Despite my lack of posting, I am still around! I am currently at Notre Dame, while my brother moves out of the dorm. We spent the weekend attending graduation ceremonies. There was certainly a lot of controversy surrounding the Commencement, as Obama’s stance on abortion and stem cell research conflict with the teachings of the Catholic Church. However, outside of 4 protestors who attempted to interrupt his speech, the actual ceremony was not derailed.

Overall however, I found it disappointing that there was such a focus on the abortion and stem cell issues as a result of the controversy. All of the major speeches, with the exception of the valedictory address, heavily focused on the strife. It is truly a shame that it distracted from the true purpose of the event: honoring and celebrating the graduates.

I spent last week in Rochester, NY at RIT. I successfully defended my thesis 6 days ago and have spent the intervening time making some relatively minor changes to the text. Moments ago, I emailed out what should be a final draft of the thesis! I am very excited to be done. I got some work done while at RIT, and have some more things to do regarding Cygnus A. That, plus my thesis work will be incorporated into a paper, which will hopefully be written up this summer.

I have another 24 hours or so in Indiana before moving on to the next stop… I am joining my family for a vacation in Ireland! I have never been and am very excited about the trip. As might be expected, I am bringing two cameras and expect to get some good pictures on the trip.