6 times sleeping and then we go there:

To be more specific: at the western most tip of this bit of land. Looking forward to some wild november ocean.

I've also decided to join INADWRIMO 2009, on the invitation of Dr Brazen Hussy of What the hell is wrong with you?

In November I want to:
1. Finalise a draft of Almost Forgotten Study. Some if it is written but I changed the orientation of analysis. Recylcing of old writing will happen but I'm targetting for 6000 words max.
2. Turn existing draft of Long Stay Abroad Study into submitable manuscript. Lots of co-authors comments to address.

Good luck to all participants!

Do your students look like this too?

Weekend emails

and baking. Pumpkin cake. It ended up being very crumbly (unusually so - I baked this thing before), but still yummy. Got a whole pumpkin from my dad this weekend, so it was a pumpkin soup, curry and cake fest.

What about weekend email? What do to do (if you are as bad as me and check and read them)? Reply? Wait for monday?

Can replying emails of the department chair make you look good (or like someone who has no life, and is reliable on emergency things. "let's organize a meeting, reply asap")

I reckon students should not be answered on weekends - but I did it recently out of pure self interest to secure myself a good student as a master student (mission accomplished). Other emails I tend to ignore.

The truth is: I should use my weekend for something else, and more interesting if it has to be work I suppose...

Surely a translation error?

Connecting fligth missed

Thankfully, there is a good internet here and nice chocolate cake.
Irritating though.

What makes a conference successful?

What makes a conference successful (for someone attending)?
-the number of new contacts made?
-the number of old contacts refreshed?
-the number of talks attended?
-the number of talks you'll actually remember?
-the number of people who came and saw your poster / talk?
-the number of people who spoke to you about your poster / talk?
-the number of manuscript reviews you'll be getting after talking to someone who is also a journal editor?
-the number of business cards you handed out?
-the number of pages of the Millennium you managed to read?
-the number of potential new collaborations that came up?
-the number of times you used the hotel's pool?
-the number of free drinks you had in the all inclusive? (or slices of pie, ice cream, or any other indulgence)?
-what combination of these?
I think I didn't scored too badly on those indicators (meaning I spoke to a fair number of new people, but did not have an outrageous number of drinks or ice cream!). Now I want to go back home. The wifi really sucks here.
Anything else you can think of?
But I confirm: if dancing is involved I can be a party pooper. I seem to block over the idea of dancing with colleagues. Most of them anyway.

On efficiency in meetings

Today I attended a meeting with the local national women in science thingy. I got really annoyed with the way the meeting was being led.

I do believe this girl knows better... still we spent considerable amounts of time on things:
- for which people's opinion had been asked repeatedly by email. YES we approve the last meeting's minutes!
- for which I'm really happy for the people in charge of a specific minor thing to make an executive decision.

Because in the end that leaves you with 20 minutes to take out of your hat a big thing that you've worked on without getting a chance to notify people. Don't let the meeting linger on stupid things if you've got this to show and it will actually require exchange of ideas and discussion.

This was frustrating.

My relative absence from these realms have been related to the fact that september ended up being way busier than I expected... this kind of time wasted does not help.

But there should be only one week left with student questions and business such as those I mentionned the last time... you'll get some moaning on that too, don't worry.

Next week though I'm headed to a mediteranean location for a week of conference in a golden cage. Is anyone else going there? F*ck! I thought it was going to be around 20°c there this time of the year, but it's 30°c! Need to review my packing plans...