Comments on: got energy?

By: Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid | Cosmic Variance

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid | Cosmic Variance — Sat, 15 Oct 2005 04:19:47 +0000

[...] Well, you’ve read my whining here and here about being terribly distracted by having to organize departmental colloquia every week. You’ve noticed that the extra grundge work sometimes comes about because I want it to be a fun, inclusive event every week, with everybody having a great time while learning a lot, meeting their colleagues, and with a great deal of good ideas and conversation resulting from it. Achieving this requires effort, and when it does work…it is really, really worth it. [...]

By: Those Other Things We Do | Cosmic Variance

Those Other Things We Do | Cosmic Variance — Sat, 15 Oct 2005 00:30:00 +0000

[...] The next aspect of the other pointy end of the sword is that it is just so time-consuming. It is essentially like organizing a miniconference every week. Some of this is my fault. (I can’t do things by halves, I have to do things in doubles, or I just don’t like doing it.) This is because you have to spend the days leading up to it making sure that the advertising is adequate for the type of speaker and topic that is coming. We have a regular posting in the usual places, and some posters up around the department. Not surprisingly, about 25-30 people show up if you’re lucky. That’s just wrong, and embarrassing. In several cases, the topic is of interest to some of our colleagues in engineering, or biology or chemistry. So in those weeks, one has to make sure that special extra advertising is put on. Then there’s meetings. The speaker comes for the day, or half a day if they’re local to the region, and we’re paying with actual folding money (and/or good food; see above) for them to come, and so we should make sure that they get a chance to have one-on-one meetings with everybody who wants to (as time permits). So you first email everybody you can think of about the event. Then you try to get from your colleagues some time windows when they can meet with the speaker. You can end up exchanging hundreds of emails this way in a short time, until you’ve built a schedule. It is particularly bad when it is one of the larger, more campus-wide events which in my wisdom I try to do, since this can involve several other departments. I might even make an extra more “fun” poster to bring in the odd random punter from the general campus community. (The “got nano?” one this week riffs on my earlier “got energy?” reply to the “got milk?” campain. See earlier post.) [...]

By: Clifford

Clifford — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 21:29:21 +0000

Hi Maggi: I think I’m supposed to say: Fight On!

-cvj

By: Maggi (random 'SC grad '96)

Maggi (random 'SC grad '96) — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 20:41:45 +0000

“that interesting sculpture”…hey, it’s the Giant Baby Double-Ended Medicine Spoon! I haven’t seen that in way too long.

By: allison w

allison w — Mon, 10 Oct 2005 08:49:20 +0000

to be honest, your slogan “got energy?” makes me want to go to THIS colloquium! I heard about it from Dr. Thompson, but now it sounds fun .

By: Michael

Michael — Sun, 09 Oct 2005 16:32:19 +0000

Aw, that reminds me of my days as an undergrad. How nice