Most majors cities are sited on either an excellent harbour or an easy river crossing.   Auckland isn’t called the City of Sails for nothing – our harbour is one of the best in the world.  And tsunamis only reinforce this.

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I am a procrastinator.  Always have been.  And not just with my thesis – with just about everything.  I’ve been reading “The Procrastinators Guide to Getting Things Done”, which describes different kinds of procrastinators.  It turns out I’m not a pleasure procrastinator or a disorganised procrastinator.  I’m a self-doubt procrastinator and a binge worker. 

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This morning I made myself breakfast.  That’s not particularly unusual, I have breakfast at home about half the time.  Today, I had bacon and eggs with tastes-like-home-made-but-isn’t tomato relish and a vanilla chai latte.  Everything was ready at the same time so I sat down to enjoy it.   At the exact second that I picked up the fork, the whole building’s fire alarms went off.

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Lately, I’ve been addicted to watching MacGyver.  I was initially reluctant to watch it again.  MacGyver is one of my idols from childhood and I was worried that if I watched him again now, I’d discover that he’s actually pretty lame.  Well, I didn’t need to worry.  MacGyver still rocks.

It is just as cool as I remembered it.  Lots of cool science, marvellous improvisation, awesome explosions, super evil baddies and an un-killable nemesis.  Of course, for the most part, everyone has the typical 80s clothing and hairstyles.  Yes, Mac does have a mullet in the later seasons, but in the first season he looks pretty good.  And his clothing is classic enough that it would still look good today (well maybe if he had better shoes).

So far, I’m up to season 4 and I’m loving every minute of it.

Now that I’ve finished my thesis, my next work related worry is continuation.  Continuation is a version of the US tenure system that has all the downsides and none of the upsides.

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I loved Monkey Island.  I’m not really sure why since I pretty much sucked at them and had to frequently resort to hints sites or walkthroughs to get through difficult bits.  I haven’t the patience to try all the permutations of different objects together to achieve some effect.  But I did like seeing how the puzzle was solved, even if not by me.    I’ve got all the games, and I do go back and play them every year or two.  I find I’ve forgotten half of it by then and it’s like playing a fresh game again.   I’ve always thought it was a shame they didn’t make another game.    Well, now they have!

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My plans for giving to charity have advanced one step further – I’ve now signed up for the Unicef Global Parents program.   That pretty much takes care of the international and extreme poverty end of the spectrum.  At the more local and personal end of the scale, I also support the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust, since several of my family members have needed this to get to hospital. 

So far, my regular charity ‘portfolio’ looks like this:

• Unicef Global Parents
• Kiva.org
• NZ Breast Cancer Foundation
• Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust

This year I also supported the Atheist bus campaign, although I’m unlikely to make that a regular thing.  Since my kiva lending will keep rolling over, I’ll have more money to spend next year,  so I’m still on the lookout for other charities to support:

• Charities that hand out condoms
• Something with an environmental/conservation slant
• Groups that support education, particularly science education for kids or, even better, educating parents about the importance of educating their kids

I promised myself many years ago that when I finished my thesis I would buy myself a PDA.  I had my eye on a Palm LifeDrive at one point.  But that was a long time ago, and PDAs seem to have gone out of style now – what you have are smartphones instead.

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I went to Melbourne for a shopping trip this weekend.  My sister overflowed her suitcase, but I only got a few pairs of shoes and a few tops.  Shopping isn’t really my thing.  Next time I go to Melbourne, I’ll spend a bit more time sightseeing.  Still, it was the first holiday/break I’ve had in several years, so it was good.

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Here is the finished product:

And part of my official letter from the university confirming that I’m really finished:

I have no plans to change the name of my blog just yet though.  There’s still plenty of procrastination to be done, even if it’s not specifically thesis procrastination.   Suggestions for a new title welcomed.