Finally Updating (Final Updating?)

You were probably wondering why I wasn't posting anything. Or more probably, you realized that I was busy with the business of getting the thesis finished. Or even more probably, you didn't wonder at all. Whatever. This post is the belated Update On My Life:

• I not only finished the thesis (complete with quote and all) but also submitted it yesterday! Hooray! Now on to packing, because...
• I am leaving in a couple of days for my usual Christmas/New Year Argentinian holiday, and returning to Nottingham on January 11th. But what will I do here if I finished my thesis already? Well, I will be busy enough...
• Arranging the details for my moving away from Nottingham, which will happen on the 31st; those will be three stressful weeks for sure, until I finally leave for...
• Marseille! I got an ESF grant for a 6-month research visit to Carlo Rovelli's group at Luminy. The idea is to collaborate with research done on the new spin foam models that have appeared this year, especially in studying their semiclassical limit. This will be my first foray into actual quantum gravity research (from my usual quantum field theory in curved space), and I'm expecting to learn a lot and also hopefully come outwith a better-formed judgement on the value of the "LQG approach". After this, in August, I will come back to Nottingham for my viva. And after that, nobody knows yet...

So those are the news on my life. Now the news on the blog. I will almost certainly not write anything during my holidays, as I barely have time for computer using between meeting everybody and stuff. Later in January I will probably be too busy and/or stressed with the moving to be in a mood for writing, and I also expect to be quite busy my first days in Marseille. So this blog is, quite likely, coming to a halt until mid-February or so. We'll see then if I feel like going on or not.

Don't be too surprised or upset. You have surely noticed that the frequency of posts has declined a lot in the last months, reflecting not merely being busy with the thesis but also being a bit tired of the whole blogging business. On the other hand, I am sure that several of my readers will want to know what's going on in Marseille, and it is possible my enthusiasm will return and they'll get the reports on seminars and discussions, along with the usual philosophical disquisitions, book reviews, and the other staples of this blog. In any case, if I take the decision of closing the blog for good, I will make one last post to let you know, I promise. So for now, au revoir!