Exams over, report handed in. Freedom! goobster The museum I mentioned last week has a DIY mini Strandbeest kit, the end result is in the top left. It's a bit shorter than a foot I think? No idea if you can buy this over there but if anyone wants me to get this for them, it's €35 + approx. €25 shipping. :)
There is a group that attends MidBurn every year that is trying to build a functioning, large Strandbeest but have been failing for the past two years. The things simply don't move. They still bring it alone to the playa. I wonder when this thing will magically start moving!
When they encounter hurricane-force winds. A Strandbeest is basically a Rube Goldberg tumbleweed. Conservation of energy means the less efficient your motive mechanism, the more oomph it takes to push the thing. If you ever watch any footage of Theo Jannsen he's pretty much always in a hair-tousling environment.
Things I made this week Feat. direct eye contact, just for you kleinbl00 Will upload a song I've been working on later. Life things Started training yesterday. I'm working in the kitchen at a fancy pizza place (incidentally, also where my boyfriend and his brother work), which isn't too much of adjustment - I've made pizzas since I was about 5, so I get the general idea. I also met with my bf's uncle and his friend, let's call him "Mike", two days ago. Mike's been in the music biz for a decade or two out here, and I was initially pretty excited to meet him, particularly to try and find someone to master my album. Boy oh boy, was he a terrible human. I've met some other music vets his age before, and there's usually been a bit of casual sexism/racism here and there, but dear god this guy was on another level. Bf's uncle introduces me to him, and he says "ah, she's (my bf) your ol' cocksheath, eh?" and the night goes downhill from there. I basically spent about 5 hours at a bar with this guy, dealing with him showing me pictures of the people he's currently fucking, hearing him talk about wanting to fuck every female patron in the bar, ranking the fuckability of every female musician he knows. When anyone at the table didn't participate, he called them a faggot. At some point he was talking about how gay I probably was, and I just said something along the lines of "there are a lot of dicks I would suck out there, and yours is definitely not one of them", at which point the gay jokes stopped. Eventually, I just point blank told him to give me names of people to master my album, ordered two more drinks (on him), and caught an hour and a half bus ride home. Yesterday, my bf's uncle told me he was going out drinking again with Mike, who I guess had a great time with me, and asked if I wanted to tag along. I told him I would sit this one out. Not looking to get bullied by a 46 year old man again. Oh, here's the cherry on top: he was out drinking because one of his employees just dropped their sexual harassment suit against him. Guys like this are one of many reasons I am not trying to make it as a career musician. And holy fuck, thank god I don't have the horrible misfortune of being a female musician.
Ugh. I mean, there's casual sexism and then there's scum-of-the-earth. And yes, the bar community has more than its fair share of scum of the earth.
Feeling human is nice. Been talking to that woman I met on Sunday every evening, we're getting dinner tomorrow. She makes me feel indescribably good about all sorts of things, especially myself. It's odd to be having a conversation with someone and feel like everything they're saying could have come from your own lips or mind. She's got this deep, base-level curiosity that I find absolutely enthralling and meshes well with my own desire to know and understand more. The thing that's the most 'odd' in a way that I'm unfamiliar with is that she's poly, and just got out of a relationship with a couple. I've never been a part of a plural relationship, and if you had asked me on Saturday if I would ever entertain the notion of it, I would have told you a solid 'No.' After talking with her about it, I think I'm starting to understand why it could work for some people, but I'm still not sure it's something I'm cool with. It's sort of immaterial at the moment, because she's not seeing anybody else. It is something to think about though. Work is going swimmingly. I'm finally closing enrollment on two studies, and my pet project is taking off rather nicely. We're going to be conducting a pilot study to see if the changes I've recommended to our clinical research operations are having the effect we want. My preliminary data supports the idea that if you personally engage patients and families in your research project, take them into consideration when you're designing studies, you decrease dropout/Lost To Followup rates and collect higher quality data, to make better recommendations to physicians in the future. If the pilot study comes back with anything convincing, I'm going to be applying for a grant to do something more comprehensive. The tricky part now is looking for an MD or MDPHD willing to get onboard as a Co-PI, but I think I've found one. Dinner date tomorrow night, bowling with some friends on Friday.
Poly: Read "The Ethical Slut" right away, please. Despite the unfortunate title, this is an excellent primer into the complex landscape of poly relationships. Just dropping into a relationship with a poly person, without any of the linguistic or conceptual tools to navigate those conversations, is a recipe for hurt. I have a very large number of poly friends who represent every different possible poly configuration, and every one of them recommends this book as the place to start. Good luck with it! It sounds like she has your kind of fuel for your engine. Hopefully you provide the right fuel for her engine, as well.
I will also add that the frontier where the Poly community romantically interfaces with the real community is a wartorn DMZ with fields of dead. You're either in or you're out and switching from one to the other is traumatic. I cannot recall a single anecdote from my past experience that is not a cautionary tale.
