cerealjoe | Entries tagged with gali and that phd thesis

~~Oh look! An entry that was not written a week ago and put in the scheduled entries list! So yes, this is actually recent news!~~

Just when I stopped feeling slightly guilty about still refusing to accept the fact that one day I will have to grow up… I received a funky invitation card to attend this semester's graduation ceremony. Because things like that happen here and everything is very official.

… so now I have a nice diploma thing with a bright shiny seal that says that I'm a full on Doctor of Science (Tech.)

Interestingly enough, as I did not attend my graduation ceremony for my diplôme d'ingénieur and there is no graduation ceremony for lycée/prépa, this is the first graduation ceremony related to a part of my education that I've been to since my middle school graduation.

And, oh well, being the person I am, I refuse to live in a reality where I have to start acting like an "adult" 27 year old and thus I have yet to come up with plans for anything beyond mid-May.

For those who have missed it, my thesis defense went quite well on Monday and now I am just waiting for the final word from the Doctoral Programme Committee. Because here there is enough bureaucracy to make Asterix and his "mason des fous" seem like a joke. For real, there is a page on the intranet dedicated to the forms that doctoral students must fill in… and there is absolutely no logic because they're form PDFs (the kind that can't be saved, only printed) that I have to fill in and print and send over as a paper to the person in charge who then has to extract the info from the paper and enter it manually in the system. Why can't they just make me fill in a form online that's then just validated? Old system legacy and all that… I know, I know. It's still quite bothersome.

And speaking of crazy stuff, I've reached the stage where one of the things that amuse me the most is creating a social media inception… Twitter inside Tumblr inside LiveJournal!

I should post this on a WordPress somewhere and then on FB and possibly find someone who still has a MySpace account and have them post a screen cap there.

I'm still not officially a doctor so I can get away with stuff like this.

Not that I won't be able to do so later on… but you know, I have to pretend like I will.

Spoilers: this is what peeps will see today starting at noon.

And I am now at the point in my internal freak out where it's all "what will be will be".

I'm giving myself another hour or so before I start going "I have completely forgotten everything that's in my thesis, this is not good."

Hey, did you know that I started about one of those 365 Days projects on January 1st and so far have not missed a single day but all the photos are still on the memory cards inside my cameras? I'm going to have so much catching up to do one of these days…

… but I'm taking a break from "serious" online blogging stuff for a bit for more fangirly/less serious stuff because it gives me a break from normal life.

By "serious" blogging I mean "LiveJournal" because this place has grown up with me in the last 10 years. 10 years. That's the longest thing I've ever kept up. 10 freaken years have been documented here. I actually missed my LJ's birthday, it was on the 16th of January. Over 5500 entries.

Right. And by "fangirly/less serious stuff" I mean "you'll find me on my main tumblr and on my side-tumblrs, which are rather scary places that probably do not reflect at all that I am an adult." It's ok though, it all gives me breaks in adult life.

Speaking of adult life, for those who did not know it, I am defending my PhD thesis next Monday. Obviously if you're in the Helsinki area, please feel free to drop by at noon.

To celebrate all that, let's have some mini!Gali.

The fact that I used to have much lighter hair naturally reminds me I have to get those roots taken care of sooner than later.

But hey, small steps at a time. It took me just two trips to the local Alepa to remember that I was almost out of toilet paper. Small steps.

So… you know how it's often the little things in life that matter? This morning I had a box of fancy chocolates that my mum got me that represent one of those little things.

Wait. Did that sentence make sense? What I meant was that I'm having one of those pre-flu days where everything hurts like I just spent all of yesterday on a crew boat and my head is all mushy and… you know how it goes. And anyway, my mum got me those fancy chocolates over Christmas break and I opened the box this morning and acted like a perfectly reasonable adult and had fancy chocolates for breakfast and that made things a lot better. I also debated having a foie gras omelette but decided that could be dinner if I still felt like shit then.

On the bright side, my thesis is an official book, printed in about 80 copies on its first (and probably only) run. Sneak peek of the amazing 200 page fuchsia doorstop…

Last time my PhD/thesis/stuff didn't go according to plan (as in broken bones and broken bicycles and broken head-wise), I settled on a last minute trip to Japan. This time around I feel like going for a crazy colour in my hair. Maybe light pink dip dyed tips or something. My hair is now long enough that I could actually hide those tips in a bun if I really had to.

