Minor victory thread

So it's about procrastination and ways of coping with it? :awesome:
:facepalm:
I am the only person in my cohort of students to graduate on time. The rest are probably at least 6 months behind at a minimum.
No procrastination here! (At least none that affected deadlines being met!)
 
:facepalm:
I am the only person in my cohort of students to graduate on time. The rest are probably at least 6 months behind at a minimum.
No procrastination here! (At least none that affected deadlines being met!)
This most definitely did not describe me during my studies. To be fair, I usually got things done by the deadline... Sometimes with minutes to spare! :D
 
I had the trial run of my doctorate defense today.
And it... Didn't suck? Like it was stressful as fuck, but the feedback I got was good and mostly expected. And none of the questions were absurd.

So now I have to edit the thesis and get it polished. Then get my advisor's approval. Then defend formally. And then I'm done.

So close.
My proposal was WAY more nerve-wracking than my defense. My defense felt like a breeze, since I knew what the hell I was talking about by that point.

Welcome to the ivory tower in advance.
 
As long as you don't have a number 6 you're not a real collector.

I couldn't tell you the difference if you put a gun to my head. Is it like sandpaper that they're different smoothness? Is it width? Depth of bite?
 
As long as you don't have a number 6 you're not a real collector.

I couldn't tell you the difference if you put a gun to my head. Is it like sandpaper that they're different smoothness? Is it width? Depth of bite?
I am not an expert, but I think that the bench planes go from 1 to 8. And that corresponds with smallest to biggest. The stanley no 9 block plane is tiny compared to the #8 bench plane though.

There are quite a variety of just the Stanley planes. There are other manufactures too.

I would like to get a bunch of them, but I generally limit my tool buying for needs and not wants. Generally.
 
Growing up I was always a 'reader.' I plowed through fiction books at a considerable rate. And this kept up into adulthood. But I also realized recently that I haven't picked up a book for fun and finished it in... probably years now. I have a stack of unfinished good books that I want to read next to my seat, and I just... don't read them. I don't have the mental energy.

For valentine's day, Eriol got me 4 trashy romance novels, because I had once mentioned that I have read such in the past, albeit infrequently. He convinced me to "just start one" yesterday when I had some free time.
I finished it today.
I actually read a book. In a day.

Was it great literature? Absolutely not. But I still picked up a novel, and read the whole thing.

It seems so minor, but it feels like getting back a hobby that I used to really enjoy, even if I had to use baby steps to get there.
 
Growing up I was always a 'reader.' I plowed through fiction books at a considerable rate. And this kept up into adulthood. But I also realized recently that I haven't picked up a book for fun and finished it in... probably years now. I have a stack of unfinished good books that I want to read next to my seat, and I just... don't read them. I don't have the mental energy.

For valentine's day, Eriol got me 4 trashy romance novels, because I had once mentioned that I have read such in the past, albeit infrequently. He convinced me to "just start one" yesterday when I had some free time.
I finished it today.
I actually read a book. In a day.

Was it great literature? Absolutely not. But I still picked up a novel, and read the whole thing.

It seems so minor, but it feels like getting back a hobby that I used to really enjoy, even if I had to use baby steps to get there.
Reading for fun while trying to finish a degree is nearly impossible. Plus I assume you read a lot for your vocation.
Trashy or not; it's still nice to start and finish a story.
 
Growing up I was always a 'reader.' I plowed through fiction books at a considerable rate. And this kept up into adulthood. But I also realized recently that I haven't picked up a book for fun and finished it in... probably years now. I have a stack of unfinished good books that I want to read next to my seat, and I just... don't read them. I don't have the mental energy.

For valentine's day, Eriol got me 4 trashy romance novels, because I had once mentioned that I have read such in the past, albeit infrequently. He convinced me to "just start one" yesterday when I had some free time.
I finished it today.
I actually read a book. In a day.

Was it great literature? Absolutely not. But I still picked up a novel, and read the whole thing.

