December? What?
2021 has appeared to move even faster than 2020 (granted, a lot of my time in 2020 was spent staying at home so my perception of time probably isn’t accurate), and we’re now into the last month.
I don’t really have a lot to write about this week. I spent a lot of it working on writing the related work section of my thesis. I got feedback from Gail last Friday, and spent some of this weekend reworking the introduction. I think I’ll ask Paulette or someone else in the lab to read the intro to see if what I’m saying makes any sense at all. I’m also unsure of what tone I should write in; I’ve read a few theses that really make me nod off after a few sentences, but I also don’t want to write something that’s entirely informal.
Ironically, writing virtual words on a virtual page in a virtual thesis makes things feel even more real than ever. I knew that this part of writing stuff for my thesis would be an inevitable part of grad school, but I didn’t think it would be this soon. I’ve got a good number (or at least Gail tells me) of responses for the survey I sent out last week, but the greedy person in me wants more. Luckily, I’ve been sending some emails around with folks at JetBrains, and it looks like they may help with distributing the survey (and to real developers, no less!). Let’s see if by next week I’ll have enough for me to be happy with.
I turned 25 last week. It’s slightly horrifying where I can actually say “Ten years ago …” and actually remember what I was doing. I don’t really like to reflect on my birthday (I save all my navel-gazing for the end of the year), but there was just something about the number. 25. Twenty-five. A quarter-century. I still feel mentally like a 12 year old (many people in the lab would even say that I act like one), and I’m still waiting for that “aha” moment when I finally realize what I’m doing with my life. That’s totally gonna happen, I’m sure.
Next week is the last week of classes at UBC. In prior years, this would be cause for revelry and excessive celebration. This year, I mark it like I would any other day; I get what people said when grad school feels like a long marathon. That’s not to say that I can’t take a vacation or a break –– I just never felt comfortable taking one when there’s just so much to do. That said, I’m looking forward to the lab holiday party next week. It’s been nearly two years since our last lab holiday party (December 13, 2019). Buying gifts was pretty difficult this year, and I fear that I’ll be labelled as a cop-out.
See you next week.