So our heat wave is continuing, and yes now they are officially saying it’s a heatwave because it has now been three consecutive days over the 90 degree mark, which is apparently the official requirements for a heatwave. Tomorrow we are supposed to get some rain, so hopefully it will break.

On Saturday I ended up watching the “Army Wives” marathon on TV while dissertating all day. The following image pretty much sums up what I spent at least half of the day doing, the first half was spent writing up this data into an appendix.

This was actually one of the smaller stat sets believe it or not. I have graphs like this with between 60 and 100 plot points. Eeegads! I hate the idea of putting this stuff out there before I’ve finished and defended the dissertation, but I don’t think anyone will figure out what this is or what it means. Simply put, it’s like the old “Sesame Street” skit “One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other,” though in this case it’s some of these things are not like the others, and that’s what is important for my work

Sunday I ended up taking it easy because I had a headache, and therefore I didn’t get much done I’m afraid. The ghost blog was on the list for that day and I did get the videos recorded, now they just need to be edited together. I recorded the first part Sunday night, and as usual rambled on longer than YouTube’s time limit allows. However because something funny happens in the video, I’m editing it into two parts. After I finished that, well then some stuff happened I wasn’t too thrilled about. So I made a third video explaining what went on and some changes to any upcoming ghost videoblog projects. I’ll get these edited as soon as I can and up. Thanks for your patience, I know people want to see them.

Today the dogs were going nuts at the backdoor and I finally looked outback, noticing some people were walking around in the fields I didn’t recognize, so that meant they shouldn’t really be there. It turned out they were from “EyeWitness News” and were here to do a story on the tomato recall. They interviewed my BF for the six’o'clock news. As it turns out, NBC came too, but he’s not going to be on until their 11′o’clock news. I teased him because he didn’t even put on nice clothes or fix his hair or anything.

I figured you’ve already seen me in motion, it’s only fair you see him! Here is the clip from our local news with him. You get to see the farm too, kinda. Where they are walking and talking to him is right behind our house.

The past few days I’ve spent madly editing some chapters and I’m finally done. I’ll be sending them to my advisor and committee tomorrow. Because of everything they have going on though, I’m not expecting comments back for at least a few weeks. I’m expecting to have more chapters in to them before I get comments back.

One reason for the mad rush is . . . Vegas! Yes the Vegas trip with Emily is this week and were are leaving very shortly. So the next update will probably be from Sin City, and perhaps I might end up having a video update! Though I’m under strict orders not to film Emily under the influence of having fun. I guess there is no rule she can’t film me though

This is a multi-functional update post with no one topic

With a week to spare I finally got my taxes done. For once I’m actually getting money back and a lot too! However before you curse me, it’s my money, I just paid more in estimated taxes than I needed to. I’d prefer the government give me a lot more back than they are, but something tells me they need it to spend on pointless crap like vibrating chairs for the Senate and GT Xpresses and Magic Bullets for the oval office.

I’m currently busy throwing together and editing chapters for the dissertation, trying to get as much done as I can. I have about a month to pull a whole lot together. Of course a the trip to Vegas is also coming up, grrrr, not the best timing. I expected to be done by then (actually I expected to be done by last fall), but it won’t happen. Shhhhh, don’t tell Emily but school is coming to Vegas! I’ll be editing on the long ass plane ride (as much as I can on the plane before I get fed up with the person in front of me deciding to recline their chair into my lap, which ALWAYS happens to me), when she’s passed out drunk, when she’s getting her massages and facials and basically anytime she’s doing something that I don’t have to be present for. She doesn’t know, it’s a secret. Let’s not tell her okay?

I’m headed home this weekend as I have tickets to see the one and only Margaret Cho in concert. I can’t wait as I love the Cho! I’m taking my mommy to see her with me. Then I have to pay Keith a visit to see his new apartment and his new puppy.

Finally I’ve been trying to turn my web cam on a lot more recently. I try and put it on in the afternoon when I’m working and often have had it on at night. I used to have a link to a bigger version of what’s in the side bar, but that’s getting reworked at the moment. I hope to have it up again soon, for those who get their kicks watching me sit at my PC I plan to take the cam to Vegas, so maybe you’ll get to see the inside of our hotel room! Yeah, I know you just can’t wait for that. I could be sneaky and leave it on and let you watch the maid clean, or I could point it out the window should we actually get lucky enough to have a room with a view.

