Life

[Dewar]

Better start studying.

[Apelsin]

The gaming business?

That seems kind of broad?

[Roderick]

Good Afternoon.

 

I am a Nigerian prince, and I would Like to Offer you the opportunity to be a Video game expert on Al Jazeera televised shows.

 

Please and godspeed,

 

Nguntu Awari

[prettyunsmart]

Yeah, and my institution actually pays fairly well compared to other places. As an adjunct professor, you get paid anywhere from $500 to (maybe, on very rare occasions) $4500 to teach one class for one semester. If you want something approaching a living wage, you'll probably have to teach three classes a semester, which is pushing eighty hours a week of work to prep and grade. Meanwhile, you're getting maybe two percent of the revenue that the college or university makes from the class that you create, teach, and support entirely on your own. This is the state of the academy in America right now.

 

Honestly, I can't think about it for more than a couple minutes at a time. There's so much anger and anxiety there for me.

 

Ugh. I'm getting that near-panic-attack feeling that I get whenever the idea of the academic job market comes up. I'll be on the market next year, but given the prospects for English PhDs, I'll probably have to consider adjuncting too at some point. It really does make you question if being a part of such a broken system is worth the trouble sometimes. 

 

The gaming business?

That seems kind of broad?

 

From a follow-up message I think the focus is sort of going to be on eSports. They're building an eSports-specific arena in my city, so I think that's going to be how they frame the story. I think it will ultimately be about how eSports and video games are coming to be more prominent in the mainstream circles, but I don't really know for sure yet.

[Merus]

A friend of mine became a TV and radio expert. What it apparently entailed was that they'd ask him to talk about something he knew nothing about that was somewhat vaguely adjacent to what he actually did, and he'd have to start studying quickly.

 

Obviously he did well because he is the smartest guy I know, but yeah. That's how experts work!

[Chris]

A friend of mine became a TV and radio expert. What it apparently entailed was that they'd ask him to talk about something he knew nothing about that was somewhat vaguely adjacent to what he actually did, and he'd have to start studying quickly.

 

Obviously he did well because he is the smartest guy I know, but yeah. That's how experts work!

God that sounds like a really goddamn fun job.

[Ben X]

A friend of mine became a TV and radio expert. What it apparently entailed was that they'd ask him to talk about something he knew nothing about that was somewhat vaguely adjacent to what he actually did, and he'd have to start studying quickly.

 

Obviously he did well because he is the smartest guy I know, but yeah. That's how experts work!

 

Is he on YouTube anywhere? It'd be brilliant if there's one clip of him being an expert on nuclear physics, then another of him being an expert on Magnum pi.

[dibs]

Is he on YouTube anywhere? It'd be brilliant if there's one clip of him being an expert on nuclear physics, then another of him being an expert on Magnum pi.

 

I'm waiting for SAM to leap in to tell you that these two are in no way mutually exclusive.

[Merus]

Is he on YouTube anywhere? It'd be brilliant if there's one clip of him being an expert on nuclear physics, then another of him being an expert on Magnum pi.

 

Nah, he's an economist specialising in Asian economies (which is his full-time job) so he was always interviewed about economics, but they'd tell him what they wanted to talk about and frequently it wouldn't have much to do with what he was doing at work. He's not a full-time TV expert. (I tried looking for his TV appearances but the ABC doesn't put them up on YouTube because you foreigners don't deserve it apparently.)

[Ben X]

I'm waiting for SAM to leap in to tell you that these two are in no way mutually exclusive.

 

True, but it would still be funny to see the same guy pop up in "Serious Science Documentary Series" and "I Love 80s Detective Shows!"

[SuperBiasedMan]

"I Love Detecting Serious 80's Scientific Discoveries!"

 

 

 

EDIT: Since this is a new page, I want to make it clear that this is definitely just a declaration I'm making about myself.

[SecretAsianMan]

I'm waiting for SAM to leap in to tell you that these two are in no way mutually exclusive.

