The seminar is over...

I think that despite the fact that my fly was apparently open for the duration of my presentation I think over all it went pretty well. I stood behind a podium for most of the talk and I was wearing a buttoned suit jacket so those two combined probably obscured the fly issue.

I got some good questions from the audience, and my advisor said three times that I did a good job. I am glad that is over. Next up an interview for a job in Maryland, where I'll present this same research seminar. Then I'll have my actual dissertation defense some time in the middle of April. That is really really soon.

today

In 24 minutes I present my dissertation research seminar to my department. I am not really nervous. Should I be?

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So I ended up doing a phone interview on Friday. I think it went pretty well considering the circumstances. There was one major disadvantage to not being on site and that was the "boating practicum" portion of the interview/evaluation. Obviously I couldn't show them exceptional skills at driving a motor boat over the phone...they'll just have to believe me.

Today I "interviewed" via telephone for a tenure track faculty position at a branch of a state university system. I'll leave the name unsaid for now just in case some one from said university is looking up dirt (like poor spelling, or early twenty's binge drinking tendencies) on potential interviewees. Anyway this branch is like the UNC-Asheville of the UNC system, or the University of Missouri - Kansas City of the MU system. I am pretty excited to have made it this far in the application cycle for this job. It really gives me confidence that one day after a year or two of post-doc-ing that I actually will be able to land a permanent tenure track faculty position.

Nothing much funny or insightful here today. I just decided to brag a little about all of my job interviews. Lesson learned Kids: If you go to college for 11 years you might be eligible for the job you really want after two more years of kind of going to college.

All Dressed Up...

...and no where to go

Our plane down to Georgia for my job interview was canceled this morning due to the shitty shitty weather in St Louis. Snow, freezing rain, and sleet do not make for good driving conditions. I am bummed...I got a hair cut and and shaved my beard for this job interview. The folks down in GA want to reschedule for as soo as possible. I am really tired and don't want to think about heading back to STL to try and get on another plane. Perhaps I'll feel more up to it tomorrow.

The myPhone...

...Is back in action. The MyNuFone has already crapped out on me. It turns out that AT&T will refuse to replace your cell phone if there is any water damage to it even if it is under warranty. It also turns out that your daughter dropping your phone into the toilet whilst you are peeing meets AT&T criteria for water damage...who knew?

explanation

Perhaps I should explain...Wake beating Duke is huge. Duke was ranked #2 in the country and had only lost one other game this entire season. We Wake Forest fans have been waiting for three years for something like this to happen, ever since Chris Paul dropped a deuce on Skip Prosser and the Demon Deacons by leaving school after his sophomore year even though he'd promised he wouldn't. Wake is a small school with only 3,800 undergrads and sure most of them are snobby and spoiled rich kids, but it so cool to see this small school compete with the likes of Florida State (~40,000 undergrads), NC State (~45,000 undergrads), and Duke (~10,000 undergrads). Plus I have a special dislike for Duke because I've heard over and over again since deciding to go to Wake that the only reason kids attend Wake is cause they couldn't get in to Dook. Well Fuck that...Dook Sucks. It's just a wanna be Princeton anyway and I never even applied. I visited Dook in 1995 as a prospective student looking at colleges and as I recall the big social event of the evening was to gather in the common room and watch Bev-9er...so intellectual and so worldly...At least the kids at Wake took me out and got me drunk. All the students watching Bev-9er were too wrapped up in Brenda's virginity or whatever, to talk with me about how sweet their crappy school was. So I am pleased that my little school won last night and provided one more positive data point to the statistically overwhelming and growing correlation that Duke Sucks.

PS. Sorry about the preceding post Colleen. Despite the cheating scandals, I am sure Fuqua is an exception to the Dook Sucks correlation.

Shocking defeat

Holy Mother Fucking Shit! WhoooHooo! Wake WINS! The Old Gold and Black beat the Blue Devils! We beat them badly! WHOOOOHOOOO!!!

john.he.is

As a follow up to Will.I.am's Yes we can song on behalf of Barak Obama, some John McCain supports have released this catchy tune...

I luv this picture

Whilst I was putting the left overs from dinner into a tupperware the other night, Cate's friend B, who was over for dinner snapped this shot.

The Book of Job

I have been invited to Maryland for a face to face interview for a sweet job with a really really impressive conservation biologist at a totally awesome research facility. I have to put together a 45 minute (+/-) research presentation and present it to people at the research facility as part of the 1.5 day interview. It is kind of astonishing to me that I am being interviewed by this guy for a job to develop population and harvest optimization models...this is some heavy mathematical shit and if I get the job I'd be working for one of the worlds primer quantitative ecologists. The thing that is astonishing to me is that since first grade I have struggled mightily with mathematics. Stricken with dyslexia, simple arithmetic is actually quite hard for me...it still is. I always have Cate calculate and add the tip to our bill at restaurants. Last year at an awards banquet, where I received an award for being an "outstanding graduate student" Cate went to the restroom and I closed out our bar bill, on the way home she let me know that I added the $2.50 tip incorrectly to the total...whoops. I blamed it on the two glasses of wine, but I was perfectly fine to drive so you'd think that adding 2.5 to 13.65 would be no problem either. Yet here I am...a quantitative avian ecologist using matrix algebra with beta and log-normal generated random numbers to predict the probabilistic growth of wild animal populations. I should send a copy of my dissertation to my high school math teacher Dr. Wertis, who gave me a C in 10th grade and tried to have me removed from the honors track math curriculum because she thought I was a slacker or just stupid. I should also include a photo copy of my giant middle finger as appendix B just for her benefit.

Anyway, I am pretty excited about this Job interview.

Superduper Tuesday

Today I will be voting for Barak Obama in the Missouri Democratic Primary. I think that you should also vote for Barak Obama in the primaries of what ever states you live. Thanks, That is all.

Yes We Can - Barack Obama Music Video

The other side of the Obama candidacy is inspiration. I think that he has the capacity to inspire a generation and reshape American politics. The cynic in me is fearful that the sinister powers in Washington will take advantage of his inexperience and naivety...but as I have said in the past "I'd rather waste my vote than waste my time, I'd rather vote with hope than give them mine." I really like this song and video that Will-I-am has made for the Obama campaign. The speech is inspiring and moving and plus all these popular and beautiful celebrities are features in the video.

employment

I've got a second job interview lined up. This one is to work for a state natural resources agency as a waterbird biologist. I am super excited about! Waterbirds are my favorite, and I think the location could be awesome. The pay for this job is not very good. It is not bad, but from what I understand, there is not much room for my salary to grow over the years. I don't like have to worry about money and salary, but with a kid and a wife to think about I really can't avoid it. I'll let you know how this progress.