Okay so since I’ve got a lot of incoming links to the blog because of the soap site stuff, I figured I’d use this post to talk about myself. It will let people who might be new to the blog get to know a little about the guy who ran that page, but they may not have really known aside from his name and that he watched soaps.

First off, let’s just talk about the elephant in the room shall we? I am a 32 year old man who for 14-some years ran a website dedicated to soap operas. In case you never figured it out, yes I’m gay. It wasn’t something never outright addressed by me on the soap page, but if someone really wanted to know the answer they could have easily found out with some exploring. I tried to, but a few times failed, to keep anything political in nature off the page and keep it a neutral place, with only soaps being the issue.

So yes, I’m gay. Now contrary to what some might believe, I’m not here to molest your kids, statistically your straight relatives are more likely to do that. I’m not here to ruin your holy sanctity of marriage, statistically you along with Britney Spears are doing a damn good job of that on your own. I was not molested, I was not abused, I did not chose to be this way anymore than you chose to be straight. If you want to argue whether or not it’s a choice, please go down to your local zoo and argue with the animals there, as some of them seem to make the choices too.

If your still with me, I’ve been in a monogamous relationship with my boyfriend for over 6 years now. We live in New Jersey and in our very own haunted house! Yup, I’ve made several postings about it, you can read about it on the blog in the paranormal section. I’ve seen, heard, felt and yes been touched by the ghosts. I’ve always loved ghosts and the learning about views of and beliefs in the afterlife. I never expected to actually end up living in my very own haunted house. Growing up I always wanted to be either a parapsychologist or an archaeologist, because I also enjoyed learning about how different people buried their dead, which by the way IS what I’m studying now. Seeing a theme here?

We share our house with two dogs and five, yes five cats. I know, it’s a virtual zoo here. The dogs are my terriers Princess Bumbles and Nikko. Princess is a westie and I got the Bumbles part from “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.” Nikko is a cairn and is named after the captain of the flying monkeys from “The Wizard of Oz.” The cats are Lance(alot), Galahad, Moo Kitty (real name Gawain), Percy (Percival, also called Orange Kitty) and Grim (short for Pilgrim, finally breaking away from frickin Arthurian names!).

Many people might who might have read my pages always noticed I went on my vacations in January. Yes an odd month to go. That is because it’s when my boyfriend was off work. He works on a farm, yes a farm. It’s a family business, so they are closed in the winter months and it’s his only chance to get away. So for the past six years we had our vacations then, which were always cruises. Oh and yes, I kept running the page as much as I could while I was on a cruise ship. Talk about obsession!

Seriously though, I made some amazing friends through the page, people I know I’ll be friends for with life. One of my oldest internet friends Ive probably known for ten plus years and we till try to see each other at least once a year when her job brings her anywhere nearby. Other friends are a few years old, but they are whom I would take weekends to see in New Orleans or what not the past few years. Two also just came to stay with me, they are who I went to New York back in February with. We all talk almost every night online.

A little other fun facts about me. I love horror films, I have since I was a kid and rented out the local video store’s selection the summer between 4th and 5th grade. I’m more into the old school slashers and anything supernatural. The new horror flicks I find to either be really bad remakes of 80s stuff, Japanese movies or basically just a guts and gore fest that is too much for me to take. Growing old, and advances in film make-up, has made me a bit squeamish.

I also love videogames and have since a little kid. The first videogame system I ever had was the Intellivsion, followed by various Sega systems. Once upon a time I used to run a fairly popular Sega fan page, but gave it up a long time ago. I still love videogames and have pretty much every system out there. I’m just now finding the extra time to start playing games again regularly. I have been trying to stay away from on-line gaming until school is done, that’s just another distraction for me!

