By popular request, here’s an antidote to the Rants and Complaints thread: a place to talk about things you’re happy about. We could all use a little good news.
Continued from the original thread.
Patience, Please
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There are two paleontologists coming to speak on my campus this week! Tonight I’m going to a presentation by Nizar Ibrahim, one of the people who discovered the new Spinosaurus skeleton in Morocco a few years ago that helped us understand we were reconstructing it all wrong. And tomorrow, Lee Berger, one of the folks who found the hominid Homo naledi will be speaking at an Anthro department event.
Dr. Ibrahim’s talk was awesome!
I’ve been having a lot of trouble with my student loans and because of that I had trouble preparing for the midterm today, so I don’t think I did well on that. But for two hours tonight I was in the Cretaceous period and I was happy.
After trying dozens and dozens, I think I’ve found my next violin!
Tell us about it, please!
(And thank you, Rós, for creating this most welcome thread.)
It’s Belgian, late 19th-century. It’s been a very complicated process, this past month I’ve been travelling around a lot (towns in France and Switzerland) and visiting different luthiers; I must have tried around fifty (and at various points borrowed five or six to try at home for periods of a week to two weeks). This one I’m planning to buy is clearly the best out of all the dozens and dozens I’ve played in these past few weeks. It’ll be a much-needed change from my current one, which I’ve had since I was eleven, and I’m at a level now where it’s just too limiting.
At work they announced this week that they were giving some people raises to make sure they were being paid a fair amount. I was one of the people affected, with a raise of around 10%. I’m thrilled because I think it demonstrates that they value the skills I have. (Also because money, while not inherently good, can buy a lot of great things and I want to go on a nice vacation in a month or two.)