Exhaustion and Editing

I think in all of this business the thing I enjoy the least is editing papers. Once a result has been essentially mapped out, it is ridiculously painful poring over every section of a draft looking for gaps in the arguments, logical inconsistencies, oversimplifications and typos. Currently, I have two long results (one describing certain types of solutions with for nonlinear Schroedinger equations with double well potentials and the other analyzing soliton stability in quartic KdV equations) with both of my postdoc advisors at this stage, meaning of course most of my time is spent staring at these drafts. It is my great hope to have both these items finished, submitted and off my desk by the end of the summer along with a few smaller projects that are totally doable in finite time, but of course we shall see if this occurs. Oh, dare to dream that these projects would come to conclusion. Actually, both projects leave a lot of room for deeper exploration into the topics and the methods, but it is the exploration I really enjoy. Figuring out how to approach a problem and discussing the ideas with your colleagues are the real joys of mathematics to me, whereas reading my own poor writing over and over again does not particularly hold my interest. Oh well, my hope is that it will be over soon, as well as this fit of exhaustion I am feeling due to struggling to get a good night's sleep as summer rapidly approached. Now, I am far more used to the sun though, so I am sleeping far better, which will hopefully pay off at work as well.

Hopefully, I can get a certain portion of the edits, additions and corrections done on my KdV project because it is what I have chosen to speak about at the workshop. In fact, I will speak about the linear part and my collaborator will speak about the nonlinear part, which is the first time I have ever attempted such a tag team event. My hope is that it will be a thorough coverage of the result and interest the audience enough to hold their attention for two hours, but only time will tell I suppose. Since this will be a joint effort, I would also like to get a first draft of my talk down on paper to coordinate with my collaborator who will not arrive in Paris until right before the workshop, which is still a week and a half away.

I am off to the Insitut Henri Poincare Saturday morning and look forward to what I gather will be an incredibly intense work schedule there. Of the over 100 people registered to be at the workshop I have ongoing collaborations or hints thereof with 7 of them. This sort of intensity is actually quite useful in short bursts and of course, projects move along much faster with all parties in the same location. Not to mention, several of my colleagues also share a love of French coffee, wine, bread and cheese, so there are other attractions to spending two weeks doing math in the heart of downtown just a stone's throw away from the Seine. Part of me wishes my train was leaving tomorrow, but of course then how would I get all this editing done and a first draft of my talk written?!?!