the good, the bad, and the ugly
Jul. 6th, 2003 10:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
percivalFirst the ugly: even though I've been faithfully using tea tree oil and cleanser, my skin is erupting quite badly. Smooth, but erupting. Need to start using some of the Aveda and Garden Botanics products that have been recommended to me.
Now the bad: There I was, thinking that with therapy and the nice holiday I've had, depression would never rear its ugly head again. How wrong I was. I've stopped doing my Yoga (bad Percy! Must start again!), and on Friday, when I hadn't been out at all and WORXing all day on the stoopid web site and my CV, I snapped. Cue some light sobbing, door banging, and throwing all the cookies I'd baked into the bin, because I was scared of comfort eating. I seem to need some action and movement every day just to stay in good mental shape. So on the days I do not walk to WORX, I will need to go running for at least half an hour. Possible reasons? Scared of failing, and the transition to child-free living. For as long as my husband still believes that we can get pregnant naturally, we will need to live child-free.
And finally, the good: I have some job prospects. These job prospects would require a significant drop in income (we are talking a 20% cut), but be far more enjoyable than the job I currently have. First, there's consultancy work for Queen Margaret University College, doing a literature review. Second, there's the prospect of a job at Newcastle Uni, doing acoustic measurements. Third, there's a group in Tilburg that would be keen for me to submit a grant proposal to work with them.
What will I do there, and what do I do now? Well, folks, I'm a phonetician and computational linguist. This means I'm interested in how people produce and perceive speech, and I try to make computers process speech and text intelligently. At the company I'm working for, my goal is to make computers speak German. I work on German voices, making sure they sound nice and smooth and not as tinny as you expect them to. This involves adapting code others have written and very little research.
I used to be an academic, a lecturer. I still teach a couple of lectures a term at Edinburgh University. That's where I'm going back to now - far less well paid, but more fun. The work I am getting at the moment involves spech disorders, more specifically, people with Parkinson's disease. The aim of my literature review is to find articles about improving the articulation of Parkinson's patients. The work I might get will involve measuring acoustic properties of the speech of patients with Parkinson's. I find all this neurological stuff terribly exciting - to prepare, I shall have to learn quite a lot about neuroanatomy, cranial nerves, and such. I foresee a huge order on Barnes and Noble - Amazon is a wee bit expensive. Compare the foreign shipping costs, and you will see why ...
And my web site is finally up and running again. It's very simple and straightforward. The address is www..net, and it houses
links and infos and stuff. Constructive comments appreciated!
I've finally ordered our fridge freezer. Yay! It's a Bosch KGV32423, and I've ordered from PluggedIn, Northern Retail's internet arm. Now all I have to do is reschedule my appointment at the Royal Infirmary to December, to make sure I have all the required urine samples. I've been staving this off for months ... somehow I did not want to face that it might be me who's infertile. My husband is luckily cleared.
A final note for all those who are due a book from me:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sff_corgi already has hers, and I've sent her my amazon wish list in return. Please tell me when you get yours, I really do hope that the parcels didn't split open or anything. Corgi says her parcel was badly damaged. If you haven't gotten your copy within three weeks, I will send you a replacement, more securely wrapped this time. Unfortunately, I can't just use a padded envelope for this book ...
Right, I'll toodle off to do some shopping now. Remember the local Safeways JKR mentioned in the Paxman interview? I guess that this is exactly where I'm going.
Oh, and does Semagic interface with RealPlayer? Detect Music doesn't work. And Michael Hutchence was one gorgeous man ... sniffle ...
Now the bad: There I was, thinking that with therapy and the nice holiday I've had, depression would never rear its ugly head again. How wrong I was. I've stopped doing my Yoga (bad Percy! Must start again!), and on Friday, when I hadn't been out at all and WORXing all day on the stoopid web site and my CV, I snapped. Cue some light sobbing, door banging, and throwing all the cookies I'd baked into the bin, because I was scared of comfort eating. I seem to need some action and movement every day just to stay in good mental shape. So on the days I do not walk to WORX, I will need to go running for at least half an hour. Possible reasons? Scared of failing, and the transition to child-free living. For as long as my husband still believes that we can get pregnant naturally, we will need to live child-free.
And finally, the good: I have some job prospects. These job prospects would require a significant drop in income (we are talking a 20% cut), but be far more enjoyable than the job I currently have. First, there's consultancy work for Queen Margaret University College, doing a literature review. Second, there's the prospect of a job at Newcastle Uni, doing acoustic measurements. Third, there's a group in Tilburg that would be keen for me to submit a grant proposal to work with them.
What will I do there, and what do I do now? Well, folks, I'm a phonetician and computational linguist. This means I'm interested in how people produce and perceive speech, and I try to make computers process speech and text intelligently. At the company I'm working for, my goal is to make computers speak German. I work on German voices, making sure they sound nice and smooth and not as tinny as you expect them to. This involves adapting code others have written and very little research.
I used to be an academic, a lecturer. I still teach a couple of lectures a term at Edinburgh University. That's where I'm going back to now - far less well paid, but more fun. The work I am getting at the moment involves spech disorders, more specifically, people with Parkinson's disease. The aim of my literature review is to find articles about improving the articulation of Parkinson's patients. The work I might get will involve measuring acoustic properties of the speech of patients with Parkinson's. I find all this neurological stuff terribly exciting - to prepare, I shall have to learn quite a lot about neuroanatomy, cranial nerves, and such. I foresee a huge order on Barnes and Noble - Amazon is a wee bit expensive. Compare the foreign shipping costs, and you will see why ...
And my web site is finally up and running again. It's very simple and straightforward. The address is www.
links and infos and stuff. Constructive comments appreciated!
I've finally ordered our fridge freezer. Yay! It's a Bosch KGV32423, and I've ordered from PluggedIn, Northern Retail's internet arm. Now all I have to do is reschedule my appointment at the Royal Infirmary to December, to make sure I have all the required urine samples. I've been staving this off for months ... somehow I did not want to face that it might be me who's infertile. My husband is luckily cleared.
A final note for all those who are due a book from me:
sff_corgi already has hers, and I've sent her my amazon wish list in return. Please tell me when you get yours, I really do hope that the parcels didn't split open or anything. Corgi says her parcel was badly damaged. If you haven't gotten your copy within three weeks, I will send you a replacement, more securely wrapped this time. Unfortunately, I can't just use a padded envelope for this book ...Right, I'll toodle off to do some shopping now. Remember the local Safeways JKR mentioned in the Paxman interview? I guess that this is exactly where I'm going.
Oh, and does Semagic interface with RealPlayer? Detect Music doesn't work. And Michael Hutchence was one gorgeous man ... sniffle ...
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no subject
Date: 2003-07-06 05:02 pm (UTC)Um, I think part of your website address isn't showing. Does it include a '<' and a '>' at any point? Silly LJ cuts those out and hides what's between them even when it's not codes...I'd like to see the site, though.