Author Archives: Austin

About Austin

Middle-aged grouchy white male. Hair greying but hasn't all fallen out yet. Spreading waistline ill-concealed by baggy jumper.Semi-extinguished physiology researcher turned teacher. Known for never shutting up. Father of two children (aged 6 and 2) who try to out-talk him. Some would call that Karmic Revenge.

The Dread Day Dawns

Posted on August 1, 2011 by Austin

As a few people over on Facebook have noticed, today is my birthday. And as a few people around here will have worked out from an earlier post, this birthday is Officially A Biggie (people tell me). It is also … Continue reading →

Posted in Family business, Getting old, Grumbling, Uncategorized | 22 Comments

Chess and the battle of the ages

Posted on July 25, 2011 by Austin

I’ve decided to separate the actual chess GAME I played last week, and that I was talking about in the last post, into a separate post here. The main reason for this is that specifically chess analysis-related comments can now … Continue reading →

Posted in Chess, Getting old | 9 Comments

Where to put the chess?

Posted on July 25, 2011 by Austin

In which I ponder where to hide my latest, and oldest, obsessive enthusiasm… I have another of my chess games, played last week, I thought I might post up… but as I was thinking about this, a question arose. Or … Continue reading →

Posted in Blog-ology, Chess, History, Nerdishness, Procrastination, Uncategorized | 8 Comments

Not much more than a decade until the bus pass*

Posted on July 14, 2011 by Austin

*assuming bus passes haven’t been abolished by then (see also a defence of bus passes here). ——————————————————————-   In which, in a post-academic-year reverie, I decide not to look forward, and try some looking back instead. So no surprise there, then. … Continue reading →

Posted in Chess, Family business, Nerdishness, Procrastination, The Life Scientific, Universities | 27 Comments

Job or vocation

Posted on May 28, 2011 by Austin

I have recently been doing a bit of live on-line virtual commentating. Strange but true. I’m not sure exactly why. Perhaps it is another of my frustrated ambitions to be a sports commentator (of which more later). Or an online … Continue reading →

Posted in Chess, Conferences, Nerdishness, The Interwebz, The Life Scientific, Uncategorized | 9 Comments

More family business

Posted on May 19, 2011 by Austin

Just a quick heads-up that my dad has posted an extended comment (or I’ve posted it for him) on the previous blogpost about his 7th decade of scientific publication. The comment has some links to more early 60s x-ray crystallography … Continue reading →

Posted in Family business, History, Humour, Procrastination, The Life Scientific, Uncategorized, Universities | 1 Comment