Tales from the Steppes

2005-09-28

3:33 p.m.

The shoe is on the hand it fits
There's really nothing much to it
- The Grateful Dead
Hrrrrm, well this was..... interesting.

You are a mysterious little brass key. Everyone
knows you open something, but no one is quite
sure what. Don't worry, though; as long as
people keep trying, they'll eventually figure
out what you have to offer.


What sort of key are you and what do you unlock?
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The mongols had a half day so I had to go home for a couple of hours in between when they got home and the babysitter could get there. It is such a beautiful day, I almost did not come back. But there is a stack of files with my name on them, so back I came. I only had to deal with the younger two, as the EM went directly to a friend's house and from there to the movies. This is a male friend that she gets along very well with - they are both the same sort of goofy. So we will just have to see. They have already made plans for Halloween together but hopefully they will invite others to join them. I'm not being paranoid here - I just don't want to deal with this yet. Can I buy a great big can o' "Hormone Begone"?

While I was home, I thought I would get a workout in on my exercise ball. I have been such a slug lately as far as exercise goes. So I put in "The Two Towers" - 'cause orcsie killing is fun to exercise to, and started doing situps. The YM came by when a shot of the tower with the eye of Sauron was on the tv and turned to his friend and said "What a cool tiki torch!" This is how you know you have missed with making something scary - a five year old thinks you are a tiki anything.

Been around the world and found that only stupid people are breeding
The cretins cloning and feeding
- Harvey Danger

I met with my first last night for over 2 1/2 hours. I explained my last two weeks worth of work and what I have learned from it and he was quite pleased. He finally aknowledged that perhaps they were requiring too much work for this thesis. "After all, it's not a doctoral dissertation, merely a thesis." Finally some sanity! He also acknowledged that I had already met the requirements of the purpose of the thesis so if I cannot convince a statistically significant number of people to participate in my research, that was ok. He also admitted that my thesis was much better than his.

I am definitely feeling a little less stressed about this. I am curious if this change in attitude does not stem from the disappearance of my old first. Perhaps there were some ego issues? Whatever the cause, I am grateful. I do not mind working hard for what I want and making sacrifices to attain a goal, but this was starting to get a little silly. I will not be able to finish this fall, because the deadline for completion and defense is in October but I know that I can finish my primary research this fall and however much it is will be acceptable.

I had something fun happen at work yesterday! An engineer called me to inquire about why his plan had not been signed off on. He was starting to get all spun up and was blustering at me about how important this was blah blah blah. He had to take a breath to continue his harrangue and I was able to slip in that his plan was not approved because his consultant had just gotten back to me with some changes I had asked for back in July. Totally took the wind out of his sails! Oh sure, he had to go on at me a bit more about when was I going to field check the plan and why could I not do it before the other plans that are awaiting my attention. But I know that as soon as he got off the phone with me, he would be calling the consultant, who never wants to do what we ask him to, to blister his ears.

Ok, so maybe this isn't exactly fun but I have been trying to get this consultant to raise the quality of his work and he keeps wanting to do things by looking at an aerial photograph or drive by sites and not get out of his car. It is just good to have someone else call him up and give him a hard time.