a mild vow .. [NEW: EPILOGUE ADDED]

must .. stop .. talking, at seminars;
there is research and writing to do.

one last talk for the semester, and i will become a research obsessive;
that's a promise.

---

usually between my ca1cu1us lectures, i like to work on random research ideas. instead, today i spent the time jotting down notes for tomorrow's talk.

it's only now that i'm entertaining the thoughts that i would have had, in the morning.

---- ADDENDUM: 6 NOV 2008, 10PM ----

i like this seminar in my department and i like giving talks there; the audience is friendly. it's just that i don't want to talk too often.

so let me modify that vow:

when i have something new and interesting to say,
when i feel that i can say it succinctly and well,
then i will give another talk;

it will probably be late, next term.


as for these benchmarks, today wasn't one of my better talks. i began in media res and there were new faces in the audience, which i hadn't counted on.

this was part 2 of a talk, after all; i expected the audience to shrink, leaving only the hardy survivors that i didn't already disgust or confuse.

so my review of part 1 took longer than i'd have liked and as usual, i never reached the end of the argument that i wanted to convey. as a rough estimate, 1/4 or 1/3 of the talk occurred in the final 5 minutes.

i hate it when that happens: it's a disservice to anyone in the audience who's been patient enough to follow you for the first 45 minutes .. or in my case, 50. (i'm almost sure that i went overtime.)