We've wined, we've waited, now it's time to celebrate 2016

[hippyscientist]

I GOT A DISTINCTION ON MY MASTERS and it's thanksgiving break finally. Today is a great day!

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

53 minutes ago, hippyscientist said:

I GOT A DISTINCTION ON MY MASTERS and it's thanksgiving break finally. Today is a great day!

53 minutes ago, hippyscientist said:

I GOT A DISTINCTION ON MY MASTERS and it's thanksgiving break finally. Today is a great day!

HIPPY I HAVE NO IDEA WHY THE FORMATTING OF THIS POST IS SO BROKEN BUT I'M SO HAPPY FOR YOU!!!! Congratulations!!!

[MarineBluePsy]

On 11/16/2016 at 8:41 PM, KingNikolai1 said:

Unfortunately not, Russian is an unforgiving language that does not translate well using software programs. At least I am getting tons of practice, and once I start taking the language course next quarter I'll be much happier. 

Yikes and it probably isn't a priority for software developers to improve that either.  I'm not sure where in the world you are, but if meetup.com is active where you are often people form language groups to help new learners practice and for natives to stay connected.  Something like that might be a good supplement until your language class starts and the environment is likely to be a lot more relaxed.

18 hours ago, spectastic said:

I just want to get my motorcycle fixed finally and ride out to hill country. can a guy dream?

Shotgun!

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

Can I call the sidecar?

[hippyscientist]

Thanks @Pink Fuzzy Bunny it feels pretty good

Hope you all are doing okay and are looking forward to thanksgiving! I just got to new york to pick my mom up from the airport - I haven't seen her since the end of July so I'm looking forward to it too. Trying to ignore the ridiculous amount of work that needs to be done this week!

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

17 minutes ago, hippyscientist said:

Thanks @Pink Fuzzy Bunny it feels pretty good

Hope you all are doing okay and are looking forward to thanksgiving! I just got to new york to pick my mom up from the airport - I haven't seen her since the end of July so I'm looking forward to it too. Trying to ignore the ridiculous amount of work that needs to be done this week!

Indeed! Be sure to set aside some time to relax. Make it intentional  

[KingNikolai1]

@hippyscientist Congratulations!!!!

@MarineBluePsy I'm not too worried about it. From what I have heard, almost every American who has entered the program has been told to take anywhere between half a year to two years of language classes in order to raise their proficiency.

I will look into the meetups, it may be helpful for some low key practice time outside of the classroom. 

Edited November 19, 2016 by KingNikolai1

[MarineBluePsy]

1 hour ago, KingNikolai1 said:

 

@MarineBluePsy I'm not too worried about it. From what I have heard, almost every American who has entered the program has been told to take anywhere between half a year to two years of language classes in order to raise their proficiency.

I will look into the meetups, it may be helpful for some low key practice time outside of the classroom. 

Up to two years of study to improve proficiency does make sense.  That's what I've been told whenever I've inquired about picking up Spanish again.  What will you do when you've mastered Russian and finished your program?

[KingNikolai1]

13 minutes ago, MarineBluePsy said:

Up to two years of study to improve proficiency does make sense.  That's what I've been told whenever I've inquired about picking up Spanish again.  What will you do when you've mastered Russian and finished your program?

Academia is the long shot, but I feel I can comfortably market myself for a career in government or business if I can't find a spot at the universities. That is a long way off, since this is a PhD/MA program and most people take at least six years. I have guaranteed funding for five, and I just started. There are plenty of opportunities beyond the five for funding, but that is several years off. 

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

I'm not sure why there's a tank of jellyfish in our office, but there is.

[hippyscientist]

16 hours ago, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

I'm not sure why there's a tank of jellyfish in our office, but there is.

That's amazing!! We just have a coffee maker and a broken skeleton and a fridge of dead feet.

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

2 hours ago, hippyscientist said:

That's amazing!! We just have a coffee maker and a broken skeleton and a fridge of dead feet.

Okay you definitely win

 

[MarineBluePsy]

5 hours ago, hippyscientist said:

That's amazing!! We just have a coffee maker and a broken skeleton and a fridge of dead feet.

Like a person's feet?

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

I knew you made some cool models hippie but didn't realize you actually did things with feet

As a side note, I'm really thinking about either switching labs, or being co-advised with someone in the biomedical engineering department. I just wish I knew what i wanted, dangit!

