What is making you happy right now

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Originally Posted by Aimless

Congrats :o was it unexpected? Does this mean you won't move to Hong Kong to learn Kung Fu??

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Unexpected, no. My Manager and my Stream Lead put me forward for promotion four months ago, and was approved by the Global Stream Lead at that time.

Against a general backdrop of cost-cuts, hiring freezes, and general uncertainty in the financial sector, promotions at this level have to go further than that with a case prepared and presented both to HR and to the Global Head of Department, who has to give final sign off. The cut off date for that sign off came and went at the end of January, leaving me waiting until the next round of reviews in September to have my case presented again. So much red tape.

Somehow, and I don't yet know how, that cut off date has been overriden, and the Global Head gave sign-off yesterday. Which makes me doubly happy. :up:

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Originally Posted by Aimless

Merci :o still so early that "hoping" may be more appropriate than "expecting" but if all goes well the little nerd will arrive right on time for the elk hunt *knock on wood*

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A ginger Bangladeshi. This I have to see.

Huge congratulations. :)

Went a long weekend to Warsaw which was really nice (in spite of the crap weather). The Jewish history museum there is really good - only downside is that we had to slightly rush through the post WW2 part because we spent too much time at the early history part (it starts around the year 1000 when jewish settlements started to appear in Poland). But I think the highlight was seeing an American rapper in the stalinist cultural palace, I like the contrast :p

So I'm currently in Sami country, just above the 64th parallel, for a course that begins tomorrow. Decided to go tonight, rather than going tomorrow morning, and treat myself to some luxury and relaxation after a few pretty hectic weeks. V. glad I made this decision because the weather is phenomenally unsuited to driving and driving tomorrow wouldn't have been fun even if I hadn't hated traveling by car. Very pleasant train ride and I kinda understand why some people actually enjoy long train commutes. Currently sitting in a lovely restaurant that I have almost entirely to myself, listening to a tasteful selection of motown, 60s rock and modern folk-pop, recovering from a large and absolutely delicious meal of roast reindeer with a creamy lingonberry sauce and potatoes duchesse. Unlike elk and deer, Swedish reindeer really are a bit of an acquired taste, but I love it and I love how proud people here are of their reindeer. I don't like being away from home or from the missus but, I must say, it does the soul a lot of good to visit places like this every once in a while. I have a lot of material to review but all I wanna do is go for a swim, bake in the sauna, take a shower and then just drift off into blissful slumber without having to think about tomorrow.

Sounds :up:

And yes, I find train journeys nicely relaxing (the non-commuting kind, anyway)

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Originally Posted by Timbuk2

Sounds :up:

And yes, I find train journeys nicely relaxing (the non-commuting kind, anyway)

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One day I'd like to try out something like this:

https://www.japan-rail-pass.com/japa...t-luxury-train

Cruises are nice, too, but too many obnoxious drunks for my taste. Which is a shame because there are a ton of cheap, short and otherwise fairly pleasant cruises from Sthlm.



In work-related news, it's more or less official that I'll be starting a new job in June. It's basically my old job with a 30% raise and perks. I'll be buying a lot of lottery tickets in order to advance my plan to become a gazillionaire and retire before 35.

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Originally Posted by Timbuk2

Sounds :up:

And yes, I find train journeys nicely relaxing (the non-commuting kind, anyway)

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Same here. If it wasn't for the travel time I'd prefer trains over planes.

Got my first ever proper performance review, and it went very well! :) Full bonus and higher than expected salary increase :D

Hawt :o :up:

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Originally Posted by Aimless

In work-related news, it's more or less official that I'll be starting a new job in June. It's basically my old job with a 30% raise and perks. I'll be buying a lot of lottery tickets in order to advance my plan to become a gazillionaire and retire before 35.

