Blogcoven

There are some people out there with time on their hands, and twitter has become their medium to be standups amongst the crowd. I thought I would drop a list of choice ones, along with some examples.
Read the rest of this entry »

Just finished playing Mass Effect 2. All that follows hereafter is peppered with spoilers for ME1 & ME2.
[Spoiler Warning - Mass Effect 1, Mass Effect 2] Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a long time. I definitely think that Kindermord is right: you have a fixed total limit of how much you can write in a particular week, and if you’re tweeting, you can’t really be blogging. Similarly, if you’re blogging, you probably can’t be thesis writing or whatever.

Thesis writing. Thankfully, I am not long under that particular burden. It really feels like having a heavy sack on your back. Each day you take a brick out of the bag and put it on the ground. The pile of bricks gets higher, but the weight doesn’t seem any lighter. The bag is with you all the time, you never get a break and you always feel like you should be writing or working — even when you’re out for a break after a lot of progress. The rub is, that I almost felt as bad when I was making progress because I felt the need to keep going more.

My status now is that I am awaiting a date for my viva voce. It should really have happened by now, but this process has been nothing but missed deadlines and remorseful “should-a’s”, “would-a’s” and “could-a’s”. I’m working, and at a job I really like, so it’s less of a burden.

But back to writing, apart from my incredibly insightful tweets, I am writing a lot. Proposals, papers and status documents take up a surprising portion of my days. It’s shocking how little technical time there can be in an ostensibly technical job. I can see how people get frustrated. It seems that you have to write constantly as an academic, that you have to sell constantly as a member of a startup, and have constant meetings if you’re in a big company. Communication is 90% of most jobs that I have seen, and technology is only 10%.

I’m sure that there are skunk-works labs out there where people can really spend their days with their text-editor of choice, not a care in the world other than compiler errors and ensuring the coffee supply is plentiful. It sounds nice, but I am sure even secret facilities have status updates, even if they are punctuated by mad laughter. In fact, the evil-HR departments probably impose a minimum mania level on their reports.

“Dr. Malevoface, this quater you have used fourteen percent of your allocation of manic laughter, but we have yet to hear you exclaim that the mainstream scientists who shun you are ‘fools’, nor have you submitted the mandator Gantt chart detailing how you will ’show them all that the monkeysaurus is the ultimate doomsday weapon’. This is unacceptable, I will be forwarding a memo of concern to all nineteen of your line managers.”

Okay, so it’s not all that glamorous. The past few days have been a little busy for me, in good ways, in fun ways, and in stressful ways.

Leprecon was fantastic, even though my work schedule interfered with any actual gaming other than the pub quiz. (We came in second place, but it was a good and fun pub quiz which is the important thing.) I finally made it to Goldsmith hall Sunday evening long enough to do a circuit around the main room then head across the street for a quick dinner with friends. After that I broke from the Leprecon party and hashed out the future of my weekly game, then met up with Himself for the walk home.

As far as cons go, I know nothing about how well it went or whether it was a Good Con. My part was essentially attending a party that went on for three nights. I love going out with my friends on “normal” nights, but there’s something extra special about the con setup where everyone in an extended social circle is in the same pub, and you can drift from group to group. I know none of this is news to people who have been here all their lives, but it’s been a long time since I’ve been to a Dublin con (9 years!). I got to hang out with lots of people I wish I could spend more time with, and that’s a good thing.

Crossposted at DixieStix.

I was out drinking both Friday and Saturday nights this week. This is not really normal for me, though that shouldn’t lead you to believe I didn’t enjoy it.

Friday night I attended a staff meeting, my first with This is Knit. We went over the stuff that needed going over, then we broke out the wine and pizza and crochet hooks. Our all-star crochet teacher had agreed to come and teach us to crochet, as most of us weren’t that familiar with the technique and we decided it was time for all of us to broaden our horizons. They were duly broadened.

Saturday night we had belated birthday pints for the Wanderer and cb, who share a birthday. I hadn’t seen cb since Christmas, so it was great to spend time with him and the clutch of other friends who showed up. I think everyone had a good time; I know I did, and I’m pretty sure both birthday boys did. I don’t go out as often these days as I used to, but nearly every time ends up being a great night. This is one of the many reasons I was so excited to get back to Dublin.

I’m very close to being done with the third log cabin block for my sock yarn leftovers blanket. I never photographed the second block, but I finally draped this one over a chair and took a picture for y’all:

The next block will be dominated by Koigu in the middle, as I’ve been swapping sock yarn bits with a friend. I’m excited about getting it started, and about retiring this block. It saw me through my thesis writing, and a lot of the stress of moving here. It deserves to rest a little while with the first two blocks.

I haven’t been blogging as much on Cobweb lately; when I end up blogging things that aren’t solely about knitting, I’ll crosspost them here. Otherwise, I’ll sequester them away at DixieStix so those who are not fibre-inclined don’t need to wade through endless knitting content.