What is making you happy right now

[Hazir]

~

We decided to book a couple of nights in Amsterdam, going a week monday.

Flixy, Hazir, Ziggy; recommendations for places to see? Cool bars and cafes to hang out in? Must-dos?

If you could be a little bit more specific on the things you like, maybe, but I don't go out much in Amsterdam and the places I go to are usually frequented by gay people even I don't want to get to know

Just in case you wonder : I will be in Istanbul that week

[Ominous Gamer]

3 nirthday parties, on the same day, at the same time, at the same place. each with their own events, food, and cake. No injuries, nothing broke, no police.

shit flowed like clockwork. Wedding ain't got nothing on me

[Aimless]

So I got home a new and perfectly serviceable SSD (OCZ's value line, may retract that description soon), put it into the old HP box we've had lying around since I saved it from certain scrapping... and nine hours later I finally got windows 8 to install on it. Managed to install it with no problems on a 6-year-old laptop but on this box, just a couple of years old, nuh-uh... surrendered and installed ubuntu and then decided to give it a few more shots and finally figured out how to install win8 with the help of linux. After that, piece of cake. Everything is working beautifully. SSDs are fast and quiet, I like them

It's been a good day apart from all the time wasted on something so useless. Got a heater for the balcony. My mustache gets to live one more day. Missed a party but hey you gotta prioritize man

[Timbuk2]

If you could be a little bit more specific on the things you like, maybe, but I don't go out much in Amsterdam and the places I go to are usually frequented by gay people even I don't want to get to know

Just in case you wonder : I will be in Istanbul that week

Oooh ... well ... will do the usual touristy stuff I guess. Neither of us know the city - my other half has never been and I've only been briefly over 20 years ago.

Hire bikes and see the central areas that way if the weather's decent.

Find funky bars in the evening to have a cocktail or two. Stroll around the red light district.

Eat in a tasty, lively restaurant.

The hotel we've booked is on the Herengracht canal, to the West, so we're spitting distance from the centre of town.

[GGT]

Better spend that money on vacations while you can, Tim! Before ya know it, you may be restricted to saving for your retirement!

[termite]

I just had a great weekend with my wife, we flew to Melbourne on Friday, did some shopping and sight seeing but the weather on Friday night was so bad and the hotel we were staying at was so nice that we ordered room service and spent the night in our room. It was very nice...

On Saturday we did some more shopping and sight seeing before going to the AFL Grand Final where we were accompanied by 100,000 other people to see the Geelong Cats defeat the Collingwood Magpies in a close and exciting contest. It was a hell of a thing to be in an arena with 100,000 people! Oh and Meatloaf performed a few of his hits... he tried hard to get a gig going but as with all such things it was the game people came for, not the peripheral entertainment.

This great day was topped off nicely by having a 7 course meal in a fine restaurant on the Yarra River - good food, good booze and good company (wifey) is my definition of true contentment!

Flew home today to my awesome kids who had cleaned the house so well I am convinced they must have had a wild party - I'd be disappointed if they hadn't.

[Bitter Jeweler]

Having dinner at Jack Fry's in Louisville, Kentucky. Traditionally, this is where jockeys eat when they win a race. This vacation has been filled with gastric wonders! Staying at a hotel that is an art museum has been extra cool! Next stop, St. Louis!

[Loki]

Someone withdrew, and I got a place at the top international conflict conference. The bad part is that the conference is in 10 days and I'm not really prepared.

[Nessus]

What are your conferences like? We usually just have a bunch of individual talks and posters.

[Flixy]

What are your conferences like? We usually just have a bunch of individual talks and posters.

I hear they often have a lot of drinking, too.

[Nessus]

You don't need to prepare for that bit

[Loki]

What are your conferences like? We usually just have a bunch of individual talks and posters.

That's pretty much it. The talks (based on a paper) have a discussant, and the audience can (and does) ask questions. Certain people in the audience in this conference make it a point to destroy the careers of people they think aren't smart. Lesser conferences are generally less combative.

