2020-12-31: A Doctoral Degree Takes the Lifetime of a Bird and Then Some
It was a fine afternoon and I had just finished my weekly meeting with my advisor Michael L. Nelson in which we discussed a few potential topics for my doctoral research after completing my masters degree . I dropped my meeting notes on the desk of my cubicle and went downstairs for a walk in the Old Dominion University (ODU) campus. It was a pleasant sunny weather outside, so I sat on a bench near a small pond behind the Computer Science building to enjoy the fountain in the pond and to observe turtles taking sun bath, of which, a few small ones were stacked on the backs of the big ones. I noticed a long-stem grass around the edge of the pond that reminded me of a grass we used to use for crafting in my village in India during my childhood. I picked a few stems, took them upstairs, washed them, weaved them into a bird, and hanged the bird from the wall of my cubicle. Later, it was moved to the Web Science and Digital Libraries (WSDL) Research Group 's PhD Crush board where it dr