Friday, April 07, 2006

Whoo hoo!

I passed! Whoo hoo! Look Away!

I'm now officially a Ph.D. candidate, and supposedly there aren't too many flaming hoops to jump through between now and the dissertation defense. And now I'm off to sunny Florida to kick back for a few days with the fam. I'm more than thrilled to have gotten this off my shoulders.

I started planning this little magnetosensation project way back in October. It's kind of silly how we do things here, where our qualifier is to write a grant proposal about a subject which is completely different than the one you work on, and plan it down to the last detail, all the while no one ever expects to actually do these experiments. I got tripped up on a few things, mainly because it's so very different from my own project, and there are some key differences between birds and mammals that only people that work with birds will know about. That, and there are questions where someone asks, "what else do you know about [blank]?" and they're looking for something very specific and it's hard to tell through the skull what they're thinking of. But I guess there was nothing serious enough to flunk me or even to make me rewrite the written portion, so that's nice.

Anywho, I'm on vacation for a few days. I plan to keep my streak alive during vacation (currently 47 days, counting a tired 4 miler this morning), and I'm usually pretty good about running on vacation, and there are some good routes around my Mom's house, so that will be cool. How do you like that!? I'm back on top, baby! It's the summer of Keith! Keith is back, baby!

If it ain't loose, then shake it like a loose tooth in a supertooth phonebooth!
Keith out.

11 comments:

Hey Zeus said...

Maybe it's time you join this:
http://www.trizera.com/USRSA/

Jessica, a Austin Runner AND triathlete said...

congrats on the Ph.D thing!!!!

let me know when the next '5 miles' installment is...i look forward to it!

Unknown said...

Thanks for the link, Rick.
I think if I can do it for a whole year, I'll definitely put my name in there.

Thanks Jess.
And I tried a couple interviews with no responses, but now that I have some more time, I'll get some more.

Keith.

Crosstrain said...

Congratulations. Pursuing a PhD seems like a long slow run, glad to hear you are running smooth.

Woodlands Runner said...

Congrats Dr. Keith to be. Have bunches of great time in Florida. I've only managed a Masters and am glad my last name isn't Bates.

equarles said...

Congrats and keep streaking.

Sarah said...

Way to go soon-to-be Dr. Keith!

Anonymous said...

Back, back, back!

Excellent! Great job.

jen said...

Dr in da house!!

Congrats on becoming a PhD-to-be. :) And running consistently through all the prep....I don't know how you do it.

El Oso Furioso said...

Mad congrats, Doc.

David said...

Glad you passed the exam-- well done.

-You may have read in the latest Runners world about some people in their 60's who've been running 20 or more years...they are a member of that club on your weblinks where you have to run for a year straight to join. What if you miss a day, do you get kicked out? Is there a minimum distance, like a mile? Guess I'll check out the site.