i like my advisor...

this is proof yet again that i have an ideal thesis advisor.

i came into our weekly research meeting an hour ago and he asked how things were going with life in general.... he's concerned about student stresslevel around finals week, etc. i said overall things were going well, but i needed to draw a map on the chalkboard of who proved what.

i gave him all the facts of who has what bijection and that i think what i've been working on is kind of implicit in the paper i found yesterday.

z: "so you're saying you may have been scooped by m------ by a year?"
me: "i think so.... and i just found out yesterday"
z: "well then, i think your proof is more explict and you can be very complementary of m------ in your abstract so that you don't get into trouble. it's still worth submitting."
me: "i guess"
z: "yeah, really it's all about marketing, and you have a month to figure out how to market yourself appropriately... besides m------ is a brilliant and wise and very experienced mathematician... to be beaten by him and only be beaten by a year is very impressive"

still moderately irritated, but at least my advisor is good at putting happy and believeable spins on even really frustrating days.

the end.