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)
Archives:
October 2008 - March 2009; April 2009 - September 2009; October 2009 - March 2010; April 2010 - September 2010; October 2010 - February 2011; March 2011 - September 2011; October 2011 - March 2012; April 2012 - September 2012; October 2012 - March 2013; April 2013 - September 2013
Come on Cath, at least you had a shower at all. Some weeks ago they turned off ALL our water at work without telling anyone and so I didn’t have a shower after cycling, no glass of water, and no cup of tea.
Or the time when the fire alamer went off when I was in the shower. Or the time we had a major earthquake and two of my colleagues were in the shower. Always bring a towel that is large enough to cover all your precious bodyparts.
The internet-thing is really realy stupid though.I suppose they will still bill you for the weeks without internet, as any self-respecting internetprovider would?
Freezing cold showers on rainy March days still suck, even in the absence of earthquakes. Yes, they suck less than earthquakes, but they still suck
Turning off ALL the water with no warning is ridiculous! At least I had a cup of tea to warm me up (kinda – it took a while to get fully warm).
I forgot to ask about getting our monthly bill reduced, because it was taking all the brain power I could muster not to yell at the poor tech support guy. I realise he’s absolutely not to blame for Shaw not hiring enough techs and not allowing tech support to send people new modems in the mail, but not yelling at the only available representative of the company whose attention I had was still difficult. I suppose now I have to call back… sigh.
you forgot the “bill reduction” well, lucky for you that should be only one phone call away,.. it sounds absolutely rediculus (i can’t spell)! 4 weeks to change a modem?! Then again, it sounds like comcast here so I’m not really that surprsed.
you know though, what’s happy about the week of the 21st of April??? (apart from getting internet)
*drumroll* I’m coming to town!!! WOHO! Vacation times!! And meeting famous Dr Cath
WOOHOO!!!
Wanna come round to my place and spend four hours waiting for the Shaw guy to show up?!* It’ll be AWESOME. We can order pizza!
*”some time between 12 and 4″ obviously means 3:55
How are you going to order pizza without any minutes left on your cell phone?
(sorry)
I have minutes left – tons of them, I could call the speaking clock for hours at a time – but no data allowance. i.e. without WiFi, I can’t use my iPhone to check email, use the internet, or play games that require the internet.
p.s. there was an American student in my block of student flats during the first year of my PhD who was ALWAYS in the shower when the fire alarm went off, which it did once every few weeks at all times of the day or night (drunken toast making will do that). She claimed she just showered more often and more thoroughly than “you dirty Europeans” (said jokingly – I think), but we decided it was more likely that she just liked being clad in only a towel when the firemen arrived.
How in the world does Shaw get away with taking four frickin’ weeks to get to your place to change the modem?? They should give you free internet for a year for dealing with that nonsense!
I’m sure they know that we know that Telus are just as bad!
What a horrible day! I hope today is better for you.
Can you just buy a modem and cancel the one with Shaw? We did – didn’t like the rental ‘terms’ on the Shaw package so bought our own. Worked out much cheaper too. Of course, when it breaks we are on our own, but given the price difference I think we end up about even.
I hate the long wait time for Shaw. When they cancelled our cable two days after moving in (activating the previous owner’s disconnect request two days AFTER activating our connect request) they initially told us it would be 4 weeks for it to come back on. In the end, after a combination of complaining that we couldn’t work from home when needed and pointing out the Shaw technician who disconnected us was technically on our land without our permission, they came out in three days. Took lots of complaining though. Perhaps some whining. Might have been a spot of yelling (no, I am not proud of that).
Well I had a nice hot shower (although the water pressure was pathetic), and we have a publication date for a certain paper you may be familiar with (yes, just one of the two closely related papers that were accepted by the same journal in the same week. No, this doesn’t make sense). So it’s definitely off to a better start than yesterday!
I remember you telling me the story about Shaw activating the previous owner’s disconnect request after activating your own connect request. Ridonculous! Maybe I will just buy a modem…
It’s Rogers here, who I do not like at all, but actually are quite responsive when things aren’t working. But generally speaking I am not a fan of any of the big three options in this part of the country (Rogers, Telus, Bell).
I did meet a previous Executive VP of Telus recently, but in a social situation that precluded me venting about their cell phone service.
A couple of our friends work for Telus, but can’t get us a discount or else we’d switch
Did you happen to see the Rick Mercer Report this week? He had a skit about an online dating site that makes sure you’re matched up with someone who’s at the same point in the ["Bell SUCK, I'm moving to Rogers" -> Rogers honeymoon period -> "Rogers SUCK, I'm moving to Bell" -> Bell honeymoon period -> "Bell SUCK, I'm moving to Rogers"] cycle as you. I LOLed.
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