 

No comment.  (I actually don't know shit about Magnum PI)

[SecretAsianMan]

My late night office banishment has ended and I finally get to take a little break.  Time for a 3-day weekend where I do nothing but sleep.

[prettyunsmart]

Well, my chance to be a real life TV pundit will have to come later. The one day they're in town is the day I'm leaving for a wedding. Boo. It's alright. One of my friends gets to be on TV. Not jealous at all.

[tegan]

I got a new external harddrive for my TV box thing.

 

 

[Justin Leego]

I'm assuming that both of those are animated gifs

[SecretAsianMan]

Came into work this morning, my computer won't start.  Doesn't even turn on.  Called the help desk and put in a ticket but I think the power supply failed.  I'm currently logged on to the computer in the empty cube next to me.  Can't access the documents I need beacuse they're on the broken computer's hard drive.  This is a good start to the week.

[Codicier]

Spent the whole weekend and a good part of today painting what was a shared storage room, in preparation for it becoming a shared office. Just one more wall to go and we can start throwing shelves and a big old plan chest in and have a proper work space for the first time for a long time. I'm exhausted but optimistic

[Bolegium]

Might not be the right thread to post this in, but here goes. I was reading this today and thought it was great:

 

http://arstechnica.com/staff/2014/10/harnessing-depression-one-ars-writers-journey/

[Bjorn]

I made a post on Facebook about wanting a giant pet spider, and a retired priest replied to me, "Hell no."

This has pretty much made my day.

[Apelsin]

I could never have an arachnid as a pet... Or any insect or any slithering thing.

The way they move just bug me out.

[Twig]

The way they move just bug me out.

:dadjoke:

[tegan]

That article exaggerates somewhat (especially the stuff about it being "the size of a puppy") and makes it sound like the spider is a new discovery and not something we've known about for years.

 

Also, it kind of bugs me in general when people talk about keeping arthropods or reptiles as pets and some asshole inevitably interjects with "not me! I'd step on it as soon as I saw it!" or something similar. That's someone's pet you're talking about. You wouldn't tell someone how much you'd want to run over their dog, have some respect.

A few months back, Brad Shoemaker had to make a post on his tumblr (which is mostly about his guinea pigs) to get people to stop telling him that guinea pigs are edible, because it was just getting increasingly creepy and unwanted.

[Badfinger]

I wouldn't eat a guinea pig. I'm allergic to them.

 

~weird allergies~

[Bjorn]

That article exaggerates somewhat (especially the stuff about it being "the size of a puppy") and makes it sound like the spider is a new discovery and not something we've known about for years.

 

Also, it kind of bugs me in general when people talk about keeping arthropods or reptiles as pets and some asshole inevitably interjects with "not me! I'd step on it as soon as I saw it!" or something similar. That's someone's pet you're talking about. You wouldn't tell someone how much you'd want to run over their dog, have some respect.

A few months back, Brad Shoemaker had to make a post on his tumblr (which is mostly about his guinea pigs) to get people to stop telling him that guinea pigs are edible, because it was just getting increasingly creepy and unwanted.

 

I'm not sure why that went viral, I think it had to do just with the "puppy sized spider" headline and widespread arachnophobia, it's not like the Goliath Birdeater hasn't been a known species for...like a century or more? 

 

I really like spiders, and am fascinated by them.  The only reason I don't actually have one is that I'm not a fan of terrarium pets (and my wife is a pretty serious arachnophobe, though she has gotten better over the last few years as I've taught her some things about spiders and showed her how cool they can be).  By contrast, I'm actually quite scared of big dogs.  Every single time I post something about spiders on Facebook, I'm honestly amused by the horrified reactions and who they come from.  A few times I've pointed out that as someone who is afraid of dogs, I see people post stuff about their pooches on a daily basis and never say a word about it, but people can't stop themselves from condemning snakes and spiders.  To some dog lovers I've mentioned this to, it's a completely alien thought to them.