2 year anniversary

Today I've been married to my flying Dutchman for 731 days. 18 of August 2007 feels so recent still, it's hard to realise that so much time has passed. When I was little, I used to be very scared of time passing, and felt as if I kept losing it, and never was able to catch up. Then I changed my way of thinking and started imagining that I was collecting memories instead of visualizing myself dangling on a thread behind the ever-elusive now, trying to catch it. That took away a lot of unnecessary anguish! With a deficient memory like my own, it's necessary to document this passing time in an efficient manner. So it's easier to believe the past 2 years watching photos. However, my diary writing has been lacking compared to earlier, and I really need to be better at it.

One would think that 2 years should be enough time to finish the wedding webalbum. That is not the case however. Perhaps that will take place once I've survived my defence. So, next anniversary I could link to that one. For now, 1 photo from each year will suffice. It's been two very good years.

August 18 2007: Kyrkans ängar (church meadows), Onsala

18 August 2008, somewhere above St Andrews, Manitoba

August 2009, Onsala again (I didn't manage to take a picture today)

"A home worthy of careful stewardship"

Read the story behind this picture here - it's a very nice article! This is the kind of perspective we should aim for (I should!). Doesn't life seem so much more beautiful and amazing this way?

A very quick update

I guess I need to update on what's going on to keep my credibility here. Deadline 1 (the poster): Finished 1 day before! The joy I thereby experienced gave me some thoughts on the value of this... (I WISH I had been able to feel this say 4 years ago, and I might have been able to keep the years leading up to this point less painful... Then again it's hard to make timelines when the work incorporated is totally exploratory, and you have no concept whatsoever on how long time it's going to take).
This joy made me very motivated to be able to finish the second deadline asap. I gave myself 1 week to write 2 chapters. Once I realised that this might not be entirely feasible (after 2 days), I also checked my timelines (I have 2, one including all the the work, and one for the writing only), and noticed that I had given ambiguous deadlines for one of the chapters. I.e. I could finish 1 chapter (the first one), and still be on track.

I also had to push the deadline forward 1 day, since I worked on research a full day. Flexibility is necessary, but I have to make sure that I do fair exchanges of the days rather than take out loans from the future - that won't go well.

Results so far: I managed the 2nd deadline, although it was a bit more on the limit (writing does that, you can keep changing things around forever...). Now I'm 3 days into my 2 weeks of pure research. And, it's going well so far! I'm very happy. The code is half done, and the immense amounts of data will be painful to extract, but I know how, and it's all ready to go. Deadline: June 15.

Now that I'm in writing mode, there are so many topics not related to my research that I'd like to write about. Gah.

The last year

This is the last year, as in the final year. The year it is going to happen.

I just had my annual review. The LAST annual review before the defense (that, according to my current timeline, will take place April 10 next year. Hm. I think I might have to change that since that is a Saturday... April 9th is the new date!)

A good friend of mine has been reviewing her thesis writing progress on her blog, and it's been very inspiring to read. So, I think I am going to do that myself! After all, the thesis is what I spend about 90% of my time on. The first deadlines I have are:
May 23: A poster (second author) for a conference (that I will not attend, but I'm really just happy about that..).
May 30: Draft of chapter 1: the Introduction, including background and motivation. Also chapter 4, describing pretty much what will be on the poster - galaxy modelling with an awesome new software (not mine, I'm the user), and testing of said program with artificial galaxies. 

I will keep you posted... 

Live long and prosper

Premiere night. And the new star trek movie is a w e s o m e!!! Although the silly black holes made me giggle somewhat... And what is it with J.J. Abrams' (the director) fascination with hovering liquid red orbs? Just a cheap way to explain the ease with which to... no. That's all the spoilers you'll get out of me. Excellent cast/special effects, and of course it doesn't hurt that Simon Pegg plays Scotty, even though all that is resembling between the two would be the accent. There was even a moment in the first few scenes, where space did not have sound. But alas, that was all that could be given. I don't mind though, this movie experience was one of the better ones I'll see this year, I'm sure. 

Less impressive was the audience. Only one person was dressed up (not me, although I did bring spock ears), there was no lineup, the theatre was far from full, and where a swedish audience on the premiere day (which undoubtedly would have consisted of real trekkies) would have cheered and applauded (mainly Spock related events), nothing of the kind occurred here. Bizarre. 

Another bizarre thing was that as we were leaving the theatre, 2 guys muttered "trekkies" as we walked by in the parking lot. I didn't even wear my ears! I'm quite happy to be a trekkie, so I'm not bothered, just wondering how they would have known (for the record, we were wearing winter coats, since the temperature plummeted from 22 yesterday to 1 today. Ugh.)