That would nicely match the hot pink nails I have today.

Right now though I'm eating gummy bears for breakfast on a Sunday morning. Don't tell me I am not the most responsible 27 year old you've met!

Or I could go back to orange-ish. I quite liked that... but I'd make it more orangey this time around.

(for the full PhD/thesis/stuff development, see twitter... not the "cerealjoe" one.)

I am not MIA! I have just discovered the joys of a busy life. Just kidding. I'm just lazy and there are books to read and there is the call of the outside when there is a bit of sun.

I wonder if there is a name for the feeling of guilt one develops when living in Nordic countries when it comes to seeing some sunshine outside and deciding to stay indoors. It's a real thing. It hits you square in the face, "I should be outside, there is sunshine! Soon it will start raining again and then it's going to be dark at 5:30pm! I cannot possibly stay indoors!" That and the feeling of pure satisfaction one gets from beating the rain like I did this morning. It's a feeling of glee only five year old kids should feel and only when faced with an unlimited supply of candy/ice cream and legos. But really, one of these years I should move close to the equator and not have to deal with amazingly different day lengths.

That brings me to the point that I should start thinking what the hell I want to do after my defense because that's most likely less than six months away, five if there are no more fuck-ups. Post-doc in some random country (apparently there are some positions open in Singapore that might interest me), teaching environmental stuff/creativity/engineering design in some random university (I've always wanted to finally put that "languages" section in my CV to use), going into industry (9-5 sounds so... not my thing... not that I have a thing for late night writing and weekends worrying about stuff), forgetting about science and getting a job that would require almost no input from me (to be honest, "mindless" work sounds so appealing although I would probably tire of it after two months), other. And by "other" I probably mean trying to find the meaning of life, possibly by writing self-published books of poetry. Except that poetry is not my thing.

Man, that was a downer! Actually this is why I was considering participating in the NaNoWriMo this year and write a book called "The Dark Side of that PhD Stuff (Spoiler: There Do Not Have Cookies There)", it would exorcise, at least partially, my inner PhD demons. Except that apparently NaNoWriMo is just for fiction novels. Fucking sucks, if you ask me... although from a certain point of view, no matter what one writes, there is always a bit of fiction because no one can be truly objective.

Right... till then, have this amazing representation of life.

It's not quite as accurate of a representation as 42 but I would say it's not far.

(No, I am not functioning on 4 hours of sleep because I couldn't put down my book last night. Why do you ask?)

Okie dok. Let's have a very unbiased look at my life right now.

I have one of them twitchy eye things, you know the one where your eye just won't stop twitching and google is of no help because apparently it happens to everyone and there about a thousand theories that every day Einsteins have as to why it might happen.

Apparently my thesis is still not done and I need another journal article because that's how things roll around here. Too bad I'm still having this love/hate relationship with my whole post-Masters education. We're back to the hate bit, in case that wasn't clear. Actually I'd even say that today is a very negative day, the kind of day you don't want to see anyone, because I'm anti-social from time to time, but alas it's the day that everyone wants to see you.

But hey, those almost-three-weeks in the south were good. I had actually forgotten what high levels of humidity felt like... I was quickly reminded here with 95% and sweating like there is no tomorrow on a short bike ride when it's only 18C. The hand seems better, a month or two and things should be at 100%!

Oh, and how amazing was Vos yesterday? And all the other women in that race. I'd say that this was the highlight of the Olympics, I doubt any other competition can beat the amazing level of that road race... and to say that women's professional cycling still doesn't get even a quarter of the coverage and sponsorship that men's professional cycling does. The men's race was pretty awesome too but the comments/reactions some people had about the finish were rather upsetting because the bashing that Uran got was just not justified. As I said on twitter, imagine being almost a "no one" in cycling (I know, I know, he's Sky and had the white jersey and had tons of other stuff, but relatively speaking he's a no one) with no apparent finishing abilities what-so-ever (again, relatively speaking but Uran has never been known to be a great finisher) going up against Vino, I think a freaking out freeze in a final sprint is more than a possibility. Then again I would make the worst ever hockey mum because I want everyone to win and be nice and everything. And really, the bashing was just plain old mean. And my current self might not be into Vino but I certainly am in love with the idea of my 2005-self being in love with Vino (don't question this, that sentence totally makes sense in my head). And he'll probably be sporting a golden tracksuit as Astana DS next year and that's going to be even freakier than those kits with his face on them. God, those things were things of nightmares.