Consider it Chekov's relationship. I and a wide range of my social circle also participate in open or poly relationships, and we've all chosen to do so for a reason. While some people migrate back and forth from being monogamous and poly, trust me when I say it will definitely come up again. I really hope it works out for you, you sound hopeful, but definitely be able to have that conversation, and retain the ability to do what is best for yourself, while respecting their lifestyle choices as well. I'm not trying to be preachy, apologies if it comes off like that, but I have seen relationships advance with this dynamic, and it's a tricky thing to manage properly for all involved,It's sort of immaterial at the moment, because she's not seeing anybody else.
While polyamorous relationships are a sea I've never navigated, it's great to hear how excited you are about Ms. Boo Thing. Love makes things make sense.
I'm not big on bucket lists but I'm about to cross something off the list that's been there since I was about 8 years old... eat haggis! It's Burns' Supper tonight and the owner of the expat bar is Scottish and invited me. It will be nice to do something fun after 5 straight days of horror and worrying. I'm also contributing to a genetic study I'm really excited about because it directly affects and benefits me! I was born with a very rare congenital birth defect where skin didn't develop on the vertex of my skull. I got lucky in that it only extended to the bone a bit so there's a thin layer of bone between the dura mater and the skin. It can be a lot worse. This study is looking for the genetic cause of the defect. In the last year or so there has been a ton of new research published! They figured out which gene mutates to cause the defect. There's a whole additional paragraph on wikipedia that didn't exist when I last did research in like 2013. So the skinless area scarred over and left a patch where the nerves are fucky and no hair grows right at the whorl of the scalp. I've been self-conscious about it all my life. Turns out there's a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills who told me it was an easy peasy fix (this doctor BUILDS EARS so of course tissue rearrangement on the scalp would be easy peasy). He can also then donate the affected tissue to the genetic study along with my saliva sample. I'm so excited both to contribute to science that affects me and to get one of my biggest insecurities fixed. I should finally be able to shave my head! Planning to get it done around August. I meant to just write about the haggis but thought hubski might find this cool and sciencey.
Maybe it's too late to say this if you've been fantasizing for a couple decades, but I wouldn't expect too much from the haggis. I think it's an acquired taste, and I've eaten it few enough times that I definitely have not acquired it. Update us though. Maybe it was just me.
Haggis isn't revolting like I imagine lutefisk to be. It's just kind of gross. The texture is shitty; the taste is shitty; the thought that you're eating a stomach is shitty. Eating a weird part of the animal is fine if it tastes good (e.g. tripe or balls), but when it doesn't it makes the experience much worse. The first time I had it I was three sheets to the wind and threw up shortly after. It was probably unrelated to the haggis, but it still left a bad taste in my mouth.
Lutefisk is like if someone took the galvanized steel garbage can that the fishmonger uses without a liner and then filled it full of water and boiled grapefruit in it. The grapefruit is the lutefisk. It has an incongruous texture and an aggressively rotten taste. With gravy.
This comment was a train wreck that just wouldn't stop
do you consider yourself an adventurous eater or no?
Well I thought it was fuckin delicious. Would eat again
Not yet but it's also on my list of weird things to eat
Hey, how is everyone? :) I just found out that my master thesis was re-cooked (meaning all my experiments repeated with cells that are 7 days older in differentiation) and getting published soon. The problem is that I am only 5th author... 5 out of 6 figures are practically my experiments that were repeated with exactly the same results!!! The discussion part of the manuscript is just a ripoff from my master thesis discussion. Even the conclusions in the results, the arguments, the statistics used... everything is from me. I am shocked to be honest. I contacted my former PI to talk about it, I doubt I have a chance at changing the situation...
True, it was yet another lab and I am glad that I am out of there... I talked with my current colleagues and PI about the situation. He advised me to start the communication nicely without throwing all the accusations at her at once. The moment I snap is the moment I lose. It is just heart-breaking to read a complete manuscript that mirrors your own thesis and not be properly acknowledged for it. I am happy that I found my current lab. A fair boss, brilliant and nice colleagues, its a good place :)
"Hello! My name is Cumol and some colleagues and I were recently discussing the cellular research you are doing, and I am very interested in your results. I have enclosed my Master Thesis, in the hopes it might be useful in your work. In my thesis you will notice that I did not get to try X procedure on Y data set, because of Z. If you do more research in that area, I would be very interested to hear your results, as I think there may be some fascinating things to discover about the Y data. I look forward to reading your work when it is published! Please do not hesitate to ask, if I can be of any help or assistance in your work. Sincerely, Cumol." Let's em know the community knows exactly what they are doing, and gives them a way out, while also expressing a genuine interest in a common subject, and helping a fellow researcher in your field. The BEST part of this is if she takes you up on the offer! You can then be generous and helpful, and guide her away from your topic, and into a related topic that might bolster your own work. Win/win. But you don't get there unless you put your ego away and reach out honestly.
The thing is, this is my previous PI that is publishing the manuscript. So it is not someone random that is repeated my work, it is the same group under my PI. I sent an email out to ask if we can talk. She didn't respond. Now I am going to call her. They way to send the manuscript out on Monday so today is my last chance...
