Conundrum28th November 2008 Definition of "a conflict of interest":
That is all **off to shoot zombies** |
Spain :-)16th November 2008 I needed some samples for my PhD, so I went to Spain with Niels and Albert (my supervisors) to collect some. A word of advice, avoid Ryanair if at all possible - they were late, noisy, and cramped. They closed off unfilled sections of the cabin rather than letting people sit with their families. They play a jingle every five minutes, perhaps to remind you that you're not flying on a better airline. Lastly, their baggage allowance is a miserly 15kg, which is a little tight if you spend a week collecting rocks. As such, there are 24 kilos of rocks sitting in Perpignan, France, with Albert's father in law waiting for us to arrange some postage. Apart from the flights however, it was a really good week - plenty of very good outcrops during the day, plenty of good food and wine in the evening. I drove a people carrier on the other side of the road, and up and down some places that wouldn't count as roads in Britain but were signposted and apparently marked on the map. Also, while it rained in Cambridge, I was hiking around the hills looking at this and driving around, not looking at this. |
Mmm shiny :-)27th October 2008 First of all, happy birthday Sonya x It was, apparently, a little wet this weekend. I didn't really notice, as I'd just taken delivery of a shiny Dell Latitude D830 courtesy of my lab-work grant. I'm assured that I can still do some lab work this year, courtesy of the many-hidden-pots method of academic funding. It's a nice machine, which will hopefully last the full four years, and has so far provided about 30 hours of procrastination. Start of boring geeky bit - skip if you like. Unfortunately there is some software that only runs on Windows (XP that is, the comptuer officers won't touch Vista with a sharp pointed stick), and some which only run on Linux. Me being me, I wanted both. What a selfish child. Then to add interest, I want to be able to access the documents from both systems easily. This seems to call for three partitions and a fairly regimented backup routine.
I complained. Luckily they were very nice about it, and have upgraded that to "PowerUser" and "Administrator" levels so I can break things again. End of geeky bit - look it's all shiny :-) |
Progress...............fail20th October 2008
Hours worked last week: More than usual
This isn't that I'm not trying though, I'm actually quite exhausted from trying to do my PhD, but there's so much other stuff to sort out first. Hopefully this week will be a little more productive - I have a meeting on Thursday at which I need to convince people that I know what I'm talking about... Meanwhile, over in Biochemistry, Adam's mutant army gathers strength by the day. |
Freshers' Week MkII12th October 2008
There have been the usual drink-and-talk sessions to get to know people in an alcohol-fuelled environment, always a chance to show off my best side, and a pub crawl which provided a chance for my annual nightclub visit. Last night was the JCR/MCR event, given the original title of "Back to School" as an excuse to dress up on the cheap. While the idea was fine in principle the party died somewhat with the haphazard reliability of the sound system. In amongst all this though we've found time to go to London to see some improvisation at The Comedy Store (highly recommended) for Andy's twenty...th birthday. Also on the agenda was a trip to see Dylan Moran's stand-up routine at the Corn exchange - also most enjoyable. So there we have it, slightly less manic than last time around but the next few years are boding well. I leave you with my excuse for not getting in a boat for the last four years, or the next four.
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India Follow-up17th September 2008 And so to the promised waffly post about India. It's been three weeks since we returned now. I know this because I have just finished my penultimate packet of disgusting antimalarial pills, although the flavour does seem to become less repulsive with time. My jet-lag has gone, now simply replaced by a more internet-friendly sleeping pattern. Lots of people have asked me what it was like out there, and on the whole I have been giving completely contradicting answers, because it was such a contradictory place. We spent half of our time living in luxury with the Reddy family, who put us up in nice apartments, took us shopping in western shops (at near-western prices) and took us to 5-star restaurants. Then at other times we were 'sleeping' on cockroach-infested trains being woken every 10 minutes as someone tried to sell us some tea. Within the space of two days we were chauffered 120 miles for a pittance by a hostel-owner who didn't want to lose our custom (Tourists Rest House - has an awesome email address), only to be ripped off for a tour of some shut attractions once we arrived in Delhi (avoid the tourist office on N-block, Connaught Place). We were able to visit many, many beautiful places on our trips - most of which cost very little to visit and were usually well maintained, but the rest of the country's infrastructure was at best strained. Pavements and drainage often didn't exist outside glass-fronted buildings selling the latest Nike clothing. The well-off, a group that seems to be expanding rapidly, have much more spending power than we do; the poorest are forced to beg on the streets. While you feel immensely sorry for them - a birth defect or work accident can leave people with no alternative - giving money to the child-beggers is discouraged for only exacerbating the problems they face. Instead I'll be giving some money to charity to make up for all the times I had to say "I'm sorry but NO". My hands-down favourite part of the trip was Utteranchal, the beauty and tranquility was a much-needed break for us all and as you've seen the views were nothing short of awe-inspiring. On the other hand there was very little of the trip which I disliked - even being confined to our rooms in Delhi due to general closures on Independence Day wasn't too much of a hardship. The people were almost universally friendly, either due to genuine wonderfulness or trying to make a quick buck. So, in conclusion, if you look past the gut-wrenching poverty in some places there is a truly magical side to this country. while I won't be going back for a few years yet, I really hope that I will be able to at some point. Also, 2444 photos may have been slightly too many but there were some real gems in there. |
Orbitrunner9th September 2008
Orbitrunner is an infuruating (aren't they all) flash game for the physicists among us. The basic premise is to use a movable sun (yes...) and an in-depth knowledge of General Relativity to constrain the orbits of some errant planets in your little section of space. You're not allowed to crash things together, or let them wander of the screen. Once you've got the hang of that, they then start sending planets careering in from offscreen. Fun. Even the tutorial levels can be a pain, and if you can get past level 12 then you're doing better than me. The comments section is open for bragging rights..... |
Having received it on Friday, I finally got it running semi-properly on Sunday night, whereupon the department IT officers installed a bunch of software and downgraded me to a bog-standard user account. On my own laptop (well close enough my own). Which I am not keeping in the department, or using in the department quite a lot of the time. The most annoying thing was having a great big screen at startup saying "Do not attempt to log in if you're not an authorised user". I thought that is what passwords were for :-S
So here we go again, another 3-4 years of Downing, formals, geology, lacrosse, hard-work (maybe) and fun (hopefully).
MCR freshers' week has been progressing happily all week - although my liver isn't so happy about this. I've met lots of nice new people and also managed to keep up with the old ones.
I'm not sure if this counts as a website or a download, but I felt it was time to put something in a section other than the blog. Here's something to procrastinate with while the "summer" washes by outside us.