Just now I also thought that I only watered a tiny bit the one plant that's still alive in my flat since I've been back. I should look into watering it a tad more. Super transition to... some old photos of the other plants that were not dead back in March! Dude, best transition ever or what!

I should have called this one "the evolution of how things die over at my place, part 23478398".

Woohoo! So I could go on like this forever. I think I'll just save it for later.

In my last entry we established that I failed at handling adult life full of tension but did I actually remember to say that I did end up handing in my thesis for pre-review on Friday night? Because I did.

But not before having more adventures straight from the land "Gali fails at keeping herself alive" on Thursday night! Short story, when a bike and a car meet, the bike usually loses and that's why one should always wear a helmet! (and possibly full body-armor) My adventures culminated in a trip to the trauma ER and a cast and a very swollen face with enough road rash to last me a lifetime and a legit black eye and some stitches on my chin. I'll spare you the gruesome sights, although the peeps on the gali_nette twitter and instagram got the daily updates on the gruesomeness (sorry guys! but in my world that's fascinating stuff) and so here is my shiny cast!

Can I just say that modern cast technology is amazing? It doesn't involve plaster, it's not messy like it used to be!

All that being said, I'm actually glad for the timing of that little accident, although obviously I could have gone without it. Since my mind was full of my thesis and how I had to finish it, I had no time to really freak out. I was back at work on Friday, trying to type with a cast on, full of pain killers, my face swollen to double its size, and the only thing I cared about was freaking getting that damned thesis done. Now, looking back, I must have looked really weird on Thursday in the ER, "ok, are we done here? are you sure it's broken? can I go now, I have stuff to do!"

That being said, right now, while I have about a week before the final answer from the pre-review committee I can't even go on a mini-holiday because I have a check-up appointment (and I probably scare little children with my face but I must say that I bet no make-up artist has ever been able to paint on a black-eye this legit). Maybe I should spend my time wisely, though, and bring the bike to the shop for some repairs... mainly on the handlebars but also the dérailleur should be checked out.

More of this adventure later, typing with my dominant hand in a cast is hard. To the point where typing on the iPad is way faster for me. So strange!

If my PhD thesis has taught me anything, it's that I'm terrible at handling "adult" life. Well, perhaps I shouldn't call it "adult". It's more about situations that are a bit more tense than I would like them to be. Like having writer's block with two weeks before the final deadline to hand in my thesis (the one after that is at the end of summer...) My way of handling things seems to be to have an internal meltdown for a week, apparently those who were physically around me only noticed that I was more withdrawn - on Twitter it was a whole other thing! - wishing I could go back to age seventeen or so, living with mum and dad and only having final lycée stuff to worry about. Not really having to worry about silly things like having to go buy food and possibly cook. Heck, my amazing food intake was mainly yogurt, almonds, watermelon, strawberries, apples, dried fruit by the kilo and pre-made salad from the shop with worryingly fluorescent yellow rice (it was supposed to be curry but it just looked like a failed NASA experiment) but with amazingly good chicken bits (see photo under cut).

After my inner meltdown it was time to forget that the outside world even existed. That was fun. Kinda. It was a strange week, for sure!

But hey, thesis is done-ish till I get told what corrections to make...

( +2 - salads and desserts )

After months of struggling with my thesis writing, I have almost accepted the fact that I can have mental breakdowns and stress the hell out of life and that I do not know how to deal with that. There sure are strategies and productivity approaches but those don't seem to help when you're just not used to being in a given state of mind... so eff you, GTD and other similar things. I mean I'm certain they've helped a lot of people to get things done over the years but who am I kidding, I like chaos. Or something.

Right. Today's morning freak-out and meltdown over here and on twitter is over and done with. So that's that, let's get on with life!

In any case, I've decided that seeing the street and the building opposite at work was just boring and the library has loads of bay windows that give on trees and grass and that's way more entertaining these days because there are tons of small white particles floating about. It's bit like all those underwater scenes with the plankton just swaying back and forth, looking all pretty... except that it's in the air. Sure allergies kicked my butt hard this year but there is something to be said about having loads of green stuff everywhere.

