Just call me...

Dr. Gena!

As of 11:30 today, I am no longer a graduate student! I am now Dr. Gena, Ph.D.

More later; I'm off to celebrate right after I take a nap.

I don't really think we need these

Seeing as it's in the 90's around here lately and I'm about to move back to the even hotter state of Texas for the next month or so. But still, scarves are fun and functional, and make really great accessories. Me? I've been wearing this new red one around despite the heat, because I am impervious to heat and have a superhero sized ability to get cold anytime, anywhere.

I just love that border! This is one of the scarves from Victorian Lace Today. I'm too lazy to look it up, and I should be doing more important things than blogging right now. However, if I were actually a superhero, I would be a bad one because the one thing I really really excell at is procrastinating.

The yarn is Malabrigo lace weight, colorway Snowbird, knit on size 5 bamboo needles. Sooo soft and squishy that I want an entire wardrobe made out of this yarn. Or at least several more items. I didn't (shockingly) modify the pattern, but I knit the body portion much longer, because I wanted a really long scarf that used up all the yarn. When done, I had about a quarter-sized little ball of yarn left. Just enough to patch any holes if necessary.

Next up is the DNA scarf. This one is a gift for my advisor as a way of saying "Thanks for putting up with me for the last 4.5 years. Thanks for letting me do whatever the hell I wanted to in the lab and not really knowing/caring what I was doing. Most importantly, though, thanks for not stonewalling me when it came to this whole 'graduating and leaving here' thing. I really appreciate it."

You can find a pattern for the scarf here, should your inner nerd want one for yourself. This pattern I did modify to make it a size I thought best. It is made from just over 2 balls of Kathmandu Aran yarn (85% merino wool, 10% silk, 5% cashmere) and is really soft with a great drape. Knit on size 7 needles, I believe. It measures 5 feet or so long, and around 6 inches in width.

So. 52 hours left and I'll be Dr. Gena. I'm nervous and excited and just want to get it over with. My seminar is prepared, I need to read over bits of my document a few more times, and I mostly just want to have the defense over with. My mom, brother, and sister-in-law (along with their newest baby! yay for babies!) are flying in today. I've got a week full of parties to attend, a defense to make it through, then a weekend of packing up and moving away.

I'll try to get off another post before we move, but I'm not promising anything. If you hear silence on this end for a long time, it's because I'll be spending July and half of August living in the land of dial-up. I'll still be reading all you guys, but probably not commenting much (still) and not posting so much, either.

When I do get back to regular blogging, I'll likely be busy arranging our new fancy-schmancy apartment in southern Louisiana, starting a job (a real job! not more school) and learning the ins and outs of a bigger, stranger, and more exciting city than the one I'm in right now. Life is certainly all about change, and GP and I are staring a bunch of them right in the face. I'm off to drink more coffee and eat more Tums. Next time you hear from me, all this will be behind me.

Finished Object: Dissertation

Finally, at long last, the dissertation is completed! As of last Thursday it had been printed up and distributed to my advisory committee. Now I have just 2 and 1/2 weeks left of being a graduate student. I'm so relieved, happy, and excited that I could dance. Or, it could be that I've just had too much coffee. 

So here it is, in all it's glory:

Final page count: 208

Final word count: 36,604

Number of figures: 23

After printing up 6 copies of that for distribution, I feel like I should be planting a grove somewhere to replace all the trees I killed. 

Now, it's tradition that a graduating student like me give a gift to their advisor upon completion of the dissertation defense. Or at least, it is in our lab. Previous students have given our boss new Hawaiian shirts (he actually is Hawaiian, and really does love the shirts) or books they thought he would enjoy. Me? Well, being the knitter that I am, a long time ago I came across the perfect thing to make the bossman for his gift. The DNA scarf. 

It's perfect for a number of reasons. First, my work has revolved around DNA repair mechanisms. Second, the virus we study has a double-stranded DNA genome, much like we do. Third, DNA is basically the universal symbol of the science geek. My boss is nothing if not a science geek.

Now, if only I could remember how many bases there are per turn of the double-helix, I could actually make the scarf represent the viral genome, which is 36 kilobases in length. But, then it would probably wind up being really short or really long, and I would have progressed from science geek to science supergeek who really needs to get a life.