Yahoo!

Sometimes the end does arrive. My first chapter is finished. Three copies now rest happily in the Division of Lit & Lang Secretary's office. I've just returned from Dick's Drive In and don't plan on eating again until tomorrow. One swiss, avocado and bacon burger, an order of garlic fries, and a vanilla shake have left me with an appetite for coffee and nothing else. I just finished the first of the many double espressos I will drink this evening. Though my first chapter is done, I still have a paper to write on King Lear. I've mentioned it before, I know, but it's still not written. I've now read some thirty or so articles and book chapters. I'll start with an outline of the play's major issues. This is the what the play is 'about' section. I'll then do two brief overviews of the lit on competing interpretations of the play, and follow that with my own, hopefully concluding with an explantion of how my interpretation answers the questions raised in the initial what the play is 'about' section. This is only slightly less vague than my own outline, which means I really need to get back to work.

Hope you're all well. See (most of) you soon.

Love Ev

Oh My

Sometimes you just can't work anyomore. I got my first migraine this morning, or at least something phenomenologically (my apologies) similar. It was rather frightening at the time. I could see, but I couldn't. Looking at my computer screen, I could see the words but I couldn't really make them out. My ability to process contrast seemed to be impeded. Straining my eyes really hard, I could still read, but the effort was so great that I could concentrate on nothing else. Couldn't think about what I was reading, certainly couldn't write my thesis. I tried reading a book instead, but it was no better. I got up to look at my eyes in the in the mirror and noticed that my peripheral vision seemed to be quivering, and it was cut off on either side, perhaps by as much as a third. Fortunately, I took a break and everything seems to have returned to normal. Even after my eyes improved, I was still a little concerned. I still didn't really no what had happened. I had an inkling that the culprit was some combination of lack of sleep and moderate drinking last night (two mixed drinks and three pints of beer), but I wasn't really sure. Two people have since comfirmed my suspicions, and one suggested that it may have been a migraine.

I'm going to go to bed early this evening, and hopefully this won't happen again.

Oh my god

Great new music. Well, new to me. I finally got my hands on "Reasonable Doubt", and I also have a copy of Cinematic Orchestra's "Man with a Movie Camera". Rounded out my acquisitions with some Johnny Cash, Coltrane, Adderley, Parker and Ellington. Thesis is going well. Shakespeare paper hasn't started going yet.

See ya all soon.

Love Ev

I laugh and write my thesis

"Hitherto lost in conceptuality, the unclothed viewer sees the naked world." I've not decided if this is ingenious or stupid. I admit, out of context, it is just plain silly, but within the paragrah I wrote, I can't decide.

hrrr...thesis...hrrr

I've almost reached my limit. I should really be in bed as I have a thesis meeting in a little more than seven hours. But I must write more, which means I must not write this. Hrrrrr.. Going well though. I've got almost fifteen pages of a first chapter that will end up being a little over twenty pages.

Silly Quiz for procrastination. I am mystified by my mind and friends/family score

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	7.3
Mind:	6.6
Body:	7.3
Spirit:	9.1
Friends/Family:	5.6
Love:	4.3
Finance:	5.8
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

Help

I need some help from all of you. Among the many traditions at Reed, most of which are wonderfully silly, there is one that involves placing a "random" word somewhere in one's thesis. Any senior who desires may enter, and the cost of entry is rather simple: suggest a word or phrase that some other poor soul will have to place in their thesis. As the little notice on my desk says, "past examples include such gems as 'hexagonal democracy', 'retrocombobulation', 'electrodentistry', and 'escape to Madagascar'. I am enlisting all of you help me come up with an appropriately silly word or phrase. This could even be a competition of sorts. I promise to take the winner, as judged by me, out for drinks. To be eligible for this prize, there must be a previous acquaintance between us. I reserve the right to decide that I like my own ideas better. Post them as comments, or send me an email.

My ideas so far:

'dialectical swiss cheese'
'lords of materialism'

thoughts on procrastination and contextual effects

Though this post may belie its own claim, I've discovered that moving to a new work location can have wonderful effects on my ability to stay focused. I'm now sitting in a different part of the library and a working spirit has been coming more easily. (It would be better if I used the passive voice less). It seems I've developed a sense of revulsion to my thesis desk, where I spend almost as much time as I do in bed. Back to Lear.

procratination

Sometimes I wonder if I should have been an economics major. I spend altogether too much time reading, thinking and writing about politics and economics. I've just spent almost three hours researching past and projected future levels of oil production and consumption. I was curious to know if we were going to face an oil crunch anytime soon, and if so, how dire the effects would be. People have been projecting an oil 'peak' for a long-time now. The term was first coined by Marion King Hubbert in 1956. At the time he was a geologist working for Shell oil. He got the peak of continental US production right. Similar predictions for world production (1989, 1995, 2000), mostly by an institute lead by Colin Campbell, also a former geologist for the oil industry, have all proved wrong. Uphased, Mr. Campbell continues in his attempts to predict the peak. Most recently, he's pegged it at 2010. What all this means is another question. When Hubbert first presented his peak theory, he also argued that the oil production curve has a particular shape. Critically, it slopes steeply downward on the far-side. This is perhaps the more important question as it greatly affects what we think the effects of the peak will be. Some envision a global economic and social crisis. Others think the peak is farther off, and some also believe that the drop on the far-side won't be so bad.

Anyhow, I'm procrastinating again, and now I really need to get back to work.