BMR Lite

[Hap]

Not related to the current engine discussion, I got off of the Bainbridge Island ferry this afternoon on the motorcycle, with the wife on the back and enough luggage for a long weekend (for me, and 2 weeks for my wife, we are only going to be gone 2 nights), adding a significant amount of weight, and I got stuck in traffic moving at a crisp 5-10 mph most of the way (took nearly 45 minutes to go 10 miles to Hwy 3). Needless to say, after feathering the clutch for that long at that speed, my left hand is extremely cramped and sore. I fucking hate Puget Sound area traffic!

[geonuc]

... (for me, and 2 weeks for my wife, we are only going to be gone 2 nights)...

lol

[Loresinger]

There has been a big hoopla about the Rolling Stones Magazine cover on local talk radio - mostly negative

I posted to them that while they say they don't support it (and several stores won't sell it) they needed to count the number of times they said "rolling stones magazine" in even one airing.... welcome to free advertising.

[FZR1KG]

I think some of that engine control and monitoring software is complete crap.

I totally missed this post.
I also totally agree with it.

According to the service manual its meant to detect misfires by the change in rotational speed of the crankshaft/camshaft.
Really? On a V8?
A V8 has obviously 8 cly, its a 4 stroke so there are on average two cylinders firing per power stroke, they generally overlap these so its one full power stroke, one first half of a power stroke and one last part of its power stroke, three cylinders contributing to two power strokes at every point in the 4 stroke cycle.
So to expect software to detect this requires some really fine spacing teeth on the crank and extreme timing. Its a joke.

[FZR1KG]

Well I was hoping today I would have the basement tiling done but as usual things didn't work out according to plan.
Firstly I had to remove the previous tiling cement. Which really was carpeting cement on wall tile stuck to the floor. Beats me why?
Next I find I picked up carpeting cement/vinyl tile cement instead of tiling cement.
I wondered why then realised, at Lowes they put carpet cement in the ceramic tile section. WTF?
That could explain why the last person used carpeting cement for tile cement but not why he used wall tiles instead of floor tiles.
One of the great mysteries of human ingenuity I guess.

[FZR1KG]

Trying to remember what tools you have in the USA vs Oz is starting to really bug me.

[Swift]

Trying to remember what tools you have in the USA vs Oz is starting to really bug me.

I don't about Oz, but we have lots of tools in the USA. I thought a couple of them had worked at your restaurant.

Wait, what do you mean "he didn't mean that kind of tool"?

[Rommie]

Argh, people who don't get the fact that you find them fine as colleagues but you don't want to pretend you're friends when you're not annoy me.

Long story short, conference in Greece in September (yeah I should shush now) and topics are pretty varying so six PhDs/postdocs are going including myself. Two of the ladies got the idea that instead of the conference hotel we should get an apartment together under the guise of "it'll be cheaper! and more fun!" but I just saw the rates and it's all of 20 Euro a night more for a place 15 min further from the conference center and I'd likely have to share a room... thanks but no thanks, I'll go my own way, frankly you hang out so much with others at conferences anyway that I prefer my own space (and one of said organizing ladies clearly doesn't like me to the point of rudeness, so why live together a week?).

Said girls are now a little upset that I don't want to underwrite their party pad and that I wouldn't go for the cheapest option possible even though my adviser is totally fine paying for the hotel- "but it's the principle, you should try to get the cheapest price possible!!!" Ok firstly the only one whose opinion matters is my adviser, he doesn't give a crap where I sleep, and it's not your friggin business anyway where I choose to sleep at a conference. If you're really actually upset that we won't get to hang out much since I'll be sleeping elsewhere (cause post-session drinks etc clearly don't count), well there's a solution called "why don't you ever accept my invites in Amsterdam to hang out, or offer some in turn if you genuinely can't make any of them?"

I'm trying to figure out if this is a general thing that happens in workplaces, or more one you encounter in academia where the professional lines are a bit more blurred so people don't understand privacy often. That and astronomers tend to be very frugal after their tight grad school years, so the fact that you'd be ok with spending 20 Euro extra for convenience is inconceivable to many, even when it's travel for work.

[gethen]

I'm not sure what's going on with those women, but I'm with you. I would not enjoy sharing an apartment with anyone I didn't consider a good friend at least. It's not your job to make sure they get the cheapest housing possible by sacrificing your own comfort.

[SciFi Chick]

I'm with you and gethen on this. It's ridiculous. I can't stand control freaks that want to tell me what to do and then get their feelings hurt if I have other plans.

[SciFiFisher]

It sounds like these women simply want someone to split the cost with and they are willing to pretend to be best buds while doing so. Just look at them and say "I prefer not share a room because my snoring keeps other people awake". That's what I tell people.

[Swift]

I'm trying to figure out if this is a general thing that happens in workplaces, or more one you encounter in academia where the professional lines are a bit more blurred so people don't understand privacy often. That and astronomers tend to be very frugal after their tight grad school years, so the fact that you'd be ok with spending 20 Euro extra for convenience is inconceivable to many, even when it's travel for work.

Yes and no.

Industry goes through cycles of frugal and very-not-frugal, depending upon how the company (or in my case, the parent company) is doing. Often, when frugal, it is the penny-wise / pound-foolish kind of frugal. But even when frugal, I'm never asked to share a room with a co-worker on a business trip and I wouldn't - I want my privacy and free time; especially on a businees trip, where I'm probably "on-call" entertaining customers or whatever, all day and through dinner and such. I need my quiet time after all that.

But yes, the friendship/professional lines can get blurry at work, and sometime in not good ways.

