After a couple of weeks of limited sleep and no SDMB, I managed to both develop a nervous tic and complete my first-semester philosophy senior paper on the nature of free will. I handed it in on Sunday. Today I received an e-mail from the head of the department informing me that he has nominated it for the Best Senior Paper award!
Well, he didn’t actually say that I was nominated. His entire e-mail to me consisted of the abbreviation “FYI”, but he attached a copy of his e-mail to the dean saying that I had written a beautiful paper and asking if philosophy papers were eligable for any awards, and her response saying it could go in the Best Senior Paper competition. But I’ve been a philosophy major long enough to expect the bizarre ways professors have of communicating with us. The important, and yet still mundane and pointless, thing I must share is that my hard work paid off, my paper didn’t suck, and if I’m lucky “A Different Kind of Unicorn: Free Will in a Deterministic Universe” may even get me $75 and my name in the commencement program.
In the interests of copyright and such, Lamia (erring here on the side of caution), you might want to wait until such time as the contest is over (i.e. winners announced, etc) before posting it. Two reasons:
“Contents of the Straight Dope Message Board and the Straight Dope Web site are copyright 1984-2002 by the Chicago Reader, Inc. All rights reserved.” You retain copyright as well, but one needn’t get into unnecessary copyright worries.
One of the judges or whatever might just be a member of this here board. Manny Strainger things have happened;)
Also add me to the list of posters who’d like to read it.
You don’t have to worry about iampunha’s objections as long as you don’t post it directly on the board. If you’d like to indulge all the posters clamoring to read your paper and you have nowhere to host it online, I’d be happy to slap it up on my Geocities site if you’d let me. If you’re at all interested, my email is below. I’d love to read the paper myself.
