Mid Degree Crisis?

As I've expressed here frequently of late, I'm not a fan of my honours thesis project. A week off that should have seen me focus on it saw me look at it for maybe 3 hours in making some simple plots to keep supervisors happy and responding to a few e-mails. I was supposed to go in one day this week to learn how to prepare some of my samples for yet another set of analyses, but didn't get an e-mail telling me when that would happen.

Apparently the next tests will take the better part of 3 weeks to finish, while I am supposed to have a rough draft of a thesis written for next week. I could write the thesis around the data I am still waiting on, but instead I'm using it as an excuse to string things out even further. So long as I have things in order for my presentation near the end of March, there shouldn't be any issues. In the mean time I just cannot bring myself to sit down and put things together.

At first I thought I was just sick of schooling in general, but I am taking other courses this term, and aside from the typical gripes, am enjoying them. Infact, having saved some arts electives til the end of my degree and now taking the same style introductory courses I took 4 years ago, I've found a bit more interest than I had of late. I'm certainly not about to switch into a 4 year Psychology degree or anything ridiculous like that, but it holds interest well enough.

Instead, its the self directed thesis portion of things that's dragging me down right now. I am hoping that its simply the fact that I was never enthusiastic (to say the least) about my topic to begin with that is most of the reason for my dragging my ass. If its the self directed research side of things, then perhaps going on to get my Masters won't be the best idea. The problem with stopping now of course would be that I don't like most of the jobs I could go fill with my Bachelors degree. In truth, I've had the feeling lately that I'd be most happy doing under the table computer repairs, or at worst registering as a small business and doing the same.

So long as I could make enough money to roughly maintain the same lifestyle I have now for the long term I'd be satisfied. I've never carried illusions of leaving a major mark on society, or making myself a rich man. A few extravagancies (my beer, my music, my computer, my home theatre and my steak) are all I really need. Beyond that, making contributions where I can; being an intelligent person and passing on any wisdom possible when possible are all I motivate myself with.

We'll see what waking up in the morning for the next few months brings in terms of new motivation, or job opportunity. In the mean time, I'd be happy to fix your computer problems at minimum wage + parts and travel!

Reading Week

It had to come eventually. After such a mild December and January, the snowfall was due, and mother nature took a big white dump on us this week. On the plus side, the first big hurrah, may also have been the last big hurrah of the season, as the long term outlook is looking at weather getting up above freezing again soon. It will be nice to not creak when I go outside in the mornings.

Its officially reading week now, which for some people means flying off to nice white sand beaches in the tropics. For others it means trying to put together a Bachelors thesis in a week, while also playing catchup in actual reading and assignments. Its what I signed up for ultimately.

I also signed up years ago for the NIN mailing list, and unlike other bands whose mailing lists I've also been on at one time or another, there is very little garbage advertising that gets pumped into the account from NIN.com. So yesterday when I got an e-mail I was obliged to open it, and found that there is already a new full length album coming out in 2 months, and that two of the songs are posted on the NIN myspace page.

Of course for the slightly more initiated, the songs are available out there for download, though not in spectacular quality. The first single, Survivalism, follows a political tone more apparent in Trent's latest work, while still replete with biting sarcasm and enough variation in sound again to make it a decent single.

I'll admit I was slightly shocked to see the songs available a full two months before the album release date, but then Trent Reznor is known for embracing technology and inviting fan remixes, as well as providing various forms of media under the NIN name. And when there is invariably a leak of material before the official release of an album these days anyways, why not embrace the opportunity. I'm looking forward to the release.

I also heard on the radio in the lab yesterday that Chris Cornell has once again decided to fly solo, leaving Audioslave. I think Audioslave was getting tired anyways, and this just opens the door for a more permanent reunion of Rage Against the Machine, should their gig at Coachella in the spring inspire them.

Now about inspiring myself.

Lost in the Fog

I'm not dead, despite the best combined efforts of my thesis, course load and procrastination. The days seem to dissolve into one another and another week sneaks up almost completely unnoticed. The unfortunate part of it all is that none of the blur has been due to anything particularly exciting, just the mundane and monotonous assignments and reading, and requests for more and more lab work.

The mindless rushing around late this week lead to me tripping over my own books and putting a hand through a window pane in supporting my weight. Yet another item on the home reno 'to-do' list. That same list, combined with the sad state of my van, and lack of much of a bankroll right now has me thinking of resigning myself to a week long camping trip within a 5 hour drive, instead of a month long road trip out west in the spring. Its about time to start thinking about putting away money to buy out the house and get in some renters to help pay it off.

I've really nothing more productive to say. If you are/were ever a Police fan, I'll offer a reminder that they're reuniting for tonight's Grammys, and that you might want to watch that. If not, football's over and there should be some great TV on competing with said Grammys, so it should be a great night for channel surfing.

