It’s my nephew’s 2nd birthday today, so I thought I would make him a little movie.

Happy Birthday, Will!

[Let me know if you have trouble viewing it. It’s an .mp4 file]

The BBC has posted a series of pictures from its Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards.

I loved this one of a Sulawesi black-crested macaque; it looks like he’s (she’s?) saying “mmm!  What have we got here? Curious!”

The backdrop is stunning too.

I just thought I should mention that it’s snowing right now.

In October.

In Oxford.

I’ll give ten points to the person who can link this to the financial crisis

A stipulation of getting my recent Extension of Status to finish my doctorate was that I had to adhere to a strict timeline for submitting parts of my thesis to my supervisor. I decided that these were good dates to make public, to let everyone know where I am in the grand scheme of thesis-dom. So, right under the pictures on in the sidebar here are my deadlines, which are taken from my thesis google calendar. I plan out a few days to a week at a time, and the calendar will update automatically. If you want a topic of conversation, my life is my thesis at the moment, and here’s what’s coming up.

My Research site has been live for a few weeks now, and I thought I would mention it here.  There’s not a whole lot up there yet, but hopefully once I get my doctorate and start publishing, it will get busier.

I have also move my CV over there, and added a link to the new site in the top bar above.

I know it is nearly time for Thanksgiving 2008, so I thought I should finally put up the video from last year (click here for a larger version). It was a wonderful feast with lots of good friends. I thought that 2007 might be my last Thanksgiving in Oxford, but as it turns out, I’m here for one more. This year it will be on 22 November — the Saturday before Thanksgiving — as that is when my friends can all make it. There will once again be a webcam set up, and I will post the link here for all who wish to watch as the day unfolds.

As with before, this is a compilation of webcam images taken every five seconds over the course of the day. Complete with commentary, ads, and a soundtrack, I hope you enjoy it.

While New College has been around for 600+ years, it has only admitted women since 1979. Today we had the unveiling of a bronze plaque commemorating the first 25 years of women at New College, including a showing of some of the College treasures (though noticeably absent was the unicorn horn…).