While the people living on east coast of the US were building sleds and hitching them to animals so they can go buy 10 loaves of Wonder Bread, the people living on the east coast of Australia were building arks and throwing pairs of animals inside. The rain is much needed, but it also makes me a wee bit crazy to be stuck inside. There are cliffs to be explored, markets to be combed, and oceans that need to be swum (swimmed? swam?...my grammar sucks).
So rather than braving the indoor crowds, I spent the day cleaning and reading while Miles Davis kept me company. There is something so cozy about listening to Miles Davis on rainy days…I love it. Sunday was better, it didn’t start pouring until I got down to cliffs and opened my book. I closed the book and embraced the downpour.
Today the sky finally showed patches of blue while I was at work. Mother Nature has such a sick sense of humour.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Day 485: the deadly sin of facebook
Does anyone else feel like a 15 y/o when they say the word “unfriend”?
When people join Facebook, there seems to be some sort of un-written popularity contest for attaining the most friends. I know people who have over 1000 friends. I don’t even know 1000 people. My list is far shorter, mostly because I’m not pro-active when it comes to “friending” people. And I refuse to add a bunch of high school acquaintances that I hated then and would probably only mock now (bitchy but honest). Actually I’m secretly afraid that I will learn that they are far more successful than I am, thus ruining my delusions of yeah-I-may-have-been-a-nerd-then-but-now-I’m-cooler-than-you. And I don’t have the Girl Scout cookies here to combat that kind of disappointment.
Anyway…
As easy as it is to add someone to your Facebook posse, un-friending them is like a slap in the face, essentially saying “I don’t want to know what you’re doing anymore and can’t make the effort to just ignore you”. And you can’t take it back without some creative explaining (um, my cat did it, she’s jealous of our cyber relationship). It’s happened to me before and I have no idea why, but I can’t imagine it was over something drastic. I never talked to these people. However, when I tell people, they’re like “whoa, what did you do?” I probably annoyed them with my daily sarcastic status updates…
It works both ways. I unfriended someone and everyone was like, “whoa, what happened???”, probably thinking he must’ve run over my cat in order for me to take such drastic measures*. Even people who scorn facebook acted liked I’d committed the 8th Deadly Sin (in addition to pride, sloth, wrath, etc, there is now unfriending…). It has given me some momentary twinges of guilt, but my absence has gone un-noticed or at least un-challenged.
I bet passive-aggressive behavior on Facebook has been the basis for many PhD dissertations in psychology.
* The who and the why are not relevant, but I promise that it wasn’t because my cat was run over.
When people join Facebook, there seems to be some sort of un-written popularity contest for attaining the most friends. I know people who have over 1000 friends. I don’t even know 1000 people. My list is far shorter, mostly because I’m not pro-active when it comes to “friending” people. And I refuse to add a bunch of high school acquaintances that I hated then and would probably only mock now (bitchy but honest). Actually I’m secretly afraid that I will learn that they are far more successful than I am, thus ruining my delusions of yeah-I-may-have-been-a-nerd-then-but-now-I’m-cooler-than-you. And I don’t have the Girl Scout cookies here to combat that kind of disappointment.
Anyway…
As easy as it is to add someone to your Facebook posse, un-friending them is like a slap in the face, essentially saying “I don’t want to know what you’re doing anymore and can’t make the effort to just ignore you”. And you can’t take it back without some creative explaining (um, my cat did it, she’s jealous of our cyber relationship). It’s happened to me before and I have no idea why, but I can’t imagine it was over something drastic. I never talked to these people. However, when I tell people, they’re like “whoa, what did you do?” I probably annoyed them with my daily sarcastic status updates…
It works both ways. I unfriended someone and everyone was like, “whoa, what happened???”, probably thinking he must’ve run over my cat in order for me to take such drastic measures*. Even people who scorn facebook acted liked I’d committed the 8th Deadly Sin (in addition to pride, sloth, wrath, etc, there is now unfriending…). It has given me some momentary twinges of guilt, but my absence has gone un-noticed or at least un-challenged.
I bet passive-aggressive behavior on Facebook has been the basis for many PhD dissertations in psychology.
* The who and the why are not relevant, but I promise that it wasn’t because my cat was run over.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Day 482: conference*
For all my ranting about conference anxiety, this was the first one where I didn’t have any. Well not much. I was still freaking out the day of my presentation but in much quieter, subtler way. Since no food was thrown in my direction and no one stormed out of the room after yelling “you’re wrong!”, I consider it to be a success. But even after only 3 days of conferencing, I came back tired.
