...well, not exactly. But, on Tuesday I sent it off to my guidance committee members. We are required to send it out 10 days prior to our defense, but my advisor suggested that I do it 2 weeks ahead of time. I was in good shape prior to then, but, as expected, I got some final comments from my advisor on Tuesday. It wasn't bad getting through them, but then I had a lot of end-game formatting to do, which was tedious - page numbers, line spacing, etc. It felt great to get it off. I'm feeling pretty good about my defense. I gave a "practice defense" talk at the end of January. Probably 75% or more of my defense slides won't change from that talk, and I've already gone through the remainder, thinking about what I need to update. I know my stuff and am looking forward to defending (and getting past that hurdle).
In the meantime, I've had a few tabs open on my Firefox browser, waiting to be "bookmarked" in a posting for future reference:
-I liked this commentary on how people read graphs. The tips of good color schemes and reducing extraneous text/markings are things I've tried to follow. Here's hoping I can make PPT slides that are effective at getting my point across and are not boring to look at.
-This discussion on how grad student productivity follows the "hockey stick" growth curve hit home. Coming in with a Masters, I expected to be productive my first year...there were times that I was, but in the end most of that work went nowhere. Luckily, I pushed things, and had my "research growth" start at the end of my first year...though I have observed others who don't have it start until years 2 or 3. And, there are those who have peaks at 2-3 years, then periods of inactivity, before later peaks return.
-I've got to say that this methodology of ranking presentations is classic: PISSOFF. I've found myself coming back to some of the points in recent talks I've attended. Funny stuff...and I agree - I hate wasting my time by sitting through a poor presentation. I always try to sit in a location that makes it conducive for me to do a little work without being too obvious, if I should choose to.
-And, this follow-up post at another location had a funny suggestion - gonging people who are clearly wasting others time. What a great addition that would be to some of our lab meetings!
...back to semi-work!
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