The Blog

Just talking about stuff...

Following up on last week's fall down a flight of stairs, my butt is a fantastic shade of purple still, although it is starting to look sickly-yellow. Ewww... And now that you've all discovered something about my bottom that you didn't want to know, we're going to move on to today's post:

There were five astronomy-themed PhD students at Macquarie University this year. Guess how many I've had more-than-five-minute conversations with? Guess how many thesis topics I can tell you about?
If you answered, 'One, and it's yourself', you'd be right.
I don't get it: I'm a personable person, I like talking about astronomy, but I also like talking about other things, I'm in an easily accessible office, and I'm always around. How come no one else can manage that?

I get that they're all mature-aged, which is a polite way of saying 'middle-aged', but still, I'm not a teeny-bopper myself.
I get that they're all male, but I'm not the most feminine of the species for all that I have long hair.
I even get that we're all busy, but there are scheduled morning teas once a week for research students.
So why is it that there's no one here for me to be talking to during the bludgiest week of the year?
Why is it that I had to look up the names of the other students online, as I only knew two of them?
Why don't I have a peer group?

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