Yee F-ing Ha!

[JamesSterrett]

Congrats - and seething envy.   (My dissertation defence has just been scheduled - for late September...!)

[Shreyas Sampat]

Congratulations!

[clehrich]

Good luck, James.

A word of advice.  Once you have handed in the manuscript that the profs will examine for the defense, there is nothing more you can do.  This isn't your exams; you already know the thing inside-out and backwards.  As soon as you hand it in, get drunk, or go exercise heavily, or get stoned, or game a whole lot, or all of the above: stop thinking about it.  There is nothing you can do.  The night before the defense, have a good meal and go to sleep early.  You'll have plenty of time to agonize over breakfast.

If you follow this plan, a defense can be fun.  You have a certain number of world-class experts sitting around talking about you and your work, and you know more about it than they do (I promise -- that's what a dissertation is).  How can you lose, if you've got some energy and haven't been fretting yourself into a wreck?  Trust me, it can be fun.  Assume that it will be, and when somebody asks a hostile question, ask yourself if maybe it wasn't meant to be hostile.  Lots of academics are seriously deprived in the social-graces department.  And if it really was hostile, treat it gracefully; everyone else in the room is wincing internally at how obnoxious this guy is being, and will be very impressed when you beat him in tact and maturity.

Be cool -- you're the world's leading expert.  You can afford it.

[JamesSterrett]

Thanks, Chris.  :)

That is pretty much the attitude I have; I took it into my MA defence and it served me well there, too.  (I sent in the dissertation in early March; they also had an awful time finding people to examine me & one of them has an awful schedule....  Long story.  In the meantime, there's Paying The Rent work to do....  :-/  )

[Ben Lehman]

Go Chris, it's your birthday, it's your birthday!

Or, rather it's the Forge's (and Luke's) but...

*goes off muttering about his failing English skills*

yrs--
--Ben

P.S.  In all seriousness, sounds like a great book about a topic that needs to be addressed more.  I will certainly be checking it out when it is printed, although it may be through pressuring a library and not through my own pocketbook.

[clehrich]

Actually, if it comes out from Cornell there will probably be a paperback edition within a year or two, if they don't do paperback from the start, and that's going to be something like $30 tops.  The first book is a technical monograph with a European publisher, so no wonder it costs a fortune.

[W. Don]

Wow! Mabuhay, Chris! Nice going, man.

- W.

[montag]

yeah, ok, I'll admit I'm jealous. (and bad at hiding it ;) Congratulations!!

[ADGConscience]

Right on. You are the scholar who wins.

[Emily Care]

Go Chris!  That sounds like a tasty book, and an even tastier contract.  Definitely let us know when it hits the presses.

(and yes, my gills are a bit tinged with green :)

--Emily

[Nick the Nevermet]

Those of you who have touched on the academic world have some sense of what this means (in short, if I could ever get a tenure-track job, I can have tenure more or less for the asking, since the first book is out as of this past September).  Those of you in the academic world, I expect you to respond with the appropriate and traditional combination of politely effusive congratulations and just-below-the-surface seething envy.  :>

I would beat you with my dissertation if I was done with it.
In all seriousness, congrats, ya talented bastard ;)

hmm... that was above-the-surface envy, wasn't it?  Damn.

[Piers]

I got to have a look at your first book at the RSA on the weekend--they had it front and center at the Brill table in the book room--and it looked good from the few mintues I spent with it.  Now I'll just have to go poke the library to make sure they get it.  But congratulations on the new one.

Piers