The End

This blog has been closed due to a severe and chronic case of writer's block.

Home Sweet Home

So it's been a few weeks since we returned. It's so good to be home. The trip to LA was a bit, um... disappointing. Some things were really fun and I'm glad I got to do them: my brother's wedding party, and spending time with my dad. But I had underestimated how difficult it is for me to be with Dean 24 hours a day. I just can't handle it. I'm so lucky that at least I didn't have to fly with him alone. But taking him out of his routine, to a new country with new people, staying at a new house and without his daycare was just too much. I guess I also thought that I would have more support. At least Guy got to visit on the weekends, that was fun. My sisters kept asking him, "why did Naomi come here anyway?" and that was a very good question, one I asked myself every day. So in the end I bought a one-way ticket and flew home with Guy, 5 days earlier than I was supposed to. It was worth it.
It's good to be home, in our new house. How nice to have a garden. The office/guest bedroom window has a wonderful view of a brick wall. I bought a couple of climbing plants (a star Jasmine, and some other plant) and I planted them under the window yesterday. I hope they grow fast so that by springtime we'll have some green in the window. The house is great, it's nice not to have to climb any stairs and it's nice not to have neighbors who smoke and play loud music. The only thing we still need to get used to is driving everywhere. From our apartment we could walk anywhere: shops, buses, daycare, uni. Now we have to drive, which is not that bad, and park, which is. But it's ok.
I went to USYD today to meet my new workmates and see my future office. A few things need to be ironed out before I can start working. I thought that the requirement was that I submit my thesis in May. Apparently there was another requirement, that it has to be approved before I can start working. Now, I submitted it on time, and I gave the official 8-week notice so that my supervisors would have time to find examiners, but wouldn't you know it? They didn't find examiners. But with some help and nudging from my new boss, the final examiner was found and hopefully the thesis will be sent out soon.
I can't wait to start working again, but on the other hand I'm getting used to living the unemployed life. I'm not getting used to not having an income though.
My mother-in-law is staying with us for a month, 2 more weeks to go. It's nice to have help around the house and in the kitchen, and Dean is just loving it that he has a grandma to read him stories and do puzzles with him and play games with him.

Never Be Late to a Flight in Denver

Denver is dry. That's true on may levels but especially in atmospheric humidity. It's summer which is the most humid time of the year here and I'm evaporating. I managed to finish my work here two days early and got myself on an earlier flight out. The airport is supposed to be 30 minutes from downtown, you can ask anybody. But if you are driving less than 10 miles an hour over the speed limit you won't get here in less than 45 minutes. Then if you have to return a car it's another 15 minutes by shuttle to the terminal, then a train in the terminal and there's a hold up at every turn. For a domestic flight, try to be here at least an hour and a half before, two if you want to be safe.

If you do miss your flight it's no big deal. If you are going to, say, St. Louis. There are more flights from Denver to St. Louis every day, than there are flights to anywhere on the west coast. Dallas is a favourite too. There are two flights to LAX and I just missed one. There are no flights to San Francisco.
The next flight to LA is seven hours from now and it's not worth it to take the train back to the terminal entrance. At least I found a seat by a power outlet so I can work on my thesis and blog. You can forget about WiFi at this airport.

I'm sad to say I've missed plenty of flights in my life. (never my own fault of course.) But it was never as bad as in Denver. In California there's always another nearby airport or at least enough flights to where you are going that it is not a big deal. Even if there isn't, going to town and staying another night can be inexpensive and interesting. Going from Denver Airport to downtown is a train, a 45 minute cab ride and then there's a risk that there might not be a place to stay. Not worth the risk in my opinion.

Over the Hill

I'm now officially over the hill.
I was treated to a surprise birthday party a few days ago. Guy made up the most elaborate story and I totally fell for it. The best birthday is one that is celebrated with friends and family, and we had a great time at a local Italian restaurant. Things were even merrier with excellent Blueberry Hill bubbly.
And the Institue of Physics has also sent me a birthday present: my first article, published online and soon in print.
The actual birthday was spent packing boxes and suitcases. It's amazing how much stuff we have. Now, we're not the type who hoards things just in case they might be useful one day. If we don't really need something or haven't used it in a year, then it goes to Vinnie's or the Salvos. Whenever I buy new clothes or shoes, I chuck out some old ones. And still, the amount of stuff that we have is mindboggling. So I came in to uni again on a box hunting mission.
Tomorrow morning we head off to the airport and a relaxing weekend in Queensland. I can't wait. It will be so nice to be in a clean room with no boxes and no dust. We won't have to worry about packing or cooking or cleaning. The biggest dillemas will be which of the 9 pools to jump in and which restaurant we should go to for lunch.
Then, we move. And then we fly again. The good thing about having all these things happening in the next few days is that I don't have time to think about the flight to LA, so I don't worry about it.
Happy anniversary Guy!! A whole decade, wow!

