To those people that actually read this thing may I start with an apology. I know it has been some time since my last post, probably approaching a month. The reason for this is that I have been incredibly busy lately. Since my last post I’ve moved into my new house in knowledge. And as soon as I was moved in I was visited by lady E for a week, which I always enjoy however, it isn’t terrible useful if I actually want to get anything done. And after Lady E left me on the Sunday it was straight into the new job at UEA on the Monday. After a whirlwind week of running about the place trying to get everything in order, such as staff cards, computer accounts and the like, I got straight onto a train and headed to the Peak District with the guys and girls from Nottingham for a weekend of camping.
So I’m now back from camping. Tired as hell admittedly. And I’m back at work for week 2. And now I’m settling in a bit more, I thought I’d take the time of day to actually post what’s been going on in my life.
The moving in process was uneventful really, it went quite smoothly really. Although we decided the hottest, most humid day of the year to go and move into a flat that is effectively 3 flights of stairs up from the van. And what with my mother having broken her foot it meant that the work load looked like it was all going to be down to me and dad, thankfully JC was merciful and helped. Although I was then confronted with a problem once my parents left with the van. All the boxes had just been dumped in my room, leaving no bed, no floor and no way of shutting the door.
Needless to say I think it’s all done now. I’m basically moved in now. Although I’ll post some before and after photos, just to show the extent of the task. But I think it’s now fair to say that I’m a black-belt in ikea construction.
But work is going well. Life here at UEA seems very relaxed which is great and suits me down to the ground, but stuff also seems to get done so I shouldn’t have the same frustration that plagued Nottingham so badly. On day one me and F (the boss) went for a coffee to discuss things, turned out more to be a general chat about moving as much as anything. But when I got down to the lab, I found that I already had my own desk and that it was clear and ready for me. Admittedly, no personal computer but then I much prefer to work off my laptop which I’d had the foresight to bring with me.
It did take 4 days to shake off the bureaucracy that is the staff admissions process. Essentially cos I’m not a student officially until October, I’m working as casual labour until then making me a member of staff. Unfortunately, my details hadn’t been put onto the HR computer and then when it had the student status was taking priority over staff status despite the difference in dates. Meaning that they wouldn’t allow me to have my access card until the dispute was cleared. Which in turn, despite me turning up every day at 8, I might not be able to get into the lab until 845 when someone else with an access card did walk into the building and I caught the door. But heyho.
But Friday took me to the Peak District with Doug, Lonnie, Ali, Mike and Sally for a weekend of camping, hill walking, exploring and stuff. I personally thought the whole weekend was a bit backwards; in that the day times when we were going around caverns and caves was actually really good, but the sitting around the campsite in the evening was a bit naff cos people weren’t that chatty really, and most weren’t drinking. I expected the evening to be getting sloshed around a camp fire, but in reality it was sit cold in a tent. On the second night, almost all the group had gone to bed by 11 leaving me and Sally drinking scrumpy until the wee hours by ourselves. Nonetheless some impressive scenery, and I really enjoyed the cavern underground that was big enough to hold St Paul’s Cathedral and going for boat rides underground is quite surreal, makes you feel a bit Lord-of-the-Rings-y.
So yeah, that’s been life for the last couple of weeks. So my tasks for the rest of the week include teaching myself the Ubuntu Linux build so that I can get the group file server working now that I’ve built it. I’ve then got to make the group webpage look a bit prettier, it’s currently functional with all the information but far from good looking, so that’s teaching myself Dreamweaver. And then there’s my ongoing task of trying to learn EPR. Currently I’m very aware that I know nothing despite all the reading I’m trying to do, but this is what happens I suppose when you deliberately choose to do a PhD in a subject in which you know nothing about. Made worse by the group consisting of the boss which has spent my lifetime in the field, the post-doc being ~4 years past her PhD (which was in basically the same field so about 6 years experience), the PhD being in his second year but worked for a company that actually fixed the EPR machines before that for about 5 years (so about 7 years experience), and then there’s me, 7 days experience. I’m currently at the stage where I’m picking up the basic theory quite quickly, but I’m still below the rest of the groups basic explanations which they think is as basic and lay-man as they can get. So a bit more work is required there me thinks.
This page previously appeared on morganbye.net[^1]
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