The place where lost socks go...

Speaking of important anniversaries, this weekend is the other super-important August anniversary -- that of mine & Chesh's relationship!

Technically, the anniversary itself was yesterday (12^th August)... but since the original start of our relationship was a four day [long] weekend long affair, we are celebrating throughout the whole of this weekend.

That said, this year's festivities take a different form than most. In recent years, we have generally commemorated our anniversary with some sort of travel adventure. For instance, in 2015 we celebrated with a half-month road trip around Ireland; the year before that we took a two-week Mediterranean cruise.

This year is our first anniversary since we bought the House of the Red Roses. So we are doing something a little different. We are staying in and working on improvements to the house, using the time to build up our hearth and make an even-more-lovely home. We have been turning our energies inwards this time around to build something more lasting than another travel adventure.[*]

Of course, a little fun is also mandated on such a special occasion. Especially when the weather is this perfect -- something we have learned not to take for granted! Yesterday, we went out for breakfast at the new vegetarian cafe in our old neighbourhood (Crookes), and Chesh led a lovely Lammas ritual in a warm & sunny conservatory. In the evening, we also took a road trip through the nearby Peak District to appreciate the heather in all its blooming glory!

Today, the trend continues. There are books to unload on the recently-build bookcases. The kitchen needs to be restored / reorganised now that the paint is dry. And so forth. As a reward for all our hard work, we have a nice anniversary dinner to look forward to tonight -- followed by cards and gifts, of course!

The only thing I really have difficulty wrapping my head around is the number '23'. How in the world did so many years go by so fast? Although it is still too soon to make definite plans, we are starting to brainstorm ideas for how we want to celebrate our Silver Anniversary in 2019.

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[*] Interestingly enough, I think the cost of our 'staycation' is comparable to many of our travel anniversaries. Over the past week or so, there has been painting done, new furniture purchased, an overhaul of the garden, et cetera.

Hello, Dreamwidth!

Despite the backlog of entries imported from LiveJournal (numbering in quadruple digits), this is actually my first true post here.

I created this journal in 2009 as a placeholder, but never used it until now.

With the LJ servers moved to Russia in April, I finally bit the bullet -- as so many others have done -- and closed down my permanent account there. The end of an era.

Looking from my posts from years past -- particular the 'heyday' from 2004 through 2010 -- I found myself really missing the interactions of LJ before the tumbleweed and mothballs set it. It would be spiffy to build that up again here.

That said, it's going to take some time to settle in, customise the size, and make the place my new 'home'.

Before I get going with a proper update, I find myself wondering: Who is actually here?

(Or, to quote Roger Waters, Is there anybody out there?)

So this is a thing that happened.

It isn't the first time that I have been involved in running a scientific conference. That happened way back when I was a young PhD student -- in days before LiveJournal -- and my adviser was launching the first International Conference on Next-Generation Nucleon Decay and Neutrino Detectors (which somehow was known as NNN).

At NNN99, I was a 'scientific secretary' -- which is fancy talk for a 'student helper' or, more bluntly, a gofer.

The first time that I properly served on the local organising committee for a conference was last summer, for the 11^th International Conference on the Identification of Dark Matter (IDM2016). This involved a lot more work... but our head of group was the committee chair and, ultimately, the responsible person.

For this week's IoP conference, I was the responsible person. Well, I co-chaired with a colleague... but he was out of the office moving house last week (i.e., the week before the conference), and left after the second (of three) days to fly down to Florida. So, basically, I was the main person making things happen.

It was an experience. It went very well. I would be lying if I said I wasn't relieved that it is over.

Still, tis an important milestone. I will now know quite clearly what is involved the next time somebody asks me to run a conference... and I will know to say 'no' if I don't really want to take it on!

Meanwhile, there is a small Twitter feed here for those who are curious to see some of the conference highlights. And for those who just want to see your Friendly Neighbourhood Nomad cleaned up, below is a photo from the conference dinner, hosted in Sheffield's Cutlers' Hall, home to The Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire, a guild established by Parliament in 1634.

Banquet night!

