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There's food everywhere in my kitchen

Posted on By admin 2 Comments on There's food everywhere in my kitchen

This will be a long post, so be prepared. Go make yourself a sammich, cause I have lots to say, but most of it is ramblings on the little joys of life.

Our story starts last friday, when I had an appointment to go see a counsellor on phobias and behaviour modification. I'm finally going to be doing something about my insect phobia, probably starting next september when the NHS get back to me. They say that the treatment has a decent success. I just hope I'll be able to sit outside and enjoy a cup of coffee without being in mortal fear of my life all the time.

Katy's parents are in Cambridge for the weekend for my birthday. We went shopping for my birthday prezzie today: shiny stainless steel kitchen knives. I can't post a picture now, cause they're in the process of being wrapped. Silly girl, go figure :) I've also learned that party hats and amusing birthday candles are going to be inflicted on me tomorrow :) I've also gotten gift certifiates for The Pier, woot! We saw some cool wine glasses that we're going to get when they have a sale. They're a bit pricey now (and we don't really have anywhere to put them – it's becoming apparent that we really REALLY need our own house).

I've been having really weird dreams again these days. Not scrary or distrubing, just … weird. Like a weird combination of Harry Potter, Hitlerian October youths, animal facilities at McGill, old bosses, old friends, new clients, LIMS systems for PRIDE, being seduced by Katy's cousins, weirdness, I tells ya.

Made duck again tonight, to keep a proise to Katy's dad. I'm a bit disappointed, cause I overcooked it. It was still nice, but not as nice as the last time. The big success was the guacamole I did though. It was KICK-ASS!

the recipe was:

4 baby avocadoes
half a lemon
few tbsps of olive oil
few tbsps of chopped tomatoes
salt
pepper

I tried to blend it, but it didn't really work. I've realized that I now need a food processor (Katy, hint! hint!). I ended up mushing it up with a spoon. We ate it with small pita breads.

All in all, dinner was lurvely. Our post-dinner plans include strawberry crumble, bowling and a movie. More on this later.

Edit: it is now later and bowlling has happened. In two words, I suck. In my defense, a) I wasn't drunk enough for proper disco bowling and b) I couldn't find a ball that fit. They were either two small (and my thumb got stuck more thank once) or too large and too heavy.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

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A week of hard work!

Posted on By admin 14 Comments on A week of hard work!

*does the happy dance*

I've finally released all the documentation and bug fixes for PRIDE that I've been working on all week.

For those of you who might want to have a quick read to see what it is exactly I work on, you can have a gander at the user namual. The more adventurous can also read the implementation documents.

Edit: This just made my day. Email from my boss:

Hi Richard,

Great job, especially on the documentation side!

Best regards,
H.

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Ho Hum

Posted on By admin 6 Comments on Ho Hum

Spending yet another weekend in Leicester. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against it†, but I just want to spend a relaxed weekend with Katy and that won't happen for another 2 weeks, and then it won't happen for another month or so. Blergh. Between her operation and my work trips, we probably won't have time to ourselves until the end of september.

Katy's gran is still in the hospital, though she's now on the upwards trail. She's going to be there for a week or two still, but hopefully things are going to sort themselves out. It's weird though. One minute, she's cracking lewd jokes, the next, she's in the middle of a coughing fit. I've been told I'm not to grow old…

And now for something completely different. Katy got a car this weekend:


Rover 414i

It's her parents' old Rover. Since the Rover plant went belly up a few weeks ago, their resale value plummeted. They were offered 300 quid for it, so they decided to give it to Katy instead. It's a bit old, but still in perfect working order. And it's free, so you can't beat the price.

Spent a large part of Saturday walking in town, while Katy and Rita were having a serious girl-talk. My plan was to go read a book I wanted to buy at Waterstones until I got called, but that went south when neither of the books I wanted were there. I ended up wandering for 2 hours, buying coffee and socks.

†Except for the fact that her bed is too small for two psople to sleep comfortably in. Hence, I'm tired and my back isn't really happy with me.

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Conference hell

Posted on By admin

I've been holed up in a small lecture hall for the past 2 days, listening to academics drone on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on about their pet project.

Observation #1 about conferences:

  • Academics can't speak in public. They drone. They have no social skills to make them interesting.
  • People assume that you know just as much as they do about what you're working on. No, I don't know what LC-QTOF-MS/MS means. Intro slides are not wasted
  • Powerpoint is the evil. Slides should NOT BE YELLOW ON A BLUE BACKGROUND! Also, it's called a bullet point, not a paragraph mark. Condense what you want to say in a single sentence, don't read your fucking slide.
  • The comfort of the seat is inversely proportional to the time you have to spend in it for a session

I have to go back for it. I so don't want to.

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