Oh and I had my first strawberries of the season a few weeks back, they were from Spain. The conclusion is the same as every year, thank goodness the local ones aren't too far away (or are they already here? Haven't been to the city center shops in a while.)

The latest PhD comic is rather appropriate for how things are in my head on many occasions!

Actually you can kind of see that on twitter, besides complaining about the weather, my legs feeling like logs after cycling, running like shit, etc. I also tend to make tons of updates desperately trying to bring everyone down with my inability to cope with the final stages of my thesis.

... and the list could go on and on and on.

Hint: it won't happen for another couple of months at this rate :/

BRB, having an intense love-hate relationship with my thesis right now.

Also strongly considering finally printing out an FAQ answering such awesome questions as:
- so... what's your thesis topic? (answer: euh... so, have you heard about exergy?...)
- you think you're going to be able to finish in time for the early April doctoral approval committee thing? (answer: I don't like you. Smiley face.)
- what do you plan to do afterwards? (answer: first, let me finish this and then we'll see. Growing a beard and joining a circus sounds like a sound plan though.)

The sad part about what will be the last experiment for my thesis is that it's actually a quite fascinating one. It feels almost a waste rushing about it because it needs to be finished ASAP.

One day I'll look back at this and think of it as a fond memory.

( +2 )

In other news, life is still a long river, alas not so calm with wonderful adventures in stuffy trains provided by SNCF (1, 2... merci pour rien!) and articles to finish and a deadline for the thesis that is there THERE THERE and that might be just enough reason to start freaking out now.

And just now a seagull crashed into the window here. It's not like the windows are clean...

And strangely enough, coincidences exist as I had uploaded this photo and chose it to be the first of the series well before that bird crashed. Life, you have your little ways!

(Chinon. Agfa 200.)

( +7 - more everyday things )

Yesterday was a big day. I officially started a file (more like folder) that, hopefully, will be the start of my final thesis. So what if my PhD defense is scheduled for December? One can never start too early with these things.

Today I even added the main equations into the file. And I've also noticed that I really lack consistency when naming the parameters, it seems almost all of my articles had slightly different ones.

(now watch me abandon that file for about three months and then start panicking in April when it should be finished and ready for the final reviews)

*sigh* If someone back in 2003 (end of lycée), or even 2005 (end of classe prépa)... heck even at the end 2007 (right before the final Masters research internship), had told me that one day I'd be getting a file ready for a PhD thesis. Well, I would have called them mad. And yet, here I am. This is almost slightly depressing.

I need a "thesis" icon. Anyone has any good ones that could be used?

Oh but I will have to drop off another film at the shop and I still have three films from which I haven't posted all the photos.

The mountains came out rather well with the Agfa. I took this at 1/1000 I think, 1/1000! It's amazing that even thirty five years after it was made the camera mechanisms still work marvelously well (and it's supposed to be one of them "cheaply made" cameras... I wish today's "cheaply made" cameras could do something like that)

( +5 - more mountains... all kinds of weather )

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Gali

Where is Gali?

March 2017

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Page Summary

This was the final step! Woohoo!
It's been a highly productive day.
At least my shoes are pretty awesome.
On a scale of "impaired judgement" to "Mel Gibson"...
Duuuuudddddeeeee!
Hey ho.
Here's another one of those self-satisfied doors.
Tanananaaaaaa!
I suck without a functioning right hand!
Being a functioning adult is overrated.
Never trust those best-selling books.
I think I could win the World Championships of Complaining About Everything!
Bow ties are also accepted.
I've moved on from "passive-aggressive bitch" to "monster" by now.
Can you see the shore?
Not even time to follow RG! Argh!
Writing a thesis or two... the usual.

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Where is Gali(nette)?

aka The day we caught the train

Entries tagged with gali and that phd thesis

This was the final step! Woohoo!

It's been a highly productive day.

At least my shoes are pretty awesome.

On a scale of "impaired judgement" to "Mel Gibson"...

Duuuuudddddeeeee!

Hey ho.

Here's another one of those self-satisfied doors.

Tanananaaaaaa!

I suck without a functioning right hand!

Being a functioning adult is overrated.

Never trust those best-selling books.

I think I could win the World Championships of Complaining About Everything!

Bow ties are also accepted.

I've moved on from "passive-aggressive bitch" to "monster" by now.

Can you see the shore?

Not even time to follow RG! Argh!

Writing a thesis or two... the usual.