"Mr. Osborne, may I be excused? My brain is full."
[That's a Far Side reference, not anything related to John, who has no e at the end of his name.]

In the last week and a half, I've written something like 20,000 words, and now all I have left to do for this degree is

1. Problem Structuring Methods/Planning Theory exam May 19th
2. Basic Operational Research Techniques exam May 27th
3. summer project (in what or where I still don't know, we should hear from the department sometime in May, I hope) and thesis/dissertation/thingy, which I think is supposed to be 50 pages of brilliance, due the first Tuesday in September

Assuming, of course, that the last essay I wrote wasn't as pants [I added this link at Jessica's request, "for those who are not up on their British slang"] as I think it was, and I actually pass the course. Grash was bolstering my confidence yesterday, as she worked on a paper about NASA and public policy, but today I'm back to feeling unimpressed with my output.

My brain is very tired. The words and I*, we are no longer exactly friends. In fact, we're discussing a trial separation after the exam on the 19th. In 11 hours I will be in the air on my way to Singapore. I was supposed to be there already, and if not for my poor time management I would be in Thailand right now. Spilt milk, burnt cookies.

For the next week, I plan to swim in all four of the pools at my friend Tim's place, and eat good food, and wander about taking pictures, and buy clothes that actually fit at the waist/hip so I can stop wearing belts, and recover from my current funk. If that all works, maybe I'll study a bit. I'll post any interesting thoughts or experiences should they strike me upside the head, but I think the interesting thoughts are all tapped out. Maybe I'll just post pictures and let the "worth a 1000 words" thing work for me. Damn, I could have just taken 4 pictures for my methodology essays, why didn't I think of that?

Oh, I did think of that for System Dynamics. I'm still rather pleased with the cartoons I made (the numbers are wrong in these, but were right in the paper I handed in):
Unlimited growth
Growth and decline
Balancing process with delay
Limits to growth
Fixes that fail
Eroding goals
Growth and underinvestment

All hail the Red Meat construction set (and many thanks to Kevin for providing the link).

Speaking of pictures, this only barely captures the prettiest thing I saw in the last two weeks of April -- the sky was bluer and the moon on the right and the star in the middle sharper:



Yesterday I saw 3 little brown bunnies playing chase in Hyde Park, in a meadow next to the Serpentine, on my way home from Not Cricket. I didn't have my camera, so the prettiest thing I've seen so far in May can't be shared, sadly.


* and is that correct, or should it be "the words and me"? Argh.
- posted by Christina @ 11:51 am