I've been recently interested in the Dale Carnegie course for public speaking. Have you or anyone else had an experience with it? Of all people, Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, spoke about it very highly. Granted, it's taken with a grain of salt, but the idea of relishing every moment of public speaking -- that's cool. I'd like that.
ANY speaking course - Carnegie, Toastmasters, voice training, improv theater, whatever - is going to improve your public speaking. It was improv that flipped the switch for me, from being nervous in front of people, to being comfortable on stage, alone, with nothing but a microphone in my hands. In the end, people think confidence comes from knowing the material well. I can say from experience that knowing the material is the smallest part of being confident on stage. There are no real "tricks" to it (imagining the audience naked, for example), it is simply a development of your own internal thinking processes and resources. Practice is the key. And improv. That helps, too.
I'll certainly keep an eye out for opportunities to practice. Which reminds me... Wow. Yep. So I just checked one of the classes that sounded vaguely interesting to me that I registered for. "Creating Communities of Action" wherein: "Explorations and exercises in structured and improvisational theatre games to empower students as facilitators in a variety of fields to build classroom, work-related and community-based ensembles for enhanced learning and productivity outcomes." That sounds perfect. I'm really excited now.
I took it. Its pretty fun, and its mostly just practice public speaking and making short speeches/presentations with a sprinkling of truisms and bullshit. If work was offering it for free Id say its worth the time. If you actually have to pay for it, just go to a couple toastmasters sessions.
A boss was big into Dale Carnegie. It definitely changed the way she did stuff; prior to the course, she did her thing. After the course, she did her thing and said that Dale Carnegie made her do it. The book is undoubtedly available at your local library. You could do worse than read it. Then decide if you need the course.
Yea, people love to talk about having attended. It seems that the experience of the course was as meaningful to people as any improvement in public speaking. I mean... from the Scott Adams article: I remember opening my little package of compliments. Like everything else in the Dale Carnegie course, it seemed silly at first. How much impact would a bunch of mandated compliments from strangers have on me? Surely they would seem insincere to the point of humorous. I started to read them, one by one, and they blew me away. It was a powerful experience, and that was the point of the exercise. When we compared notes later, we all had the same experience. Compliments are powerful things, even from strangers who barely know you. That sounds fun. Speaking of compliments from strangers, everyone here is so darn smart.He asked us to write a brief compliment on a piece of paper for every other student. Keep in mind that we didn’t know each other. Coming up with a compliment for each of 25 strangers is no easy task. You had to dig deep. Perhaps you noticed how well someone dressed, or how much progress he made in the class, or her cheerful disposition. We each wrote our compliments and handed them in. The instructor sorted them by student and mailed them to our homes a few weeks later.
Maybe the early/celebrity iterations of the class had really top notch motivational folks. We did the same exercise and mostly you get the same generic compliments. Smart, bold, confident etc people aren't particularly creative in this regard. I can't remember any of mine
As someone who went from 'nervous the entire day leading up to The Talk' to knocking a presentation out of the park with not much more prep than bullet points, I agree with goobster in that there is no trick out there. There's practice, in the case of public speaking practice really makes perfect. I do recognize the flipped-switch feeling. For him it was improv that did it, for me it was a debating course. What I think is key to getting comfortable is having some kind of structure that really works for you. Essentially, you're telling a story, and there are many tools that can help you do that. Find the tools that fit you. For me the most useful tools to enhance my speaking abilities were debating methods like "tell, tell, tell", articulation / manner guidelines. I realized that when I have my presentation's core arguments / structure nailed down, I can just explain / improvize what I want to tell around it. I'm guessing goobster found a bunch of useful tools in his improv classes. Genuine feedback and constructive criticism was also an eye-opener to me; other people are way better at pointing out your idiosyncrasies than you think.
Wow, you and I have the same methodology, I think. I have a bullet list in my head of the talking points I want to hit, or the key phrases I want to use. Then I just stitch together a store live, in front of the audience, that links these bullet points together into a single, cohesive narrative. That way I don't get wound up about remembering the exact wording of a paragraph of text, or whatever. I know what I want to say. I can see if the audience is glazing over, or if they are engaged. And I adapt my story as I go along, and get a feeling for how the audience is receiving it, and how quickly I am getting through my points. Sounds similar to your process? when I have my presentation's core arguments / structure nailed down, I can just explain / improvize what I want to tell around it
Almost identical! I approach the audience as if I'm explaining or telling a story to a friend. The exact words or sentences don't matter most of the time as long as you can get the point across. I also love to intertwine earlier discussions or news events in my story on-the-fly. Especially in a smaller group I've found that people listen better when my story is less isolated from the rest of the day. A while ago a professors of European Studies did an even better version of that technique: instead of bullets, his presentation slides were simply a bunch of seemingly unrelated photos. Each photo fit the story he wanted to tell or the concept he wanted to explain. It was impossible to study his lectures unless you were there and had notes on the stories. (That pissed off a lot of students.) When I have the chance, I now also use photos as slides, with my bullets as presenter's notes.Sounds similar to your process?
