spectastic

it's a startup that's strapped for cash, with a lot on the line to impress its first round of clients. I imagine they're under a lot more pressure than they're giving you. that's what I interpret from what you describe anyway.

read the reviews on that shop. a couple of common practices that wear out a clutch: keeping the car steady on an incline hill while you're stopped, using the clutch to engage the 1st gear while your car is still going backwards. If you don't really do any of these things in excess, and your car only has 50k miles, that's a red flag. how did your car break down? what's the other problem?

disqualified from bike race for arriving late, even though I won two intermediate sprints and got 5th place... silver lining: won another intermediate sprint in the pro race and sharing prize of tequilla with a chica after hiking/swimming

like others, I like to cook in bulk, and make several meals in one session. also a good idea to keep office snacks like nuts, dried fruits, clif bars. etc

wondering how the hell I'm going to replace a motorcycle engine in the freaking apartment parking lot..

I tell people I study batteries, and their eyes light up and go "OOO, TESLA?"

I need to start keeping snacks around my desk. don't know if the brain uses up more glucose when it's being worked, but I noticed that I've been getting hungrier since I've had an office.

correction, friend was hit by a "fat dude on a beach cruiser" and broken arm was actually just a hairline fracture. don't know why I assumed car. carry on.

body language is the next best thing

i got in a bike wreck this weekend, and just found out friend of mine I was going to go watch fireworks with got hit by a car on his way yesterday. fractured arm. hit and run. he probably has no insurance. GFD

roommate's gf invited me to 420 this weekend on the patio. i respectfully declined, even though I know it's not bad for me. something about introducing chemicals to my body that's not chemicals that I produce with my own body creeps me out. That goes for everything except for maybe cough drops.

good thing nothing got damaged. I remember when I used to work at the plant, I'd come out mentally drained, with a 30 mile commute ahead of me. Damaged my car's suspension one rainy day, to the point where insurance had to get involved. I was driving a fancy rental jetta for a while (uninsured). One day, I was driving that jetta home, 50 mph down a straightaway, saw a motorcycle pass by, and lost my attention for a split second. The next second, I'm going 50 mph into a parked car in the middle of the road, trying to make a left turn, ~100m and closing. I don't know if I just didn't see him in the distance, or if he had braked hard to make the turn, but without any time to think, I steered across the yellow line into oncoming traffic to avoid rear ending him. the rear wheel skidded a little, as I braked, and steered at the same time. For the next 40 minutes, I drove home thinking, "did that just fucking happen?" I almost ran an uninsured rental into a pickup, and on top of that, I could've collided head on with oncoming traffic. former coworker told me he experienced similar things, and that he would take micro naps while on the highway, whatever the F that means.

then make all of them disappear, except for bernie, and other sensible politicians who are more concerned about this country's future than their private interests.

can you make trump and hillary disappear? permanently would be grand

it doesn't define you as a scholar, but why should a company or institution hire you to research printable electronics (or what have you), when you have 2 years of post doc on the topic, and someone else has an entire dissertation on that stuff?

maybe they're just infertile

has anyone tried to outsource their grading of papers to overseas?

and boy, as a cyclist, if I had a dollar every time I've encountered an asshole driver on the road, yelling, honking, even throwing shit, I'd be set for life.

I know for Academia, the thesis topic will be large!y similar to what the person is doing in post doc or professorship. What about for industry? One piece of book wisdom I learned is that your thesis doesn't have to Address an important societal issue, especially if it's hard to do research on. My pi has high demand for earning a PhD, 6 first author papers. The good thing news is it's all applied. Bad news? 6 mofo-ing 1st author papers. So think it's better to stick to familiar ground, and get papers published. OTOH, the potential areas of my research is vast. There's no telling where the next breakthrough will come from. So in this case, is the ability to do research more important than relevance of research for long term?

I already have a BS in engineering, and I've worked as an engineer. My current graduate program is technically chemistry, but my professor is in an engineering department. Basically, the only thing that's different is my class requirements are different, and my resume will say chemistry phd, instead of chem eng phd, (or MS, still kind of up in the air, but probably phd). I've heard stories about chemistry vs chem eng, in terms of job opportunities, earning potential, promotions, roles, etc. But I don't think that argument quite applies to my situation, because I already have an engineering background, and would consider myself an engineer. So what's your take?

seriously, in my view, when it's 100 deg F out, with high humidity, and your chin is dripping like a greenland iceberg, there's nobody in the cross traffic, and the cars around you have 20x the power to weight ratio as you (I did the math), it's asinine to expect bicycles to operate exactly like motor vehicles and honestly, in situations like these, when the rules are more of a hindrance than any help, we conform anyway, because we seek social approval, not because it keeps us safe. so as with most arguments, between the thesis (cyclists should behave like motor vehicles and follow the rules) and antithesis (cyclists should just do what they feel like), my position stands somewhere in the middle, follow the rules such that you're predictable to drivers, and disregard some with careful discretion.

I always let pedestrians go first. And if i need to turn, i pick a path out of everyone's way. Like i said, if theres cross traffic, i stop. Otherwise, most people can scan both sides a couple of times while approaching an intersection, such that stopping fully serves no practical utility other than as a formality. Im actually pretty curteous when it comes to sharing the road. And rarely see people almost get hit by bicycles. Most of the time, it's other people popping into my lane unannounced. Only times ive almost hit pedestrians were when they were crossing the street without looking, not at a stop.sign, but in the middle of the road.

Rules made by people who have never ridden bikes in their lives. There are quirks to commuting on a bicycle that don't fit anywhere in the rulebook. For example it's not always safe to ride on the bike path because there's always pedestrians and cars who don't pay attention. Those who ride bikes know what I mean. There will always be jackasses who don't follow the rules and at the same time put other people at risk. But they're in the minority and the same is true for drivers.