It seems so minor, but it feels like getting back a hobby that I used to really enjoy, even if I had to use baby steps to get there.
Not long ago, I could have written this exact first paragraph. Then I discovered Li'l Z has become a voracious reader, and wants to go to the library every chance he gets. He's also (like his father) a borderline speed reader, so he'll walk out with a stack almost as long as his torso, and be done in a couple of days. It forced me to stop making excuses and start grabbing some books for myself. I keep a running list of books that sound interesting to me on my phone just for library trips. Are they all good? Absolutely not. But a trashy fun read is still a fun read. Baby steps count!
 
Mine and my wife's reading habits actually caused our daughter to ask if everything is okay in our marriage once. We'd sit in the same room together and read and not speak to each other for hours at a time. We had to explain to her that we enjoy just being near each other and enjoying a book. We'd talk about books that we had both read, but made a point of not spoiling anything to the other if they hadn't read it. She understands now, just being with the person you love, but it worried her for a little at the time.
 
Growing up I was always a 'reader.' I plowed through fiction books at a considerable rate. And this kept up into adulthood. But I also realized recently that I haven't picked up a book for fun and finished it in... probably years now. I have a stack of unfinished good books that I want to read next to my seat, and I just... don't read them. I don't have the mental energy.

For valentine's day, Eriol got me 4 trashy romance novels, because I had once mentioned that I have read such in the past, albeit infrequently. He convinced me to "just start one" yesterday when I had some free time.
I finished it today.
I actually read a book. In a day.

Was it great literature? Absolutely not. But I still picked up a novel, and read the whole thing.

It seems so minor, but it feels like getting back a hobby that I used to really enjoy, even if I had to use baby steps to get there.
Yay reading!
In the last 2 days I have finished 4 books!
1 trashy romance
1 fantasy novel I was part way through
1 comic book
1 mythology book I was part way through.

And, like, I had fun doing it.

And I'm actually looking forward to having downtime so I can keep going on a collection of Arthurian retellings that I've got started.

Fun is nice.
 

Dave

Staff member
I have a book reading app on my phone and a Dropbox full of books which I add to frequently. I can now read anywhere, anytime. It's so nice. Yeah, it turns a 300 page book into something like 1500 pages, but thems the breaks.
 
My minor victory for the week - noticed over the weekend that the inside of one of the front tires on our truck was really worn badly (tread gone on part of the tire) - which could be one to multiple suspension pieces worn out and lots of $ to replace. Fearing the worst, I jacked it up off the ground and tested everything and it seemed solid. Took it in last night to a reputable shop and they confirmed the suspension pieces are solid, it just got massively out of alignment - possibly the last place I had it done, didn't do it 100% right, then add in all of the potholes that show up in Illinois. So, instead of a potential large expense to fix plus two tires, I just have to pay for an alignment and two tires - which still isn't great when they're 20" wheels, but it's a lot less than it could have been.

They also did an inspection of the rest of the truck and found that I will have to replace my brake pads and rotors in the next few months, so I can plan for replacing them instead of getting surprised by squeaking and have to rush to replace. Hooray for a free, full inspection.
 
I was grading my students' papers the other day (they were due two weeks before) and saw that one of them was just a blank pdf document (this was an online assignment). I gave it a zero. In class yesterday, the student approached me and said she had just sent the wrong file, and asked if she could resubmit. I said she could just email it to me from her laptop. Nope, she said the laptop was broken. It was on her desktop in the dorm. So I let her email it to me if she sent it in within the next half hour. Our class had been canceled an hour early because the classroom projector was down. She had all the time in the world. I checked my email an hour later, and nothing.

I checked my email again this morning. She had sent something at 4 am and explained that her next classroom had poor wifi and that's why it might have been delayed. It is true that many of the classrooms have terrible wifi, but my spidey-sense was tingling. She had said she'd send it from her desktop, not a classroom. I also contacted the registrar and learned that mine was her ONLY class on Wednesdays. She was lying through her teeth.

I am so going to enjoy grilling her before I put the hammer down on her grade. She's one of those students who can't stay off their goddamned phone in class. I really don't enjoy giving students failing grades, especially if they had made an honest effort. Liars and cheaters, on the other hand? I relish giving out those Fs.
 
Top