My friends developed a tool - HaikuDeck - that constrains you to making these kinds of slide decks. Great images. Simple text. It really is an elegant tool, and forcing yourself to use such a think can REALLY have a meaningful effect on your entire presentation. This is cool... glad to know we share such a similar methodology!
And how does that technique work for you? When I think about it, I can't recall the contents of a single slide I've ever seen.When I have the chance, I now also use photos as slides, with my bullets as presenter's notes.
Yeah, it's remarkable how unremarkable presentation slides have become. It works quite well but it doesn't fit all types of presentations. I gave a presentation to my department last week and a bunch of the slides still had bullet points on them. Formal situations don't lend themselves well to creative presentations.
I agree that there's probably no amount of practice that makes any high-stakes public speaking event not a little bit nerve-wracking in the anticipation. I hear that even seasoned stand-up comics, the few hours before the show are the worst. It's the "c'mon, c'mon" killing time part. It tends to disappear on stage, but the waiting is the difficult part. Sweaty hands. The genuine feedback piece is very true. It's humbling to find out that the things you believe work don't, and people don't even care about your acne or high-pitched voice, and that they instead love the things that you didn't even consider highlights.As someone who went from 'nervous the entire day leading up to The Talk' to knocking a presentation out of the park with not much more prep than bullet points, I agree with goobster in that there is no trick out there. There's practice, in the case of public speaking practice really makes perfect.
Perspectives in sexism One of our birth tubs is chipped. It was chipped under the blue protective layer, which also hid the peeled-off sticker residue from where the birth tub was repurposed from "jacuzzi tub" to "birth tub." This is particularly galling as this particular tub was three weeks late. It being late caused one of our contractors' schedules to slip by a week. In effect, this birth tub not showing up on time set us back a month. I informed the vendor of this and they said they'd look into it. I also forwarded some shots of the tubs looking awesome. They asked if they could feature them on their Facebook page. I agreed, so long as they didn't put our name on them and agreed to run proper publicity shots when we're done (we're nowhere near done). I then asked if they'd figured out what they were going to do with the chip. In the space of an hour, they asked to use us for advertising and informed us they wouldn't be paying for the repair because "too much time had passed since purchase." So I fumed about this over the weekend. On Monday my wife called the owner and said, effectively, "what the actual fuck?" as she's been a client good for an easy grand a year since 2009... and the only reason the chip wasn't revealed immediately is that the instructions specifically said to leave the protective layer on until construction is complete. The owner said "oh, yeah, you! So sorry, we'll get right on that repair!" This actually infuriates me more, as it clearly delineates me as my wife's bitch. Considering everyone with a penis within the birth community is effectively their wife's bitch, it galled me in the extreme. Especially as my wife made it thunderously clear they were never to contact me again (my request) and they called me yesterday to try and schedule the repair anyway (I did not pick up, nor have I listened to the message). Realistically speaking, financial costs to me are net zero and I'm still super pissed. Two hours after that I met with my landlord. I've become his new buddy because I'm male, I'm technically inclined, and I can do things like figure out why the surveillance system doesn't work and what's fucked up about the HVAC. There's a split unit installed by the landlord two years ago exclusively for the purposes of the dentist, our next door neighbor with whom we already have a contentious relationship. This split unit was installed oversized such that it's feeding two room units but can feed up to eight. The landlord is happy to let us tap into it to provide another couple zones of heating and cooling, which is something we need by design (birthing women and birth workers like to be in a room at about 75 degrees and it's nice not having to jack the heat up everywhere else). It's gonna cost me five grand (another story I care not to get into, but suffice it to say that price and its execution has been the lions' share of my past two days) to get that to happen but it'll happen. We were sitting there in a conference room talking about this and that and I mentioned that we were tapping into the split this weekend. "Okay, I'll warn you that system's kinda fucked up right now because they use it wrong." "What do you mean?" "Well, they don't understand it so they set one of them to heat and the other to cool and the system ends up fighting itself. I probably shouldn't say this but it's because it's an office full of women." "I'm going to pretend you didn't say that." (uncomfortable giggle from the landord) "But I know what you mean." "I didn't say it... but I didn't have to." (mutual laughter) ____________________________________________________________________ On the one hand, I'm pissed off that I've found one of the tiny balkanized little microcosms of alternative society where a man can routinely experience sexism and there's nothing I can do about it. On the other hand, I'm gobsmacked that when I encountered sexism in the wide open world of normal society I did nothing to confront it. The fuck does that make me? Granted: in the former case it impacted me directly. In the latter case it was two men talking with no women present about a group of people that have caused me a great deal of heartache. And granted: a good deal of my future happiness is tied to currying favor with the building owner and doing nothing to assuage the growing rift between him and the dentist. And all I can really do is pretend that I'm trying to get in closer to the guy so I can gain enough leverage and trust to try and influence his behavior. But, I mean, he ran for State Senate on a staunchly conservative platform. He was a regional manager of a brokerage firm. It's not like his is an unexamined life. Does it come down to me wanting to encourage negative emotions about the dentist at any cost? Or does it come down to the fact that it's way fucking easier for me to just let that shit go because it doesn't cost me anything? Maybe I'd have an easier time if I had anything left to spend. So that's where I'm at this week: two good negotiations that left me feeling bad for polar opposite reasons. What the fuck do you do with that?
