That didn't take long.

That didn't take long. Yesterday I alluded to a fair amount of tumult surrounding this trip to China, and today things completely tumultified. I was working all weekend on a simulation I've been writing and on which this conference paper partially depended. And when I say working, I mean working and not sleeping a whole lot and generally running myself ragged.

Although I did give myself a break for a Henry Rollins spoken word show on Sunday night. It was like dipping my poor, battered brain in espresso brewed from weaker espresso. Shook his hand afterwards. It was fun.

Today my advisor came into my office and said that, based on the preliminary results from some film samples we were testing, it didn't look like we were going to be ready with our paper in time for the conference. So this sets off a lot of conflicting and/or complementary emotions. I had really, really wanted something to be ready for the conference, and going empty-handed is going to feel sort of cheap and anticlimactic now. On the other hand, now I've got all this free time (read: evenings) in which to plan my trip to China, as well as do all the other things I'd been neglecting in favor of this paper. On the whole I'd rather take more time to present something really good than do a rush job on something I won't be proud of later. It's just an abrupt transition between working flat-out towards a deadline and sitting back to relax and breathe.

Enough of that. Tomorrow is a day for cracking Baskes' 1992 MEAM paper wide open. Plus I'm going to get myself some business cards. You know, with my name on them and everything. Tomorrow is a day that will not suck!

PS. Antibalas is one of the best bands I've listened to in a long time.