I recently turned 28. About a week later I found a letter
from a friend in my mail. I mean in the actual mail. The real deal, in a paper
envelope written with ink on pretty letter paper, rather rare these days. You can imagine how thrilled I was. However, it wasn't the letter as such that inspired me to start this new blog but its content. In her letter my friend mentioned
that she enjoys reading my traveling blog. She had been chatting to another childhood friend of ours and they agreed that it is kind of funny that someone, who enjoys creative writing as much as I do, goes into engineering/sciences. And I agree, I often miss a spark of creativity in my everyday research life. So
what do I do? I write the most ridiculous emails, comments or notes whenever I find
the time to. Since people seem to like the way I stagger words together, I
decided to start this second blog. Joli reloaded.
This little paragraph is in
English. So is the following first entry. However, my mother tongue is still German
so if you don’t master both, German and English, just be patient, there will be
a little bit of both, whatever comes to my mysterious mind. On this note, lean
back and enjoy reading. Here is the first entry, just something I came up with last week. A story of an average grad student.
(Beer call is a weekly Friday night social call in our
department. As a proper German I am in charge of location and advertisement of
this event. Original email: March 27, 2015)
Beer Call:
This story is about Hans. Hans is in grad school. Monday morning, Hans slept in. He got to the lab at 11:43 am and caught up on his emails and other social media notifications before he joins his lab mates for lunch. After lunch he comes across this really interesting article about Costa Rica being powered by renewable energy only and then another article about explaining the energy consumption in the US and then another article about Stephen Harper’s political influence on environmental research institutions in Canada and then it’s time for coffee. When he comes back he pulls out a paper he meant to read over the weekend, answers a few emails and puts on his favourite paper reading music. He gets started with the abstract. Half way through the introduction he decides that he is too hungry to concentrate and heads home to cook some dinner. Tuesday morning, Hans is busy cleaning his apartment. He gets to the lab at 11:26 am. He just very briefly checks his virtual obligations and then continues reading the paper he started on Monday. He comes across an interesting reference. He googles the reference, scans through the paper and downloads it. He repeats this step 5 times, well not exactly the same step. It turns out that 2 out of the 5 interesting papers that were referenced seem irrelevant. The virtual pile of “to read” papers is growing. Hans leaves for lunch and feels like he had a very productive morning. He is on page 3 in his paper. This time he goes for a coffee straight from lunch, it’s just one of those days. When he returns to his lab he continues reading. When he gets to the methods part he is reminded of this other method that he just recently came across. A quick google search leads him straight into a wikipedia loop. The only way to get out is being distracted by one of his lab mates. They have an hour long conversation about the cricket world Cup and the significance of cricket in society in general. After that it’s definitely time for another cup of the good stuff. He returns to his desk to work his way through the rest of the methods section. Then he heads home. Wednesday morning, Hans has a meeting with his supervisor at 10:00 am. He gets there at 10:03 am even though he meant to prepare a few things before hand. The quick glance that he took at his notes on the bus must do. His supervisor gets there at 10:23 am giving him some time of preparation after all. He feels like the meeting went well. Lots of new ideas and possibilities. Hans feels good about not doing too much work before hand since the course of his project seems to spin into a completely new direction all together. Is it even worth finishing that paper he started reading? He remembers that he has a journal club in the afternoon. He panically prints out the paper and reads the abstract, parts of the introduction and the conclusion. Then he does a quick forward search to see what other people have thought of the paper. Always good to have a couple of comments ready for the reading group. After the journal club he finally finds the time to answer some emails and other virtual obligations. He then needs to go out and find some food, since he has had no time to eat earlier. He might as well go home after grabbing food, the bus is right there anyway. He takes the half read paper to finish reading it on the bus. He doesn’t. Thursday morning on the bus Hans gets into the discussion part of the paper he is reading. He has already forgotten most of the introduction and methods so he needs to go back and forth. He gets to the lab at 10:36 am. All his lab mates are going to a recruiting talk at 11:00 am. He joins them. After the talk there is a casual lunch. Luckily there is coffee at the lunch so he saves time which is good since he is behind with his work. When he returns to the lab he gets side tracked by a funny video. Youtube kindly suggested other videos he might like. He didn’t but still watched them. Then he returns to the discussion part of the paper he had been reading. He gets half way through until he gets sleepy and needs to head out for another cup of coffee. He runs into a friend he hasn’t seen in a while since they are not taking classes together anymore. They go for a beer instead, it’s Thursday after all. Friday morning Hans is slow to get up. He gets to the lab at 11:48 am. He skipped breakfast so after responding to his virtual obligations he heads out for lunch. After lunch he finally finishes reading this paper he had no time to read all week. He prints out a couple more to read over the weekend. It’s now Friday 3:30 pm. Definitely time for a cup of coffee, then he thinks he could attend this UDLS thing. “The art of crafting light swords”. Sounds cool and might be interesting. And after that he could join the others for a beer. It’s the end of a busy week after all.
