Reluctant Scientist, Frustrated Blogger

Belated Greetings to Visitors from the Reason Roundup!

I thank Martin Lindeskog for submitting one of my blog entries to the Reason Roundup being hosted by the Charlotte Capitalist, which looks like a pretty good blog.

Less Regular Blogging Possible for Awhile

(Though I may figure out a way around the problem.)

Being a scientist, and one at the bottom rung of the academic ladder at that, I must work long, irregular hours. I have been rather fortunate during the time I have been blogging so far: I have had enough time during the day to work on blog entries intermittently or have gotten home early enough to blog at my leisure.

That time has drawn to a close for awhile. I'm trying to get a new project off the ground, have a couple of presentations coming up in the next few weeks, and have to submit for a renewal of my current funding. The low pay and irregular hours inherent in the job mean that you'd better be really passionate about your work or it will be nearly unbearable. Were it not for the fact that I feel strangely attracted to the idea of residing under the same roof with my wife, I'd have gotten out long ago. Unfortunately, moving to a better job market isn't an acceptable option, so here I am.

I very nearly started blogging about some of the details of my comically absurd situation, but that's something that will have to wait for when these days are behind me. Suffice it to say that (1) my work life has been somewhat like being trapped in a richly ironic comedic novel for about the past year, and (2) "postdoctoral fellow" was once listed among the worst (at #10) jobs in science in Popular Science for a reason! Unfortunately, it looks like Popular Science is behind the times in maintaining on-line archives, so I can't excerpt it.. I remember that article and it was a real hoot. Clue for the suits at Popular Science: this would have served as a free ad (i.e., sample) for your magazine!

Fool's Gold?

Side note: this entry has gotten me a cubic b---load of hits: all those treasure-hunters looking for clues get sent there by Google et al.! If anyone has read the thing and gotten a clue -- about Michael Stadther -- I don't know about it yet. It's nice to think that the treasure hunt itself may lead people to my criticism, but I still prefer the real hits I've been getting more of lately thanks to incoming links from other blogs. Oops! I slipped up and used some search terms! Now this entry is going to get lots of hits! Heh!

Signing Off

Well, that's going to have to be it for tonight, folks! The most irritating part of the upcoming stretch of time is that I haven't yet got around to switching to DSL or cable internet service, meaning that any home-based blogging is going to be subject to the vicissitudes of dialup. The dialup ISP, while usually adequate, will sometimes slow to such a crawl that even Google takes minutes to load. It's been a long, frustrating day, and I need the sleep!

Oh, and One More Thing...

Get a load of what the people James Taranto thinks we owe a living to are saying about their benefactors! This may sound callous, but maybe it's a big mistake to help some of these people at all! Why feed wolves?

-- CAV