Examinutiae II

Days remaining if I start my three-week qualifying exam period
on Nov. 22: 91.
Days remaining if I start my three-week qualifying exam period on Jan. 15: 145.

Number of pieces in the three exam lists: 169
Number left to read: 70 (44 books, 26 articles)
Number left to annotate: Anybody’s guess. Some integer between 70 and 134.

As you can see, I ran the numbers again this evening. It’s not
hopeless by any means, given that I can still meet the Nov. option if I have a
solid few weeks. The burr in my sock is that while I’m reading and
annotating individual pieces, the patterns arching across the readings are
perhaps best compared to a serving of spaghetti.

Dropped from a high-flying hot air balloon.

Into a turbulent ocean.

Where it’s being nibbled by predatory sea creatures.

You get my drift. Thing is, while time is short enough
for reading, I also have to form possible responses, give the new stuff a shape
beyond a set of finely tuned but scattered notes. So while reading is
going fairly well, the part where it sinks in such that I can do intelligible
justice to it in a few months: a disconcerting lack.

2 Comments

  1. I’ve been in a cave for awhile, Derek, so first things first: congratulations on your gorgeous baby girl! And what a name–Isabel. Beautiful. You must be so happy. And tired.

    As for the spaghetti-like patterns emerging from your reading, have you seen Douglas Hofstadter’s depiction of his “semantic network” in Goedel, Escher, Bach? It should look familiar.

  2. Welcome out of the cave, Lance. Missed your entries at comp/lexus since the move. Thanks for the note about Is. Happy, yes, and tired.

    I wish my spaghetti was a well-plated as Hofstadter’s. I suspect that I’m at or nearing the most frayed moment in exam prep and I look foward to the moment when it starts to appear coherent again. Should be any day.

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