Haven't been around here for way too long now, but for some reason. With the the PhD deadline closing in, the second half of March turned out as horribly hectic as predictable, so by the time I finally got to defend my dissertation I was basically hammered down into a shivering, teeth-on-edge caffeine fiend.
Despite that, it all went fine even beyond my expectations - I made it to Rome without accidents, got an "excellent" mark and words of praise from the examining committee - a badly needed ego boost, there so now I'm officially entitled to attach a nice ", PhD" after my name on welfare application forms

Then *dolma33 and I had planned to take a few vacation days in Rome, but overdue stress and a real bad cold kicked in together right the day after the examination, keeping me confined to the hotel room most of the time... once back home, it turned out I'd got a normal flu that was on the verge of degenerating into some form of pneumonia, and it took one more week on an arm-long list of medications to put me back together again.

Now I'm back in Parma, enjoying the relieving of tension that comes from not being rushed on deadlines for the first time in nearly four years... though I doubt I'll be able to upload much serious stuff these days however (maybe some pics from the Rome trip). Basically I'm spending most of my time now browsing scientific vacancies, laying down CVs, and trying to get myself a part-time job of sorts to keep my balance alive while completing a couple (unpaid) projects here at uni.

Besides, logging on dA after three weeks or so to find some 1400 overdue deviations to flip through as well as 200+ unreplied messages sorta knocked me down. I'm working on it but it'll have to be shortlisted to some extent anyway - my apologies in advance for all late or missing replies.

That's all for now, I guess. Have fun & take care.

PS Berlusconi's been elected italian prime minister again. If you wish to send nailbombs, voodoo dolls and radioactive waste over here, please feel free, mkay?

Create your own visitor map!