day 9: "..."

By the early evening, after a full day of work, the cursor lag in Word was unbearable. I was saving every 30 seconds. "7:00?? Need to go home..."

I need to finish. So I can get a new computer. And so I can be done.

day 7, 8: the big house, a steak / a day of writing

A free ticket to the UM-Purdue game came my way this week - thanks Jon and Jon's dad - so I got to enter the Big House once more (and probably for the last time). It was a tough loss, but a beautiful day spent with friends.

On the 40-minute walk home from the Stadium, I stopped by a nearby market and picked up a bottle of wine and some steaks. I tried the Alton Brown pan-sear method for the first time. Wonderful. The true way.

Today has been a day of chores, jogging, writing. Tonight, more wine, TV, relaxation.

I'm not sure what I was worried about: being a grown-up isn't so bad.

day 6: ready, able

day 5: cop out

Exhausted, and have a early start tomorrow... so please forgive me for posting another quick picture. Anticipation of a proper write-up about our lovely recent trip to the Lake Traverse area of MI, if you will.

day 4: ... is easy.

day 3: falling back in love...

The Half-Marathon I did last month in Detroit was really amazing. The race begin in Downtown Detroit along the water, continued across the Ambassador Bridge into Windsor, Canada, followed the water back to - and through - the underwater tunnel back to Detroit/USA, and finished downtown. The sun rose as I was crossing the Bridge into Canada - the best Detroit has ever looked. I finished comfortably, soundly beating the 10:18 pace team I was afraid would lose me. A modest but complete success.

And the best part: the love of running that hit a crescendo that chilly morning has lingered. I haven't regularly jogged for most of my years up here in Michigan - in part b/c of asthma and the weather, but mostly because of laziness and poor fitness routines. But there is something so confidence-boosting about being able to routinely knock out a 5 or 6-mile jog that I haven't been able to slide back into inactivity. I love running again, only this time it feels real.

day 2: a day off?

I put in a lot of hours over the weekend working on a (fairly competent, imho) proposal for ICLS. It's very satisfying... no, relieving... to have it out the door. And though the "oh god, was it good enough?" clouds will soon hover, right now I'm pleased.

I decided to give myself (some of) the day off today for a job well done. My brain didn't cooperate.

Maybe some reading, a little video game time, a podcast?

No. There's stuff to figure out. And it really can't afford to wait.

Where the hell have you been?

day 1: stretching

I will not be participating in NaNoWriMO, but know that I'm cheering for all of you. To feel like a kindred spirit (and while I work on the academic writing that's already spilling off my plate), I plan on writing a blog post every day in November. It's a small gesture, and WAY LESS WORDS. But it's something.

a regular expression

So I'm a regular. My definition for some time has been that once the employee anticipates my order as I approach the counter, I'm a fixture. And yesterday, after coming to a nearby Caribou Coffee for weeks as part of an informal dissertation writing collective, the kind lady asked with a smile: "your usual peppermint tea?" It's a tiny, ultimately trivial thing. But it makes me smile.

I've mentioned my hesitation to courageously suck in the past, but I'm happy to report that I've made some progress on that front. On the dissertation, to be specific. I still have a long way to go, and I still need to resist holding onto drafts in the futile quest for perfection, but things are looking up. Which feels really good.

On the downside, I'm still facing some non-trivial productivity hurdles. Mostly, I spend too much time "seeking." The thing about being an academic is that in some ways, you have to be both boss and employee. And I'm letting myself down on both fronts. New plan is to have Boss Me expect to receive at least 3 deliverables from Employee Me every day. What those "deliverables" are almost doesn't matter at this point, as long as I'm not spinning my wheels. I know this navel-gazing is tedious, and I don't expect anyone to read this - or at least care. But I wanted to post this publicly so as to keep me accountable. Here's hoping.

Last but not least, since this blog has essentially become a count-down to the Rise of the Machine: machines may outsmart man

but what is... the mission?

"We completely understand the public’s concern about futuristic robots feeding on the human population, but that is not our mission."