– Being an associate editor for a relatively large technical journal takes a lot of time.
– That doesn’t mean I no longer review papers. I just had to tear some authors a new a$$hole, because the work is so technically misguided, so completely clueless of prior art and main issues in the problem they supposedly solve, I didn’t even know where to start with the critique. I always feel bad after writing a scathing (it’s professional but but definitely pointed) critique. I need to go look at some kittens now.
– ‘Tis the white-paper writing season. I spend a lot of time zooming with collaborators, hashing out ideas, talking about references, in prep for proposal writing in the fall.
– As I discussed on and off, my affiliation implies I do applied physics, and I often get erroneously dinged in review (especially of proposals) that my work is not basic-science enough, even though it really really is. I won’t fight this any more. I have rounded up a bunch of new collaborators and we will do super applied problems with wild abandon. And then, one day, I will retire, and all this hunting-for-grants shit will be behind me.
– Students graduating and getting nice jobs. Yay!
– Other students making nice progress in research and papers getting submitted. Yay!
– White papers and nascent collaborations. Feeling almost hopeful about my research program’s future. But hope is for suckers.
How’s it shaking, blogosphere?
xykademiqz 