Henry and me

I sat up till midnight with Henry yesterday, which was an inspiring and rewarding experience. Granted, he is presently a man of very few words, but I'm about to change that. All I need is time with him and some perseverance...

Yesterday evening my parents needed a ride to the airport, and in the car the classic mother--father--rarely-seen-daughter--conversation ensued. I don't know whether it's due to their diametrically different national backgrounds, but my parents still typically assume the good cop - bad cop-configuration whenever they ask me about my work. I'm a bad liar, so they usually see through my curt answers about how work is going and interpret it correctly - Work is not my first, my last and my everything.

Mom is concerned by this, considering the rapid approach of my deadlines and my lack of concern about them (coupled with the fact that I have no dates for presentation of my Licentiate thesis defense yet) and therefore goes full-blast about how I need to set my priorities straight and stop being social at the expense of my thesis writing and research (usually throwing in seeds of guiltweed, like how I always prioritize friends and social activities first and work and family last. Hmpf.).

Dad, by contrast, follows up by trying to give me some support along the lines of "It's OK, you make your own priorities, but you should be aware of the consequences and be able to take them". He does this whenever mom takes a deep breath between tirades. (Apparently they've had a similar disagreement when I was small about whether they should let me fall over and learn from the bruises, or not).

Mom and dad had no idea yesterday, though, that my surly silent response to mom's tirade contained a full-blown intention to spend the evening with Henry when I got back from driving them to the airport. Come hell or high water.

So after dinner I sat down with Henry. He has a lot of pretty sound and well-thought out points to make, but needs some help from me for those to come into light. Good thing I'm pretty comfy with words... By nature he is very formal and correct, and has a lot to say about our common favourite subject of ergonomics (and how effing hard it is to get any improvements done in that field!). I guess he has his downsides - honestly, he's pretty skinny. But all in all, I'd say he has a lot of potential.

At around midnight I was really satisfied with the eveing, and Henry... was full of bullets.

...

Well, a bullet list is a good way to quickly sum up what you need to adress in a text. So now I have a complete outline of what I want to bring up in my thesis. I can tell you I was pretty satisfied that yesterday's long evening sitting resulted in a concise, yet very tangible list of what will be elaborated upon in my thesis.

I did mention that the name Henry stuck, right? He's my Licentiate thesis. I handed him over to my professor today and he seemed pretty pleased that I'd gotten down to business all of a sudden. Now, if I could only do the same for Henriette (who is research article # 2)...


12 pages now. and counting. Progress :)