On the Road Again...
Yesterday I completed my second trip to Jackson Hole in 3 weeks. Why did I go back a second time? Well, thanks for asking! There was a conference put on by an industry consortium that my company participates in, and the original guy who was supposed to go from our Dallas office had to back out at the last second, and I got roped into going. It went like this: "We know it's last minute, but we really think it would be best if you went. You know this stuff better than anyone else -- but it's up to you." So I didn't have to go, but it seemed like a good career omen that they requested I go. So I went. Making the plans to go was fun. I found out on Tuesday that I would head up there on Wednesday and come back Saturday. Also, there were no available flights to get me from DFW to Jackson Hole. I could have laid over for hours in Denver, but decided instead to fly into Salt Lake City and then drive the 300 miles from there to Jackson. It was actually a nice drive, going north out of SLC, straight up the gut of Idaho, and then a quick jaunt to the east from Idaho Falls over the southern portion of the Teton Mountains into Jackson.
This meeting was put on by the univeristy conducting the research paid for by the consortium members. I figured out through this meeting that the academic sorts 1) get REALLY interested in meaningless minutiae, 2) get REALLY irritated when you, the lowly non-PhD holder, take them to task when they are factually incorrect, and 3) I could never go back to grad school to get a PhD because of all the bullshit academic nonsense. I'm all for research that directly impacts my project, but I don't give a crap about rate of mineral crystal growth of supersaturated calcium-magnesium carbonate solution onto the rock face of a dolomite, especially if they can't translate their findings of this experiment into different rocks and/or supersaturated solutions. Yet they get all pissy discussing why they can't translate it into other minerals, like you're in the wrong because you need to know how calcium sulfate saturated solution affects calcite. Come on!!! But I digress...
This trip had a stark contrast from the last. The last trip was a great trip showing industry folks the practical applications of this particular analysis method, and was cadillac'ed as far as food and amenities went -- nice hotels, bigtime meals that they paid for, etc. This last trip was on the cheap, no doubt because of the academic sorts running it. They don't have spare money for, you know, decent food. The dinners were relatively nice being on expense account and all, but overall this was a stark contrast to the Cadillac trip.
On the homefront of course no one was happy with me being gone again so soon after being gone for several days only 3 weeks ago, me included. Jackson was colder this time, and being a native Texan anything below 40 seems downright archaic -- people actually function outdoors in those temps??!! I was not prepared in my head to be gone again. I have to kind of munch on things for a while in my head to be mentally prepared for something. And then the academics' pissiness hacked me off. But at least I had a chance to get the girlies some new Indian (Native Americans, not people from India) earrings for their newly-pierced ears.
On the plus side, I did drive by the Potato Expo Fairgrounds in Idaho. Pure excitement, let me tell you.
This meeting was put on by the univeristy conducting the research paid for by the consortium members. I figured out through this meeting that the academic sorts 1) get REALLY interested in meaningless minutiae, 2) get REALLY irritated when you, the lowly non-PhD holder, take them to task when they are factually incorrect, and 3) I could never go back to grad school to get a PhD because of all the bullshit academic nonsense. I'm all for research that directly impacts my project, but I don't give a crap about rate of mineral crystal growth of supersaturated calcium-magnesium carbonate solution onto the rock face of a dolomite, especially if they can't translate their findings of this experiment into different rocks and/or supersaturated solutions. Yet they get all pissy discussing why they can't translate it into other minerals, like you're in the wrong because you need to know how calcium sulfate saturated solution affects calcite. Come on!!! But I digress...
This trip had a stark contrast from the last. The last trip was a great trip showing industry folks the practical applications of this particular analysis method, and was cadillac'ed as far as food and amenities went -- nice hotels, bigtime meals that they paid for, etc. This last trip was on the cheap, no doubt because of the academic sorts running it. They don't have spare money for, you know, decent food. The dinners were relatively nice being on expense account and all, but overall this was a stark contrast to the Cadillac trip.
On the homefront of course no one was happy with me being gone again so soon after being gone for several days only 3 weeks ago, me included. Jackson was colder this time, and being a native Texan anything below 40 seems downright archaic -- people actually function outdoors in those temps??!! I was not prepared in my head to be gone again. I have to kind of munch on things for a while in my head to be mentally prepared for something. And then the academics' pissiness hacked me off. But at least I had a chance to get the girlies some new Indian (Native Americans, not people from India) earrings for their newly-pierced ears.
On the plus side, I did drive by the Potato Expo Fairgrounds in Idaho. Pure excitement, let me tell you.