Boy, things have been busy the last couple of months, weeks, days... Thus, I have not been updating FOB so regularly, and probably won't be for a while. But I thought I ought to drop a brief note mentioning some of what's happening, at least...
I had the tremendous privilege of giving away a bride today! Zhiyin Pan is a former student who I have mentored some since she graduated and went to work for Oracle. Today she married OGI graduate student Houwu Bai in what you might correctly suspect was "a very Chinese wedding." Sadly, her parents were unable to attend; I feel so honored that she asked Joanie, Ben and I to stand in for her absent family. The ceremony and reception were lovely, and I got to meet a lot of really great people. Haven't worn a tux in probably 18 years, so that was kind of interesting; got to "meet Mr. Formal".
I come up for tenure in a few weeks. This is a bizarre process in which I will either be fired (with one more academic year after this one to "teach out" and find another job if I want it) or will get a guarantee that I can never be fired again. What a way to run an institution! Anyway, I'll be hitting folks up for recommendation letters shortly; if you want to write one let me know. I'm working on a guide for writing these—there are some conventions that need to be followed for maximum positive impact on my decision.
It looks like there's a big grant and a small grant from different industrial partners in the offing. No guarantees yet, but pretty high probability. More when it plays out. But this is part of what's been keeping me crazy busy.
We find out the results of our NASA Phase II SBIR proposal shortly. Dealing with NASA has also kept me busy; I still need to jump through another hoop (and quickly) if I want to get paid the rest of the Phase I money. Sigh.
I don't really have time, but I organized my webcomics list anyway. Here's the comics I read regularly, in order:
- A Miracle of Science
- Schlock Mercenary
- Questionable Content
- Pinch of the Glass
- Pointless
- Everybody loves Eric Raymond
- Mindmistress
- Dominic Deegan
- Antihero for Hire
- Nekko and Joruba
Some of these are kind of embarrassing, but hey, I'm thick-skinned. I didn't realize until this enumeration that (a) this is a Top 10 List™, (b) 80% are SF or Fantasy, with 60% SF. I'm sort of a one-note cowboy, I guess.
I'm currently catching up Dinosaur Comics, which is a really guilty pleasure, but I find it quite addictive. I was inspired to blog this evening by Internet Diary Comics, so I guess it has had a positive effect on me.
Back to work with me. Bleah. I guess I'll go to bed, actually; tomorrow is another busy day. Someday soon I'll find time to tell about the rest of what I'm up to. Like I needed more.