Starkess

I liked the story of Ninth House but found Alex to be awful, so I decided not to read Hell Bent.

I started listening to Kafka on the Shore. So far I'm not really enjoying it, not sure I'm up for another 18 hours. Kinda slow.

That is absolutely horrifying and reminds me of the sailors trapped aboard the sunken USS West Virginia at Pearl Harbor. They couldn't be rescued, and for days their banging on the hull was audible. Took 16 days for them to slowly suffocate.

I definitely do not think "cis" or "cisgender" are slurs, but neither do I think it's cool to aggressively and repeatedly call someone by a term they have said they do not like being applied to them. And I think the term "cissy" is a slur.

I think it's dangerous to rely on something that will blithely and convincingly lie to provide an education on any topic.

I listened to Magicians Impossible which was a pretty mediocre spy-novel-meets-urban-fantasy thing with a pretty limp MC and a plot that managed to be both convoluted and obvious. (SIMPLEX!!) I also assumed it was part of a series (which I didn't intend to read) because the ending was left quite open, but come to find out no, the author meant it to be one-and-done. I actually really like one-and-done stories so that's great except it does not read like that at all. Plus the ending is filled with someone being "killed" but oh wait not really! Like many many times. Bah. Anyway, the audiobook was good enough for listening to on my runs and I did finish it, so not all bad, but not great. Probably the biggest thing it had going for it were the action scenes, but I'm not that into action scenes so they mostly were boring and gory to me. Decided to move onto my next installment in my Wheel of Time re-read, so started The Fires of Heaven. Sigh sometimes it's just so nice to read books I already know that I like!

Sounds to me like you want to take the Small Town gig!

When the signed contract is in hand. Unless you want to use it as leverage in negotiating, but from what I know of postdocs, they usually have a set salary/benefits package anyway.

That seems to be the case, though details may be forthcoming.

It was yesterday! I basically totally winged it since I was feeling ambivalent about the job, and I ended up being really intrigued. Final step is an in person presentation and interview next week. I'm feeling very torn and wish I didn't feel like it was this or nothing. There's a lot riding on it! But if it goes well next week, it's a very serious contender.

That is taken into account. The number calculated by the Drake equation is the number of civilizations in the galaxy with which communication is possible, and that includes light travel time. But regardless, of course, the Drake equation is not meant to be a definitive calculation but rather a framework for discussion and thought process. -Rocky planets within the habitable zone are far less likely to be affected by a dense stellar environment. Indeed, it's even been argued that globular clusters pose a promising environment for the development of intelligent civilizations. -Tidally locked planets can certainly still be potentially habitable. More potentially worrisome for red dwarfs is their propensity towards flaring, but even that might be a positive. -O and B stars are the least common and have little bearing on the overall habitability of the galaxy, except insofar as they create important heavy metals in their deaths. -Planets can and do exist in binary systems, and their occurrence rate is still relatively uncertain due to additional detection difficulties. Binary systems have habitable zones just like single stars. Anyway, you're definitely right that these are all important aspects to consider for habitability! I mean to say here though is that they are absolutely not settled and don't have to represent obstacles to habitability. We just don't know enough yet!

In other news, reddit apparently looked at the pile of flaming dogshit that is Twitter and said "yes please!" They are currently planning to increase their API calls from free to "so absurdly expensive no one will pay." To force people onto their official app, which did not even exist when I joined reddit and is an absolute rubbish experience. Also the mods of reddit, unpaid volunteers who make reddit's monetization possible, use 3rd party tools that will be shut down. Then reddit announced a layoff of 5% of their workforce. All of this prepping for an IPO. Sad to watch the rats at the top scurry around to collect their piles of money before abandoning the ship. Ah, well. Tis the cycle of the internet...but I will miss reddit.

This is a great perspective, but I want to point out that these things are actually still not known now. Yes, we have better data, but the importance of Jupiter and Saturn in the evolution of the solar system and the Earth's habitability is not settled. We still do not actually know with much certainty how common the solar system really is. Yes, we see a lot of strange planetary systems, because those systems are easier to see. We know the solar system is somewhat rare in some aspects, but not in sum, and we really don't know how those aspects and how that sum interacts with habitability. It's a really young field still.

So aggravating. What a hypocritical pack of degenerates. The blood money was only tainted when it was the players taking it, eh? And what about the players who stayed with the Tour? Ugh ugh ugh. Definitely not supporting the PGA Tour anymore. At least we still have the Majors...

