The Blog

 Not that I'm miserable or suicidal or anything...

Wisdom teeth out cost me: $50 hospital co-pay, $580 anaesthetic, $1,700 surgeon's fees = $2,330 (upfront. I raided my post-PhD vacation fund to pay those bills).
Medicare + my health insurance (in that order) have refunded/paid: rest of hospital, ($170.70 + 56.90) anaesthetic, (0 + $507) surgeon's fees = $734.6
Total out of pocket: Four or more weeks hostelling in Japan.
I don't really like to talk about money on the blog, but this was enough that I had to rant about it. We're talking more money than I've earned this financial year here, and most of the money I have earned this year has gone on my monthly health insurance bill (and my public transport costs and other people's birthday presents).

In other news, in case you missed it, the big earthquake in chile has made the day shorter and I'm not going to feel guilty about my lack of desire to reproduce, regardless of what Kevin Rudd or my grandmother may think (that said, I'm very happy for the acquaintance who I spotted across a mall today who it seems is very pregnant). Also, if you're one of the few people on the internet who hasn't seen this yet, you have to see this.

Expect better news about the thesis tomorrow, I hope. Right now I'm overtired and headed to bed. Sorry for any incoherences.

Labels: linking all over the place, money matters, phd, still poor, teeth, tired

 *sighs*...

Today I wrote a page, but my overall wordcount went down by 400 as I nuked about two pages of crap that had previously been commented out. The chances of this chapter actually hitting 10,000 words are dropping about as rapidly as the wordcount.

Labels: 1000 words, thesis ftl, writing

 Moderately Large Image Ahead...

This is what I spent my weekend working on:

(Based upon figure 2 of Greene (2001).

Labels: art, astronomy, don't ask about the commas, never going to graduate, protostars, star wars, thesis ftw

 I'm made out of meat...

Sometimes I love the suggestions that appear in my search box. I start typing "I", and get "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas". And now that I think about it, I do want a hippopotamus for Christmas.

Don't you?

Labels: Hippopotamii for Christmas, random

 An Endorsement...

Dilmah Exceptional - Berry Sensation: tasty good fun. I approve and want to drink more. The fruit scent is too strong to store it with other teas, however. The scent was overwhelming even through the sealed packaging. :)

Oh, and I've submitted another three job applications this week, one at ANU. Still no job.

Labels: actually tea, almost but not entirely unlike tea

 I believe the correct way to write this is...

Fuck you, Amanda Palmer.

PS. No really, fuck you.

Labels: activism, feminism, music, rant

 Worst Tooth Fairy Ever...

So, it looks like having four teeth removed will end up costing me ~$1450 out of my holiday account (Because I haven't earned that much yet this financial year). I'm so glad I have private health insurance where they'll pay me $93 for every tooth I have removed, when the surgeon is charging me $400/450.

Fuck it, I'm going to go get a coffee I can't afford.

Labels: a godawful mess, money matters, shit, teeth

 Well then...

In bullet points, because I'm too lazy for full paragraphs:

• The opening ceremony was fun, yes? I want to watch again tonight, if only for the fun bits with the First Nations dancers, the Bear and the hymn at the end. Also the USA beanies, which are great.
• I didn't get my dream job. Life goes on; I've got a few more to apply to before the weekend is out.
• I'm going to see Nation tomorrow. Looking forward to it muchly.
• I've got the first two sections of chapter one decently drafted so that they're no longer really embarrassing. I've only got one more big section to go, and then two smaller ones, and I think I'll be done. Not where I wanted to be by this weekend, but sometimes life is hard. Writing a page a day of the literature review is not that slack, but I miss the speed of the later chapters. The thesis currently has 80 numbered pages of "quality" content (including bibliography), with 4.5 chapters yet to go.
• I'll likely be switching to wordpress before the "end of March" deadline on blogger. Sorry to say that if they won't work within my blog/site structure I don't want them around anymore. It sucks, but then, so does google. Speaking of, if you don't want everyone to know who you're emailling and what you're emailling about, you might want to jump through many hoops to thoroughly opt out of Buzz.

Umm, I guess that's the important things. To distract, have a couple of fun links:

• Phil Plait - "Seven Ways a Black Hole Can Kill You": A fun lecture on black holes and why they are awesome. (Phil is the author of Bad Astronomy, if you're a n00b to these things)
• Dinosaur Comics on Lady Gaga's facade of bluffing

Now I'd better go write a couple of cover letters and get on with life. Hope you're having a good weekend.

Labels: blogger, jobs, linking all over the place, thesis ftl, web stuff, writing

 Hi, you lot...

So, since my concentration is shot, I have a couple of questions for you all:

• What are your thoughts on job interviews? Advice, suggestions, warnings that I ought to not wear a tshirt to work that day, questions that I ought to ask the bosses are all sought after.
• What is your favourite non-blogger blog provider? Given that blogger will no longer allow me to use ftp to update my website (suggesting instead that I let google host my site or move to blogspot), I need a new solution. Keep in mind that anything we choose will have to vetted by my server guru, and it's unlikely that I'm going to move the archives over to a new system.
• Melbourne?

Labels: accent issues, astronomy, blogger, holy crap they gave me an interview, internet famous, jobs

 Ouchies...

On a draft job app, about organising conferences: Obviously this involved soothing the egos of irascible academics and encouraging them to work together towards a common goal of not embarrassing the fuck out of the rest of us.

And with a day to go, I've submitted all things due in January, including the one that I really really want, that I may have jinxed simply by wanting it. I refuse to believe that I actually managed to address the selection criteria in the way that they wanted, but I'm hoping I scraped through because a few awesome people said that boss should consider me.

Now I just want this pain to go away!

Labels: astronomy, jobs, suck, teeth