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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I’m in. I’m an absolute mess at remembering names. For some reason that one detail doesn’t stick in the gray matter at all.
Also thanks for the link. I’m a webcomics fiend and that seems right up my alley.
Great posting, Cath. Now I know what to say when it happens to me (which is quite frequently).
I have that problem. I think it’s a scientist/aspergic thing, stemming from poor skills at social interaction. People like us need an amanuensis to follow us around, with a balloon on a stick. Luckily Mrs Crox is wonderful at remembering peoples’ names and helps me out at such moments.
Tangentially related – Crox Minor (aged nearly 15) tells me that a good definition of a teenager is someone who hasn’t done their maths homework but would know exactly what to do in the event of a zombie apocalypse.
I do love the term “tartle” and will try to remember to use it.
Another approach to the problem is one used by my good friend Bill. At any large gathering of folks, he wears a large button that reads “Sorry, I can’t remember your name either.”
Right there with you on the names and the introductions…. I usually try and do some sort of half way introduction…. (yet probably fairly obvious) starting it with “this is my coworker X and we’ve been working on… ” and then holding out the hands towards the one I can’t remember the name of… and hope they stretch out their hands and introduce themselves.
It’s my “every-year-new-years-resolution” and maybe one day I’ll get a hang of it. So far, I’m going to use the “tartle response”
OK, five new members of my tartle army! We can do this!
cromercrox, that is an outstanding definition and should be in the dictionary.
chezjake, I love that approach! I might try it at hubby’s next work party
UPDATE: it has been decreed that the online version shall heretoforth be known as Twartling
Great word – invaluable! But never heard once in my formative years. Srsly, 24 years in Scotchland and I never once heard anyone utter this word. “Common” it ain’t, at least not in the Central belt.
I reckon it’s roots are a polite form of “brain fart” and a really polite form of “Ahm such a fuppin diddy, ah’ve goan an forgot yer name”.
Sorry – another brain fart. 26 years. Diddy.
Glad it wasn’t just me being unobservant!
“UPDATE: it has been decreed that the online version shall heretoforth be known as Twartling”
Twitter is beginning to rule everything.
I get a similar forgetting of names, compounded with a tactical problem from being hard-of-hearing (or deaf, if that’s simpler). Convention is that you’re supposed to face the person I’m being introduced to, which leaves me not looking at the person giving their name so quite likely I won’t hear their name at all – I often need lip-reading to help me out, especially if the setting is noisy. So they get a plain “hello” from me and I hope like heck I’d catch their name at some later point.
I also discovered as a student at Cambridge that one group of people who this generally is not such an issue are Americans, who—at least in my limited experience—have a useful habit of introducing themselves to you straight after the third party has introduced them to me. As they are facing them when they give their name, I usually get it!
Interesting – I’ve never noticed a difference, but then it’s not hearing the name at the time of first introduction that I have a problem with!
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.
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…
ok, how about tattooing your name onto your forehead?
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.)
Sign me up for the nametags, and possibly the phone bumping! Leave me out of the tattooing and implanting please, though – tartling isn’t quite embarrassing enough to necessitate such drastic measures!
I was thinking sci-fi futures there
I am late to this
partytarty, but I am a tartleur of great skill and speed. Approximately five seconds is plenty of time for me to forget somebody’s name. And I had neighbours who could greet me by name, next to whom I’d lived for 12 years. I finally had their names nailed about 3 months before they moved away.Yup, done that before too…
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