Some people think Catholic guilt is unhealthy, but I think it can be a fine and dandy motivator. And while we can’t all get nailed to a tree to save humanity, one can certainly try.

Or, one could let another year slip away writing an average of five words a day on a dissertation that, now that both machines I could use to finish my experiments have up and crap-died on me with almost no hope of recovery, may never be worth reading. One could fall in love but still find a way to let happily ever after vaporize in the night. One could just settle on the couch with a cheap beer and contemplate credit card debt because a proper career path just hasn’t crystallized in the imagination.

All perfectly reasonable things.

But now that it’s time to shut down the pity party and prepare for the regular old beer party, I guess I’ll try to look for some positive achievements in year 34 in order to justify a 35th.

  • I actually ran a set of the experiments that for a while didn’t seem like they would ever happen. The bare minimum amount of laboratory work may have been exceeded to get me out of here.
  • I presented my research to a bunch of military-industrial brainiacs in March and no one threw anything at me. In fact, some people are apparently already starting to use a bit of the data. I would recommend against flying on their equipment, but that’s just me.
  • I got a teensy tiny taste of a presidential campaign, met some really awesome people that I still keep in touch with, and worked for a really outstanding candidate that reminded me what it’s like to believe in something really deeply. Too bad we never made it out of Iowa.
  • I’ve poked and prodded the edge of the envelope of that citizen journalism thing. The first YouTube debate was a stuttering start but still a wild ride: chasing the Biden campaign all over Charleston; live-streaming video from the press center and spin room and Google party with guests like John King, Anderson Cooper, and Obama Girl; and of course getting chastised on the big screen when Anderson called out Team Biden for trying to force a question on YouTube. Then there was the Huffington Post’s Off the Bus project and making fun of Romney and Giuliani with more YouTubery. And now I’m a contracted freelancer-type for the ol’ MTV machine. Who the hell could have seen that coming? Sadly, none of that really stacks up against being hot and female — or Scoble — on the internet, but I’m not going to change who I am.
  • I got an N95. Hey, it’s not much of an “accomplishment,” but a boy needs his toys. And hell, it got me on the front page of CNN.com for three days, so nyaaah.
  • I uh, I…

Damn. That’s really not a very good list. I may owe some back-taxes of societal debt to really warrant another go ’round the sun. Or at least a finished bloody dissertation.



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