Well, my thesis defense was two days ago.
I can proudly announce that I passed with flying colors. Quite delighted. I still have a good deal of work to do between now and Spring when I officially finish all my thesitic duties, but I have no more “tests” I must pass, so that’s a relief. And all my advisors had fabulous critiques and suggestions, so I’m looking forward to getting into the thesis and reworking some of it.
I’m also excited to start looking at PhD programs to shop it around to, in hopes of turning it into a book. The feedback from my advisors on the topic (I’m writing on the conversion of information from public property to private property from the Gutenberg press to the web toady) is really positive.
I had feared that I had never encountered anything like my topic because I hadn’t looked hard enough or because it just wasn’t an interesting or relevant topic to anyone but me.
My advisors, however, assured me that is not the case, and that they would really like to see it published and becoming a part of the debate around intellectual property.
So, that was really fulfilling to hear.
Plus, the day before my review, Lewis Hyde was featured in a Sunday New York Times magazine article, talking about his upcoming book, which sounds like it basically is my thesis. That really makes me feel good, too. Having a voice like his present this side of the debate - one neglected up until now, by everyone but Lyman Ray Patterson, imho - is really wonderful.

So, anyway, my trip,
you’ll hear more about it in the coming days, but in a nutshell, I’m going to be on the road for 122 days of 2009, a third of a leap year.
While traveling I’ll be working extensively on the Disembody enpsychlopedia - the wiki expounding upon every reference and influence in Disembody.
And of course, it’s a wiki, so hopefully, all of the other crew will be participating.
I’ll also be visiting all the alum of the show (except Honyo, who I can’t afford to visit right now, as he lives in Tokyo.) I’ll see Erin, Jonny, Stel, Libby, Phil, Sue and all the SF folk. I may not see Daniel, as he’ll be in Central America. But we’ll connect one way or another, as we have to get the tarot work for Portal 7 done soon.
More deets on the trip in the coming weeks.
For now, what inspired me to write is that I just checked my bank account, and I’ve got $1000 less for the trip than I thought I did, because a check I wrote last month just cleared.
Yowch! I had hoped to do the whole thing for 4K, including paying bills and debts while on the road, and travel expenses, and $5 a day to live on.
But not I need to re-budget for 3K.
Time to look for work.
LOL