VWXYNot? Comment(s) of the week:
Nina and Grant for the following exchange: Nina: "Life should be a conference, everyone wearing nametags all the time, with their first name, last name, nickname, country of origin and country of residence. Birthdate optional."
Grant: Nina, I’m sure tech types will suggest we’ll all be bumping cell phones to exchange names in a few years. (Eurgh.)
One more: you know that thing where the person can’t quite read your name tag and leans in close over your chest to read it…
Nina: "ok, how about tattooing your name onto your forehead?"
Grant: "How about a sub-dermal name implant invisible when not active that glows when triggered by trained neural signals beaming your name to the people opposite you?
Failing that we could all wear electrode scalp caps that carry a flip up sign… (Taking as my cue the brain-computer interfaces emotiv and others are marketing.)"
[NB as a chronic tartler, I approve of all the above methods]
Alyssa for "It’s cloudy again
We see it’s cold and dreary
But – we have windows!!!"
Ricardipus for "Bugger me, the grant’s
Finally done. Thank goodness.
Now back to fun stuff."
Bean-mom for "I just clicked on the article on circular RNAs–I’d seen the headline earlier but hadn’t yet read it–and just as I expected, I’m all WTF?! MicroRNAs, long non-coding RNAs, now we’ve got circular RNAs. . . I feel like someone should just write a review titled, “RNA: WTF?”"
Nina again for "edit: my advisor has improved his standing desk further by standing on a wooden board that balances on a small (but sturdy) plastic tube, to make him wobble while standing, so to keep working those balancing muscles, or something like that. The tube comes from one of my experiments. I will miss that “wtf I’ll create my own standing desk – pilates work-out” attitude, I must admit."
Bob O'H for "Reminds me of my youth playing boardgames. There was one called Civilisation, which a friend described as “almost as long as the real thing”."
Chall "it surely looks like the Leafs MIGHT go to play offs for the first time in 7 years…. if I didn’t jinx it by saying it here of course. That said, I find myself wondering how bad it will be to end 5th place if Boston stays 4th. It sort of feels better to play the 3rd (Capitals right now) than Bruins but right now I’ll settle for PLAYOFFS and miracle :)"
[the Leafs making the playoffs is a miracle indeed]
KJHaxton for "Good question! I’d put:
– occasional baker of cakes for meetings
– fair to moderate tolerance for bullshit
– low tolerance for unfairness and willing to get very cross about it (folds arms and glowers at the screen)
– best selection of tea bags in desk drawer (8 kinds at last count)
– prone to wearing scarves and shirts that don’t match
Ah well, I’m not sure I’d find a new job on the basis of those :)"
Ricardipus again for "Pros:
- rarely swears in public
- has few friends, so unlikely to have loud, belly-laughing conversations on phone or in person
- capable of speaking at length about (a) race cars, (b) cameras, or (c) bad science
Cons:
- occasionally swears in public
- has few friends, so likely to have poor social interactions with co-workers
- capable of speaking at length about (a) race cars, (b) cameras, or (c) bad science
I’d also probably include “easily suckered into serving on irrelevant committees” into each category, too."
Bean-mom again for "–Friendly.
–Doesn’t bake, but if you have a potluck I’ll bring killer spring rolls (both crispy fried pork ones, and the vegetarian fresh rice-paper ones).
–Doesn’t bake, but husband bakes. Occasionally, you may be a recipient of his talent.
–Will cheerfully listen to other people’s dramas, but won’t cause any of my own. Not at work, anyway."
and Nina yet again for "As I may have mentioned before, I’m pretty sure my cv point “Love baking (chocolate) cakes” earned me my PhD position, and it definitely often raised questions in interviews (“so, how often do you bake cake? What kind of chocolate do you use?”)"
Post(s) of the Week: Beth Snow for "Modern conveniences" (how on earth did we survive, let alone study and write theses, before Skype and cloud computing?!)
Steve Caplan for "Science education: the generalist vs the specialist" (are 3 year or 4 year degrees better for students?)
Bean-mom for "Leaving scientific research... again" (science SUCKS sometimes)
Eva Amsen, writing at the Occam's Typewriter Irregulars for "The two ideas to fix the gender balance that do not make me cringe" (the panel pledge and the Finkbeiner test)
Bob O'Hara for "Making reviewing boring stuff less boring" (would a stripped-down manuscript format work better for the, um, less exciting papers out there?)
Alyssa for "Just the pants, thanks" (absolutely hilarious take on the modern clothes shopping experience)
Eva Amsen again for "My self-updating address book" (how LinkedIn can be useful)
CromerCrox for "Plagues" (how's God been cursing you lately?)
