Obsolescence

I'm at the library right now...the last place I should be but I figured if I was going to move eventually I'd better get enough of this place before I go. I'll miss the resources here the most, it is really a big thing for an information junkie like myself.

I saw a group of students at the library coffee shop, they were all in one table and they have all their laptops fired up...and they don't have them plugged in! Gosh, I miss having a good battery. I don't want to buy my third battery though. On top of that I am already on my third charger. Dell needs to do a major redesign and I think they did with the new models that they are selling.

There is this theory in economics about planned obsolescence. Companies that have a monopoly on some product actually built in an expiration (or maybe self-destruct) date on their products. In a way they want them to go out of style real quick. Because they dont want to have a durable product that can compete down the road when it enters the resale market. Think textbooks, ever wonder why they come up with new editions so often?

Loose ends

I paid the binding fees for my dissertation today and also the copying fees (for the copies to be binded)...set me back by a good amount of money. At this point...you dont want to complain anymore and just want to get it over with. Tomorrow I pick up the copies to dump it at the bindery.

Earlier I was trying to put some money in my university ID card, the one you can use to buy stuff from university stores. I discovered that I had $5 in it...all this time and I didnt know I was sitting on a pot of money :) Well, that was a good surprise and I quickly celebrated by treating myself to a mocha latte. Perfect for a gloomy, rainy day like what we are having today. We didnt even see the sun today.

Done

Successfully defended the dissertation today. They grilled me pretty good in there, but got it done in the end.

D-Fence!

Gosh, I must be nuts. I scheduled a defense of my opus sometime two weeks from now. What's the worst thing that can happen? Send me back to my office and rewrite it all up? I'll take those odds.

Wake me up when November ends

Today I put together all the chapters of my dissertation. There are still a lot of bugs in there and I am sure I can rewrite whole portions of it to improve it. I gave a copy of it to my chairman with the caveat that it is still mutating. Some parts look rushed some not. I'm sure it will benefit from more adjustments and edits and I might just be doing that this weekend. I heard from somebody not too long that a good dissertation is a done dissertation. Anyway I have to put it at arms length right now because I am getting sick of reading and re-reading the same thing over and over again. Let's see if my chair would even consider that ream of paper worthy of a defense date.

Seeing the new crop of PhD students slave away at problem sets and worry about the comprehensive exams while they meet in the conference room make me feel a little bit better though :)