Thesis writing has destroyed my social skills. Case in point: I went to lunch on Monday with some friends from HPRC and had hardly anything to say. This is what happens when you spend hours in the library typing at the computer, skipping morning tea and lunch and then finally vacating the library when your empty stomach sufficiently distracts you from the task at hand. At which point it's time for a solitary late lunch down near the lake, with only Eusebius and an aggressive clique of geese for company.

Happily, Rick is back from his holiday, so I can go and pester him with the minor thesis quibbles. Most of the time he was away, I spent drafting chapter four. Chapter three's only bare bones at the moment. As it turns out, the apologists demanded more attention than I thought. In the end, I decided on three texts from the shortlist I made up earlier in the year: Justin Martyr's First Apology, Tertullian's Apology and Minucius Felix's Octavius. Even three texts is a bit of a struggle though. At the beginning of the year I was so worried about not being able to write 20,000 words on the topic, and now I think I may end up going over that. Eeep!

Not that I had been thinking about it a whole lot lately, but I decided the November trip to Japan I'm planning is going to be held over until next year. November/December's not turning out to be a great time to go away at the moment, so I've decided I'll either go in January or in the northern Spring. Depends on whether I want to go and see the snow in Nagano or attend the flower viewing in April/May (argh, decisions, decisions!). And the other benefit is that I'll have an extra few months to save more money and brush up on my Japanese.

And now, I go to squeeze in a bit more work before the Stewart/Colbert hour (they're back, yay!).

Current Mood: restless