Changes

Today, the movers came to take all of my stuff into storage for Fairfax. My room is empty and all I have right now are some clothes for my Mexico trip with Liz and her family (June 3-10), my laptop, and toiletries. This should be fun. I am extremely excited for the next couple weeks. I start my job on the 16th. I will be working in the Abnormal Errors Detection group. I really do not know what all that entails, but it sounds like a great job for me.

I am hoping that in the next year, I can get myself situated to start working on an MBA, an engineering-related Master's degree, or both. I really want to further my education, but found a terrific job and couldn't stand the thought of another 4-5 years just taking classes and working on a huge dissertation. Maybe eventually I will go back and get a PhD, but that will not be for a while. For right now, I am just going to try to do the best that I can at work, see about these opportunities, and plan accordingly.

It is pretty hard for me to figure out my emotions through this entire process, because there are so many. One minute, I will be excited; the next sad; the next scared. I am trying to act like a tough guy through all of it, mostly because I don't know how to react to this kind of feeling. All I know right now is that I have had a ton of great times in the past and I anticipate many more in the future.

Thesis in T-12 Days

Okay, so I really need to factor sleep into my life. I overslept a racketball class... again. I went to bed around 6 last night... again. The interesting thing about this is the fact that I was working on my thesis the entire time, something I don't think I have procrastinated on at all. Well, luckily for me, it is almost completed (seriously this time) and ready for primary readings. I would love to get this out to Matsoukas tomorrow so that I have a full week of edits before submission on 4/28.

Blue/White Weekend is going to be a mess. There are so many alums coming in that are just fantastic. There is no way I am getting anything done from tomorrow night until late Sunday night. I currently have 21 pages of thesis done. The rest will be a lot of graphics and not a lot of writing. I think it will be around 60 pages start to finish when I am done. It will be cool to have something bound and up in the stacks forever. Hopefully some of this research will get published somewhere in a few years.

Back to the grind. Really glad I started blogging again.

First Post

I am really excited about the coming weeks. With my new job assured and my thesis due date coming closer, I have begun thinking about the future and what it brings. One of the major things I have experienced is the way in which focus can change over time. I am not nearly as focused on learning as I have been in the past - probably a consequence of 170 credits of work and a secured future. It is weird that when this year started, I was thinking about getting my PhD. Now I can't even focus on the 13.5 credits I have.

Right now, I have finished playing some online poker and working on some control homework. I am pretty beat, but cannot fall asleep. Weird. I need to get a lot done on my thesis tomorrow in order to enjoy the next few days. I may try to stay up all night to do so, but I would rather not. The magic/appeal of the all-nighter has come and gone over these past couple years. April 28th cannot come soon enough.

I am going to try to fall asleep again. I miss blogging a lot. It always gave me a few minutes to organize myself and collect my thoughts. Hopefully I will be able to utilize it in the future to do the same.