I also love Broadway shows, something I really didn’t get into until more recently and thanks to various friends. The odd thing is, growing up I was in the band and orchestra and we always, I mean always, did an Andrew Lloyd Weber show at least once a year. Well we played a medley of the music from one show. So I don’t know why I didn’t get into them earlier. I’ve seen Mamma Mia, Phantom, Hairspray, Xanadu, Wicked, Evita, Scrooge, La Cage, Aida and . . . umm . . . I think that may be it? I am sure I’m missing some.

I guess that is enough for now. I was going to try and link to various posts in the blog that I’ve done over the years, but I never got around to searching and choosing the ones I liked. I guess if any fun fact here sparked your interest you can peruse the various categories on the side bar or the linked ones in this post for more info.

-Dustin

The one thing I don’t like about traveling, I always come home needing a vacation from my vacation. The conference technically wasn’t a vacation though, but I was mentally drained after coming home from it.

One of my bestest friends, who moved away last year, is back in town this week. We had dinner tonight and are doing some museum stuff in Philly on Friday. Should be fun! She is dying to move back home and is hoping to return in a year when she finishes the job she moved out of town for.

Other than that, not much exciting stuff going on in my life. I just am working to have my dissertation drafted by May so I can finally get the hell out of grad school. Then of course I have to face the “what do I do now?” question. People always ask that, what will I do when I’m done with school. My answer lately has been first let’s just get done with school, then I’ll decide the next step lol!

and I’m pooped!

Nerves and my habit of staying up late caused me not to fall asleep till around 4/4:30 am on Thursday. Not good considering I had a to get up around 7am and be in an 8am session to present my paper! I had little sleep and no breakfast, so I was worried I would pass out from nerves. I didn’t, and everything went fine . . . I think. Honestly after it was over I don’t even remember standing up there and reading my paper. It was like I was on autopilot or something. My advisor said I did a good job though and he liked it, so I guess I didn’t do terrible.

I was supposed to return home Friday after my paper. However the lack of sleep I had, well I didn’t want to drive home as it was a 3 hour drive. Plus I found out I was sponsored and had my conference fees and such paid for, because I was a student presenting a paper. Therefore I felt I should probably stay as long as I could. I also have to write a thank you note/email to the company that forked over the money. It was a pleasant and nice surprise, I wasn’t expecting it at all! A representative was there, but I was unable to find them and thank them in person.

Unfortunately while I slept last night, it wasn’t a peaceful night sleep. The hotel was right on the beach, and there were terrible winds. My room had what I guess you could call a balcony. More like sliding doors that opened and a railing so you didn’t fall to your death. The wind was so bad that it was rattling the slider doors most of the night. I’ve been trying to wake up at more decent hours lately and get to bed earlier, but I will enjoy sleeping in late tomorrow for sure!

So I head out tomorrow for the conference, presenting Friday at the butt crack of dawn. My bags for the most part are packed, I’ll finish that tomorrow. It’s only one night, so I’m not bringing all that much. I plan to make my exit rather quickly after presenting and get back home. It’s about a 2 1/2 hour trip.

I had written a 16-17 page paper to give, assuming that it would take me a minute to get through each page. Oops! Not even close! So I’ve spent today slashing and trying to get my paper to fit into the 20 minutes I’m allotted. I think I’ve done it, I just would rather not have to cut anything out. I also made a very quick power point presentation, with some nice photos trying to summarize what I had to cut out. If I could I’d just record my paper onto my PC and get up there and pretend I was reading, I so would! I do not like standing up in front of rooms of people and speaking to them at all. It’s more because when I have to read from a printed script, I tend to be nervous and fumble my words. Given the fact it’s so early in the morning too, that won’t help. It might though mean most people won’t be getting up and coming to the session that early. One can only hope.

I had my meeting with my advisor this week to in order to get comments on my dissertation chapters thus far. Much less painful than I expected. Upon getting back from the conference I need to revamp them with his suggestions and send them to the rest of my committee for feedback. The goal is to have the whole dissertation drafted by Mayish, which is going to be a lot of work but doable. It looks like I might make August graduation too. I was expecting being stuck waiting for December/Fall graduation. Woot!

So I had written this big long post ranting about some issues I’ve been dealing with this week. My intent was to post it today, but it’s a fricken book of a post and I wanted to proof it one more time. I never got to it, so I will save it for this week I guess.

