We've had a bit of a blog-hiatus here in Wellington on account of general exhaustion and busyness. Life continues apace in a blur of barbeque duck and unrequited cravings for beer.
But this evening we have a little free time, and I thought I'd add to tomorrows normally numerous Public Address posts. So I've put 'Mali Music' on the stereo and thought I'd share some good news with you all.
Back when I was in Melbourne I had this routine worked out where I'd haul my carcass out of bed at 6.30 or 7am every day, often also on weekends, shower, then make a strong, strong black coffee, put together some muesli, and read the newspapers online in my tiny little office. Normally by the time I'd scanned a few blogs, read The Age, the NZ Herald, The Sydney Morning Herald, and sometimes the Guardian I'd started to come awake, and was in the right frame of mind.
It was then that 'Mali Music' would get put on. The other favourite was 'Finally we are one'. Finally I'd be set.
So why the routine? Because after a few years of a more haphazard, some would say existential approach to trying to write the thesis I heard somewhere that Einstein had 10 versions of exactly the same suit. He'd save his brain space for the really important job of science. Now, I'm no Einstein, but if it worked for him, it would work for me.
The key to the music is that if you need to do the same job every day for over three years, you're going to need something going in the background that keeps your mind turning over, but doesn't intrude too much. Listening to 'Teaches of Peaches' wasn't going to help, for example.
Jesus I listened to these CDs a lot.
But tonight I listen to Mali Music for maybe the last time. And why? Because I'm in the unenviable position of being in possession of a three hard-bound copies of my PhD. A day I thought would never come.
This means of course that the degree is in the bag. A sceptic might say that the degree isn't real until it's conferred, but it would take an act of god to stop it happening now. And I think the big fulla has more pressing things to interfere in, like the Tasmanian state election for example (for those conspiracy theorists out there, note how much money is alleged to have been spent in Tasmanian, and how much is thought to have been spent here. American 'small-nation slush fund'? Who knows).
So Dr. Che it is.
As far as results go, I'm pretty pleased. The process at Melbourne Uni is that a couple of external examiners are approached to read and review the thesis, and then get to mark the thesis on a scale from 1 to 5 (five being a clear fail). Obviously I would have liked two '1's, but two '2's is something I'm more than happy with. In a nutshell the only changes recommended were a few typos corrected (examiner one), and a couple of thousand words of clarifications (examiner two). Neither mark required me to return to the examiners with the changes, and after a week's discussion with the supervisor and the University, one thesis is bound and sent to Melbourne!
You might note of course that when I departed Melbourne in March of last year I said all my thank yous and that. But when I departed I had submitted the final copy. The last year has been a cycle of minor changes, copy editors and at least six months of just plain sitting on my hands.
Thank christ it's all over. There's been plenty of times when I wished I had taken the cushy job way back in '99, instead of six years of self-imposed misery. Christ, everybody told me it was a bad idea, but I did the thesis anyhow...
Even though I've already thanked you all endlessly, and also pooh-poohed those who said I just wasn't good enough to complete, once again thanks to all the people who chipped in to help out in little and big ways.
I'll try not to leave my byline the way it is for toooo long. Maybe just long enough to really rub some salt in some old wounds. Heh heh.