have to take place at 09:00 (yes, early) on 14 November, for those of you who can make it. Reluctantly started working on my slides (ugh!). Doing them in English for now, because I want to have an English translation anyway. When I'm more or less happy that it's doable in English in 30 minutes, I will switch them over to French.

Présoutenance schedule:
6 nov - 10h A06
7 nov - 10h C013
9 nov - 10h Amphi C (dress rehersal ;-))
13 nov - 10h A108 (day before jitters)

Soutenance:
14 nov - 09h Amphi C (the big day)


I feel so unready. For the defense. For the intelligent questions I will be asked and the stupid answers I will give and for the Real(er) World that awaits. Unready, unworthy, that kind of thing. I look at the people around me, nice simple rocking ideas, let's go explore this stuff and see what happens. Am still not like that enough. Just so... inert... passive. Real World Eric needs to be something different, hunter seeker. Soaking in good examples for the past 6 years now. I hope I've at least absorbed enough from them. See. More passive thinking.

Sorry for the whine whine whine.

up und down?

Maybe that's just it. Feeling less bummed, maybe just got some extra weight off shoulders. Saw talk by our visitor on GRE. Demo'd my stuff for the visitor, and had pleasant chat with. Solved the trac customisation problems in a pretty nice way imho (was just me being stupid and looking in all the wrong places as usual), looked up travel information for JC, so feeling a little more confident about that, and finished my admin stuff for la presidence. Now we have to wait for the official official go-ahead.

laaaaazy.... laaaazyyy...

Didn't feel like coming in to work yesterday, so was just a general bum.

Spent all day just sort of staring out into space and playing with the stuffed kangaroo on my desk. Also discovered GeekTool, which lets me dump text on my Desktop (been longing for this for some time now). I now have console, top, and my next actions counter. Also fiddled around so that Mutt is its own .app.

Did some work with the trac server, no success.

Talked with S, the new postdoc about the demo I'm doing for the visitor tomorrow, and what he's up to (cool stuff!). Procrastinated heavily on preparing for tomorrow. Finally cooked up a demo (21h)

Kinda bummed lately. No idea why.

Got the official go-ahead, I think, at least, from on of the admins here, so it's not the official official go-ahead, but apparently, we are green light to defend on 14 November 2007, Amphi C, LORIA.

I'm not working hard enough on de-jetlagging myself. I guess this morning was progress (02h00 to 10h30). Eh.

Lazy, lazy, and sad.

back for some time now

Been back since Thursday, just in time for the JLR soutenance (good work!). Been a lazy-ass otherwise. Friday was polishing off some random crap that had built up in my mailbox over my holiday. Today has been doing thesis-related admin. Slowly slowly slowly getting back into things. Not being very gung-ho about converting myself back to European time. Just want to sort of sit around and ignore the usual Sense of Impending Doom.

Got my reviews back.

Now I need to fill out my fiche for la presidence and wait for the go-ahead.

typically erician

Back home, trying not to take it easy, vacation and all, but also trying not to just let myself go and degenerate into a TV watching blob. One thing I'm trying to do, after talking it over with P and H, is to at least qualify for the national maître de conférence exams. As far as I can tell, this involves filling out some boring web forms. But through a beautiful mis-clicking adventure, I have lost my numéro ANTARES. But now here I am, with no numéro, and no piece d'identité avec photo that I can fax them. Have to see if my parents have a copy of my passport somewhere.

Sigh.