School continues to be intense but good. I've been spending a lot of time on my thesis proposal, and just gave my advisor the latest draft, which is a nice little milestone. There's still a whole lot of work to do, but I am on the way! Next step is to send the proposal around to the members of the thesis committee, and let them all comment on it. Then I fix it up per their comments, and hopefully get it signed off by the end of the semester. Whew. And then it's time to do the actual work! Looks like I'll spend the summer doing experiments.
I just got word that my paper has been accepted to the Eurospeech conference in Budapest (5-10 September). See my MIT web site for the abstract, if you're interested. This is going to be a very neat travel experience, as well as a good boost to my career visibility! But it does mean that I have to work extra hard to have the paper done by 1 May, which is the publication deadline. Vacation time is going to have to wait until May or June, fooey.
Soundstage 7 (the singing group I'm in) has gone through two new basses in a row who didn't work out, so now we have to go through the audition process yet again, which is pretty draining. We have also auditioned and accepted a new baritone, who is working out really well. We have a whirlwind of concerts next weekend (four performances in thirty six hours!) and we've managed to persuade Jeremy (the original bass, who left several months ago) to come back and help out for these gigs. It's fun and all, but it'll be much less stress and more satisfaction when we get our new lineup settled.
In February I did something different for me, a course in handgun safety and target shooting. Guns frankly scare the shit out of me, and I want to not be scared any more, so I took this course, and it turns out that I'm a very good shot! The class ended with a competition style match. I was in the top few in the rankings of the class, and definitely the best among the new shooters. Neat! They want me to join the MIT pistol team, but Liberal-chusetts has extremely tight laws, which would be a lot of hassle, so it's doubtful I will own a firearm any time soon. The knowledge and experience was what I wanted, and I have that. I also have to wash the cordite smell out of my sweatshirt!
Recently I cut my hair short again (it had been getting pretty shaggy and out of control, like Larry Fine!) and trimmed my beard down to a goatee. I've never tried a goatee before, it looked different, but kind of neat. A slightly more sinister look than I usually go for, but I kept it for a month or so, it was nice for a while. Now I'm clean shaven for the springtime and feelin fine.
The one thing that hasn't been working well is my fitness program. I have been rowing sporadically, but haven't managed to get it down to a regular routine. Between the daily school work, random S7 performances, and a bad back spasm that lasted a couple of weeks, I haven't managed to keep it going. I do intend to keep trying, though, wish me luck! In the meantime, I'm still doing taiji every morning, and getting in several miles of walking per day.
Chani is still healthy and energetic, and really wants to see springtime so she can go outside and kill things again. I've managed to keep my home clean and shipshape, but not to do any of the renovations that I've been meaning to get to. They will have to wait until the thesis is closer to completion! My van is also repaired and running fine. I still haven't made a real decision about whether to sell it or not, I could use the money, but it's so ideal for summer escapes from the city (which I'm really going to need over the next year!) so I dunno.
Hope you all are happy and well!
Wil