Blogging catch-up dump

[staghorne]

So, you might have noticed that the blog was silent for a bit. That doesn't mean I wasn't doing anything; I just haven't written about it until now. Here are some of the things I've been up to, big and small, arranged in a roughly chronological order.

Boringly mundane non-furry things:

• We had a visitor in the lab for a month, a clever and very social guy from Iran. We hung out lots until he had to go back to the Netherlands, where he's doing his PhD. He had many interesting opinions, and I'd love to see him again.
  
• While working on the paper ( previously mentioned here) I had to pull out one portion because I realized there was a mathematical problem. Given the tight deadline, this actually worked out to my favour, since it left me with less to write about and to verify experimentally.
  
• I managed to finish and submit the conference paper, my first, while at a project meeting in the Netherlands. Since I was very busy writing, I did not partake much in the discussion. The other participants later joked that I had had "a very productive meeting." :)
  
• Post-paper, I decided to ramp up my IRL social efforts. My goal has been to go to the cinema with different friends twice a week. It has worked reasonably well and I've seen movies like never before.
  
• Over Easter I went to Barcelona on a family trip. It was just five days but everyone had a good time. I can see why it is such a popular city for tourism. Personally, I'm especially happy about visiting the Casa Batlló by Antoni Gaudí and the Dalí Theatre and Museum in Figueres, since I've wanted to see these places for many, many years. They did not disappoint. The weather could have been better though-we had just one single sunny day the whole time.
  
• Last week I heard back from the paper reviewers. It is likely my submission won't be accepted. :( Oh well, at least I know how to improve it for next time. The rebuttal I wrote came out quite good, also. We'll see what happens.
  
• At work I've lately spent a lot of time (too much) verifying and double-checking mind-numbingly boring technical details in the paper. I'm giving that a rest right now.
  I've also been looking into the mathematical flaw in the part I pulled from the paper. It now appears it cannot be repaired, and I will have to come up with something else to publish. Thankfully, my supervisor came up with a good idea for what to pursue a couple of days ago, which has yielded a few promising results already.

Potentially more exciting furry things:

• I happened upon a guy in an adorable open-face lion fursuit on the subway. I was just about to ask him to pose for a picture when his cell phone rang, and then he walked off. Therefore, no pic for you, sadly.
  
• Jake was shipped early this week. He has already cleared the Atlantic, and I'll probably get him any day now. He should be a lot easier to photograph than that lion guy. :)

Well, those are some of the most significant points from the last month-and-a-half or so. Here's to hoping I can blog these kinds of things as they happen, or at least a little more regularly, in the future!

Cheers,
Ethan