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30% is awesome. :up:

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Originally Posted by Flixy

Got my first ever proper performance review, and it went very well! :) Full bonus and higher than expected salary increase :D

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Nice. :)

I can't wait until I get a new job with a raise either, so that when I make a purchase, I can imagine it having been on a huge sale, even if it's full price, instead of only getting stuff on sales, because you can't afford it otherwise. :p

But sales are nonetheless making me happy right now. Got the new MacBook Pro 15 w/Touch Bar at a 32% discount, and the PlayStation 4 Slim at a 50% discount. When there is retail war among rival shops, and credit card offers on top of that, you can sign me up any day. :heart: This also means it's the first time I'll be moving from the glorious PC gaming master race, to consoles again, and rather have a more premium portable experience with the laptop. I feel consoles are a more social gaming experience anyway.

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Originally Posted by Kazuha Vinland

I can't wait until I get a new job with a raise either, so that when I make a purchase, I can imagine it having been on a huge sale, even if it's full price, instead of only getting stuff on sales, because you can't afford it otherwise. :p

But sales are nonetheless making me happy right now. Got the new MacBook Pro 15 w/Touch Bar at a 32% discount, and the PlayStation 4 Slim at a 50% discount. When there is retail war among rival shops, and credit card offers on top of that, you can sign me up any day. :heart: This also means it's the first time I'll be moving from the glorious PC gaming master race, to consoles again, and rather have a more premium portable experience with the laptop. I feel consoles are a more social gaming experience anyway.

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Nothing will ever reduce the sheer pleasure of buying things at a steep discount, and nothing will ever completely eliminate my disgust and shame at buying things at full price. Congratulations on your excellent deals :up:

In happy news I'm now halfway through a family medicine rotation. I can understand the extremely strong appeal this specialty has to so many of my friends and acquaintances. In the context of work, my quality of life hasn't been this high in about five years. I enjoy going to work every day, my days are pleasant and stimulating both intellectually and emotionally, I generally come home on time, I have a lot of time to read and study, I get my 1 hour of paid "friskvård" (preventive wellness-enhancing activities such as exercise, massage or whatever) every week. Colleagues and other staff are a joy to work with, work flows pretty smoothly and I can see my patients getting better and better over time. It's a good life. I'll have to re-evaluate my choices for a future second specialty--family medicine may be a better alternative than setting up a food-truck.

Currently rediscovering Chopin. It's good for the soul.

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Originally Posted by Aimless

I get my 1 hour of paid "friskvård" (preventive wellness-enhancing activities such as exercise, massage or whatever) every week.

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You goddamn Scandi pinko-socialist!

1 frigging hour of frigging paid frigging wellness time! :mad:

I get severly beaten around the head with a large Adam Smith book daily for not working hard enough, and if I don't ask for more beatings I get the sack.

I'm moving. Do you have banks in pinko-land??

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Originally Posted by Timbuk2

You goddamn Scandi pinko-socialist!

1 frigging hour of frigging paid frigging wellness time! :mad:

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This practice hasn't kept up with the times and swedes are fed up with being shortchanged!!

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/02/2...siders-it.html

Long live the proletariat.

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I get severly beaten around the head with a large Adam Smith book daily for not working hard enough, and if I don't ask for more beatings I get the sack.

I'm moving. Do you have banks in pinko-land??

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Absolutely and some even have scruples :o Swedes love Brits so you'd be very welcome. If you ask, I'm sure they'd even agree to beat you with soft magazines to improve wellness and morale :downcast: on weekends you can pay immigrants to riot for your entertainment, v. reasonable prices.

But that pesky rape crisis though... :down:

So, inspection time for my car. Brake fluid, spark plugs, oil change and other assorted stuff came down to 540€. At which point my dealer proposed this warranty contract which cost me 20€ per month and would cover the cost for this and any future inspections. Granted, it's a contract over four years but it can be terminated immediately if I sell the car, it has a catastrophic accident, gets stolen or I cannot use it anymore due to other circumstances. Not seeing to much of a downside here :)

Ah, my latest paper is finally published. Not in a crappy journal, either.

Of course, it is somewhat put into shade because on the same day I had a friend who published seven - yes, seven - papers in Science. But we can't all be awesome.

Does that friend work in 7 different labs? :eek:

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Originally Posted by Loki

Does that friend work in 7 different labs? :eek:

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There's a bit of an asterisk, obviously. ;) He's a professor who is the co-head of a big consortium of ten or so labs that were working on a massive project. The seven papers were all different aspects of the same project that got published at once, and he was the PI or a high ranking author on each paper. But it's still damned impressive. He's far more intelligent, driven, and successful than I'll ever be. I can say with authority, though, that I can carry a tune better.

