Aquaman was a hero

he could talk to fish...

1) Microfilm - it's all good. Well, all right, parts of the documents obviously spent a hundred years in someone's basement and have the water marks and mouse chewed pieces missing to prove it. Luckily these are pages I do not need. The microfilm room is still dusty, but the new readers are much simpler to use. Not only that, but some genuis has installed computers next to the readers. Having easy access to my e-mail, search engines and whatnot was truly wonderful. All hail librarians.

2) Lunch with my advisor (may he live forever) proved to be fun and motivational. We've known each other for, er, quite a few years now, but I'd no idea where his political views might lie. Funny, but it's just never come up. At any rate, I was delighted to hear him make a nasty comment about current events. I also dropped by #2's office hours and had a wonderful chat about teaching, reading and the latest work I've done on the introduction. #2 is just wonderful and I am so glad that my project is interesting to said person.

3) Alas, the lunch and the chat also included discussion about a much dreaded topic: the date by which I must defend or else. While it's nice to have the date and a firm deadline, it's also terrifying. I hate projects that are open-ended, but this due date looms large.

4) Naturally, having done all of these professional activities and gotten some great writing done on Friday, I came down with a nasty bug and spent the last three days in bed. I'm worried about it turning into pneumonia, but so far, so good.