More work on a new painting. Just slopping down base colors at this point. My first oil painting on canvas instead of wood. Canvas is ok. I think I prefer wood. I replaced the innards on both of our toilets this month. I discovered this guy in my toolbox. I don't know where it came from, but it was made around 1939, and 9/16 was exactly what I needed. It also led me to discover this awesome site: Where's craftski? I just bottled this DIPA. I'm calling it "Spirit of '76", and that's plain beer on the right. The green caps are called "Grasshopper", the silver caps are called "Locust". I predict Bernie will drop next week if he doesn't win Michigan. Biden did crazy well last night considering that Bloomberg was drawing from him more than Bernie, and as there were a lot of early ballots spent on Amy and Pete. It seems like the Dems are falling in line, which is not a very Dem thing.
My adviser looked over my last work, proving his assumption about our model was wrong, and conceded I'm indeed right. Even called in one of his post-docs to look over it. It's too early to say anything, but it might be a better thing to research than my original assignment. Could be a juicy (for a niche definition of juicy) paper, could be a thesis topic if it can be generalised more. Either way, I'm stoked. Had a great Delta Green session last weekend. It's a spin-off of Call of Cthulhu books, and IMO a vast improvement over everything from character motivation to mechanics. Plus, what other game allows you to investigate Mythos during the Vietnam War?
Glad to hear that the situation with your adviser resolved itself neatly! I have to admit, I've been lurking in those discussions to pick up advice on how to politely disagree with a superior when you know you're right. It's been an interesting conversation to spectate, and you deserve every ounce of enthusiasm you're feeling. Can't wait to see what you do with the model from here :) Sidenote, our conversation about DG the other day has stoked the fire of a sci-fi setting I've been wanting to flesh out for awhile. Figured out how I wanted to present the background information to my players the other day, and I've written a simple console app that they can run to have a 'conversation' with a protocol AI welcoming them to [Generic Megacity #1] . Have the structure fleshed out, and I'm hoping to add more dialogue to it over the next few days. The current 'win condition' of the intro is tripping enough flags in the dialogue path to make the AI glitch out and dump the chat logs of [Generic Resistance Group #1] to the directory they ran the app from. A bit cliche? Maybe, as far as sci-fi writing goes. But fuck it, it's more effort than most! Hoping they'll have as much fun reading/playing as I've been having writing.
You might like to give Shadowrun's Renraku Arcology - Shutdown book a look for this kind of presentation. It's peppered with IRC logs containing a running commentary from hackers investigating it from the outside (or inside?), and it's a good sourcebook/adventure on its own anyway.
Greetings hubski. WAY WAY too long since my last post. Work is insane. full stop. I don't know if I'm doing things wrong, or doing things right... but I still love it. There's so much going on, so many good people. Lot's of interesting challenges... but then again - maybe I'm just a mid-level schmuck grinding some workers into the ground. Creativity has been at an all time low. Family time is ALL THE TIME, and it's just really tough to keep up with everything and feel like I'm not completely buggering up the entirety of my children's lives. Deep Breath. Don't sweat the small stuff. it's all small stuff. until it's not. I went on a cruise two weeks ago. I don't even know what to say. It was everything and nothing that I expected. I'm really digging hubski chat.
Steve! You're still the best. Stick in there with the kids, man. Fuck-ups are inevitable. No parent can be perfect, that's a fact. It IS all small stuff. It can usually be healed. Don't let "good" be the enemy of "perfect." Good is good enough. It's the most any of us can do. Sending loads of affection to you & yours, confident that in the end -- you are doing fine.
Here's a stoat. It's as fierce as it is cute. Keep being the good people that you are, Hubski. The world always needs a little extra patience, a little extra understanding, a little extra kindness. You all have those and more, so don't hesitate to share them. :)
I don’t know what that animal is but I now want one and will be looking up what I’m the heck it is and where in the heck it lives.