Whirlwind

I handed in my thesis yesterday. It was quite an anticlimax. I went to the counter, signed the sheets, and got a receipt. It was just another thing to cross off the to-do list for the day. I think it will really hit me when I hand in the final, properly bound copies. Or maybe it's just a delayed reaction.
Lots of big stuff happening. We found a house and we're moving next Monday. It all happened so quick, I thought we would be looking for a while, but we found a house. It's a basic, 3 bedroom brick house with a small garden. It's amazing how difficult it is to find a basic house for rent in Sydney. Most of the houses are such dumps, and the nice ones cost an arm and a leg. (Not that this is cheap.)
So we have one week to pack. Then we go on holiday for the weekend (we already bought the tickets and everything, and we have to celebrate our 10th anniversary, and my 30th birthday, and 2 theses submitted!). Then we move, and two days later we fly to LA. I was going to fly with Dean alone, but Guy is going to San Fran on a business trip. I managed to change my flight there to the same day, so we'll fly together for at least that one flight. What a relief, I can't imagine such a long flight with a toddler, all by myself. These flights are a nightmare, even if you fly alone. At least then you can take 2 sleeping pills with a gin and tonic to knock you out for most of the 15 hours.
And then... we return to our new home that will have been standing empty except for a bunch of boxes for 2 weeks.
This is going to be a very interesting month, stressful but in a good way.

Raffles: Good Karma

I just got a call from Coles supermarket informing me that I won the raffle I entered last week! I got a $100 voucher. Free food! I'm glad I didn't win first prize, it was some sports jacket of one of the local teams. The raffle was for the Children's Hospital, I saw the sign and told the check-out guy I wanted to buy some tickets. He had never heard of the raffle. I pointed to the sign that was taped on the screen in front of him. He acted all surprised and called the manager. Meanwhile the people behind me in the line started making faces at me. I was adamant. The manager came and asked me to go to the front desk. I did, and she disappeared. Then she came back and said she had to go look for the keys to the cabinet where the raffle tickets are. I figured if it's so hard to buy a damn ticket, then I have a very good chance of winning. Well, it was worth it!
The other week I was at the gym for yoga and I saw a sign for a raffle, proceeds go to the Women's Hospital. I bought some. I spent 5 days there, the doctors saved my life and it didn't cost me a cent. I figured the least I could do was buy some raffle tickets. The drawing is next week. Let's wait and see!

Lord of the Rings: an allegory of the PhD?

A rather geeky look at Frodo as a grad student.

Passive Thesis

The entire thesis has been switched from active to passive voice. The change was not as difficult as was expected. A search for "I" and "my" was conducted and the appropriate changes were made. The author still thinks that active voice sounds better though. But if three experienced supervisors recommend something, then they should be listened to. Now only the abstract remains to be written.

The Goth Dentist

I went to the dentist this morning. She just got the room refurbished with a new chair and everything. She's the best dentist I ever had, although I must admit the first time I saw her I was a bit wary. She is very sweet and professional, and has pictures of her kitten on the wall, but she also wears black and has several piercings, and has death metal music blasting from the stereo. Oddly enough, the music really works well since it sounds even worse than the dentist tools. Anyway, everything was fine and my teeth have been great since I got the courage to get those stupid wisdome teeth finally removed.

cool

Stare at the dots in this picture for 30 seconds and then look at the wall. Whoa!

A dilemma has been encountered

I finally got my three supervisors to go over the thesis draft and comment on it. One thing that all three said was that I should not use the active voice. In my undergrad years I was always taught to use passive voice in technical writing, but here I was taught to use active voice, especially when writing a dissertation. Guy's supervisor, Tim, is a huge supporter of using first person so that it is clear what was done by me and what wasn't. Joe Wolfe also agrees:

If you are writing in the passive voice, you must be more careful about attribution than if you are writing in the active voice. "The sample was prepared by heating yttrium..." does not make it clear whether you did this or whether Acme Yttrium did it. "I prepared the sample..." is clear.

The active voice ("I measured the frequency...") is simpler, and it makes clear what you did and what was done by others. The passive voice ("The frequency was measured...") makes it easier to write ungrammatical or awkward sentences. If you use the passive voice, be especially wary of dangling participles. For example, the sentence "After considering all of these possible materials, plutonium was selected" implicitly attributes consciousness to plutonium. This choice is a question of taste: I prefer the active because it is clearer, more logical and makes attribution simple. The only arguments I have ever heard for avoiding the active voice in a thesis are (i) many theses are written in the passive voice, and (ii) some very polite people find the use of "I" immodest.

