Generally speaking, the cliched sentiments that would fall down on the page here would be, “It has been a long and challenging semester that was all the more rewarding for the work that was put into it.” In truth, time has flown by and I sit here thinking I did not do enough. It’s true; time does fly when you’re having fun, and even though it was difficult and stressful at times, planning out and executing this rather ambitious enterprise has been perhaps more rewarding that I expected it to be. I really look forward to continuing this work into the future. After some rest, of course.
I’d like to say here that I’m proud of my work, even though I believe it’s incomplete. In the last few weeks of this project, time constraints got in the way of really moving forward in creating a spacial argument for something that I’ve reveled in fleshing out it’s theoretical framework. You take on a new job and things get a little crazy with commitments. I didn’t get to spend as much time as I would have liked doing research, and I found out late that Shannon is a wonderful resource in terms of finding a proper direction that can create feasible boundaries for a great project. However, I fell in love with learning about speakeasies and nightlife culture while growing out my knowledge of postmodern writing, and I’ve made worthwhile connections within academia and in the bars I studied that have amounted to some very interesting conversations that deserve further attention. There really is nothing like talking to the doorman of a bar that seems to have guarded secrets.
No, it wasn’t the alcohol. I probably gave too much credit to the drink in my presentation. Really, beyond a good gin and tonic I’m not a big drinker. But that’s not the point.
The crises and final eureka moments all paid off, even if there is still work to be done. Here, I should like to give credit to everyone for helping to create relationships in all of our projects, and a special thanks to Tanya for calming me down amidst the worst of that stress. I remember at the beginning of the semester feeling as though seeing something come out of this was remote and confused, but exploring research methods and developing a spacial argument in an open source mapping tool with the help of the team at Parsons and especially Rory has resulted in a tool that can be used and developed well into the future. I look forward to seeing the tool reach a stable release, and then maybe seeing it presented at conferences. In the meantime, I have work I’ll be doing with my project as well.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.