For those wondering whether or not I’ve died in my apartment in a vat of sweet-smelling liquid that masked the smell of my rotting body, the answer is NO! I’m alive and well, just in the wake of one of the more excruciatingly painful periods of work-induced anti-social behavior. And as a consolation, I never have to defend my thesis again.
Unlike most Ph.D. defenses, the Media Lab counterpart is quite public, held in an auditorium-sized room, and can occur before the thesis document is finished. Last Thursday at 9am I went through this process presenting my thesis titled The structural determinants of media contagion, and I came through fairly unscathed. It was fairly well attended once people woke up (around 9:30 I guess), and my committee decided I was ready to enter the cloistered halls of academia… after I finish writing the document.
It’s unfortunate, but true. I can’t put Dr. on my credit card just yet, nor can I pretend like I have any plans after that. In the mean time I’ll be writing in limbo until my April 5th deadline. I’ll hold off on the results until then, lest I contradict myself in two weeks time. But I just wanted to thank everyone that helped me get here, and there are so many. If you’re reading this, I’m sure you know that I mean you, because just about everyone who possibly could have lended a hand did in some way (even if it was just by taking the survey).
So thanks. I’ll be filling in the details in a few weeks, but you can take solace in the mean time that I’m taking showers again and interacting with people other than the three friends I’ve developed in my brain over the past two months.
overstated 
Congratulations! I’ve been through the ph.d defense about this time last year, and your post reminded me how great it feels to have it done (for a picture of a happy German, click the link..:)). Good luck for the writing-part, I guess there are a lot of people looking forward to your results (I am..).
I’ve been wanting to call you Dr. Blogtopus for a long time, and I feel you’re now worthy of the title.
You’re the dog now man! Congrats. Z
Way to go! Wish I could have been there to hear your defense. Does this mean I can call you now without feeling guilty for interrupting you? Or should I wait until April?
Um, you mean *August* 5th deadline, right? Anyway, congrats! 🙂
Congratulations and welcome back!
Congratulations!! 🙂
Wow, congratulations! It’s pretty cool that they let you do the defense before the document…I wish they did that in my department! Although, the public defense would not be my preferred cup of career-deciding-moment tea…
Can’t wait to see the results of the survey. Best of luck in writing!
Congrats. Can’t wait to see the thesis…the bestselling novel…the movie.
Congrats Dr. Marlow, well-deserved.
World domination continues. I’ll be your shaved cat.
Congrats! I stumbled across this site (after stumbling across blogdex). The concept is really cool – just bumbed that I can’t read the thesis today 😦
godd idea