If you have read this far, you are a Hans. If Hans is going to beer call, so can you! Tonight all Hanses of this department will go to Yagger’s Kitsilano. It was a week of hard work after all.
This story is about Hans. Hans is in grad school. Monday morning, Hans slept in. He got to the lab at 11:43 am and caught up on his emails and other social media notifications before he joins his lab mates for lunch. After lunch he comes across this really interesting article about Costa Rica being powered by renewable energy only and then another article about explaining the energy consumption in the US and then another article about Stephen Harper’s political influence on environmental research institutions in Canada and then it’s time for coffee. When he comes back he pulls out a paper he meant to read over the weekend, answers a few emails and puts on his favourite paper reading music. He gets started with the abstract. Half way through the introduction he decides that he is too hungry to concentrate and heads home to cook some dinner. Tuesday morning, Hans is busy cleaning his apartment. He gets to the lab at 11:26 am. He just very briefly checks his virtual obligations and then continues reading the paper he started on Monday. He comes across an interesting reference. He googles the reference, scans through the paper and downloads it. He repeats this step 5 times, well not exactly the same step. It turns out that 2 out of the 5 interesting papers that were referenced seem irrelevant. The virtual pile of “to read” papers is growing. Hans leaves for lunch and feels like he had a very productive morning. He is on page 3 in his paper. This time he goes for a coffee straight from lunch, it’s just one of those days. When he returns to his lab he continues reading. When he gets to the methods part he is reminded of this other method that he just recently came across. A quick google search leads him straight into a wikipedia loop. The only way to get out is being distracted by one of his lab mates. They have an hour long conversation about the cricket world Cup and the significance of cricket in society in general. After that it’s definitely time for another cup of the good stuff. He returns to his desk to work his way through the rest of the methods section. Then he heads home. Wednesday morning, Hans has a meeting with his supervisor at 10:00 am. He gets there at 10:03 am even though he meant to prepare a few things before hand. The quick glance that he took at his notes on the bus must do. His supervisor gets there at 10:23 am giving him some time of preparation after all. He feels like the meeting went well. Lots of new ideas and possibilities. Hans feels good about not doing too much work before hand since the course of his project seems to spin into a completely new direction all together. Is it even worth finishing that paper he started reading? He remembers that he has a journal club in the afternoon. He panically prints out the paper and reads the abstract, parts of the introduction and the conclusion. Then he does a quick forward search to see what other people have thought of the paper. Always good to have a couple of comments ready for the reading group. After the journal club he finally finds the time to answer some emails and other virtual obligations. He then needs to go out and find some food, since he has had no time to eat earlier. He might as well go home after grabbing food, the bus is right there anyway. He takes the half read paper to finish reading it on the bus. He doesn’t. Thursday morning on the bus Hans gets into the discussion part of the paper he is reading. He has already forgotten most of the introduction and methods so he needs to go back and forth. He gets to the lab at 10:36 am. All his lab mates are going to a recruiting talk at 11:00 am. He joins them. After the talk there is a casual lunch. Luckily there is coffee at the lunch so he saves time which is good since he is behind with his work. When he returns to the lab he gets side tracked by a funny video. Youtube kindly suggested other videos he might like. He didn’t but still watched them. Then he returns to the discussion part of the paper he had been reading. He gets half way through until he gets sleepy and needs to head out for another cup of coffee. He runs into a friend he hasn’t seen in a while since they are not taking classes together anymore. They go for a beer instead, it’s Thursday after all. Friday morning Hans is slow to get up. He gets to the lab at 11:48 am. He skipped breakfast so after responding to his virtual obligations he heads out for lunch. After lunch he finally finishes reading this paper he had no time to read all week. He prints out a couple more to read over the weekend. It’s now Friday 3:30 pm. Definitely time for a cup of coffee, then he thinks he could attend this UDLS thing. “The art of crafting light swords”. Sounds cool and might be interesting. And after that he could join the others for a beer. It’s the end of a busy week after all.
If you have read this far, you are a Hans. If Hans is going to beer call, so can you! Tonight all Hanses of this department will go to Yagger’s Kitsilano. It was a week of hard work after all.
