I've done some busy things today. The mirror is out and ready. It doesn't look at all worrying, which is in itself probably a worry. While I was hauling it out of storage, I discovered a bottle of rather ancient Stanton and Killeen vintage port, which obviously has to be drunk on Sunday. I need to buy more coffee and clean the patio, but otherwise I'm ready for the half dozen friends who say they'll drop by. I'm also ready for the half dozen who have forgotten to tell me they'll be round.
This morning's coffee with a scientist was delightful. When an expert fact-checking a novel says that she was so taken up in the story that she forgot she was fact-checking, well, it has to be delightful. It appears that, somehow, my thought experiment has turned out readable. Also, she fully got it was a thought experiment without being told. And she had favourite characters. And she laughed a lot.
I'm still waiting one last science report and then I'm up to final changes for the novel and then final approval by supervisor and then final-final adjustments and then final proofread. And that will be 2/3 of my doctorate done and dusted and ready for examination.
Just to make up for Chapter Six of the dissertation not being at all bad and the novel behaving nicely, my Chapter One is still a mess. I spent 1/3 of yesterday going through various papers and trying to work out if anything was missing that could help fix it (another 1/3 was spent on article and a final 1/3 in the Middle Ages - it was a very balanced day). This afternoon is about adding those fixes. I still think it will be a mess, but I'm sending it to my supervisor anyhow, for if I can't work out what I'm doing wrong, maybe he can. I know what I ought to do and I know what I need to do and I know what data I have and it just doesn't want to work. Mostly it doesn't want to work as part of a consistent argument with the rest of the dissertation. This afternoon. I shall solve it.
The other article is progressing. I'm still unhappy with it, but it at least has shape and notes for where my examples go. I think I shall leave it until after the excursion tomorrow, just to give me a bit of distance, for I'm pretty certain I repeat myself at one point. I have nearly 1500 words to play with, and really, I know what I'm (mostly) doing, so this is not as much of a worry as Chapter One of the sub-idiot dissertation (since it is a section of the idiot doctorate, it must be a sub-idiot dissertation, which makes Chapter One a quasi-sub-idiot).
Add a bit of shopping (I replaced the DVDs the thief stole with Haven - both seasons - and Singin' in the Rain) and that's my day so far.
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