I wrote my entire dissertation in the active voice. My supervisors all told me it's my choice, but they recommend switching to passive voice. That would mean going over the entire thesis and changing everything: a lot of work. They should have told me this before I started writing...
What do you reckon? Does the active voice really sound that bad? I can't decide. I just want to be done with it!

Aussie Unis Gamble with Funds and Lose

The SMH tells of evidence Australian universities are losing millions of dollars oversees (mainly in Asia). This is tax payer money, exported and given away.
Most of it comes from the federal government, the same government that was accused recently of not paying enough for them to raise academics' salaries.

Even worse, about a quarter of the universities don't report how their offshore campuses are doing (my guess: not good), offshore campuses will continue to operate at a loss for the sake of existing students.

Do the universities gain from offshore campuses? No, in fact they probably lose prestige which is an important factor for universities. How are they going to blame this one on the Howard government?

Acupuncture

Germany has been subsidizing acupuncture treatments for patients with migraine headache since 2001. More than 2 million people have been treated so far. And according to this paper, it works. People who get acupuncture have significantly fewer headaches. But now results of a follow up study have been published. In a double-blind study, headache sufferes were split into 3 groups: those receiving acupuncture treatment, those who received sham acupuncture (the needles were inserted in the wrong place where there should be no effect, according to acupuncture theory), and those who were put on a waiting list and got no treatment. The results showed that both groups who received acupuncture (real and sham) reported fewer headaches than the waiting list group. The positive effect of the "real" acupuncture was exactly the same as the sham needle-sticking. (On the other hand, the negative effects were not the same: 10 people (7%) treated with "real" acupuncture reported that the treatment itself triggered a migrain attack, vs 2 (2.5%) in the sham group.)
The authors speculate that the most important thing that people need in order to feel better is to feel that they are being treated, with lots of one-on-one interaction and care. If they have to pay for it as well and the treatment takes time and effort then that also makes a difference in the outcome.
Kids need TLC more than Panadol when they are sick, and nothing heals a booboo better than a kiss from mommy or daddy. And Star Wars bandaids are better then boring beige ones.
I guess adults are just big kids. But I'd be pissed if it was my tax money that was funding it.

Roger L. Simon: Pajamas Media Meets Mainstream Media

Roger L. Simon has recently been blogging about little more than his (and others') pet project pajamas Media. Claiming that it would revolutionize blogs (which apparently have been around as early as 1999.

I'm skeptical. While I wish Roger and his partners best of luck I think two things would happen.

1. The charm of blogs would disappear as greed sets in. Blogging for money is going to be very different to blogging for free. I know how hard it is to keep a job and blog a lot but it can be done and that's part of the charm.
2. I also don't exactly see advertisers queuing up to advertise on blogs especially as firefox and adblock are gaining popularity (how can you surf without them?)

Whirlwind

Wow, everything is happening at once! Yesterday I finished writing my dissertation draft. No word yet from my supervisors of course. Then today I received confirmation that my paper has been accepted and will be published, woohoo!
I decided to take a day off since I deserve it.
I've been checking the Qantas frequent flyer bookings every day for flights to LA but there have been none. This morning there were flights, and several to choose from, and all non-stop! I booked one immediately... so we'll be going to LA for two weeks next month. I don't know how I'll manage the flight with Dean all alone. It will be interesting... hopefully the flight won't be too full and I'll be able to get an extra seat. Having a toddler on my lap for 14 hours is not something I look forward to. But it will be worth it to be able to spend time with the family.

I hereby declare major writing operations over

That's it, I've written everything I possibly can in my thesis by myself. My mission now is to hunt down my three supervisors and get them to read the damn thing. I haven't heard from one of them since, oh, probably some time in 2004. One already went over one of the chapters, bless his heart. The third is just ignoring me. The due date to hand in the dissertation is in 3 weeks.
I reckon the only major thing I have left to write now is the abstract.
Sometimes I feel that if I look at it one more time i'll go nuts. At this point I just want to hand it in and forget about it.
I don't know why, but I have this urge to go home, put on some music, and wash the kitchen floor. Is this a normal reaction or am I going slightly cuckoo?

Professors worse off

The Australian reports that academics' salaries haven't kept up with inflation by more than 25% over 35 years. Salaries for academics in Australia are determined by a bargain between each uni and a union. Neither state nor federal government has a say. So how can academics pin this on John Howard?

The federal government is not paying unis enough to pay academics. Perhaps the fact that academics are hardly rewarded for merit has nothing to do with it? It would be interesting to see a study of how productive academics are today compared to 35 years ago.