I have this little internal battle of hating all the times I let sexism slide but also continuing to do it to just let the world keep turning. I'm working on not doing that, but I think we just want to push through situations and cause the least amount of conflict.
I will be spending a semester studying abroad in Taiwan (Taipei) from september through december 2017. This gives me an amazing opportunity to discover Asia!
I'm super stoked for you. I got to go to Taiwan once while my parents lived there. It's a wonderful place. It's like a promise of what China could have been. (heavy disclaimer... China is wonderful in it's own way... but... well, these are thoughts for a longer, later post...) If you have ANY time to get away... consider sneaking off to Taroko Gorge National Park. And if you're REALLY looking for an adventure, try an escape to Lán Yǔ (Orchid Island). It's other-worldly and wonderful.
Thanks steve! I will definitely try to sneak away during the weekends. I've written down your recommendations and will get back to you if I make it there :) Taiwan seems to be the perfect mix between the past and the present: Chinese tradition being there with more modern aspects of society. Also, the cost of living seems really cheap, which is great.
It turns out that my parents are kind of lame.... :) They couldn't think of much more than some of the standard tourist trap places... I will seem them in person next week and press for some more ideas. In the meantime, they're (kind of tame) suggestions were: Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Park - I remember visiting here.. it is quite lovely. Lots of people flying kites and enjoying the public space. The Grand Hotel is beautiful, and I think worth seeing (especially if you've watched Eat, Drink, Man, Woman). I don't have much more to add... I loved it there. It's a really, really wonderful city.
Hey steve, thanks for asking them! I can only hope so :)
- Having fun isn't hard when you've got a library card It's really interesting to me how much my hometown has changed in the 4 years since I last lived here. The library I grew up with was replaced and it's interesting how the same inventory, staff, and community feel completely different due to the change in space. - GAMES I've discovered Apocalypse World, and am trying to get my group of friends to give it a shot instead of a d20 system. D20 games tend to focus on rules. Epic 6 or Microlite manage this to a degree, but don't solve my problem. I don't care about the rules, and don't want to invest effort in maintaining the mechanics of the game. I don't want to wrap the narrative around a patchwork of rule look-ups and resulting conversations about RAW. Apocalypse World and other games based off that rule set seem much more focused on the story. I like that.
Apocalypse World tries way too hard to be dark/gritty/edgy to really hit that niche, but there is a DnD themed rework of it called Dungeon World that might get close. Not really mass market, but maybe appealing to someone who's felt disappointment with d20. Main site: http://www.dungeon-world.com/ Creative Commons Book Online: http://book.dwgazetteer.com/index.html Both games' rulebooks say the following near the front and then spend the rest of the book trying to drill it into your head: Playing Dungeon World means having a conversation; somebody says something, then you reply, maybe someone else chimes in. We talk about the fiction—the world of the characters and the things that happen around them. As we play, the rules will chime in, too. They have something to say about the world. There are no turns or rounds in Dungeon World, no rules to say whose turn it is to talk. Instead players take turns in the natural flow of the conversation, which always has some back-and-forth. The GM says something, the players respond. The players ask questions or make statements, the GM tells them what happens next. Dungeon World is never a monologue; it’s always a conversation. The rules help shape the conversation of play. While the GM and the players are talking, the rules and the fiction are talking, too. Every rule has an explicit fictional trigger that tells you when it is meant to come into the conversation. Like any conversation, the time you spend listening is just as important as the time you spend talking. The details established by the other people at the table (the GM and the other players) are important to you: they might change what moves you can make, set up an opportunity for you, or create a challenge you have to face. The conversation works best when we all listen, ask questions, and build on each other’s contributions. Quoted text is by Sage LaTorra and Adam Koebel; Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License That ethos combined with ease of play (i.e. character sheets contain the moves for that class on them for ease of lookup) appeal me a lot more than microlite did when we gave that a shot. I haven't gotten the chance to run it yet, but the play session I've seen online seems to back that up.