[Nessus]

That's pretty much it. The talks (based on a paper) have a discussant, and the audience can (and does) ask questions. Certain people in the audience in this conference make it a point to destroy the careers of people they think aren't smart. Lesser conferences are generally less combative.

Haha sweet! I don't think we have that many predatory audiences, there's just some places where you make it or break it vis a vis a career in a certain facility. No idea how it is for the theoretical folk.

Good luck, eh?

[Loki]

Haha sweet! I don't think we have that many predatory audiences, there's just some places where you make it or break it vis a vis a career in a certain facility. No idea how it is for the theoretical folk.

Good luck, eh?

I've heard it's far worse in economics (i.e. they'll interrupt you in the middle of your presentation to attack you, and the presenter frequently doesn't get the chance to finish their presentation). Does your field place more emphasis on conferences or published papers? The odd thing about poli sci is that no one's going to reward you for attending a conference, but it can sure as hell ruin your career if you do a bad job at a top conference.

Thanks, I'll need it. Probably will spend 24/7 here instead of getting a job if I screw up there.

[Nessus]

I've heard it's far worse in economics (i.e. they'll interrupt you in the middle of your presentation to attack you, and the presenter frequently doesn't get the chance to finish their presentation). Does your field place more emphasis on conferences or published papers? The odd thing about poli sci is that no one's going to reward you for attending a conference, but it can sure as hell ruin your career if you do a bad job at a top conference.

Thanks, I'll need it. Probably will spend 24/7 here instead of getting a job if I screw up there.

I think our emphasis is on papers. You do good, high-quality work, you're acknowledged. Now, some people have quit with an impressive publication history because they couldn't/wouldn't write compelling grant applications, and so on, but I am not aware of anyone getting ruined for a bad conference talk. You usually have to give a talk to the locals when you're applying for work in a facility, so you can crash and burn there, but it's just that place rather than your whole future.

I work with people who do best-in-the-world instrumentation experimental work, so I may have a biased view and sampling of how it goes, but insofar as I know papers and grant apps are far more important than talks. Talks are important for making future projects, you wow some people who'll want to collaborate and you combine two high-class teams, but that's again something different than what you mean here.

[Flixy]

I've heard it's far worse in economics (i.e. they'll interrupt you in the middle of your presentation to attack you, and the presenter frequently doesn't get the chance to finish their presentation). Does your field place more emphasis on conferences or published papers? The odd thing about poli sci is that no one's going to reward you for attending a conference, but it can sure as hell ruin your career if you do a bad job at a top conference.

Thanks, I'll need it. Probably will spend 24/7 here instead of getting a job if I screw up there.

Good luck!

[Loki]

I forgot how important grants are in the natural sciences. I've been told by grad students from those programs that it's frequently the main determinant of whether you get a good job and later, whether you get tenure. Luckily, there's no money to be had in poli sci, and grants are therefore relatively unimportant.

Have you had to give a job talk yet?

Good luck!

Thanks.

[Nessus]

I forgot how important grants are in the natural sciences. I've been told by grad students from those programs that it's frequently the main determinant of whether you get a good job and later, whether you get tenure. Luckily, there's no money to be had in poli sci, and grants are therefore relatively unimportant.

Have you had to give a job talk yet?

No, I'm still a baby and work with the toys my professor gives me. I did give a talk for the national physics society and was nominated as best speaker of the event (out of let's say a hundred-ish speakers), but the end result was decided on a coin toss rather than merit so I'm not too bummed I didn't actually win. Really, it's my impression most times you give a talk for a position somewhere you either already know the group and seem promising or you don't, and the talk is more of a formality. The playing field certainly isn't level!

[littlelolligagged]

I've heard it's far worse in economics (i.e. they'll interrupt you in the middle of your presentation to attack you, and the presenter frequently doesn't get the chance to finish their presentation). Does your field place more emphasis on conferences or published papers? The odd thing about poli sci is that no one's going to reward you for attending a conference, but it can sure as hell ruin your career if you do a bad job at a top conference.

