nearer the end...

i defended my thesis last friday via web-cam and phone-conferencing between Scotland and the USofA... it was strangely interesting, and the whole grilling experience was surprisingly shorter than the 3 hours i had psyched myself up to bear... suffice to say i survived it and am more relieved than anything because the whole journey has not been enjoyable, to say the least. the challenging part isn't so much the 'Science' itself, rather, it's the people involved... bureaucracies, politics, constraints, life... etc.

oftentimes people think that research is not 'real' 'work'... because it's often based at a university and so it's more like 'school'... i can totally understand if people don't get why researchers are paid so little to work such long non-conventional hours... because i think it's totally insane... but i find it hard to tolerate the comparisons they make between the working hours of the corporate world and the research lab; the finance people get paid a tonne more for the inhumane hours while it is reasoned that 'scientists' choose to work overtime in search of 'truths' or insights which in itself is rewarding enough to compensate for the less desirable income... i think the whole earnings and career-prestige is totally skewed. sigh.

in any case... i await the official report from Scotland... and am looking forward to the final close of this endeavour and moving on... fossicking... but ultimately, still being who i am, regardless of the extra title.