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April 26, 2005
Bureaucracy
Bureaucracy has always bothered me, and not just because I have a hard time spelling it. Mostly because it means that people are cheating the system. Sometimes this is legimate (like thinking that per diam should cover a glass of wine or a beer with dinner) and sometimes it is not. But basically bureaucracy stems from the fact that no one trusts anyone. My latest rant has to do with me trying to be reimbursed for my latest conference trip expenditures. What is even more amusing is that I don't really need to be reimbursed, but my supervisor's accounts do.
Because you need to apply for funds aproximately 30 months in advance so that it can make it through all of the paper pushers on time, plans change. Airfare goes up, hotel prices go up, rental cars get thrown out, people drop out etc. So when I originally submitted my paperwork it looked like the trip would be a 4 day 3 night affair with shared rental car, shared hotel room. ~ $800 grad conference fund contributio $200. It ended up being a 3 day 2 night affair with no rental car and a shared hotel room.
When I come home to fill out forms I find out 1) I needed to keep food receipts 2)Dr. P and I needed to get two separate checks for the room we split. OH FOR THE LOVE OF GOD What an absolute mess. Does this seem like a waste of valuable resources to anyone else?
Posted by kfeigh at 09:20 AM | Comments (2)
April 22, 2005
Back from the Heartland
Yes, I back now. The conference went well, and it was a welcomed diversion from the monotony that the semester takes on between weeks 5-15. Of course this didn't help my course load any and I am currently scrambling to catch up.
The conference went really well. Although I spoke fast during my presentation I don't think it was overly burdensome because at least one non-native speaker said she understood well. I met lots of neat people, and generally had a good time.
We got to go to the "Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum" which was amazing! They had a traveling exhibit on Lewis & Clark which included lots of breathtaking photographs. They opened the museum just for us that evening and we had a dinner there with no guest speaker, it was the best conference dinner I'd ever been too. We just got to sit there and talk with interesting people.
We arrived on the anniversary of the bombings -- almost to the minute. So on the last day of the conference, Amy and I cut out early and went to see the memorial. It was very moving (as expected) My favorite part was the tree. Apparently there was an American Elm tree (a rarity in itself) in the parking lot across from the federal building. During the blast all of its leaves were blown off, but the tree came back and is thriving now. As we were admiring it we found out from a park ranger that the tree never got Dutch elm disease, but just incase it has now been vaccinated. Which of course begs the question, how do you vaccinate a tree?
So now I am back. Lots to do this weekend. I have a group project due soon and the group wants to meet on Saturday -- gag. I hate giving up my Saturdays. Tonight I think Brian and I are going to see a movie.
Posted by kfeigh at 12:33 PM | Comments (0)
April 18, 2005
Oklahoma City
Tomorrow I will be off to a conference in Oklahoma City. Hopefully the conference will be good because I have to drag myself out of bed at 5am tomrrow for it. And if the conference is boring there isn't a lot that I can think of to do in OKC. I doubt greatly that the cowboy museum will call to me.
Posted by kfeigh at 09:49 AM | Comments (0)
April 14, 2005
ATM Seminar
I received more good news today. I got my official acceptance to the ATM Sem*inar. I'm so excited. Apparently there were over 130 papers submitted and the only accepted 70. If you are baffled as to why I am so excited, then I need to fill you in on some history. I attended the last conference held in the summer of 2003 out of the sheer good will of the organizers (europeans are relatively easy to guilt) as I was a student from the UK who wanted to attend and the UK was an 'under represented country'. This essentially marked the lowest academic point in my time abroad. I was 2 months from turning in a thesis and I had nothing to show for it at the conference. There was even a student session (which I had not been told about) and still I had no paper in the conference. Plus while there I became fully convinced that the work for my master's thesis was essentially useless.
So to get my work accepted to a non-student session feels so fantastic I cannot begin to describe the feeling.
Now back to statistics.
Posted by kfeigh at 10:09 AM | Comments (0)
April 13, 2005
In Defense of Juniors
I hate grouchy morning people, and even more than that I hate negative people. This morning I went to JRs to pick up breakfast because I was out of cereal at work. I look forward to eating breakfast at JRs it is a special treat of completely not-good-for-me food.