Playing Nostradamus

Colts 27 - Bears 13. You heard it here first.

Also, in the year 2104, a global peril will lead to much agonizing in government. The fortune teller/miraculous prophet game isn't all that hard to play.

With that said its time to settle in for an afternoon of sports. First to watch the born again Raptors take on the Clippers, and then later to watch the one sporting event that men and women everywhere are forced to come together for every year in the name of celebration: competitive ice dancing.

Really, the Superbowl should be a competitive game this year, particularly given the windy and rainy forecast which will likely pull the teams closer together than what I feel their actual talent should predict. As long as the zebras don't go and blow it like last year, it should be a good game. Though I don't particularly care who wins, I think Peyton Manning deserves a ring, especially after finally showing he has what it takes to put the team on his back when it really counts, as he did to the Patriots 2 weeks ago.

The smell of chili is already drifting through the house, and the beer is stocked. No matter the outcome (which is never really the concern of millions of Superbowl parties anyways) it will be a glorious Sunday.

Fun Fact Friday II

The United States military is aspiring to become the aliens from H.G. Wells' The War of The Worlds.

You can now get all the myriad health benefits of coffee and doughnuts in one. I was personally hoping McDonalds or Burger King would inject their burgers with caffeine first in their pioneering tradition of wholesome food. Now they will seem like unoriginal hacks.

Nick has a new blog for his puntastic t-shirt ideas. If he made a Cafepress store for some of them I'd probably buy a hundred. Okay, that may not be a fact. Maybe I'd buy one. But still, check them out.

It was -22 last night, without windchill. While not Prairies cold, that's still pretty fucking cold. Today we got dumped on with snow all day. I'm sick of this 'winter' shit; I'm gonna go tell Al Gore to talk some more so he exhausts more carbon dioxide, and water vapour, and accelerates this climate change thing.

99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall

I finally got around to moving my ever growing beer bottle collection out of my room to make way for the also consistently expanding collection of textbooks. For the most part my work with those beer bottles is done, while with my textbooks it seems like an impossibly long time until they can be shoved off to the side somewhere.

The bottles aren't lined up around the top of the wall yet like I want. Nor do they set the mood around a small basement bar with a permanent keg fridge and tap like I also want. But the best things in life aren't free, so such grand schemes will have to wait. For now they'll have to stay crammed together with other beers of the same national origin, begging me to add new friends to their group.

The society thus far are strongly Belgian, with large minorities of Germans and Poles peacefully coexisting. That's not to say that some of them haven't combined to create their own little Auschwitz's in my stomach before. I need to add to the Dutch and Czech minorities, with some attention to the dry Asians out East. The problem is that the turnover on new selection at the liquor stores in town is less than spectacular, even when visiting multiple stores.

The easy, and infact ideal solution would seem to be to travel the world and get some of these things straight from the tap, but I don't see a windfall of money blowing in from the horizon. If it wasn't all regulated by the provincial government, it might be easy to go to a private liquor store with a request. Hell, if alcohol sales were privatized here, I'd consider opening my own store for import beers. The grocery stores are allowed to sell wine in their booths after the checkouts, why the hell shouldn't I be able to sell good beers?

In the mean time I'll have to sit down relax and wait on some new stock. Until then I'll take one down and pass it around...to myself...98 bottles of beer on the wall.

Fun Fact Friday...Part One?

Charles Darwin was formally educated in Theology, and married his first cousin. He also apparently invented irony.

Darwin didn't study African or European swallows; he studied finches, at least so far as the H.M.S. Beagle was concerned. His wife was English as well and, being his first cousin, was clearly open-minded. Thus, the European swallow may have been an inevitable 'hobby study'.

Schneider Weisse is still a delicious winter beer.

It is the weekend.

I am out of Schneider Weisse.

Goin' Off The Rails...

I've been annoyed lately with my sleep patterns. One night I can get into bed, nod off, and sleep until the next morning dead to the world, and completely forget any dreams I've had in that time. And then the next night I fall asleep quickly enough, but wake up 20 times through the night with a million different stresses on the mind, as well as the intermixed dream sleep that I tend to remember more vividly on those nights. After finally giving up on sleep, and getting to the day's trivial exercises, I'm still left with an uneasy feeling for hours.

Normally I'd be able to attribute differences in my sleep to some boozing, but that hasn't been the case much lately. The mind-racing sleep isn't anything that's new to me either, its been something that I've done since I was a kid, but not with the same frequency, and it was never as chaotic as it seems now. What I'd like is a big red e-stop button for my brain on those nights. Something to turn all the crap off, and let me just forget about things for a good night's sleep, and a holdover until morning when everything can come rushing back to me. Without the bonuses of a damaged liver, pounding head, and vomiting would be ideal.

Something tells me a winning lottery ticket, and a cereal box degree would take me a long way in finding that stop switch. For now a snow day, and some catch-up reading will have to suffice.