![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Random notes
Sep. 25th, 2006 06:55 pm* I've got a low-grade cold which has been rather annoying; it makes me very thirsty, and it's given me nasty headaches the past two days. (Actually, the thirst might be connected to the headache; dehydration and all that.) Makes it very difficult to work.
* After wallowing in the headache this afternoon, I finally dragged myself to a nearby restaurant ("Fat Daddy's", a burger place with free wi-fi) to do some work. I don't know why it's easier to work at restaurants than at home; I think it's having people around (which is weird, because I normally don't like having people around me.)
* I've been compiling my list of nationwide job openings for next fall; Jen isn't expected to finish before December 2007, but I'm applying for September 2007 with the idea that a) it's good practice, b) they might give me a postponement, or c) heck, I can probably manage moving to the new city early. My list is up to 30 positions. Lots in upstate New York, a surprising number near my family in Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, not a lot in Canada; Jen wants to settle there eventually. I want to work at a liberal-arts college, though, and there aren't a lot of small, selective schools in Canada; I'm wondering if our respective life goals aren't incompatible. :(
* Applying for jobs also means describing for them my research agenda, which makes me wonder what exactly my research agenda is. I'm currently working on buses, but I don't see that being a lifelong pursuit; I'm really more of a generalist I think. (My background is certainly pretty broad: quantum information, granular materials, neuroscience, and transportation. OK, pretty broad for a physicist, anyway; I guess I'd have to toss Russian history in there to make it REALLY broad.) I just don't know whether I can get hired as a generalist. What doesn't help are the ads for jobs where they request someone in a field I used to work--particularly, the ads for people in quantum information, which I did with Bill Wootters 10 years ago. It's awfully tempting to go back into QIT: it was fun, I'd love to work with Bill again, I could actually write a decent hand-wavy paragraph or two about what I might study, etc. I'm not up-to-date in the field, however, and I don't think I'd want to work exclusively in the field, either.
OK, guess I'd better do some work now. :)
* After wallowing in the headache this afternoon, I finally dragged myself to a nearby restaurant ("Fat Daddy's", a burger place with free wi-fi) to do some work. I don't know why it's easier to work at restaurants than at home; I think it's having people around (which is weird, because I normally don't like having people around me.)
* I've been compiling my list of nationwide job openings for next fall; Jen isn't expected to finish before December 2007, but I'm applying for September 2007 with the idea that a) it's good practice, b) they might give me a postponement, or c) heck, I can probably manage moving to the new city early. My list is up to 30 positions. Lots in upstate New York, a surprising number near my family in Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, not a lot in Canada; Jen wants to settle there eventually. I want to work at a liberal-arts college, though, and there aren't a lot of small, selective schools in Canada; I'm wondering if our respective life goals aren't incompatible. :(
* Applying for jobs also means describing for them my research agenda, which makes me wonder what exactly my research agenda is. I'm currently working on buses, but I don't see that being a lifelong pursuit; I'm really more of a generalist I think. (My background is certainly pretty broad: quantum information, granular materials, neuroscience, and transportation. OK, pretty broad for a physicist, anyway; I guess I'd have to toss Russian history in there to make it REALLY broad.) I just don't know whether I can get hired as a generalist. What doesn't help are the ads for jobs where they request someone in a field I used to work--particularly, the ads for people in quantum information, which I did with Bill Wootters 10 years ago. It's awfully tempting to go back into QIT: it was fun, I'd love to work with Bill again, I could actually write a decent hand-wavy paragraph or two about what I might study, etc. I'm not up-to-date in the field, however, and I don't think I'd want to work exclusively in the field, either.
OK, guess I'd better do some work now. :)
