One conference down: three more to go

Went to NZ Geographical Society conference last week. Report to follow. But I will say it was freezing and that I bought ear muffs from Spacesuit.

Now I only have 3 more conferences to go to this year:

1. Walking 08


2. Geocart/SIRC 08


3. NZ ESRI User conference

One a month. And I have to present at all of them. Ick! I still hate presenting. The people who say "it gets easier" are wrong.

things that get in the way of doing research: new computers

A new computer is a good thing. Mostly. However, it takes a large chunk of time to reinstall everything and copy stuff. I have installed the essentials: FF, zotero, ArcGIS, assorted ArcGIS extensions and backup software. But I still have a lot more to install: SAS, SPSS, Google Earth, Dreamweaver, random other GIS type apps.

The other thing about new computers is that they often start doing weird stuff. Like going blank temporarily.

I knew all this, so I ordered the new computer months ago so that it would arrive before the busy season. But it was slow to arrive and so it arrived right in the middle of the busy season.

lost things - I want to track articles

I keep losing articles. Usually the most important articles. And no matter how organised I am with my citation management (woohoo zotero!) it still doesn't know where I last put the paper copy. Is it in the office? Is it at home? Did I leave it on the bus? I don't know! And, yes, I could print out another copy, but I usually scrawl profound notes on the important articles.

I need tiny tracking devices. Pretty colour-coded stickers would be ideal. Linked to my online citation manager. Then when I lose an article I can go look at a map and see exactly where it is. That'd be cool. It'd be even cooler if I could zoom in to see a map of the piles of paper on my desk and I could see exactly where in the piles of paper the article is.

little plane flies through lightning

Yesterday I got to fly in a little plane that was being jostled from side to side almost continuously. Just as well I was still half asleep. But more interestingly, I got to fly in a little plane right through a thunder and lightning  storm. "Electrical activity" doesn't look that much different at x-thousand feet than it does at 0-thousand feet, aside from perspective and the just seeming closer thing. But it certainly feels different at altitude.

The pilot said it was perfectly safe. I'm not convinced about that. But it was certainly dramatic.

This is kind of related to research/work in that I sometimes have to fly in planes to do research and work.