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[Jul. 18th, 2009|10:10 am] |
Hello kiddies!
It's been a while since I wrote anything here, this is partly because facebook's status updates require so much less thought than a proper post but mainly because I'm run off my feet and probably will be for the foreseeable future. Apologies in advance.
Erm right, well, what can I say. Well firstly I should be working; indeed I was earlier but the will now seems to have left me, which is terribly inconvenient. I did tell myself when I moved to the rail group that I wouldn't work weekends anymore and I've sorta stuck to that, ish. While I do have to work weekends still, it is at least stuff for the biologists, which technically isn't work anymore and will come to an end sooner or later.... Or at least that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!
Pretty much any time that I have left (which quite frankly isn't that much after a 50-60 hour Monday - Friday and about 15 hours at the weekend) seems to be spent failing to make a decision about whether I think I should move to a digital SLR from my 35mm. The arguments for digital are quite compelling, the ability to get a grasp of the images while you're still wherever it is and the lack of film are both very convenient, I really like Apple's photo archiving software too and the camera and lens technology has gotten much better in the last couple of years. Unfortunately, the cost (at least if you want full-frame rather than 3/4) is still very high. In film's favour you've got the fact that darkroom stuff (while I don't have the facility here right now) is inherently fun, and good kit is really cheap on ebay. That said, even if I do set up to do the 35mm processing myself, there's still a significant cost associated with conventional film (the film itself, paper, chemicals and of course my time, which is really limited), and since it's going to loose out in the long term maybe now is the time to jump... I dunno.
Right, must work. Or drink coffee. Hell, who do I think I'm kidding? I'm going to drink the coffee and ignore the work for another half hour. Fail. :S |
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[Jun. 15th, 2009|09:24 pm] |
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As I was heading back from Sainsbury's this evening the Scout hut on Gibbons Road was surrounded by police cars and crime scene tape. I'm not sure what was going on, but it didn't look good... It wouldn't be the first time a body has turned up in that park for example :S |
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[Jun. 2nd, 2009|04:42 pm] |
So for those of you as of yet unaware of this, I have a new job.
Yes, in a fit of rebellion I moved downstairs to rail. Not a big rebellion I know, but there we are :). What it does mean is that I have a new office. It's much smaller than the last one (there's just two of us in here), but I have a bigger desk and it's in the bit of the building that they seem to have at least spent some money on, rather than paying the workmen in bananas; thus I suspect I win by most measures. *nods* |
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[May. 19th, 2009|10:44 am] |
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So 4 years, 7 months, 23 days later, the thesis has finally been submitted. Feels something of an anti-climax if I'm honest.... |
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[Apr. 1st, 2009|02:23 pm] |
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I have something that looks disturbingly like a complete draft sitting on the desk in front of me.... :D |
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[Mar. 30th, 2009|03:49 pm] |
Why does the word feel the need to abbreviate everything? I mean really?
I know I probably get exposed to this more than most (I'm on CLICs mailing lists and we deal with a fair number of these people) but every group around the uni seems to insist on having catchy but completely meaningless tags. Thus I never really know who I'm talking to. C-SAP for example? Anyone have any idea what a C-SAP is? Means nothing to me. |
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| Change etc |
[Mar. 23rd, 2009|03:29 pm] |
Hello kiddies,
I've not posted on here in a while, mostly because a fair number of quite major issues have been sorting themselves out and while everything is still a bit up in the air I've decided it's probably all solid enough that I can talk about it.
Firstly, it's looking quite likely that after the end of May I'll no longer be working for Theo. I haven't given him the final 'no' yet (that meeting's going to be April 1st.... Maybe I should say I'll stay on and then shout April fools before running out chuckling?) but he knows it's on the cards, and I've built it up in my head to the point where I really do have to run with it or I'll never actually move on. Ever. After working for/with the same person for quite this long (he was teaching me back in 2000 and has been my supervisor since 2002) it's been a rather tricky decision, although there are plenty of you who've said it shouldn't have been and I should have gone years back. Exactly what I'll be doing next isn't really settled yet but I'm not in any danger of ending up in a cardboard box or anything, so there's no need to panic :) Slightly worryingly, I think the thing I'll miss most is my desk.... I like the view!
Secondly, I *think* the evil T may be close to being done, fingers crossed. Most of it is written, and it feels pretty consistent to me at least, so there shouldn't be too much editing... I'm struggling a bit to find the will for the final push, but I've told myself it'll be submitted early May come hell or high water and I *will* stick to that this time.
That lot seems less exciting now it's written down.... Meh.... |
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[Feb. 15th, 2009|10:41 am] |
What I should be doing right now is working through the piles of evil T notes all around me. Therefore what I'm actually going to do is discuss them in a very pointless and high-level sorta way :)
How controversial is too controversial? At what point does expressing your opinion on a matter, particularly if it conflicts with that of the establishment in a particular field, become a... personal crusade or a vendetta rather than a healthy level of reasoned debate? Should you go beyond the point in a discussion that you needed to reach in order to achieve your goals, especially if there is no obvious gain to be made and you risk coming over as a fanatic, eroding your own credibility? On paper, our rules of society encourage us to speak up but in practice that's seldom the case, having an opinion makes you a target. Which is the better approach, sweeping statements that may well be wrong, or small steps that might not ever be noticed? |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 12th, 2009|09:26 am] |
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When your boss starts talking about the oompa-loompas in his brain is it time to call the men with those nice white coats that fasten at the back?? |
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ommadon's journal