I presented my project at our program's "Works in Progress" event yesterday, in the form of a very ugly PowerPoint presentation.

Although I couldn't practice it without stumbling at every sentence, once I actually got up in front of everyone, all my public speaking experience came flooding back and things went pretty well. I'm told that my "personality came through," a statement which raises no end of questions but probably refers to my use of self-deprecating humor.

Unfortunately, I tried to explain my entire thesis in the seven minutes allotted and ran out of time. So... no questions afterward, and that sucked. I was hoping for a chance to defend myself; in all honesty I think the stakes are higher for my paper than for a lot of others this year.

Afterwards people kept complimenting me on my presentation. Here are the possible reasons why:

1. It was a decent presentation.
2. I looked really nervous.
3. They knew what someone was talking about, finally.
4. They have blogs, and are encouraging me to cyberstalk them via RSS.

At Lawrence, I was always surprised whenever another student suddenly pulled out some hidden expertise — the bio major knows all about biology! — and even though here we're defined much more by our areas of study, "Works in Progress" gave me a similar feeling.

It reminds me of this great minor character in Babel-17: a bioengineered assassin who, besides having the super ninja powers you'd expect, is also programmed to hold forth on a single esoteric topic when necessary.

The presentations I saw tended toward the highly-specialized and impenetrable, but it was still interesting to see what other people had basically devoted their year to. Fragmented Babylonian poetry, the evangelical reception of The Passion of the Christ, still images in ethnography, IKEA floor displays, a woman who uses plastic surgery as performance art... these topics probably sound wiggity-wack to you, but for someone who's writing about blogs wiggity-wack is comforting.

Topic insecurity might actually explain various maphiosi's overuse of field-specific jargon when addressing a general audience. I actually felt a bit naked with practically no names to drop, though I did say that the blog was invented "in 1990, 1994, or 1997, depending on how you measure."

I know, I'm an arrogant ass and I need to push up my invisible glasses. But in my defense, I also got to use the phrase "turtles all the way down," thus satisfying a life-goal.

This is also the Week of the T-shirt. My parents sent me another checkered button-down earlier this week (how did they know?), and Friday the program leadership handed out our official, color-coded "Works in Progress" shirts alongside the pizza and beer.

Motto: "One Year... Four Letters... Unlimited Possibilities." There is no joke that hasn't already been made.

Fun fact: this moss-colored T-shirt makes me an official member of Team Jon, as we're apparently calling our precept now. Don't look at me, I suggested the Fighting Mongooses.

Today is significantly less productive than Friday, but I could hardly end "Tv Tuneout" week without a counter-revolutionary television binge. Half a season of Law and Order to go.