Dispatches from the middle

“If wolverines have a strategy, it’s this: Go hard, and high, and steep, and never back down, not even from the biggest grizzly, and least of all from a mountain. Climb everything: trees, cliffs, avalanche chutes, summits. Eat everybody: alive, dead, long-dead, moose, mouse, fox, frog, its still-warm heart or frozen bones.” — Douglas Chadwick, The Wolverine Way

Ironically enough, I read this lounging on a beach in Waikiki with no intention of so much as flipping over, let alone climbing a mountain and devouring the still-warm heart of a dead moose. But, I loved the book! Never thought I would read an entire book on wolverines, let alone love it, but both came to pass. They’re amazing creatures, wolverines – absolutely all-in, regardless of what they’re doing. There’s a lot to be said for that kind of commitment and single-minded pursuit of a goal. They’re qualities I, for one, could use a lot more of. Whether it’s the thesis, or work, or running, or blogging, my head, my attention, my desire is always, at least partially, elsewhere. And I manage to fit everything in, and do a passable job of it, but far too often it really feels only passable, and I attribute this to the fact that a) there’s a hell of a lot of tasks, but also b) before any given task is done, my thoughts and attention have moved on (or backwards, or sideways) to something else.

So I’m savoring this free evening, delayed in Toronto, and doing my best to concentrate fully on a blog post. There’s no denying the desire to tuck myself into bed and read, though, or to dick around on Facebook. Sigh and refocus.

The mission to Moscow (for work) has suffered a temporary setback. Trust Air Canada to turn a simple flight from Edmonton to Toronto on a nice, sunny day into a 24 hour delay and a near miss with the luggage. But there’s nothing I can do about it, and far be it for me to complain about a free hotel with a king-size bed and a hot tub! In fact, besides missing my first meeting (have initiated the re-scheduling process), it’s a decent enough turn of events. I rather savour travel delays; they’re little pockets of free time I would never otherwise have. Even if the time is used for work, it’s work I wouldn’t otherwise have had the time to do, and I’ll feel better for having done it.

In fact, there’s probably a business centre here where I could print out a map of the Moscow Metro! That would be a win.

In other news, it looks like my thesis defense is going to be delayed too. The external examiner we’ve chosen is only available pre-summer and post-summer. I’d hoped for mid-summer, but since pre-summer is not feasible, it’ll have to be post-summer. Which is a bit of a disappointment, but the final product will certainly be better for it. Delays can be excellent opportunities. Delicious gifts, even! I’ll try to remember that.

On the thesis note, one of the things my supervisors keep hounding me about is laying out my thought processes. It’s not enough to state a conclusion; you have to show how you got there. What mental steps were taken?! Lead the reader through a series of logical points! I’ve been thinking of late how much fun it would be to actually note my “mental steps” while writing – each and every one of them. They’d make wonderful footnotes.

“Frick. I know I read this article at some point, but I don’t remember shit. Probably used it in a term paper somewhere. Let’s just copy and paste a couple pages from that one (the term paper, not the article!). Oh, look! That’s the page quota for today. Time for ice cream.”

Careful what you wish for.