Too Much Silence

Sorry for the long lapse in posting. No real reason for it, I've just not had much to say. Anyhow, I should mention that I was able to finish proving the theorem that I have been working on for the past few weeks. Its my first major new result since last Spring. It is encouraging to actually be making progress, but I still have a long road ahead of me. This result, along with all of my previous work only makes up about 1/3 of what I will need for my dissertation.

Getting this result is also a bit bittersweet. This is due to the fact that there has been a certain simplicity to my research recently. I knew what I was trying to prove, and things were slowly moving foreward. I was able to be singleminded. Now, I have what I call the "What's Next" phenomenon. I need to figure out how to proceed -- how to build on my current efforts and expand to something new, which I find to be one of the more difficult parts of my job.

I am also starting to feel some mounting pressure about my post degree life. I really need to start figuring out what the next step is going to be. I'm working on getting together all of the necessary materials to do an academic job search. Well, I have been picking away at it at least. I don't really feel like doing it, so I've been putting large parts of it off, and now have to work these next couple of weeks to get caught up so that I will be ready for some deadlines coming up.

I had a nice trip down to K-State Thursday. Tom Morris and I drove down together to hear Ben Chesnut speak at the Nav-Nite and to hang with folks down there. It was fun to see what the ministry is like down there, and also good to catch up with Ben and Jenny and to hear about how life is going for them on their new campus.

Well, this post is getting long, so I'll save the rest of my thoughts for the next one. Maybe I'll post before the end of the week (gasp! two posts in one week?!?). If not, I'm sure I'll have a lot to say after getting back from the Main Event this coming weekend.