All of my LJ entries this year have been written from the House of the Red Roses. Which makes it ironic that this post -- which is about the House -- is written from Zurich.

Recently, dragonmamma said: I am amused by the name of your house since you are in White Rose country!

Well, that's a fair comment, since we live in Sheffield which is [nominally] in Yorkshire[*] -- the home of the White Rose!

Given that we do not live in the House of the White Roses, it seemed worth clarification. Our house name has nothing to do with its location. Rather, it derives from the stained glass decoration:

A Red Rose


There is such a red rose on all outward facing windows (except on the converatory), with a more ornate version on the three outside doors. You can sort of see what I mean in this picture, taken from our back garden:

House of the Red Roses


From a distance, it is more difficult to see detail, but the top portion of each window contains a rose like the one seen in the above picture.

Thus, as you can see, it would be a tad strange to refer to our home as the House of the White Roses!

(Hmmm... I think I need to make a red rose icon from the stained glass to use in future house-related posts.)

I hope that all of my dear friends are having a lovely weekend!

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[*] Personally, I tend to think of us more like being in the now-defunct Hallamshire than Yorkshire. Being in the south of South Yorkshire, Sheffield is about as far out of Yorkshire as you can get and still be in it!

Curled up in bed with Giles[*] as the snow falls ever heavier outside. This is the first real snow I've seen since we moved into the House of the Red Roses.

Since I'm not quite ready to sleep, it seemed worth noting. For posterity and all that. (Who knows, maybe in a decade or two, I will happen back on this and smile.)

I hope it piles up whilst I sleep and sticks. I could turn on the underfloor heating in the conservatory and sit reading in there tomorrow afternoon. Looking up every now and again to watch the birds taking their turns at the feeders. I can definitely think of worse ways to spend a Saturday!

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[*] Stumpy won't come to bed if he's here. I love my baby girl, but I wish she could get on with other cats.

It was two years ago today that I applied for a job at the University of Sheffield. Disheartened and ready to give up on my career, I put barely any effort into it -- literally recycling an old application.

Goodness, how my world has changed since -- and how grateful I am to two-years-ago-me for taking one last chance.

I realise that I've become a much more boring person over the past year and a half. Less social, with fewer adventures to write about. Do I regret this? Nope. Having finally obtained my dream job, I have thrown myself into it wholeheartedly.

Sometimes I get asked what the research / teaching balance in my role is. I smile and say: "My contract is 35 hours per week... so I do 35 hours of teaching, and 35 hours of research." It's a joke, except that it isn't. That is pretty close to accurate, actually. Some weeks[*] end up being quite a bit more, others can sometimes be a bit less, but 70 hours per week is probably a realistic average.

I organised my first international conference last year: The 11th Conference on the Identification of Dark Matter. My first conference as lead organiser is coming up in two months: The Institute of Physics annual Astro-Particle Physics and High Energy Particle Physics conference.

People keep forgetting that I've been in the role for only 1.X years. I've bedded into the department, the faculty, and the university so well, it seems like I've been there a lot longer. We have a couple of lecturers hired after me; one was rather surprised to learn I'd only been in the department a year longer than him. It's going well enough that I'm looking to complete probation -- effectively equivalent of 'making tenure' in the USA -- this Summer, a year earlier than normal. (Then it's on to Senior Lecturer -- equivalent to an Associate Professor in the USA as quickly as possible!)

Despite only teaching for three semesters, I have already won an award for "Sustained Excellence in Teaching". (Those of you who have heard me do outreach talks will not be surprised. No false modesty here; I am very good at teaching.) In addition to my undergraduate teaching in the department at Sheffield, I also co-teach science communication to Masters students at the Faculty of Science level and teach at our new outpost in Nanjing. And I was tagged by the Faculty Director of Teaching to be part of a new educational leadership exchange programme.

Meanwhile, I have PhD students on three continents right now -- one is presenting his work on supernovae in Japan next week, one is building hardware in Switzerland this month, and one is living at Fermilab and rocking the Accelerator Neutrino-Nucleus Interaction Experiment (or ANNIE). I'm kinda psyched for 2019, when my very first PhD student graduates. I was super proud introducing him to CK last year, who was my PhD supervisor. In academic-speak, I was introducing my "son" to his "grandfather".

