so…haven’t been around for a while, so I thought I’d launch myself back in with a random question:

Would it be really fucking weird to get in touch with a teacher who went above and beyond to help me through some really, really tough shit 30 years ago to just say “hey, I’ve always remembered you, and I have turned out OK and am pretty successful, thanks”?

you know you’re getting old when you truly love waking up stupidly early.

I found CPSU to be entirely useless when needed, Sadly.

as an academic, zotero is absolutely the way to go.

Endnote does a job, but is comparatively slow, clunky and huge as a program - not to mention expensive, if you don’t have institutional access.

Even WITH institutional access to endnote, I use zotero and pay for syncing myself.

my pay doesn’t land until Thursday night, dammit. I much preferred a previous job where it would arrive on a Tuesday afternoon. somehow that feels much more civilised.

first? hmm.

booyah

oh, I’m so pleased I gave up. for me it was a sleep issue, but it has helped in so many other ways. I still drunk occasionally, but I absolutely notice it when I do

yup - giving up has been a great choice! mostly I don’t miss it, but an extremely hard few weeks makes a glass of red in the bath sound very tempting. Here’s a herbal tea cheers to you (or whatever your muddle aged person drunk of choice is!)

edit: drunk of choice was a totally appropriate typo so I’m leaving it

roast cauliflower is a surprisingly great meal in and of itself

it has been a rough few weeks, team. I kinda wish I weren’t off the booze, which means it’s probably a good thing I am.

Can’t sleep, so watching good ol’ SVU.

excellent news.

this is a difficulty for people who go straight from undergrad to PhD. It can also be a slight warning sign (but absolutely not always) if a phd grad has no experience at all, because usually phd students need to supplement their scholarship/RTP, and supportive supervisors will give good students a boost with some casual work to give them experience/time on the books.

But yes - I often encourage students to get some experience, one way or another, while studying. Often, the type who go straight from one degree to the next are precisely the type who worry that taking a few hours out to do paid work each week will negatively impact their academic performance, etc, and they need to be gently reminded that a well rounded application is stronger than a straight H1 student who has never seen or done anything!

oof. Advertised for a junior/entry level position in my team (academic research), got 74 applications, many with PhDs. Rough.

Brie is a mild cheese

when I say car replacement, I mean if I factor in my daily exercise time etc, as an overall factor, not that it is like a car…

so several months ago, I sought advice from this sub on ebikes, and got some great input from a few people (Calhoon? thornburywitch? taleya? I can’t remember, but they seem likely…). Just wanted to say that a few weeks ago, I bought one (a kalkhoff as recommended by, I think, Calhoon?) and it has been perfect. Affordable (to me, I recognise that is not the same for everone), low end ebike, perfect for the commute from home to work. it is SO MUCH FUN to ride.

I love her (her name is Debra, just FYI).

model: https://everybodyebikes.com.au/products/kalkhoff-endeavour-1-b?variant=44691780796568

almost a total car replacement for anything in a…say…25k radius!

eh…I’m old enough that social media wasn’t really around when I was young and doing stupid things more publicly. Now, my job makes me pretty public anyway, and there are very, very few people in the world with my exact name, so if you google it, only a few of us appear and the most public one is me. All professional pages, though.

also 45, with a couple of guesses