I always mean to contribute to pubski but never feel I have anything interesting to share. I'm going to force myself to as an exercise. My life is moving slow and steady at the moment. I am still living at home whilst working for my Dad's company. I've been working part-time (20 hours a week) and trying to spend as much of the rest of the time on my music. I've known for awhile that I'd become to reliant on the external deadlines of university to create the discipline for me to work. Any time I was out of education I'd become frustratingly unproductive and I knew if I wanted to achieve my goals I'd have to change. About 5 months ago I decided to do just that by committing to work on my music 3 hours a day. I figured that even if I didn't achieve that immediately the discipline is what mattered. It seems to be working. I managed to dedicate about 250 hours to my music during the tail end of last year. And that's with quite a disruptive December that delivered a bit of a blow to my daily commitment. To cut a long story short, due to some complications with my parents moving house we effectively ended up homeless for a period of 3/4 weeks. I slept on my brother's sofa with a brief interlude spent in a holiday rental for Christmas. Things are all back to normal now. But yeah, my music's never been in a better place and it's getting easier to put the hours in, so I'm happy with that. Like I said, things are slow and steady. I'm not sure how I feel about that. On the one hand. I'm not exactly dissatisfied with my life. Work is alright, I'm saving a good amount of money, and I get plenty of time to spend on my music with minimal responsibilities. On the other hand, I do wonder whether I'm missing out on things a bit; not much goes on in my town. I guess I'll bide my time for now. Other things I'm working on: a sitcom script and a comedy podcast.
If you don't want the full setup with the mixer, recorder and all that other equipment, a good USB mic is the Blue Yeti. The Audio-Technica AT2020 is it's direct competitor, so pick whichever. Both around 100-150$. Not a bad guide for the basic technical stuff involved of a beginner podcast setup: http://blog.extra-paycheck.com/podcast-guide
Thanks! Blue Yeti is 12k RUB; AT2020 is 7.5k. It's going to be a while before I even dare enter the podcast business: tutor job ain't promising to pay too well. Any of your friends want to learn Russian from a native, by the way? I'm taking students for Skype lessons.
Had my first bout in my boxing class this morning. 3 rounds of 2 minutes. Whooped the living shit out of my partner, but I got a B cause my slips weren't quick enough. Nothing like adrenaline coupled with extreme exhaustion to start your day!
How effective are slips? They always look like a gamble. And are they more or less effective in street fighting? * * Promise that I'm not trying to get into street fights.
A slip isn't practical for me. Huge expense of energy, with the hopes of getting to counter with a body shot. This could be good if you're at a bar and your guy is instinctively holding his breath, which you'll knock out if you hit him right and he's pretty much done. If you've got a nice hook and a strong jab you can give your opponent a very bad day with a couple nice slips, but my first bout as far as the class goes only evaluated how we worked with jabs. As a result, I just focused on feints to make him jump off guard, hopefully throw a panic-y punch for me to counter to open up his face for a short combo. I wrestled in high school so I had to kick the instinct of leaning forward to protect my legs. Trying to slip just puts my weight forward again, all of a sudden my dumb ass is offering a cordial invite to my opponent to knock me out.
Met up with an old friend two days ago for dinner. She and her husband are both doing very well right now, which is awesome to see. They're both very much buried under their work, which is a shame, buy they're out there helping people, which is amazing. I went to Feast last week. It was the first time I met back up with the Baha'is here since the election. They're an okay group and I'm glad I'm in touch with them. There's also a Presbyterian Church nearby that I keep in wanting to go to, but I can't seem to get a Sunday off to save my life. I've emailed the pastor once, who has an open door policy, and I'd love to sit down and chat with him. I think when I get my work schedule for next week, I'm gonna see if I can't make an appointment to stop by and say hello. Watched Cloverfield last night to get my mind off of things. I'm kind of torn on that movie. On the one hand, it does a very good job on showing a grounds eye view of what a Kaiju event might be like. On the other hand, its brisk pace seems very flawed. There were a few scenes where an extra minute here or there would have helped the pacing a bit and I still think Marlena's getting bitten and the results of her bite happen way too quickly. It's still a good film overall, but it feels more like a 60 minuteovie than a 90 minute movie. My dog is amazing. Just throwing that out there.
I had a valve that was going in the espresso machine. I don't really know much about the guts of an espresso machine. Talked to my roaster about it, he had a spare valve which he sent over and he gave some advice about replacing it. It took me about ten minutes to change out the valve after the machine cooled down. No more steam leak. It's and old machine but it works great. It's even got some aftermarket improvements that my ridiculously ancient espresso mechanic souped it up with. My roaster says that the average coffee shop spends at least $500 a year on equipment repair, with the most common cause of failure being a blown circuit breaker ($70 please). So far I'm in for a $28 valve in a year and a half. I can fix the mechanical bits of my coffee or espresso grinders and know a bit about the espresso machine. I guess I'm making it a goal to never pay anyone to fix my equipment and do it all myself. I might break that vow if it's an electrical problem but maybe not.
My friend has been working at a pizza place for at least the past 10 years now. And this summer the dough mixer broke. It was really fun hearing him talk about going around town, finding the proper bearing and trying to put it back together. I guess for him it was a welcome change from the routine. And since repairs on these industrial machines are so expensive (not talking about buying a new one!) the boss was okay with it. He did fix it after 2 days! Now the oven broke. I guess a new adventure begins!
