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March 29, 2006
My life is not my own
Yes, this is my mantra as a graduate student. It is probably true for other professions as well, but it is extremely applicable to mine.
So yesterday at around 2pm, my supervisor walks into my office and asks, "Would you like to go to Dubai?".
Karen {with a dumbfounded look on her face}: Sure, why not.
Supervisor: Can you get me a two page abstract by tomorrow morning?
Karen: OK
And so it goes. If everything goes well then I will be attending a conference in Dubai at the beginning of May. Life is odd. And no, my supervisor has not yet read my thesis proposal...
Posted by kfeigh at 01:57 PM | Comments (2)
March 27, 2006
Back from TN
This weekend one of Brian's highschool friends got married just south of Nashville, TN. The location is important because it speaks to the type of wedding and reception that we attended. Luckily for me my blood sugar levels are now back under control. You see southern weddings often tax your pancreas much more than your liver.
In other running news, I just found out about the coolest website, where you can map out a walking/running route. Here is an example.
Posted by kfeigh at 09:23 AM | Comments (0)
March 20, 2006
Clean Apt
My weekend was full of chores. I cleaned out my closet, and then took the clothes to the Salvation Army, then it was off to the post office to mail my broken backpack back to Argentina so that they could fix it. Then I bought groceries, planted my herb garden, went for a run and helped a friend with her taxes. The highlight of my day was going out to dinner. I am continually amazed at the number of YOUNG (under 4) children I encounter at relatively restaurants after 7pm. This place was great, except that it was like going to a mommy-and-me class. So many really cute -- although not necessarily well behaved kids. One kid had on the smalles pair of burkenstocks I've ever seen. They could not have been more than 3 inches long.
Sunday was cleaning. I had my church dinner group over, and consequently spent all day cleaning. It is amazing how long it takes to clean an apt that is only 1000 sq ft. Most of the time I spent picking up, sorthing through, and throwing away little piles of things that had been collecting for a while.
Now it is back to work, where I get to try to reconcile the schedules of 5 different people to set a proposal date. Fun, fun, fun!
Posted by kfeigh at 09:16 AM | Comments (0)
March 16, 2006
Running
Since I got back from South America, I have been running 2-3 times a week. The first time was actually in my running class early one morning. We ran 3 miles. I hadn't run 3 miles since sometime in highschool. I was really surpised when it only took me 29 minutes. Especially since I cannot seem to repeat the feat on a treadmill to save my life. Well that kind of inspired me. Normally my biggest impediment to running (besides my knee) is boredom, plain and simple. I get bored and decide to stop. Well, it seems not so much any more. I blame graduate school -- my tolerance for boredom is clearly much higher now than it was in highschool.
Well all was going fine for about a week and a half, but my knee has begun to bother me now. I'm not sure if it is something I'll work through, or what. I've only run once this week, and will probably wait to run again until Saturday. Just hoping it will adjust -- not that it actually hurts all that much or often, it just gets stiff. Kind of its own way of telling me to cut it out.
Posted by kfeigh at 03:33 PM | Comments (2)
March 14, 2006
Fragile
Life is fragile. I think here in the "western" world we often forget just how fragile. We fight so vigorously for it, we sue those who try unsuccessfully to help us prolong it, we place such a high value on it, that we often forget that it is so very fragile.
On a happier and less serious note, I'm still plugging away on my thesis proposal. I'm about 65% done (of course this is without any feed back on my lengthy document.) Mostly what is left is the hard/boring stuff that I avoided on my first time through, so it is slow going. Mostly slow on the motivation side.
Posted by kfeigh at 08:45 AM | Comments (0)
March 07, 2006
Back to normal
Life is getting back to normal here, so there is little to report. Last Friday I sent emails to two more potential committee memebers and am waiting to hear back. So far on my committee is my supervisor and a member of my comprehensive exam committee (who happens to be in Turkey until August). Now I've asked two more, which is more than the 3 I need to have give my proposal.
So currently all of my efforts are directed toward getting this proposal off my desk. If only I were more inspired by it. It is just takeing me some time to get back into the swing of things.
Posted by kfeigh at 08:39 AM | Comments (0)
March 03, 2006
Pictures are posted
Yes, the pictures in their raw (no color balance or cropping) are up in a websized resolution. To view them just click on the word gallery un the upper right hand corner of this page. They are mostly labled and are grouped according to the activity we were on at the time. For example FH is Fitzroy Hike, BA is Buenos Aires, GT is glacier trekking, HR is horseback riding, PMG is the Perito Moreno Glacier, NPTP is Nacional Parc Torres del Paine, LTH is the los Torres hike, PG is the Paine Grande area,PC is the penguin colony, and SdC is Santiago de Chile.
There are 323 of them, so enjoy.
Posted by kfeigh at 09:13 AM | Comments (0)
March 01, 2006
We're back!
Well we had a great trip, the weather held out for us and we had a great time. For those of you with bated breath, here is the new map of places Karen has visited.
I met a couple on the flight down to Miami and who had visited 77 countries, and wanted to know many I had been to. I did know in numbers, but now I have it. Twenty-one.
create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands
Oh, and for those of you who are wondering what the trip looked like, here's a link to an aproximate map of the trip.
Posted by kfeigh at 08:09 PM | Comments (0)