Unfortunately my treat this morning was interrupted by a grouchy man behind me who was complaining about the slow service. Several times he spoke up to no one in particular, "well there are 4 people in line now, perhaps they'll serve us" "there are 6 people in line now perhaps they will serves us"
Now I know JRs is not the model of efficiency, but I deal with it. Do you know why? Because I love the fact that at JRs I am a person, not just a nameless customer who needs to be served in 60 seconds or less. My life matterst to Tommy and Miss Anne. They comment on my dress, if I look tired or stressed. If I happen to forget my wallet, I know that I can always count on them to feed me knowing that I will be good for the money.
I held my tounge about all of this, but I probably won't be able to if he does it again. This campus has at least 5 other places where one can eat breakfast, if he doesn't like the JRs experience he can go somewhere else.
Posted by kfeigh at 08:54 AM | Comments (2)
April 12, 2005
Review Purgatory
For the past 3-4 months I have been in what I call review purgatory. This is the period of time from when you submit a manuscript (journal or conference paper) until you receive a response. I have been patiently (which you all know how patient I am) waiting for a response from a conference and a journal. No word, no word, no word. For months it went on like this. Then all of a sudden last Friday I got word from both on the same day.
The down side, the response from the journal had come via snail mail to my ISyE mailbox just days after we moved over to the AE building. Who knew that no one would email? Sigh, a whole month wasted! The good news, that my paper was not rejected!!! Yeah! They do say that I need significant revisions, which I have been assured is normal. So one more thing hefted on ye olde' plate.
Posted by kfeigh at 09:34 AM | Comments (0)
April 11, 2005
Busy Weekend
This weekend was yet another full one, I'm actually looking forward to next weekend which will be relatively calm. Let's begin on Friday. Friday I had an all day meeting for the big contract that my lab is working on. Then in the evening we met one of Brian's high school friends and headed out to the Brave's home opener. Brian diligently suffered through it, and I had a good time. The game was quick and only lasted about 2.5 hours, which is really quick for a baseball game (or so I felt). Straight home for me, and up again the next morning for kayaking. We went to lake Altoona, which is only about 90 minutes outside of Atlanta, but we got into a traffic jam that stretched the trip to 3.5 hours. Sigh. The paddling was fun though and we were back by 8.
Sunday was full of work. But luckily it went fast enough that Brian and I were able to escape to the mall for a few hours to buy him a new short-sleeved shirt wardrobe. Brian suffers from Becca syndrome when it comes to clothes. He'll go until absolutely nothing in his closet is unstained/ripped/otherwise unappropriate and then go out and buy a whole bunch of new stuff at once. Very amusing.
This morning I was up and out the door early as I had an 8am apointment to get my head examined. Yes, I know many of you have advocated this for years, but the random sinus headaches had finally gotten to me. So I've decided to have someone take a crack at the problem. Through traffic and back to work by 9:30.
I'm tired now and the week has only just begun.
Posted by kfeigh at 09:53 AM | Comments (1)
April 06, 2005
Wanting to tear my eyes out
Right now I hate oak trees. The pollen from oak trees is at a level which is making everybody sick. For me it is mostly in my eyes that I'm feeling it. Arggg. I just want to tear my eyes out. Other than that the weather is beautiful and I have homework to do.
Posted by kfeigh at 09:03 AM | Comments (0)
April 05, 2005
Invasion
This morning I have ~15 undergrads about to descend upon me... My attempt to hire an undergrad to help me run an experiment this summer is not going as easily as I would have liked.
In other news, our new washer was delivered yesterday! Yeah! Brian and I think it is a bit smaller than our old one, but who really cares.
Posted by kfeigh at 09:04 AM | Comments (0)
April 04, 2005
Gallery is working
So this weekend I spent Saturday leisurely hiking around FDR State Park which surrounds the southernmost mountain in the appalachian range, Pine Mountain. It was a great weather, dispite having torrential rain on both of the preceding days. Our numbers were small, but we had fun anyway. Pictures can be found under the gallery link at the right.
Posted by kfeigh at 10:31 AM | Comments (0)
April 01, 2005
Noah's Arch
Yes, it is still raining here. I'm thinking about purchasing a rubber life boat just in case living on the 2nd and 3rd floors isn't enough. I'm scheduled to go on a day hike tomorrow, but I'm afraid the trail will be a mud pit after all of this.
According to the news the Pope is not doing so well. I wish him a dignified and quick death (if this is his time). The way he choses to die may be his last and one of the greatest lessons he leaves to the world.
Posted by kfeigh at 08:53 AM | Comments (0)