Yesterday morning I defended my dissertation proposal. It went pretty well. I passed, which is really the main thing. Several members of my committee, and several other members of the audience, told me the presentation was good, which was a bit of a surprise–I thought it went fine, but didn’t feel like it was great. I guess I’d lowered expectations by giving a series of really, really bad practice talks. I didn’t finish revising the slides until 8:30pm the night before, and my first practice after that (to an empty room) was terrible, so I practiced a second time the night before, and it wasn’t until that last practice that I felt like it might go okay.
Anyway, my committee was all pretty positive. Their primary feedback was that they wanted me to focus my scientific energy on one of the two aspects of my proposal (Motivation) and less so on the other (Maturation). I fully expected and welcomed a conversation with my committee about how to pare down what I readily acknowledged was an ambitious proposal, and I’d felt as though I was stretching the Maturation material to give it equal weight with the Motivation material, so that feedback doesn’t really bother me at all.
Anyway, the two episodes I found amusing occurred as I was picking up refreshments for the presentation. The Dunkin’ Donuts cashier who helped me carry the two boxes of coffee and more-bagels-than-god out to my car asked me if it was for an event, and I explain that I was giving my dissertation proposal defense. She asked what in and I told her, and then she told me that she’d worked with another group in my department some six years ago. I appreciated the friendliness and all, but…now you’re working at Dunkin’ Donuts. Not exactly encouraging. (I didn’t say that, of course, and it’s quite possible–probable, even–that she wasn’t a student, but rather a tutoring-systems test subject, but still…)
Then I went to the world’s most gimmicky grocery store (Big Y) for some juice. I put my two bottles of fruit juice and four apples on the belt, and the cashier asked me how I was. “A little nervous, I have a big presentation this morning”, I answered. Then she asked me, “Would you like any grilling spices with that?” WTF? They had a display at the checkout, and I’m sure she had to ask everybody, but I had two bottles of juice and four apples. I answered, “No thanks, the only thing likely to be grilled this morning is me.”