Victoria on Victoria day

I forgot the cable to my camera, so all awesome photos - later. I'm in Victoria, British Columbia, for the 2008 version of the CASCA conference (I arrived on Victoria day, hence the title). It is great. The location is great, the inspiration, the people. The nature here reminds me a lot of Sweden. The inner harbour is like a mini version of Göteborg (but prettier), and has a wonderful walk. No ugly malls, but stores along the streets, like home. Humidity - works wonders for the hair, as always. But best of all: the Pacific. Real ocean, with salt and waves and immenseness. The gardens are very Dutch (i.e. beautiful) - I was thoroughly impressed as we drove from Oak Bay along the coast back to Victoria.
So far: have had some amazing fish & chips (almost as good as the greek place in Halifax), learnt loads about all canadian telescopes and dreams of telescopes, and attended the high redshift session (it is still my favourite area of research). Since next year is going to be the IYA - the international year of astronomy - lots of the conference is aimed towards getting us inspired to contribute to that. It is indeed very inspiring... Lots of the magic in astronomy comes back to me. I hope I will be able to keep it.

A gulp of air...

Oh my. Barely had time to feel happy about having the annual review talk (and questioning) behind me, before I realised that the time to finish my research for the poster (and said poster) I'm presenting at a conference, is SHORT! Then it doesn't help that the stupid photometry comparison makes no sense, and that work just seems to go nowhere, despite all those hours spent in the office... Having a perspective is good, but for once it seems to be much better to concentrate on the details, one at a time, and try not to see the big picture. Really? you ask (can't even believe I'm writing that, since I'm always extremely fond of perspective in everything). Yes, there is one case: if you have one year left of your PhD-studies and intend to publish 4-5 papers during that time. The mere thought makes me sweat and hyperventilate a bit. They are all more or less planned (ahem, more less than more, really, outlined is probably the word) though, I just need to get hold of the results for each of them, and work, neverendingly, so I can spit them out, one by one...

My usual weather rant could come in here too, I guess: What's with this May? cold and nasty. Although, I'm really just happy it's above zero.

On a fairly uninteresting note: the left back blinker on the car is broken. Since I'm an avid pro-use-of-blinker person, I find myself planning all driving carefully, so that I won't have to make any left turns. Adds a little bit of interest to the driving.

And on a sad note: I'll be missing eurovision song contest this year... (I'll be in Victoria, last day of conference, so it's not a bad deal. But missing ESC is sad. )