È finito!

Yes indeedy-do. I have finished my stupid Heisenberg paper, for REAL this time.  

First page: written in the Spring of Ought-Six (Anno Domini) in South Bend, Indiana, USA

Final page: written in the Spring of Ought-Eight (Anno Domini) in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Now I am going to relax for probably the first time since I wrote that first page.  I've never, ever been so happy to finish a paper in my life.  MY LIFE.  WEEEEEE!!! 

It's 8:40 post meridian here in Sydney, and I'm about to leave my office for the day.  I shall walk to the station, stopping off for a nice, cold beer and greasy "crisps" at a pub along the way.  And then I shall sleep.  And I shall dream.  And then I shall rise again in 10 hours to start another paper.

Lovestoya'll.

Elise-i-poo

p.s. If you would like to either (a) understand at least in part what the heck it means to do what it is I do, or (b) see two years of my wasted brain cells manifest in 24 pages of sexy LaTex formatting... then ask and you, too, can be privy to an unpublished version of el papel del muerto y triste.  (I don't know how to post stuff on-line yet otherwise I'd just do that. Whatever.) 

p.p.s. Budgy smugglers = speedos.  Yes, that's right folks.  Aussies call speedos "budgy smugglers".  Think on that one for a bit. Just think about it.  Most hilarious.

No...more....words

I finally finished my stupid paper on Heisenberg. I hate its guts. Mostly because it's too long, too involved, and I may or may not still have one section left to write (though I just sent it to Guido anyway).

ACK.

It was 27 pages long in LaTex (yes, I can now code me up some sexy, sexy philosophy papers). I don't know what that translates into in normal pages, but it makes me want to barf. [Note to self: you love being a scholar you love being a scholar you love being a scholar...]

Well, this is not a very pleasant start to a post, now, is it? I've been working hard, and working hard at playing, and finding that trying to squish vacation and adventure and scholarship into a normal day isn't working. Never thought I'd be pulling all-nighters on a different continent, but whatcanyoudo (and don't say "go to sleep", you smart-aleck).

I'm posting a few new pics (still in the wrong order... is there no limit to the amount of suffering I must endure?). Finally got myself around to doing a few touristy things. Also bought tickets to see the Sydney Symphony this Friday night...which in retrospect may have been a bad idea, as I have an all-day intensive workshop thingy starting bright-n-early Saturday, at which I'm presenting and Guido's presenting and then we're both presenting together and then we're both talking about future research separately and together. It'll be like the Guido and Elise Family Times Variety Show. But it will still be fun. Yes, giving talks is exponentially more fun than blinking at a computer screen for hours. And hours. And hours.

Here are the pictures. Captions are brief, in keeping with my current disposition (loathing... oh how I loathe typing.... I loathe typing so much that I can't even finish typing the word typi ) Me and Pacific Ocean (not pictured).

Less salty here than in Cali. (Yes, I tasted it. Shocked, are we?)

Australian animal.

Sydney Harbor. And boats in harbor.

Little boat, medium boat and pointy building.

Big*ss boat and pointy building.

That guy over there is checking me out.

I see you through my camera lens, dude.

Bridge.

I like the pointy building.

Look, it's a shrub!

That pointy building is rockin' awesome.