They're the bad guys in both Wind in the Willows and Watership Down, duh. There are community theatre Youtube links I could make but won't. Much as the Eskimos are fabled to have too many names for snow, the British have too many names for varmints.
I was all about ready to put my hands on my hips, smugly smile, and go "well axstually . . ." but no, after looking it up it seems stoats are a type of weasel. Which, I guess, makes them super related to weasels. Are weasels still considered vermin in some parts? I thought, like hawks, it's been well accepted they do more good than harm by keeping rodent populations in check. ::note:: I wouldn't really throw a smug "well actually" out there. At least, not intentionally.Much as the Eskimos are fabled to have too many names for snow, the British have too many names for varmints.
They're related to weasels and can be found pretty much all along the arctic circle, so Canada, Russia, etc. I don't know if they'd make good pets or even legal ones, but some states allow people to keep ferrets as pets and they're equally pretty darn cute.
After two trains, two buses and a big long sleepover ferry we made it to jolly ol' Scotland! We're a bit tired - both not used to sleeping on some serious waves means we didn't get a good night in - but got into our Airbnb with only minor hassle, had phenomenal nachos & cider around the corner and made some simple dinner for ourselves. Best of all the weather's not too bad! I've been enjoying shouting my curated interests into the void on Twitter lately, so I'm gonna be adding (mobility-related) things to this thread along the way for those interested.
I MIGHT HAVE CORONAVIRUS AMA Every case so far is within biking distance, in pretty much every direction. My kid's school is trying to decide when to close. The last community college I went to is closed because their nursing program went to Life Care Center on the daily. My kid had snuffles maybe three weeks ago. I'm sure 2/3rds of her class did. We went to Alaska for a week where my wife had snuffles Thursday through Sunday. We got back in Monday and I had a lot of flop sweat - I assumed this was from the bourbon I had Sunday which makes me sweat sometimes. But it continued Tuesday - yoga was dumb sweaty and I was wiped. Then it continued Wednesday and I was wiped. Thursday I started to cough, Friday I did very little, Saturday I was able to cook a meal, Sunday I was almost better, Monday I was almost ready to resume my life and then Monday night I ended up with a preposterous ear infection that kept me up all night which pretty much skunked yesterday, Hubski Craft Fair be damned. It no longer sounds like a tapped watermelon when I click my teeth but I still have a dry cough. Took my temperature Sunday, when the whole world had gotten into full freakout mode. got like 97 degrees. So I have no evidence I ever had a temperature but I'd rather believe I'm getting over Coronavirus than getting over another dumb flu (yes I had a flu shot, yes I've already had mild flu this season) than the flu again so that I still have Coronavirus to look forward to.
Caught some sun, ski touring, and rock climbing down in Oregon this past weekend. Didn’t look at my work phone. Didn’t deal with the bullshit. Need more days like those.
General Looming Dread: Graduation Edition Graduation is coming up in a few months and it's giving me a sort of pensive fear that maybe things won't be that great once everyone I've been around the past four years leaves. There's still the 2 discord groups I'm in from Melbourne / High School and I'm sure we'll have a college discord group set up after graduation, but it can't possibly be the same. In job news: recently accepted a position at Freedom Scientific up in St. Pete / Clearwater FL, across a bridge from Tampa. The company seems great and I'll probably enjoy working there but I'm scared of St. Pete. From my limited time there, it seems like there's really no urban walkable areas, so anything is going to be a drive and there's a lot of highways. Im trying to be optimistic because it really might be fine but I'm worried it will be isolating, especially since I'll be going there knowing exactly nobody. How do people meet people outside of schools? On the upside: in Atlanta for the next few days, having a good time, & looking for things to do!
