Blog: Books Read in 2019

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Project Update: PhD

I thought I should write a post commemorating the fact that I finished my PhD. It seemed appropriate considering I’ve been doing the PhD as long as I’ve been keeping the blog, and the blog has (in a tiny part) been about me getting stuff done (particularly the PhD).

Photo Credit: FotoBart

I had some idea of writing about the things I learned (not 100% sure what those are), or possibly to sum up the project I worked on (don’t really want to do that yet), or maybe to give some suggestions about PhDs in general (which I don’t have). So for now, I'm just happy to say: I'm Done!

I worked a long time, fairly hard, but slowly, and managed to finish, mostly refusing to stop. I’m proud of myself. It may not be all I had envisioned, but it is finished. Someone once pointed out to me that the PhD is supposed to be the beginning of your research career, not the end, and I’m trying to keep that in mind now.

I didn’t get my PhD to become a researcher or to become a teacher. I mostly worked towards it because I was interested in the work. I’m still interested in that work, and some of that work will filter along here in the shape of smaller projects. I also enjoyed the journey, for the most part. There was stress, and I stayed put a bit too long. 

I feel extremely free to take on new projects. To some extent, that’s a statement that practically anything I take on can’t be as large as the PhD, so I should probably be able to do it. I am also enjoying being rid of that stress every time I sit to do anything, that I should be doing something else. It’s not a cure all, that stress is still there, but I feel like I’m more able to compartmentalize my time and stop working when it’s time to stop working.

Practically, I’m pleased to say this caps of the revival of #nafyofuthmo. Project in the books (literally), done and dusted. I’m a bit sad though, because: how fun is it to say #nafyofuthmo. (Seriously say it out loud, naf-yo-futh-mo). I’ll have to find some other snazzy, weird agglomeration of words to say now.

So there. I finished my PhD. I built the software I needed to build. I did the experiments I needed to do. I wrote the words I needed to write. I made the edits I needed to make. This isn’t the end of the road, but it’s a spot I should put a marker to remind myself I made it this far. 

I don’t really know what’s next. I’m a little burned out, I’ve been a grad student since January 2007 and that’s been a while. In the short term I’m teaching and enjoying the parts of computer science I enjoy, and I’m taking a rest. I’ll figure the rest out, but for now I’m glad to be done.

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Blog: Books Read in 2019

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Blog: Games of May 2019

My May was fairly busy, but it was also the first month I owned a Switch. Generally I've been pretty happy with the Switch so far. I think I haven't enjoyed the "gimmick" of the Switch so much, but the joy-con are pretty good controllers. I generally don't like the hand-held consoles, so I've mostly used it docked, but the couple of times I've taken it "on the road" (all the way to the back yard) it's been fun.

In addition to Super Mario Odyssey and Mario Tennis Aces, I also played Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. All in all it didn't quite grab me the way Odyssey did and I found it a touch ... sloggier ... than I'd hoped. I also picked up Celeste, but actually only played it on the one day in April I owned the switch. And finally I downloaded the Demo for Katamari Damacy Reroll, and I owe Dan a real apology for all the shouting I did watching his let's play. (But seriously, how do you TUUUURN?)

Also really enjoying having a console with a working screen-shot facility again. If you want to see what I'm up to you can follow @gamesTJPlays on Twitter.

My top five games (by play time) for May were:

1. Super Mario Odyssey - This is a really good game. I enjoy the bite-sized nature of the moon hunts in the "after" game. I also generally like the "main" game play following bowser, even if the "story" is possibly the worst ever in a Mario game. There's no question that between the this and Breath of the Wild (as the two big games in the first year of the Switch), I love Breath of the Wild significantly more, but I have fully enjoyed my play time in Odyssey. (Even if I've been slow learning to spell odyssey.)
   
   

   

   Looks like a nice place to adventure.

   
   


2. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Back in with my no-fast-travel play through. It's been fun and caused me to be a little more thoughtful about how I play. I've enjoyed the planning and side tracking such as, I need more storage for swords, now I have to go all the way to the Deku tree to get my inventory expanded, maybe I should stop in on Kakariko on the way. Also I'm still mad at the Bokoblins who exploded my horse.
   
   

   

   It feels like we've been here before, but it's good to be back. (Still need to fix the Wii U internet connection)

   
   


3. Animal Crossing: Amiibo Fest - I have news. Your Amiibo top out at Level 6. We are not amused. (There are like 40 different emotions!)
   
   

   

   True Love.

   
   


4. Pokémon Go  - I haven't really deeply settled in to a routine playing, but I'm still doing the mostly daily.
   
   

   

   Adventuring.

   
   


5. Mario Tennis Aces - This game has a single player and I basically can't finish the first 4 levels. I assume I'm just not getting the idea of the game, but my history of not really hitting it off with the Mario Tennis games is long. However, I figure the best way to point out that I'd really like a new Mario Golf or Mario Strikers (in that order please) was to pick up Mario Tennis.
   
   

   

   Even the start menu is kinda hard to learn.

   
   

Here's my total play time chart for May:

And here's a chart of how much I've played over the month:

Blog: Books Read in 2019

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Project 1 & Project 11: Monthly Update

Woah. That was harder than I figured. A little bit because I've taking a sessional teaching gig for May/June, but more so just from the freedom to be able to sit down and write. Blogging wasn't too bad, mostly things I'd been thinking about for a while, but the fiction was really hard to start.

Updates:

Project	New Words	Total Words	Percent of Target (for Month)
The Roofs	81	81	2%
Blogging	2233	2233	55%

As far as the blogging goes, most of that was my Earthbound Post, I also counted my Games of April post, but I didn't count the book updates. For next month I'd like to produce at least 2 posts of the size of the Earthbound one.

For the fiction, I'm not sure I'm ready to dive in as much as I thought I was. I'm going to keep the goal where it is for now, but I'm working on a few other projects right now (more blog posts to write) and I'm not feeling like diving into a project the size of the the thing sitting in my brain right now.