Wednesday, May 17, 2006

So out of practice

I am so out of practice of getting things done in a reasonable amount of time. I really don't want to become one of those people who spend the first two days of a conference in their hotel room, finally getting around to working up their presentation for the third day. Yet, here I am the night before my colloquium talk tomorrow, and I'm still not finished with my presentation slide show.

hrmph!

[SIGH]

It's been so long since I had a deadline, since I had anything that had to be done by a certain time. The past few months I've begun to get productive again. And, all of a sudden, I'm swamped. Teach me to submit multiple abstracts, and apply for jobs, and the such like, eh?

So, I'm going to bed, and I'll work on this more in the morning. I go on at 3:30. It'll be fine, at least... I'll get through it. I'm presenting what I know best, and to an audience that will likely see me as the expert. I'm just hoping I'll be coherent enough to warrant questions and feedback. I always think it's the kiss of death at a presentation when noone seems to follow you enough to even formulate a comment. We'll see.

Then, I've got to work up my presentation for Scotland. A mere 15 minutes I get. I guess it will cost me about $100/minute for that line on the CV. I'm expecting several of the other presentations at that conference to be exciting. And rubbing shoulders with some of those folks, getting my face, and my name, and my work out there. It should be worth it. But damn, I can't wait until someone else is covering (at least some of) my conference expenses!

Then what? Who knows. Will I have a job lined up for the fall? Anybody's guess.

Alright, here's my promise:
  • #1, I'm going to spend some good quality time with my boys this summer.
  • #2, I'm going to finally have the courage and gumption and chutzpah to polish up and submit a grant proposal for my longitudinal study. Damn the logistics, full throttle.
  • #3, I still have that goal of submitting four articles this summer.
  • #4, Maybe it's time to start thinking about a book.
Good night!

1 comment:

Ahistoricality said...

dollars per minute of presentation time.... if funding agencies ever get wind of that, we're so sunk.

Ever try to find a 24 hour kinkos at 3 in the morning, downtown with no car.... yeah, I'm like you.