...it's ALIIIVE!!

As you can tell from my last couple of posts, I've been living and breathing my thesis project for a while now. It's what's going on in my life, so it's what I write about. I know it's probably much more facinating to me than it is to everyone else on the planet. Tough cookies. I'm stoked because I finally feel like my thesis is coming together. I can't really claim credit for it, though; it seems like I just got lucky. I blindly stumbled upon some literature, that led to some other literature, that led to some other literature...anyway, I found some helpful stuff. I finished my thesis proposal (I got an A minus for not having proposed statistics), which of course isn't really finished, but it's a start. I am privately pleased that I got to use "obfuscate" in my paper. I gave myself super word-nerd points for that! Glee!

I was also having some trouble with my instrument. There are two instruments that are very similar. One is expensive. One is free. Guess which one I like best? Anyway, I was having a hard time determining if the free instrument, the IPIP, would be appropriate for my study. I won't bore you with the details here, but I emailed "the IPIP guy", who put me in touch with "the IPIP consultant guy", a Dr. John Johnson (no joke) from Penn State. Dr. Johnson was "tickled" about my project and wants me to keep him informed on it. He seemed pretty excited about the whole idea. Even better, though, was that he sent me A TON of information on the IPIP, info I really needed and, now that I have it, will make my project much easier. So, yay.

Now my next step is to find some computer science slave labor. If you happen to know of anyone who is willing to do a bit of work to support gamer research, and they're handy with the international cyberweb, please send them my way!

On a completely different note, the pumpkins I planted a while back are beginning to overrun my balcony. They've spilled over the sides of the planter. Some have climbed up the railing and are waving jocundly at passers-by. They have completely engulfed the ornamental dragonfly garden-stake. It may be months before I see his cheerful metal form again. A few days ago, the pumpkins started producing flowers, which is very good. Pumpkin flowers look sort of like hibiscus, but the blooms only last one day and they're bright orange. Pumpkin orange, you might say. Anyway, it's cool. My strawberries aren't faring so well, but, you can't win 'em all. I'll be pretty impressed if I manage to produce pumpkins this year, so the strawberries are just bonus.

Well, now I must extricate myself from the company of my long-time associate, Procrastination. I have a Japanese final tomorrow at 10.30, so my studying must begin in earnest.