Today I spent working on a paper for a conference I have to attend on Friday this week. Fun stuff . . . not! I simply took a paper I presented last year (actually at the end of 2006) and then published in 2007 and have revamped it. I’ve switched the order of things I discussed around, put in some new introductory sentences for those sections, added some outlines for 2 new sections to write and updated the other sections to match my more recent dissertation results. Of course at this point the paper is now 20 pages long and I have 20 minutes to present. I will probably have to cut some stuff out because it will go over my allotted time. I should have it finished tomorrow, leaving Tuesday-Thursday for proofing and edits. I also need to make a power point presentation for pretty pictures to go along with it I guess. Could I share the photos online I would, but I really can’t because of the topic For those who don’t know, my dissertation is on the mortuary rituals of the Delaware Indians, so the photos I have (of artifacts only) aren’t for publication or distribution.

I watched the Oscars while I was writing tonight. Aside from “Sweeney Todd,” I have seen none of the films nominated. I really don’t have a desire to see any of them either. It’s hard to get excited over the Oscars when you have no interest in what is nominated really. I’m sure they were all excellent films and all, but for me I want to go to the movies to be entertained and escape, not think or see real world problems. Seems to me a lot of these films fit the later bill.

So I need to get back on a regular sleep schedule pronto. I’ve always been a night owl and off and on through grad school I’ve had bouts of insomnia when I’ve been overly stressed. Lately though my sleeping issue hasn’t been that, it’s been “Big Brother After Dark” on Showtime. I’ve been staying up too late to watch those morons and I’ve paid the next day as I don’t want to get up! However I have to nip this in the bud. For one, they are getting boring and not doing anything fun to watch, at least not until very late their time which isn’t on Showtime my time. I mean if they are going to be boring, can’t they be naked? At least I can look at something then and be somewhat entertained.

Anway, I’m in a crunch the next two weeks to processes a lot of my dissertation data and write it up, so I need to force myself to get to bed and get up early. I have a conference at the end of February I have to go to and I agreed to give a paper at it. Why why why! I said I wasn’t going to do this again until I was finished! Grrrrr! Fortunately I don’t have to start from scratch this time, which I think is why I agreed. I’m taking the paper I presented at the last conference, taking some things out, adding new stuff in and solidifying the results a bit more.

So it is the end of the semester. All of the sudden it comes to my attention, I’ve been registered for 2 classes I have not attended all semester long except for the very firsts classes. Somehow with my very busy schedule, I just forgot I was registered for them and didn’t go to them . . . for the whole semester. This means of course two Fs and automatic expulsion! Nooooo! There are variations of this dream of course, such as I attended half the semesters, but didn’t do half the reading and now have books upon books to read before next week’s final. When I have nightmares lately, these are generally it!

I am supposed to graduate by the end of this semester (May), so says the school My time is up, and I either have to give up or apply for yet another extension. This takes me beyond ten years, which could be an issue. When I first started, 10 years was the limit. To get beyond ten years you had to have a really good reason and the school had to approve it after some petitioning. Now though that 10 year figure has gone poof in the guidelines, you simply have to keep applying for and being allowed to have extensions. Why the 10 year figure when away, I’m not sure, I have my theories that it might have something to do with how long it is now taking people to finish undergrad alone.

I am determined to get this dissertation done once and for all by the end of the semester, to end these dreams once and for all, to close this chapter of my life. Plus I’m currently working at getting stress out of my life, the dissertation is a major part! I’m a little over half way to finishing it. Actually probably more, since I already know the majority of the results. They just have to be typed up and proved with statistical graphs I’m currently making (but I know enough to know what the graphs will already say). Come next month I’ll be working on the dissertation full time 7 days a week (hint hint), something I have not been able to do and has dragged my progress down. Therefore I expect to have it done come May. However editing and getting my committees’ approval to defend by then? Well that’s another story at this point! My advisor though has me applying for graduation in May, when the time comes we’ll deal with what needs to be worked out.

Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes! Big ones coming up in my life, soon and fast! I’ll get that post up about that big decision too, but something tells me enough of you have enough info now to figure it out