Still alive

No, I'm not dead. I've just been really busy. Between lab work, paper writing, class, helping the TAs, and helping run a seminar series, stuff has been a little crazy.

Paper update: Submission #3 was a no-go. At least these people were a little more specific about what they didn't like about it. I didn't really agree with what they said, though. It's like they missed the entire point of the paper. Well, whatever. We reworked the paper, tried to make it sound even more awesome. And submission #4 is ready to go.

Which leads me to the question: When the heck am I going to graduate?

The things that I need to do are:
Get this paper published
Finish the second half of the project (currently in the works)
Get that published (not required for me to graduate, though)
Possibly extend the work in a third direction (which the undergrad may be able to help with next semester)
And oh yeah, write and defend my thesis

My initial hope was to get this done in the spring. But now I am wondering if that is too optimistic. I guess it's going to depend on how the experiments treat me (which was not well last week, but that's how it is sometimes). It will also depend on whether or not I can just blast through another semester without getting too distracted/jaded. Next semester should be a little easier, since I won't have a class, and my other commitments should go a little more smoothly.

I have my departmental talk in a couple weeks, which I'm not too worried about. Unfortunately, I have the feeling that a lot of my classmates won't be there, since there is a wedding the next day that some of us are attending. I myself will have to hop on a plane that evening. I'm looking forward to the wedding, though. J is coming too, which is nice, because we don't get to travel together that often.

Well, I'm off to try to have a relaxing Saturday.