New Zealand has three coronavirus cases, no lemon or lime. Work has picked back up finally and all the students have come back to the city. On one hand it's great to see life breathed into the place, on the other hand by god do they make a mess. I walk down probably the most infamous street in New Zealand each morning, during the day it's calm but at night... This was taken in 2009, I was in there... Somewhere.. as a fresh faced 18 year old. Things have carried on much the same every year. February hits, students flock back and Castle Street gets absolutely dealt to. In other news, I attended the first meeting of the Craft Beer Club a few friends have created. Everyone was issued a style to bring, I was on "stouts". It was actually rather fun, everyone went really hard on getting things that were unique and a bit odd. Along with my stouts, I threw in a pickle flavoured beer to see if anyone would even try it and I nearly got kicked out of the group. The blueberry stout saved me and I live to drink another day.
We had a fundraiser party at the maker space for the « nuit blanche » last Saturday. Nuit blanche is an event every year when the metro and museums are open all night, there is a bunch of art in the city and lots of events. Our party was a bit last minute, it was more of a test run to see the demand so maybe we can apply for art grants next year. It was a simple setup - fire and some lights outside, DJ inside with a bar and chill area. Entry was free and we were fundraising with the bar sales. It started off slow, but then I think word got around and we reached the 100 people capacity. People were waiting outside in the cold forever, and it was a bit crazy. I guess that’s what happens when there is no cover charge. I spent most of my night at the door because my friend running it was hilarious. It felt like a scene from an absurd movie - chaos and cold outside, my friend in a fascist looking jacket and a Hawaiian shirt drawing circles on the smokers hands, yelling at the line with a megaphone telling them the party is almost over and they should just go home, my other friend giggling and watching the baby monitor while the dad dances, some drugged out weirdo rambling about who knows what, DJs complaining their friends were stuck outside and nobody giving a shit... our tag line the whole night was « it’s free! » The real party was after anyway - we cleaned everything up and danced, hung out and had fun. Sometimes I wonder how I got so unbelievably lucky with the people that surround me :)
I was at Nuit Blanche as well! Montreal has a frenetic energy, I was kind of mind blown by how crowded it still was at 1am even after Tokimonsta left the stage. I was mostly visiting the art shows with a friend, also had my first white russian in my life- I didn't realize that it's pretty much alcoholic chocolate milk, and incredibly delicious. Favorite overheard quote from the night: "Next year I'll have an exhibition at my house- and only my boyfriend will be invited."
Haven’t seen you in a while! Hope you’ve been well!
Things are well! I still lurk every now and then :P
I'm worn out. Work has kinda settled into the normal flow of things, and the normal flow of things is a bit like a burst pipe. Every day is filled with tasks that are of the better get this done today or this whole project gets bumped back a week sort. I get all these professors and students that bring me big projects to do and are like "yeah, we're hoping to submit that data on a grant this month". Things would be a lot better if I had some help, but as it is I am running a core facility solo, which is basically unheard of for my area. I'm spending like 70% of my time on benchwork, 25% on instrument maintenance, troubleshooting and runs, and the last 5% is divided between whatever else I'm supposed to be doing. Ideally, 30% of my time should be consultation and data analysis. For now, I'm gonna have to plan a way to get a volunteer in here. That's how I got started on this field myself, but I'll need to invest all of that remaining 5% time into finding and training someone. I seem to remember outlasting a dozen or so peers when I was a volunteer, so that will be a thing.
Are you in a position to sweeten the deal with something like a course credit or even a meagrely paid internship? I don't know how it works where you are, but I've done something similar to that at my uni's ultrafast optics group instead of completing yet another lab.
Oscillating between high-key livid and low-key despair. Life’s a ride. Been taking 20mg of melatonin to shut my brain off before I’m accidentally up until the witching hour burning enough calories overthinking to warrant a Taco Bell run. No longer at my usual martial arts place since I planned on rock climbing for half the price, etc. Not many places to blow off steam near midnight, and the heavy weight bag on-campus doesn’t always cut it during daylight hours. Apt complex treadmills feel limiting when the mood dictates speed. Plans this weekend will be uplifting? Heavy dose on that question mark.