I have spent an inordinate amount of time over the last week on the phone to the council.  Why?  Because I would rather like to exercise my democratic right to make an informed choice when I vote in the upcoming General Election.  And I didn't have a polling card when they had clearly been delivered elsewhere.  And last time I lived in this ( Read more... )

I had a meeting in London yesterday.  It started at 10am.
( In which there is train chaos galore )

As part of the literature review of Doom (of which more will almost certainly be posted at a later point), I found it necessary to print out a large BibTeX file containing abstract fields. Which is easy enough, except that I also wanted to print the abstract fields, and I rather wanted it to look like a bibliography rather than a BibTeX file.
Now ( Read more... )

I searched for patron saint of doctoral students, just for fun (and possibly to avoid writing my thesis).
This is what I got as the top hit.
Jude Thaddeus
Patron Saint of: desperate causes, desperate situations, lost causes

Note that nowhere on the page is there any mention of students, doctoral or otherwise!
Although, yes, it is extremely appropriate.

 I just got an email telling me that I've been selected as a perspectives finalist
*bounce*
Of course, now I'm starting to look at the next few months,  and thinking about what I've got to do:

• thesis
• 2, or possibly 3, journal papers
• conference presentation (thank God the paper's already written)
• get funding for next year sorted
• find somewhere to live

 Earlier this week, I asked you for help with a sound system.  And you were wonderful.  So today, I returned to the system to remove the offending box and set up an interim solution.  It seems that we can use the static mic (mounted behind the speakers) and the lapel radio mic, but the karaoke-style mic causes feedback.  So, with a bit of ( Read more... )

Somehow, I have become the resident techie at church.  We have a PA system.  It's broken.  It's my responsibility to fix it / buy replacements / get someone to come and hit it with a hammer.  I am a Bear of Little Brain when it comes to this sort of thing.  Possibly more brain than everyone else there, but even so.
Once upon a time, someone was ( Read more... )