While suffering the blow from the Canada Arts Council (for the second time, a jury didn’t rank Cinema Politica high enough to receive funding) and going to Hot Docs to discover, um, filmmakers narrowly focused on their own projects (I can’t blame them), I am delighted to report some good news.

Last Thursday, April 17th, 2008, I received word from some faculty and profs at Carleton that I had been awarded the SSHRC (apologies for the instructive graph above – I did it for Michael) Doctoral Fellowship – meaning I’ll receive $20,000 per year from SSHRC every year for the next three years. It is truly a lifesaver as I consider naming my firstborn Visa, after my best friend of the last three years (and now my worst enemy).

But wait! Good news might just travel in twos! Around the same time, we were informed that the long, arduous journey to get Svetla status in this immigrant-unfriendly land had come to a near-end. Yes, Svetla is now a proud permanent resident of Canuckland.

So all that is left is to STUDY for these bloody PhD exams on May 16-17…