Sort of a busy day

In one single day, I’ve had three things happen which have gotten my name published:

1. The “Neighbors” article in the Indy Star came out. Here’s the official copy.
2. Received the bound copy of the test bank which nearly drove me insane and which I blogged about a lot last year. So it’s finally over. There’s something awfully satisfying about getting a 700-page book in the mail and your name is on the cover. (Even if that book just consists of a bunch of tests, not the most exciting stuff.)
3. Received three copies of the Cryptologia issue with my rail fence cipher paper in it. That’s been a long time in coming too. It’s hard to believe that I first submitted that paper to the journal in June 2004, and the project itself got started over Christmas break in 2003! I think this time lag may also explain why the blogosphere poses serious competition to traditional print journals when it comes to disseminating new research. I appreciate the editors accepting my article and helping me with the considerable amount of polishing it needed, but seriously — that was an almost two-year difference between submission and publication.

Oh, and I also got the Macbook today. More oohing and aahing to come on that, but for now we’ll just say… sweet.