Prof-like Substance for "If you don't talk to your kids about it someone else will" (anticipating school-yard talk about religion and other big issues)
and CromerCrox again for "Conferences" (the problem of sexism at conferences)
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Or you could just do like the Scandinavians and the Dutch that commute to work by bike: ride in your work clothes! http://www.copenhagencyclechic.com/
Ugh, gross and sweaty… Some people do that here, too.I’ll admit to occasionally riding home in my clothes if I go to the pub after work on a Friday (don’t want to change into my bike gear in a pub toilet), but then I wash them the next day.
When I was cycle commuting I had a couple of nasty incidents where I forgot to pack underwear and/or shoes so I started (1) packing my clothes the night before, (2) leaving one or two pairs of shoes at work and (3) leaving a spare set of underwear in my desk at work. Never looked back!
I keep a couple of pairs of “work only” shoes in my locker, but I usually wear my nicer ones, which I need at home, too. I haven’t resorted to keeping underwear in my desk though! I don’t have my own office and I just know someone would eventually see them!
Not being a bike commuter, I guess my normal change-number when working would be 3 to 4, depending on what I do after work. Maybe 5, sometimes. On non-work days, it could be almost any number. I think we should call it the change number. One could rate one’s day that way then. Oh, and does a change of shoes count as a whole change – that could up my number in winter by a huge amount!
Haha – I never had my own office until my current position but you can put your underwear in a small bag (even a ziplock bag) and tuck it into the back of a desk drawer. The strange thing is that once I did that, I never forgot to pack the underwear at home – ever!
SF, shoes don’t count, otherwise I’d be in doube digits. On weekends in town I think I’d only be at 2, maybe 3.PiT, the bag makes sense!
OK, I am sitting at my desk chuckling as I have this mental image of Cath’s boss madly looking through her desk some day when she is away – not meaning anything by it, but trying to find something that MUST be in Cath’s desk (grant proposal draft, etc). I am picturing the facial expression when drawer #2 is opened and a bag of panties is discovered. HA HA HA HA HA. Sorry, mate, but you have to admit the potential humor here!
Noooooooooo that’s just wrong!Ewwww!Anyway, I have a locker. Two, actually.
There are just SO many ways to take this conversation, all of which are amusing me. Best done over a drink, though, and not in writing!
Yes, that kind of mental imagery require much etOH.
Mermaid, Cath: lol (1st time I’ve used that expression, but really, it’s just totally true: panties in baggie in desk!!).
(And nosy boss.)
Nosy boss? Not so much… Mermaid once came by my desk while I wasn’t there, and my boss came out of his office (right next to my desk) while she was rummaging through all my stuff to find a post-it and pen to leave me a note. He’d never met her before – but just ignored her and let her get on with it! I lock my valuables in my desk now…
I’m not a big fan of dress socks, but you can’t wear white socks with dress pants. So I’ve become a huge fan of black athletic socks … no one seems to notice I’m cheating on my wardrobe!Or at least, they’re not saying anything to me about it. Of course, wearing black anklet socks with Dockers is probably getting noticed by someone. *sigh*
Welcome, Thomas!I think that sounds like an acceptable solution. As long as there are no white socks with dark pants, or socks of any kind with sandals.
i had a friend once who would use the gym at her office. she lived over an hour from work so she’s just shower at work and then go on up to her office after the gym. one time i got a phone call: “crystal! i am wearing a see-thru white sweater and i forgot my bra at home!” my advice was to just leave as quickly as possible. what did she end up doing? applying clear packaging tape all over her chest as to avoid “nippage”
I agree with Lisbeth, as any good Dutch girl would
Cycle to work in your work clothes! Of course, I don’t recommend this when you have to cycle uphill to work, but I think I gathered from your stories that it is more a downhill thing?Or how about having breakfast in your sleeping shirt?
My support scientist works fairly close to work, so they’ll bike now and again. While we do have a shower here, they swear by rubbing alcohol. It appears that a quick wipe down will eradicate all odors, allowing one to then dress in work clothes without having to take a shower.
Crystal, how is it possible to be at the gym with no bra?! Even a sports bra would be better than tape…Nina, I do indeed cycle mostly downhill to work, but there are some uphill stretches too. There’s also the hair issue – my options are as follows:1) wash it the night before, have horrible straggly non-curly hair at work the next day.2) wash it as soon as I get up, blow dry, turn into puff ball, put helmet on, be at work with combo puffball / helmet hair.3) wash it as soon as I get up, don’t blow dry, put helmet on wet hair, have awful helmet hair at work.4) wash it at work, blow dry, turn into puffball5) wash it at work, don’t blow dry, have wet hair for the first hour or two, but nice curls the rest of the day.I use option 5… and rubbing alcohol would probably not be very good for my hair…