You won’t hear from me for the next week because I should really be focusing on my upcoming doctoral exam instead of writing blog entries. My thesis defense is scheduled for Monday, June 19, at 9:00 AM in room 203 of the Graduate Student Centre. Writing my thesis in such a short period of time took so much energy that I have been slow to get back into the head space required to prepare for the exam, even though it has been 5 weeks since I submitted my thesis to FOGS for forwarding to my external examiner. Instead of reading papers and studying fundamentals, I have been doing experiments and analyzing data. I have also played a few rounds of Sunday golf. Now I am down to only having a week to try and prepare myself for the culmination of six years of dogged perserverance.