I waited 2 years for my ex to say the big ILY. We were actually living together by the time he said it. I said it after 6 months. But it wasn't that big of a deal to me. He obviously had hang ups about saying it, and his actions were enough. We also used to have very silly good-byes where I'd say "I love you" and he'd say "I like you more" back. Lol. Once he said it once (during The Deed, I might add), he was fine saying it all the time. Still, I was relieved that my fiance was happy to say it back to me when I said it to him after about 2 (4?) months!!

Well after 185 applications and 4 phone screens, I have finally landed my second actual interview. Of course, now I'm in a bit of a headspin, as after the phone screen I'm not totally sure I want this job. Not for any terrible reason, but it's a DoD contracting job that would require me to get a clearance again. The idea of spending all day inside a SCIF is giving me pretty cold feet, and I'm not sure how well I'll be able to gauge the day-to-day work during the interview process since they won't be able to tell me about it. But at the same time, I don't really feel like I'm in a position to turn up my nose at a decent job that pays well, makes use of my work experience and PhD, and is in my area. Gods I hate this job market...

I try to avoid following news of the show--I watched S1, heavily disliked it, and have no intention of watching it going forward. Unfortunately, the show continues to permeate WoT fan spaces. In any case, thought this was an interesting statement. Sounds like I made the right choice in peacing out from this. Interestingly, I followed back the thread this came from and found it to be a frustrating mess. Basically a long list of people complaining that everyone who doesn't like the show is a bigot. How is that a helpful stance to take? Ugh, now I'm getting angry again, which is why I try to avoid show news at all!!

I like it but am cynical this is a genie that can be forced back into the bottle. As a writer, it's disheartening. I thought the robots were supposed to be like sweeping the streets and cleaning houses to give the humans more time for writing...also AI writing is (without general AI, which is nowhere near what we have) by definition derivative. They literally cannot come up with anything creative. But what they have is speed and volume, which means wading through the dreck to find the good writers will become even more difficult than it already is.

Oh fun! I just finished mine last year. While obviously there were rough spots and hard times, overall it was definitely positive for me. It was certainly far and away the best 5 years of my working life. A good fit with your advisor is absolutely crucial, judging from my experience and what I witnessed from others. And a good attitude and sticking to established boundaries definitely helps. I never noticed that the people putting in 12 hours days and working all weekend ever finished sooner or accomplished more than the ones doing reasonable hours... Good luck!

The ghosting is ridiculous these days. Honestly just a trash job market. I had a phone screen last week for a position that I'm feeling mediocre about. The job itself sound great, actually, but a) the salary range in the JD is laughably low and rumor is they're not flexible and b) I have a friend who used to work there and I know she got really burnt out and had some mixed-to-negative perspectives on the team. So I'm feeling torn about even wanting to work there, but given this is my first nibble in 120ish applications, I feel like I shouldn't be so picky...well we'll see. They have other people to screen so I won't know for a week or so yet if they want to actually interview me.

I'm looking to do data analysis (while also keeping an eye out for the much rarer opportunities in science writing/editing/etc). I think I have a ton of relevant experience, but so far I haven't managed to convince a recruiter or their AI screenings of that. It's also a rough time for the field as a whole with all the recent layoffs and everything.

I actually really like accounting! I considered switching to accounting a while back and even completed a certificate course at UCSD-E. But then I ended up deciding to go to grad school for astrophysics and now I don't even know what that sort of pivot would look like. Fun fact I also started on the actuarial exams when I was getting out of the Navy and passed the first two, but I was determined to stay in San Diego and there weren't really entry level opportunities there.

I recently surpassed the milestone of 100 job applications this go round. So far, 1 phone screen, after which I was rejected, and the previously detailed job where I went through two interviews (incl in person) and reference only to get ghosted... A fairly accurate representation of job hunting.

Finished listening to Royal Assassin. Gods what a frustrating book!! But like in a good way? Hobb is a master at making one feel emotions, even negative ones. This is the middle book of the first trilogy, and it ends in a very middle book kind of way--the larger threat still looms, our heroes do get some victories, but overall you really want things to be resolved in the next book. Unfortunately I've read the next book so I know what sort of resolution is coming...and yet I'm ready to be hurt again. Now I'm listening to Dune Messiah. I probably should have stopped after Dune, as I recall the series becoming pretty weird and unenjoyable in later installments, but the library had the audiobook so here I am again. I've only read the later books once and it was in high school so perhaps an adult perspective will be better.

Most of them are a pretty simple resume upload. I do tailor my resume as needed and write cover letters when possible, but it doesn't take too much time. But that also means there are hundreds of other people doing the same thing....