I generally would like to be at least casual friends with my co-workers, but sometimes that gets a little strange. There was one guy that worked here who would seem to oscillate back and forth between seemingly being your best buddy and ignoring you. On several occasions he started off a Monday morning with:
"How come you didn't come to my party on Saturday?"
"Uh, because you didn't invite me and didn't know anything about it"
"Oh... really? I thought I did".

This actually happened like three times. After that, I started more actively avoiding socializing with him, even when I did get invited to something.

There is a group here that goes out to lunch together just about every day. I usually go, but sometimes I just want to be alone and will come up with an "I got to run an errand" excuse.

[Rommie]

I definitely have many a work friend- most of my ones in Amsterdam are from work actually (many of whom I would share a room with), and I certainly don't mind having a drink with any of these people going to the conference- just yeah I'm with you swift, if it's work related I need my space to retreat to. And one or two people in the group are petty enough to say passive-aggressive snarky comments about how I don't want to "be with them" or some such crap, so I think I'm going to get a little mileage out of the "smile and say I prefer my own space" type thing (still trying to figure out a good answer for the "but it's cheaper!" beyond "mind your own fucking business" though). We're adults and this isn't friggin' summer camp, and I don't like having to explain myself to people when they should keep out of it.

Funny thing is I do tend to stay in hostels when I travel so then I don't mind sharing a room... but that's to save a buck of my own money and because you can just ignore a stranger if you don't like them. Instead of there where you have to pretend to care when someone's needlessly stressing about their talk and will know when you skip out of a session to sleep in.

[gethen]

Just tell them you have a "date" meeting you at the conference. Or that you snore, as SciFiFisher suggested and your breathing machine makes a lot of noise.

[FZR1KG]

"But its cheaper this way"
There's a reason for that.

Next time they need equipment or software of a particular standard, give them a link to an inferior product that won't do the job properly and let them know its cheaper.

[SciFiFisher]

Or be honest and tell them that while it is cheaper you are willing to pay slightly more for the advantage of a private space where you can chill and relax without having to be social or engaging.

[geonuc]

I'm trying to figure out if this is a general thing that happens in workplaces, or more one you encounter in academia where the professional lines are a bit more blurred so people don't understand privacy often.

I travel a lot on business with colleagues and we never share a room. This, even though our company is currently on an insane austerity freakout. Even 'friends' who travel to a job site together don't share a room. It's a line we don't cross. I've never heard of people even visiting the room of another while on a business trip. Basically, we go out to dinner and when we get back to the hotel, it's 'bye - see you in the morning' in the lobby or elevator.

I think that's typical in the engineering business. Other industries and fields, maybe not.

[Rommie]

"But its cheaper this way"
There's a reason for that.

Next time they need equipment or software of a particular standard, give them a link to an inferior product that won't do the job properly and let them know its cheaper.

Haha I should. I mean I get it- being a student with not much money sucks, and there's a good reason you don't find astrophysics with financial problems as we all learn the lesson to live within our means. But then you get folks on the extreme like this, one example being one of the two women butthurt over my decision who's a postdoc for my adviser. She keeps telling me stuff when conferences come up like "just don't forget you still need money in the pot for the end of your degree too!" even though, um, my adviser said I can do one big international conference a year. And she's done three. And I can't exactly tell her to bugger off cause we do research together, but haven't found a better retort than just "well, our boss said..."

Should be enough, but it isn't. And you'd think it'd be enough to say that once if she really wanted, but this incident is more closer to the tenth.

I also have just started thinking that this circle wanted to have an apartment for the days around the conference for vacation, in which case an extra person in would help underwrite an apartment for the holiday, but they're more just mad that they can't get me in on it and that explains the getting upset part. Which is a classic "reason that you can't actually tell the person" reason, of course.

[FZR1KG]

I really don't get it.
While I was with the DoD in Oz i had to regularly fly out and have overnight or longer stays away.
My experience was like geonucs for the most part.

The only exception was one of my close friends and I shared a place so we could stay a few days longer and go fishing.
It was a two week work trip though and we were more than work friends.
It wasn't the best fishing though.
Pretty much caught a cold and nothing else nut the money we saved got us some fishing rods too!

Another friend didn't want to share a room for a few days. No idea what that was about.
Probably some garbage about her boyfriend.

There's an idea, tell them you're bi or lesbian and it wouldn't be appropriate. LOL

[Swift]

Just tell them you have a "date" meeting you at the conference. Or that you snore, as SciFiFisher suggested and your breathing machine makes a lot of noise.

Actually, I wouldn't make up stories, I would just give them the truth. As you said, this isn't high school. At some point you to go with "this is what I want to do, thank you for the offer, but it doesn't work for me". If they can't cope with that, its their problem.

[Swift]

On a different note... I'm just in one of those moods today that everything is ticking me off, work and my boos especially, and I don't want to do anything and I just want to go home and be left alone. Is it 5 yet?

[pumpkinpi]

On a different note... I'm just in one of those moods today that everything is ticking me off, work and my boos especially, and I don't want to do anything and I just want to go home and be left alone. Is it 5 yet?

Who's booing you?
Or did you leave out a boo and your boo-boos are bothering you?

[Swift]

On a different note... I'm just in one of those moods today that everything is ticking me off, work and my boos especially, and I don't want to do anything and I just want to go home and be left alone. Is it 5 yet?

Who's booing you?
Or did you leave out a boo and your boo-boos are bothering you?

Duh! That should read "bose", not "boos".

[Hap]

Duh! That should read "bose", not "boos".

What's wrong with your speakers? Did you pop a tweeter or something?

[Swift]

Fuck. I give up. Who can I surrender to?