Frightening academic developments

The advisor finally read my prospectus, made useful comments, talked to me for an hour or so yesterday, and will announce to interested faculty that they should expect a final copy in their mailboxes on January 10; a defense would follow about three weeks later.

So I suppose I'd better log off and start revising.

Thanks, but you DO know...

Thanks for the congratulations, but just in case you missed it, this is just the prospectus, the dissertation proposal, the defense of which is just a me-and-the-faculty thing, where they'll ask tough questions like, "What makes you think there's anything new to say about this?" and "Why didn't you finish this part two years ago?"

It is a big deal in that it has taken me a long time to narrow down my topic (after changing it completely) and to overcome writer's block, ennui, and procrastination (still obviously not entirely overcome), and will finally convince my department that I mean to be a real graduate student again in a way that even my presenting a paper at the beginning of the year couldn't fully do -- but I still have the whole dissertation ahead...

But perhaps you knew all that. Thanks, in any case.