Thesis submitted
So I've been rather busy. The first bit of news is, I submitted a thesis. Warning: it has not been examined and may be full of errors, inaccuracies, omissions, or ill-advised conclusions.
The thesis turned out better than I'd hoped, in the sense that all four major pillars of the work were also accepted to conferences (the papers are "Links: Web Programming without Tiers," "The Essence of Form Abstraction," "A Located Lambda Calculus," and "The Script-writer's Dream: How to Write Great SQL in Your Own Language and Be Sure It Will Succeed").
The night I printed it, I was elated, walking to the printer to collect my final copy, knowing I had done it—created some programming language features, written a 180-page thesis, persevered. In a couple of months I'll defend it, warts and all, and then perhaps I'll be completely finished. But it's downhill from here. I think.
Update: The final version has now been submitted, and the above link points to the latest version.