Faro and Away

As I drove away from a house that was sort of a home this morning, the radio played a couple lines by the Eurythmics:

Here comes the rain again
Falling on my head like a memory.

The rain was actually yesterday, and here I was wearing sunglasses and pondering a dash to the beach, but it still seemed fitting.

Link to my latest column at the Stanford Daily: http://tinyurl.com/coykf. It may be interesting to compare how it's published with how I wrote it.

I just finished reading Spin, a novel in which mysterious forces shield the Earth, then accelerate time all around it, so that for every year that passes on the surface, a hundred million pass in outer space. Imagine: in just 40 years the sun would be expanding into a red giant. We're talking serious global warming.

The author, Robert Charles Wilson, is masterful at coming up with interesting "big ideas." It used to be that his characters, his plots and his endings didn't measure up to them. Now his characters and his plots do, and his endings are quickly catching up. Between Spin and The Runes of the Earth, the muse in me is stirring again.

Last quick (but important) update for the day: I learned this morning that I passed my thesis. My advisor's comments were kind, and her criticisms valid:

This is not necessarily a traditional PAE in that there is not an obvious theoretical framework - a gap I lament. Moreover it must also be said that during the process of researching and writing his PAE, Mr. Berdichevsky availed himself only very occasionally of faculty input. However, having said this, it is also the case that he is a gifted writer, a smart student, and an entrepreneur who in this case was clearly committed to his client, Grupo FARO. It should further be said that his final product, tellingly titled, "As Faro As I Can See," is full of practical recommendations, tactical and strategic insights, and also some cautionary notes which, under the apparent circumstances, seem entirely justified. Because Mr. Berdichevsky is so gifted in so many ways, I would not claim that this document represents his best work. It's less deep than it might have been, less well organized in its overarching framework, and less far reaching in its implications than would ideally have been the case. Nevertheless, it's professional and practical. And, from the evidence at my disposal, it's seems the client came out well ahead, and was in general satisfied with, and grateful for, the relationship.

Which means I'm really graduating in three weeks (!) and that it's time to start looking toward next Fall, when for the first time in several years I won't have school to attend. I'm tentatively planning an overland journey from Malaysia to Madrid.