I wonder if there’s some sort of theory behind having candidates quizzed on vaguely-related topics. I also had a similar experience where I was quizzed on a bunch of electrochemistry items that were totally irrelevant. That was for the job I’m at now.

Managing your stress is important. It took me a while to learn that yes, it’s ok to do things for yourself to lower your burden and YES there may be major consequences if you can’t regulate that properly. You might go through periods where you’re less resilient than before for little reasons like a long commute or seemingly minor personal changes. Don’t let them sneak up on you.

We’ll have to get a beer this time during your stay.

I’m having a dilemma.

I started my current job about a month ago. Around the same time I also interviewed for a job at an academic institution. At the time that I interviewed the academic job seemed like a no-brainer to me. The pay was actually equivalent or better and was more in line with what I’ve been doing. The locations and people there seemed very welcoming and appealing. By contrast, the pharmaceutical company where I had started to work that very week seemed to have an oddly impersonal culture and didn’t seem to be particularly competitive pay-wise.

Fast forward a month or so. I’ve now received confirmation that I will be offered the position at the university (things move slow). Now the choice is not so easy for me anymore. I had a momentary surge of anxiety when reading that email.

My current job has grown on me a lot. The company environment doesn’t seem so sterile and weird now that I’ve had time to acclimate. I like the people, I like working with my supervisors, and I dare say I’ve kicked ass so far with what I’ve been working on. The place is very laid back, my commute is easy, my responsibilities are surprisingly light, but the job remains interesting enough that I could see myself here long term. My potential to earn more long term remains unclear, but likely it’s more than I’d get at the university. It’s also nice that I’m non-exempt and get paid for every minute of overtime I do, so if I’m here working late it’s just that much easier to be cool with it psychologically.

On the other hand, the university position would be much more responsibility, probably much more interesting, and probably a lot more work—including things I’m not so familiar with. It potentially could be a bigger boon to my career than where I’m at but that’s dependent on a lot of factors. It’s also unclear to me there what my potential for earning long-term could be. It’s no doubt a better opportunity for personal growth for me, but at the same time I’m pretty intimidated by the enhanced responsibilities, probably in no small part thanks to the experience at my last job. Long term, either job should be quite stable, but I am wary of a risk of failing spectacularly at the university job early on.

Either way I’ll be disappointing someone with potentially bridge-burning consequences and I’m looking for some item to make the choice easier. I was hoping I’d get placed in a higher pay bracket for the university job to make it the clearer choice, but it sounds I’m probably being placed in the lower one where I’ll probably be out-earning that after my 6 month review here. Basically I’m torn and don’t know what’s really best for me long term or short term.

I’ve been working on a used bookstore sci-fi haul.

The Gray Prince by Jack Vance: mentioned this one before. Mostly enjoyable read but becomes aggravatingly strawman-like by the end regarding its political subtext.

Three Herbert books:

Destination: Void: I liked this one a lot, but oh boy is it dense. Large swaths of technobabble that may last pages dealing with semi-fictional tech. Are people meant to understand anything out of those passages? Also very philosophical and technical. The book breaks out into fucking equations at one point. You can practically hear a distant Herbert screaming “look how clever I am” as you read it. Despite all that I still really liked it.

Direct Descent: got this for the novelty factors as it’s an illustrated novel. Gave up on it halfway though. Pretty much garbage unless something amazing happens in the second half. Unlike the previous entry, there was no likeness to his other works. I imagine that this was written with a teenage audience in mind given the illustration and the overly thin and simplistic story, however nothing else about this book could be seen as appealing to a teenage audience. The inner turmoils of a library planet? Can’t get dustier than that.

God Emperor of Dune: best in the lot by far, but I’m not too deep into it yet. Four books in it’s still really nice to return to Dune.

For nostalgia's sake:

http://zombo.com/

Does international political influence and espionage count as new and innovative use? Lets make hubski the hub for the pro-California secession botnet.

Good catch. I saw the $88 used copies on amazon, didn't check the UK site though. There's some sort of regional restriction on it. really makes me curious about what happened.

So I’ve been trying to find this album. For some reason you can’t buy it anywhere. It’s not apparently streamable anywhere either. I could listen to rips on YouTube... but what happened to the damn thing? What got this album the black mark of commercial annihilation?

I’ve been there re: work before. The movie theater dream sounds super cool. I’m luck to be in an area where there are some smaller theaters that fit into that vein.

Also feel you on the Camaro. That is one blah looking car.

Well I’m about halfway through it now and I’d say this one is kinda garbage.

Another one I picked up at the same time is Destination: void by Herbert. I liked that one a lot despite its propensity for dense swaths of technobabble.

I’ve been trying to reduce meat consumption for a while now since it’s gotten more scrutiny over its environmental impact.

I mean, I’ve always known it was bad but something had to kick me into doing something about it. Trying to offset my personal environmental impact hits some hurdles on practicality. Public transport to work is infeasible. I drive a regular old gas car and can’t buy a different one any time soon. Even recycling isn’t collected at our place so we have to stockpile it and take it somewhere.

I’m not vegetarian, but there’s nothing really stopping me from it other than not feeling like it. Even less so if we’re talking about reducing my meat consumption to a third of what is has been.

Still, it’s a tad inconvenient to try and eat vegetarian consistently. Buying meals somewhere means your options are slashed drastically. Cooking at home, it’s also a challenge to come up with a variety of meal-like items when you’re not used to vegetarian life.

The appeal of meat does get reduced, though, if you can stick with it long enough. What we really need are more options like this that bridge the gap. I dig the Beyond burger and it’s the only reason I’ve gone to a Carl’s Jr. in my life probably. I haven’t tried the Impossible burger but I am eagerly awaiting BK to roll it out nationwide. People generally say they’d believe the Beyond Burger was an exotic meat if they were told so. Even if it’s not a perfect imitation it’s close enough to fill the role of meat like no substitute has before.

Also it’s not “health food”. Can you imagine how much frustration there has been from vegetarians over the years when the only thing they can order at restaurants is the healthy option?

I’ve been playing racquetball a decent amount lately. I’d actually play it more often if it were convenient to, it’s been pretty fun.

I’ve also been tearing through some paperbacks I got from a used book store a couple weeks back. Right now I’m on this odd illustrated novel by Frank Herbert: Direct Descent. Every couple pages it has a full page illustration and it is very 80s. I’m not far in yet, so remains to be seen if it’s any good or not.

I’ve also been watching Chernobyl on the tail end of our GoT-mandated HBO online subscription and I’m hooked.