Overall it was nice to get into a car and out of the city. The pilots did not seem impressed with the drive, having done it numerous times themselves, but I was expecting Nebraska and not the rolling hills. I can understand why dogs want to hang their heads out of the window. I sort of had the same urge, but aside from it being socially unacceptable, I’m not a fan of bugs flying into my face.
Canberra itself was nicer than I expected (it gets a bad rep for not being on the coast) but I didn’t really see much of the city so I really have no idea what I’m talking about.
*wow my post titles kind of suck lately
Overall it was nice to get into a car and out of the city. The pilots did not seem impressed with the drive, having done it numerous times themselves, but I was expecting Nebraska and not the rolling hills. I can understand why dogs want to hang their heads out of the window. I sort of had the same urge, but aside from it being socially unacceptable, I’m not a fan of bugs flying into my face.
Canberra itself was nicer than I expected (it gets a bad rep for not being on the coast) but I didn’t really see much of the city so I really have no idea what I’m talking about.
*wow my post titles kind of suck lately
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Day 476: monkeys!
Yeah I don't know what the title means. It's after midnight and I'm still working on my conference presentation. At this point, my weirdness has no limit.
No matter how many conferences I attend or presentations I babble through, I’m always going to be anxious the week of the conference. Giving big presentations in front of large crowds has been known to kill my appetite for days in advance. Time and practice have greatly improved the anxiety levels but I think that being an introvert makes the conference experience feel like one big Prozac advertisement. There will ALWAYS be that fear that I’m going to say something really stupid, making the others wonder if I received my PhD from some online course advertised on an infomerical. I know there are others out there. They’re usually hiding with me in the corner.
I attended a conference last Feb with my former advisor who is the rock-star of my field. People stalk him like the paparazzi of academia. I have to admit it was nice to be in the “in-crowd” while hanging with him. I was cool* by association. All the grad students thought I was some sort of rock-star-in-training for having worked with him. Um...sure.
Anyway, wish me luck :)
*Of course, cool is a relative term. We’re all nerds in the eyes of non-scientists.
No matter how many conferences I attend or presentations I babble through, I’m always going to be anxious the week of the conference. Giving big presentations in front of large crowds has been known to kill my appetite for days in advance. Time and practice have greatly improved the anxiety levels but I think that being an introvert makes the conference experience feel like one big Prozac advertisement. There will ALWAYS be that fear that I’m going to say something really stupid, making the others wonder if I received my PhD from some online course advertised on an infomerical. I know there are others out there. They’re usually hiding with me in the corner.
I attended a conference last Feb with my former advisor who is the rock-star of my field. People stalk him like the paparazzi of academia. I have to admit it was nice to be in the “in-crowd” while hanging with him. I was cool* by association. All the grad students thought I was some sort of rock-star-in-training for having worked with him. Um...sure.
Anyway, wish me luck :)
*Of course, cool is a relative term. We’re all nerds in the eyes of non-scientists.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Day 472: random thoughts
These were some of the things running through my head today. Each has a logical/mostly-sane explanation but where is the fun in rationalizing my thoughts?
- I don’t think I should ever be motivational speaker.
- I would really hate to be in an avalanche, but it might be kind of cool to blow up snow.
- I really REALLY hate making presentations.
- I’m never moving to Florida.
- Whenever my muscles start screaming, I start laughing. A bit masochistic, don’t you think?
- I don’t think standing on one’s head would be relaxing at all.
- You know that scene in “NeverEnding Story” when Bastian is reading the book while eating an apple and he puts the in his mouth? I don’t know why but that scene always weirds me out.
- I want to marry the man who can ski the K-12…on one ski.*
- Getting letters from my dad ALWAYS brightens my day.
* I'd probably also marry the man who understood this reference.
- I don’t think I should ever be motivational speaker.
- I would really hate to be in an avalanche, but it might be kind of cool to blow up snow.
- I really REALLY hate making presentations.
- I’m never moving to Florida.
- Whenever my muscles start screaming, I start laughing. A bit masochistic, don’t you think?
- I don’t think standing on one’s head would be relaxing at all.
- You know that scene in “NeverEnding Story” when Bastian is reading the book while eating an apple and he puts the in his mouth? I don’t know why but that scene always weirds me out.
- I want to marry the man who can ski the K-12…on one ski.*
- Getting letters from my dad ALWAYS brightens my day.
* I'd probably also marry the man who understood this reference.
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