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Originally Posted by Aimless

Nothing will ever reduce the sheer pleasure of buying things at a steep discount, and nothing will ever completely eliminate my disgust and shame at buying things at full price. Congratulations on your excellent deals :up:

In happy news I'm now halfway through a family medicine rotation. I can understand the extremely strong appeal this specialty has to so many of my friends and acquaintances. In the context of work, my quality of life hasn't been this high in about five years. I enjoy going to work every day, my days are pleasant and stimulating both intellectually and emotionally, I generally come home on time, I have a lot of time to read and study, I get my 1 hour of paid "friskvård" (preventive wellness-enhancing activities such as exercise, massage or whatever) every week. Colleagues and other staff are a joy to work with, work flows pretty smoothly and I can see my patients getting better and better over time. It's a good life. I'll have to re-evaluate my choices for a future second specialty--family medicine may be a better alternative than setting up a food-truck.

Currently rediscovering Chopin. It's good for the soul.

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Thanks mate. I am completely in love with the new touch bar. Apple implemented its functionality absolutely horribly, as they only thought about dynamic menus adapting to the software you use. :bulb: With third party software, however, it's a completely different ball game. You can essentially throw out the dock, and instead be able to launch applications at your finger tips. You can also integrate shortcuts at a deeper level. Like for instance I have one shortcut now set to open Quicktime, and start recording the active window. Have another one opening my most used project folder, which is usually several folder layers deep. :)


http://i.imgur.com/6P9pU1O.jpg

Also, Aimless, what is your occupation? I became curious when you mentioned patients. I'm studying to be a physiotherapist. I know for sure that it'll be a personal struggle to handle, always being on the receiving end of hearing about pain, being the one to comfort and stay strong.

The 1 hour of paid wellness-enhancing activity sounds like a good idea. Generally people are positive to the thought of flexible work, so that they can plan their day as they go. If you are able to log that hour in your spare time, then it to me, would feel like a really nice let-off. Not in the sense of not doing what its prescribed to do, but rather that given the opportunity, gives me a sense of control and management - that spurs me positively. In fact, I am pretty certain everyone should get an opportunity like this, because I'm certain it would affect sick leave, and increase productivity and moral at work.:)

http://www.fox13news.com/news/241828354-story

I think I'm about a week away from a firm job offer at an awesome startup where I'd be their in house expert in my field. Apparently they were about to offer the job to someone else until they saw my resume and were all 'Damn, this is perfect for our position'. And I agree. ;)

Nice, congratulations! What kind of startup if I may ask?

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Originally Posted by Flixy

Nice, congratulations! What kind of startup if I may ask?

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I won't go into too much detail, but it's a pharma/biotech company that is relatively developed; they are likely to launch their first product in the next year or so. I would be developing materials for drug delivery and tissue engineering applications for them; until now they didn't really have any dedicated materials expertise. Over time I would head a group of materials engineers and interface with the drug development/formulation guys to make cool products to improve healthcare.

Congratulations. Where would you be based?

Still in the Boston area. My wife got a big promotion recently so we're not relocating for now.

I'm guessing it's someone with a girl's name but what will he be talking about? :o

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Originally Posted by Loki

Guess who'll be on British radio when everyone is asleep tonight? http://theworldforgotten.com/images/...on_redface.gif

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I hope your spawn walks in during the middle of the interview so we, and the rest of the world can hear it tomorrow.

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Originally Posted by Loki

Guess who'll be on British radio when everyone is asleep tonight? :o

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Which station?

Highlight was definitely when Loki threw down mic and stormed off. Also, called out several members of this forum by name. I won't say who, but their usernames began with L.

Shhh.

Allow me to counter your #altfacts with #truefacts:

http://www.businessinsider.com/rare-...aign=buffer-bi :heart:

I couldn't figure out which clip featured your hoarse and sibilant voice but hope you were happy with the interview :o have you been on the show before?