weekly basketball and thesis update

I finished the first draft of the final copy of my thesis document on Sunday morning. I'll probably be making changes to it in consultation with my advisor over the next few weeks or so. It's nice to have a draft done, but I've still got quite a bit of work to do if I'm going to be able to get it done and defended before the end of the semester (do-able, but quite a bit of work).

Intramural basketball was fun last night. After a pretty unimpressive first half (I only scored 2 points), I had a great run in the second half. In one 3-4 minute stretch, I had a layup, three 3-pointers in a row, and a three-point play (for a total of 14 straight points). It was just one of those days. I finished with 18 points, and we turned a close game into a blowout by the end.

It was a nice end to an otherwise uneventful day. I'll take it.

UPDATE:

Today just got a lot more eventful. Last week, I submitted a paper to Psychological Science, arguably psychology's best journal. In order to get published, the paper has to get past a cursory initial review from an editor (stage 1). It then has to get past reviews from three of the top scholars in the particular sub-subfield of the paper's topic (stage 2). It then has to get past the editor again (stage 3).

Psych Science gets almost 3,000 submissions a year from all different kinds of psychologists, and they typically reject 60-85% during stage 1. I just found out today that my paper got past stage 1. It's a miracle!

The bad news: They typically reject another 65% of the papers that get to stage 2, so the paper probably won't end up getting published. I won't find out the final decision for about two months, though, so at least I can celebrate the good news until then!

busy busy

I've been busy writing my thesis this past week. I really don't have all that much more to go. Just some polishing up to do, and then I have to make any changes that my advisor suggests. After I get done writing this first draft of the final version, it should take a few week to get it ready to defend before my committee, but I'm definitely about to enter the home stretch.

In other news, I may have broken my nose on Monday. It was, of course, during my intramural basketball game. I was playing defense, and the offensive guy was getting frustrated and slammed into me. I'm 90 % sure that it was an accident, though, that his head ended up hitting me right in the bridge of my nose. The only reason I doubt that it might have been an accident? He never apologized.

Anyway, I started to bruise immediately (so said my teammates). At halftime, I went to the bathroom to check it out in the mirror. It was definitely bruised. But it was also straighter than it used to be! Free nose jobs for everyone! Now, four days later, my nose is still purple and yellow, but it's definitely still straight. I'm not sure if it's just because of the swelling or the discoloration or what. I guess once everything goes away we'll find out.

Back to my thesis.

chalk up another one

We had freezing rain again last night, and Sarah and I both had the day off today. I was smart enough to bring home my laptop this time, though, so I was able to work all day anyway. I think that officially qualifies me as an idiot.

wintery week

Last week was a record. Sarah and I both had four days in a row of canceled school. Unfortunately, I didn't really expect it. I left my laptop at school. The roads were too dangerous to risk going in for it, so I had to work at home without a lot of my important stuff (statistics software, data, etc.). I did a lot of reading in the current issues of the psychology journals I'm supposed to keep up with, and I tried learn a little bit more about a few new topics that I'm going to have to write about in the next few months. Other than that, Sarah and I just tried to keep each other from going crazy in the absence of being able to leave the house. One of us was successful. The other of us is Sarah.

San Antonio among other things

I spent a good chunk of last week down in San Antonio. I was at the annual convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. SPSP is an organization that most people in my field belong to. When you join, you give them money, and they send you journals that they may or may not let you publish your work in. If you want to go to the annual conference to hear more about the research it costs extra. But they'll let you 'publish' (put up) a poster with your research on it. I got the student discount. Only $125.

San Antonio was a lot of fun. I stayed at the Crockett Hotel, right across the street from the Alamo. The best part of the city is probably the Riverwalk. Or maybe the smell of horse droppings. No, the Riverwalk is better. The narrow river meanders through downtown, and the (concrete) banks are tightly lined with trees and 3-4 story restaurants and shops. There are no barriers between the walkway/patios and the river, so I'm sure hundreds of drunk people fall in every year. My only regret was that I didn't see it happen.

The conference was great. I got to hear a bunch of interesting talks, and I met a few of the 'celebrities' of social psychology. They acted like they didn't know who I was. Too star-struck, I guess. After spending a few days in the "hill country" and elsewhere in south-central Texas, I think I now know where all the stereotypes of Texas come from. There were cacti, mustaches, and lots of tasty Tex-Mex and BBQ. When I left San Antonio it was 75 and sunny. When I got home it was 76 and sunny. Now, three days later, Sarah and I both have snow days because of 1 - 3 inches of sleet (ice) accumulation on every major road/surface. The high today was 19. Definitely quite a change.

Fortunately, I was able to get in my intramural basketball game last night before the weather hit. It was a close game, but we ended up pulling away at the end to win. I had a good time. I scored 12 points and was able to get in some quality minutes. Next week we play a group of guys from the ROTC program. I'm sure they're going to be in great shape, so we're probably going to get run into the ground. If I survive, I'll let you know how that turns out.