Thanks, I'll need it. Probably will spend 24/7 here instead of getting a job if I screw up there.

You won't screw up.

But good luck, anyway.

[Steely Glint]

I've heard it's far worse in economics (i.e. they'll interrupt you in the middle of your presentation to attack you, and the presenter frequently doesn't get the chance to finish their presentation). Does your field place more emphasis on conferences or published papers? The odd thing about poli sci is that no one's going to reward you for attending a conference, but it can sure as hell ruin your career if you do a bad job at a top conference.

Thanks, I'll need it. Probably will spend 24/7 here instead of getting a job if I screw up there.

I like to think my frequently hostility towards you has in some way helped mentally prepare you for this new environment.

You worthless cunt.

[Loki]

No, I'm still a baby and work with the toys my professor gives me. I did give a talk for the national physics society and was nominated as best speaker of the event (out of let's say a hundred-ish speakers), but the end result was decided on a coin toss rather than merit so I'm not too bummed I didn't actually win. Really, it's my impression most times you give a talk for a position somewhere you either already know the group and seem promising or you don't, and the talk is more of a formality. The playing field certainly isn't level!

Congrats! People in the field are bound to remember when you're applying for jobs.

Regarding the job talks: knowing someone on the inside always helps (though if you know them too well, they have to recuse themselves), but most job talks in poli sci seem to be legitimately competitive. There is a huge randomness component to it. Some people get asked really stupid questions and end up not getting the job because they aren't able to give "proper" answers.

And thanks to everyone else. Better start working on the paper again.

[Timbuk2]

I've heard it's far worse in economics (i.e. they'll interrupt you in the middle of your presentation to attack you, and the presenter frequently doesn't get the chance to finish their presentation). Does your field place more emphasis on conferences or published papers? The odd thing about poli sci is that no one's going to reward you for attending a conference, but it can sure as hell ruin your career if you do a bad job at a top conference.

Sheesh. And I'm daunted by doing a basic Powerpoint presentation in front of 20 bankers, or running a lunch 'n learn session.

Many amounts of luck Loki.

[Aimless]

The missus is baking and I found this:

[Catgrrl]

That's awesome!

[Aimless]

[Flixy]

I had the first honor of a premiere of my own movie, and out was nice

And, the producer in me speaking,it earned us €250, while the cinema only cost 100 so that's nice too!

And I'm on iMDB! As a producer

[Timbuk2]

Amsterdamned and loving it!

[BalticSailor]

A good day at work. There's this NMR spectrum that has given me quite a headache for a while - I took another look at it today, and I suddenly understood what I'm looking at. I had forgotten that my molecule's an alkene, the double bond of which I had constructed in a reaction that doesn't give any stereoselectivity, therefore, two isomers are possible. And, my spectrum was that of the mixture of the isomers. Silly me. Though I had previously assumed the spectra of the both isomers should be nearly identical, and for a good reason (and I was wrong only because of a certain hydrogen bond possible in only one of the isomers - no differences apart from that)

So, to sum up, I realized I haven't been producing some useless side product for the last month or so, as I had previously thought. And - for some reason I haven't dumped any of the products, despite my assumptions that they weren't the compound I needed. Yay!

[Khendraja'aro]

Congratulations. I found that NMR spectra are much like anything ultrasonics - only the professionals are able to really make heads or tails out of that stuff

I mean, when I had my kidney stones, the doctor did an ultrasonic and told me: "Okay, here's your kidney and here's the stone." It looked like the dark side of the moon to me. Much like when we did an NMR of our test compound during our practice - I mean, our textbooks made it look like an NMR was all discrete and distinct peaks, while reality looks more like the silhouette of the Himalaya mountains.

[Aimless]

had a looong day that started way too early, very very tired, everything took way too long, just barely had time to eat a frickin hotdog for lunch... but managed to score a hot ginger lunch-date and after that everything simply fell into place. Good patients, pretty fundi,the slit lamp exam became my friend, we got buns and coffee as it's our second-to-last day on this rotation, and, when I got home, I found this:





Also I am STUFFED *content sigh*