It's not just my department or my faculty. I've thrown myself into the wider univeristy as well. Last Summer, I walked a personal record of 130 miles as part of The Big Walk to raise money for refugee students. Thanks to our efforts, six refugees will be brought to the University to do postgraduate degrees -- fully funded, with maintenance money. The refugee crisis is overwhelming, but I'm proud to have done some small part to alleviate it.

(By the way, if you want to donate, my JustGiving page is still open until the end of March -- just click here!)

And, of course, the research proceeds apace. I'm involved in a number of experiments in both Japan and at Fermilab... plus I recently joined the WATCHMAN project -- that's the WATer CHerenkov Monitor for AntiNeutrinos. It's not a particle physics experiment -- it is applied particle physics. The goal is to use antineutrinos for nuclear non-proliferation and threat reduction. Right now, I'm pushing hard on the effort to get the WATCHMAN prototype built here in Yorkshire.

So, yeah, that's my life. Toldja I had become boring. In a typical week, whatever time doesn't go into the job goes into the House of the Red Roses. Or my beloved cheshcat. Or Stumpy & Giles, who make sure to demand their share of attention.[**]

I'll try to LJ more in 2017, though. At the very least, I should make it so my landing page of most recent 20 entries is all from the same year! Maybe next time, I should post some pics of the House of the Red Roses.[***]

Meanwhile, on this anniversary of my application, I wanted to take a moment and reflect on just how lucky I am, and how grateful for this opportunity. Also glad that so many of you are actually still on LJ -- huzzah for the faithful!

Right. Bedtime now. I've a lecture on time-dependent quantum states to deliver in the morning, followed by conference organising, then running an analysis meeting. Whee!

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[*] Like this one -- being the start of a new semester!

[**] Like Stumpy is actually doing right at this very moment, looking to hop in my lap! (ETA: Now in my lap! Which makes it hard to type...)

[***] Those of you for whom I have an address may have already seen it with the Yule cards we sent out in December.

Another collaboration meeting over. I am writing this entry whilst sitting in Haneda Airport and waiting for my flight from Tokyo to Beijing.

Beijing is just a stopover on my way back to Sunny Olde England. After a short stay at home in Sheffield, my beloved cheshcat and I will be off to New York for the Sooper Sekrit Pagan Gathering... and then I will be on to Chicago for another meeting at Fermilab.

Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom all in the same week. (Plus a cameo in China.) I'm starting to get déjà vu here... because it all sounds a lot like this entry!

It has been two thousand four hundred fifty-six year -- nearly seven years -- but compare for yourself how similar things can be. Many things have changed... but I guess others stay the same.

Back then, I shared a photograph of the contents of my wallet. Six bills (or notes) -- none of which were the same -- representing the "coin of the realm" for three different countries. This time, my wallet had only five notes (or bills)... but, again, none were the same and the represented currency from three different countries.

Take a look for yourself:

January 2010


October 2016


Time to go through security and get ready to board. If any P**T***ns are reading this, I can't wait to see you next weekend!!!

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ETA: By the way, that is indeed the brand new plastic five pound note that debuted less than three weeks ago. If you caught it, kudos for the sharp eyes!

All finished with my work in Tokai, where I have been all week for T2K.

My flight home is Sunday night, which leaves the weekend free. Since it is now the first week in April -- always the best time to be in Japan -- I get to go see the sakura[*] in Tokyo! Hooray!

I've been in Japan many times for the sakura, but it is a treat that never grows old. Also, I've seen the sakura in Toyama, and in Takayama, and in Tokai... but never in Tokyo![**] The East Capital is sure to take this treat to another level! I've been looking at the sakura status online -- for instance this report from yesterday -- and it looks absolutely amazing!

I plan to start in Ueno Park and then wander to some of the other sakura locations in central Tokyo. The weather is good, so getting in a boat ride is a must, as is seeing them illuminated after dark.