[Neist]

So, I read 428 pages today.

I'm tired.

[MarineBluePsy]

1 hour ago, Neist said:

So, I read 428 pages today.

I'm tired.

How exactly did you do this?  I'd be way more productive if I could read that much in a day.

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

^ I'm also wondering that. Do you skim some of it? 

[hippyscientist]

11 hours ago, MarineBluePsy said:

Like a person's feet?

Yep cadaveric feet. I look and work with ankles, looking at the effect of total ankle replacements now. The feet we can rig up to "walk" and look at the forces, stresses, strains etc in different movements with different loads applied. It's really freaking cool but it's a little bit disconcerting. We have 3 fridges full of feet and a license plate on the wall that reads "DED FEET". Nerd humor! 

 

@Neist you have a superpower! That's just insane! Insanely impressive. No wonder you're tired.

@Pink Fuzzy Bunny

Fuzzy , I do a whole bunch in biomedical engineering too so if you wanna chat let me know! 

[MarineBluePsy]

And the one time I decide not to listen to my instincts and upgraded to Office 2016 anyway I just can't stop kicking myself now.  I got sucked in by my University offering it for free and given everything else I've had to pay for how could I resist?  Plus it was really time to let go of Office 2007  lol.  Apparently the "geniuses" at Microsoft decided the grammar and style editor was completely unnecessary and got rid of it and have been processing refunds like crazy.  So now I am downgrading to Office 2013 which is also free courtesy of my University and has the grammar and style editor I love so much.  I mean honestly!  If we didn't want to use available software to improve our grammar and writing style then why would we ever have advanced beyond typewriters?!

[Neist]

Even so, yesterday I was reading for 8+ hours. Bergh.

[MarineBluePsy]

43 minutes ago, Neist said:

Even so, yesterday I was reading for 8+ hours. Bergh.

Ahhh I see.  That would likely be too much multi tasking for me, but good to know its an option.

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

1 hour ago, MarineBluePsy said:

And the one time I decide not to listen to my instincts and upgraded to Office 2016 anyway I just can't stop kicking myself now.  I got sucked in by my University offering it for free and given everything else I've had to pay for how could I resist?  Plus it was really time to let go of Office 2007  lol.  Apparently the "geniuses" at Microsoft decided the grammar and style editor was completely unnecessary and got rid of it and have been processing refunds like crazy.  So now I am downgrading to Office 2013 which is also free courtesy of my University and has the grammar and style editor I love so much.  I mean honestly!  If we didn't want to use available software to improve our grammar and writing style then why would we ever have advanced beyond typewriters?!

I'm so glad you told me this, because upgrading was definitely on my to-do list. Why get rid of something so BASIC???

[MarineBluePsy]

9 minutes ago, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

I'm so glad you told me this, because upgrading was definitely on my to-do list. Why get rid of something so BASIC???

Exactly!  It is both the pc and mac version of 2016 that no longer have grammar and style editors so the complaints aren't going to stop.  Supposedly they are working on a patch to reinstate it due to the backlash, but apparently it hasn't been released yet or it might be something that requires an additional fee.  The easiest (and free!) solution I found was just to uninstall it, downgrade to 2013, and ignore any messages requesting I upgrade.  I also didn't uninstall 2007 just in case I run into any issues.  It may have some quirks, but at least I can use it in a pinch.  

[Neist]

In the continuing drama of me trying to get ahead this holiday break, I've attempted to write an entire book review today (about the aforementioned read book).

Whoever decided to assign a 1500 word book review can eat a shoe. No book review should be that long. I say if you can't articulate the quality of a book in the length of an abstract, you need to try harder.

My day started 10 hours ago, and I think I'm going to retire for the evening. Not done, but eh well.

Edited November 24, 2016 by Neist

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

3 minutes ago, Neist said:

In the continuing drama of me trying to get ahead this holiday break, I've attempted to write an entire book review today (about the aforementioned read book).

Whoever decided to assign a 1500 word book review can eat a shoe. No book review should be that long. I say if you can't articulate the quality of a book in the length of an abstract, you need to try harder.

My day started 10 hours ago, and I think I'm going to retire for the evening. Not done, but eh well.

1500 words? That's 3 pages single-spaced. Who can talk about a book that long?