I truly can't imagine maintaining an espresso machine in a commercial setting. I bought a La Marzocco when I moved outside of convenient driving range of any coffee shops, and it made great espresso, and I kept it in working order for 4 years, and then I just couldn't be bothered anymore and I drink aeropress or cold brew now. I care enough to drive two hours every month or so for green beans and to roast them myself, but keeping the La Marzocco working was way more trouble than it was worth.
They are pretty stable if you keep them on all the time. Turning them on and off, heating stuff up, cooling it down, putting it under pressure and depressurizing them causes more wear and tear than using them and leaving them on all the time. At least that is what I'm told, it's all peasant lore and I do what I'm told.
What typically fail on these things? Is it bearings, reservoir hosing and valves, washers, things of that nature?
Gaskets on the group heads are going to go first. I changed mine out after one year before they had a chance to leak pressure. They are cheap, more like maintenance than repair. I think I'm going to need to replace a valve or seal on one of my steam wands before long, seems like it isn't sealing as well as it should. Looking at the valve I replaced I think it might be original, so around twenty years old. Puro cafe is mildly corrosive to metals, so every thing down stream of the group heads is going to go eventually. My roaster has the copper connector to his drain corrode and leak a few weeks back. Another shop that my roaster sells to had some kind of water sensor fail recently. I think old espresso machines are like old cars, anything could go. If there is no water filter on a machine and the water has any mineral content than it's going to fuck the machine up badly. I think it was ecib that sent me some photos of a machine who's boiler had more limescale than open space in the boiler. If you don't keep your machine clean you'll make terrible espresso and it could interfere with the general operation. Lots of equipment chit chat on my roasters blog, most of it about coffee roasters but a bit about brewing equipment. http://www.couriercoffeeroasters.com/wordpress/
Pubski already? TIme flew fast. A. S. Made a long-winded comment. Deleted it. Made a concise version, instead. Been thinking a lot about relationships today. Realized today that never but once have I felt a sincere connection to someone, and Sveta's no longer a part of my life. Other people, even those I'm on good terms with, feel like no more than that to me, and I'm bothered by this disconnect. I want to make connections, I want to be able to talk to people in a more... normal way, but I have no idea how or how to figure it out. People expect me to follow common-sense rules that I've never learned; it's no wonder, then, that people avoid me the way they do. I don't feel like people like me. Not "most people" - that would be natural - but people overall. I suppose it's the reflection of my own self-esteem, to assume that people can't like me. I feel like the best I can do is hazard a guess at their current disposition towards me - a relic of my time under a narcissistic mother, trying to survive the waves of the whim; I don't feel like I can say with certainty what the state of things is unless I get the confirmation of it often enough. This may be why I need so much contact with people: to know that they didn't stop liking me yet and are still my friends, because this is what I'm wired for: to be liked as if it's the only reputable source of one's self-esteem. Doesn't help that best I get from people ranges from ignoring me to mixed signals to "I have other stuff I have to take care of" and never messaging back. Further complexity brings the fact that I don't do well with normal people, those who have few problems. It can be fun, but it's never as exciting as being around broken people. I thrive on helping others overall, and broken people are most in need of "help" that, for me, really is "fixing" them. Without helping - or "helping" - I feel useless and my existence - pointless... and I know there's a better way for me to exist than that. I want to do better than that, for my own sake. I don't want to be everybody's teddy bear or doormat: I want to be appreciated, accepted and loved for being myself, something I never had growing up. Perhaps it's a reflection of the fact that it's much easier to help others than oneself, and some of us choose to escape solving what bothers us from within with solving what bothers us from without. It's a vaguely massive pile of garbage that we have to throw away, and doing so seems like a daunting task; besides, it would necessitate that we take responsibility for cleaning it up, and that means we'd have to act on it or feel guilty; so we escape the conflict by shifting our focus and trying to not mind the smell. So maybe I don't have a base to complain about people not liking me when it's I who acts like a doormat for people to use. I provide social utility, but not much else. I'm the smart guy who's good with electronics, and people often ask me about stuff since they think I must know it. People tell me I'm one of the most interesting people they've ever met (if not the most), but this is where it ends, every time. Sveta - the person I've made most contact with - said as much but never did as much as message me first. Dasha - the last person I've tried to build a sincere connection with, after a year of going back and forth - said that she enjoyed the fact that she could talk about everything with me and that it was interesting, which is why she didn't want to lose contact with me but, for some reason, couldn't find time to give me. Maybe there's something I should change about the way I treat people. I wish I knew what it is. I need a plain-language and straightforward framework to work my way off of, and I don't know where to find something like that. Any tips? * * * The character of Harold Finch from Person of Interest has always been one of my favourite: he's not a strong man physically, but his ethics are impecable, and that, to me, is most admirable. Having played a character as close to his as possible in Choice of Robots, a CYOA, I was reminded of the value of sincerity and following one's code with integrity, no matter the cost. Though I may not have what it takes to make my future the way I want it, it is an admirable way to walk the path. * * * One other aspect I'd like to talk about is my potentially drama-seeking behavior, but I'm already at a very long comment. I'll put it here so that I won't forget it next time Pubski comes.