So long as my phone camera works (not certain; it's been dodgy) there will be pictures to follow!

Sakura! Huzzah! Banzai!

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[*] Cherry blossoms!

[**] Or, really, any city that doesn't begin with a 'T' in romanji.

Need I say more?

Of course, I am celebrating by leaving; I write this entry from Manchester Airport, en route to Japan.[*]

My, what a decade it has been! Ups and downs, to be sure... but mostly ups. In fact, I have described the year just ended[**] as my best so far!

Looking forward to the next decade, my beloved cheshcat and I are currently house hunting and putting down roots in Sheffield, whilst I am planning for my next triathlon and my first marathon, plus have grand schemes for both my research and teaching.

Here's to the next ten years!

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[*] The pre-celebration happened Wednesday evening, when I repeated the same journey from O'Hare to Heathrow -- these days en route to Sheffield, not Oxford -- but still. Speaking of which, it was lovely seeing many of you at the birthday party on Monday!

[**] By which I mean February 2nd 2015 through February 1st 2016. Not exactly the conventional calendar year, but since when did I hew to convention? These dates bookend a year, but are not arbitrary. It starts with the job advertisement for my faculty post and ends with the news that the chemo was successful and my father's cancer is in remission. Much more in-between, but that is more fitting for a separate post than a footnote.

Wow.

Yesterday marked the end of my first semester as an academic.[*] Intense.

My mind still boggles at just how much we are expected to do. Undergraduate teaching, research, PhD supervision, obtaining grants, administration, public outreach. It sort of like holding down three jobs at once! Technically, my contract states that I work 35 hours per week. I'm certain that I was doing double that.

Many evenings, I came home to have dinner with cheshcat... then went right back to the office. (Out of hours working is often the most productive time, as there are no meetings, there is no teaching, there are no students knocking on the office door, and far fewer e-mails arrive.) At one point, I jokingly noted to cheshcat that if it weren't such an absurb idea, she should probably suspect me of having an affair!

That said, I really love the job! My department is a very friendly place to work, as is my research group. I get on with just about everybody -- other academics, students, the admin team, the cleaners. People know me and like me, and the feeling is mutual.

I just finished teaching the first half of my second year quantum mechanics course. After a brief introduction to the history and motivation for quantum mechanics, we covered the Schrödiner equation, the infinite potential well, and the finite potential well. We then moved on to operators and eignenfunctions, measurements in quantum mechanics, and quantum fluctuations. I wrapped up the semester with experimental tests of QM (especially the Stern-Gerlach experiment), the Dirac delta potential, and the Schrödiner equation in two and three dimensions. We are all ready to pick up in the Spring semester with simultanous measurements, and then move on to time-dependence.

I thought that my teaching has gone very well. To be honest, it plays nicely to my natural strengths. I'm told that the second year students normally hate quantum mechanics. This time, however, here is some of the feedback that I received via anonymous survey:

• I really enjoyed the course and can't wait for more quantum next semester!
  
• Overall, it has been a very clearly taught module, and you are a very accessible lecturer, if I ever had any questions.
  
• In general I loved the course and it is my favourite module overall this year! This is partially due to Matthew Malek just being absolutely awesome! I'm really excited to continue quantum next semester
  
• Quantum Mechanics is as superposition of a fun and not fun subject. I observed it as fun, and so it will always stay that way.

The last comment is a clever QM joke[**] that made me laugh. In fact, it was clever enough that I had to share it with my colleagues... who laughed, too. Nicely done!

Yes, definitely a very busy time, but also quite rewarding! I'm looking forward to a bit of a break now, yet also looking forward to the second half when Spring semester begins in February.

Off to the States tomorrow for seven weeks. Hope to see some of you whilst I am there!

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[*] I'll use the UK dialect, since I work in the UK higher education system. A brief translation to the US dialect: 'academic' = 'faculty'. Also, my job title 'lecturer' = 'tenure-track assistant professor' in US-speak.

(I know there are also positions called 'lecturer' in the United States but -- like 'pants', 'suspenders', and 'pavement' -- the word means something different there.)

[**] About the collapse of the wavefunction.