It has been too long Hubski. I hope y'all have been doing well. My life has been a fucking roller coaster this past week. Sharp drop on Thursday, low point Monday, working back up now. Thursday's event is irrelevant. Monday, a few old, deep wounds got reopened. I had to for my own mental sanity cut someone I care about out of my life. That shit sucks. It's never fun to go through but it's something I had to do. Maybe I can let them back in one day. But I did notice a quick improvement in my mood as soon as I did. It's not something I should be dwelling on but I can't help it. It hurts and I haven't hurt like this in a while. I'm just hoping in a few days or weeks I'll be happy agian. I declared a major - public health. kleinbl00 and I were talking about that a long time ago on IRC. It's a really cool subject with a lot of interesting stuff going on. I'm really liking the idea of epidemiology but not the math portion of the class. Someone covered my door handle in lube a few months ago. College kids are dicks.
I'm setting up a cadaver lab event with two plastic surgeons, a sports Med doc and an orthopedic surgeon. Try juggling those schedules. Anyone have a hip to loan us :) It's crazy how busy I am. Nutty. I bet in 6 months I'll laugh that I ever thought I was busy.
Finally putting together a list of DIY things I want to start getting done...need the worlds tiniest screwdriver to take the base plate off my camera to figure out why the light meter isn't working; measuring parts of this sweet Finnair route map from the early 70s that I'm going to put on display in my apartment; planning a home built coffee/tea bar...etc. Really interesting question posed by OftenBen on when is something a relationship? When are two people one? Interesting, yet, in my situation it's not anything I'm spending much mental power on those kind of questions. Mostly really, really enjoying the moments right now and trying to figure something out for Valentine's Day. With the way things have shook out, it's been about four years since I've had a Valentine's Day date. Yikes. It'll be nice when I can run/climb again, but that is literally my only complaint right now.
hey man, could be worse. 11 years.With the way things have shook out, it's been about four years since I've had a Valentine's Day date.
I'm increasingly less sure what I want to do once I finish up my Ph. D. I started it because I wanted to be able to do research. But the more time I spend in academia the more I realize that academia is where innovative research goes to die. I look at how my advisor spends her time, and most of it seems to be administrative stuff rather than anything interesting. Furthermore, professorships are few and far between, and I drew the short straw on several things in grad school, so I doubt I'll stand out from the crowd enough to count on landing one. Conversely, the stuff I'm doing now is interesting but I doubt there's any immediate industry appeal for it. (Although I'm pretty sure I could angle myself into a position doing semi-related research.) I was hoping to land a basic research position at some national lab, but it seems that those won't be exactly plentiful in a few years' time either. Otherwise, research seems to be going better than it did in 2016 (i.e. I am actually able to spend time on it).
From where I'm standing, R&D in a company is a good place for your ambition, especially if the company's of the freer culture, like Valve or Google (where you get to/have to spend X% of your time on side projects). Google X sounds like something for long-term research, if that's what you want. Then again, you can be your own R&D and build something to sell, earning yourself the finance and pleasure at the same time. As for national laboratories... Have you thought of working abroad - say, in Europe? I'm sure people there would appreciate having a Ph.D. with a different perspective on things.
So, my life is pretty good. Although I did get to depressed to function properly this fall and I've got a lot of schoolwork to catch up on. I really want to finish this stage of schooling now since it is supposed to take 3 years. I'm on my 4th. And I've got one more year to go. And the knowledge part of it isn't that hard, I can wrap my head around that fairly easily, it is the actual sitting down and writing assignments that I'm worried about. I have a meeting with my Swedish teacher to discuss a book I was supposed to have done a paper on so that I can then write that paper, and I've got 1 and a 1/4 of a years psychology to catch up on. In civics I'm basically caught up. In history my teacher was on sick-leave at the same time as me and since she didn't teach the class and since I think she got a general idea of why I hadn't been in school when I answered the question "Have you been sick" with "I've been on sick-leave" I don't have to do anything specific now. I might have to have an extra question on a test sometime in the future but that feels easier than doing a whole essay. I can't fail maths since I've passed the national test in it once (though I had hoped for a better grade) and I convinced my school to hand me an F in French so that I don't have to suffer thru that. In natural science I don't know what I have missed and that is a class that should be an easy pass for me since I've studied both biology and chemistry before but the problem isn't so much the actual knowledge as the actual work. I might have missed something but you get the general idea. And it's not that much but since my brain is broken in an sometimes entertaining but mostly not way it is a bit of a problem. And my school is very accommodating and such and I don't feel like my current situation sucks but I'm also kind of worried for how this is going to work at university. Because this is much easier than university and I'm not really managing.
Got my first media pass to this outdoor festival called igloofest last week. interviewed a couple DJs and the co-founder, it was pretty neat! Still editing it, cutting down interviews is kind of a pain and I've got A LOT of other footage of the event... Currently at a 20 minutes video, got to cut it at least in half. Will try to get it done before the weekend :)