Friday, November 22, 2013

Just keep driving

Made with this sign generator.

Have a good weekend!

(P.S. If anyone would like to make a map of this, feel free. I'll post any that come in my inbox.) 
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20 comments:

  1. @KayakPhilipNovember 22, 2013 at 10:59 AM

    (snort)

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousNovember 22, 2013 at 11:11 AM

    I have been unemployed for nearly ten years now, save for a brief event that lasted a few months. It is most likely my career field is going to change to something entirely else. And yet, my background is wide and diverse. Still yet, not one interested folk. I gave up long ago. Greener pastures anyone?

    ReplyDelete
  3. WavefunctionNovember 22, 2013 at 11:14 AM

    Three roads diverged on a highway...and I think I just had a flat tire.

    ReplyDelete
  4. HapNovember 22, 2013 at 11:24 AM

    101 should probably be a US road rather than an interstate, though 1 would probably be more appropriate (101 is pretty in lots of places, while with 1 you get to see only the finest toxic bogs, fast-food joints and strip malls, and oil refineries, unless you go to ME or FL).

    You probably forgot the "No services next 60 miles" sign, too. It doesn't fit with the exit, but...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousNovember 22, 2013 at 1:31 PM

      Eh, it should be a 3-digit number. In the states most of the three digit roads go around major cities instead of going to major cities. So really the postdoc is another way of getting close to what you'd think you wanted but never really getting there.

      Delete
    2. HapNovember 22, 2013 at 2:06 PM

      Except in most cities (except New York, Boston, Chicago, and maybe some others), the outer belts are where lots of people want to be - cheaper (sometimes), better schools, no poor people (did we say that out loud?), green spaces, suburbs and malls, whereas US 1 goes through what used to be the center of lots of things and is not mostly a center of anything but despair (relatively).

      For interstates, ring roads generally start with even numbers (287 in NY/NJ, 695 in Baltimore, 270 in Columbus) while those starting with odd numbers are spurs (195 in NJ, 185 in GA), but this isn't always true - 295 in NJ or 270 in MD are two examples.

      Delete
  5. NMHNovember 22, 2013 at 12:22 PM

    Actually, it wouldn't quite be "1", CA state "1" (grew up near there). However, US 101 is correct, it is not an interstate. If it was built it would be in Bermuda. And the 1 in FLA is A1A as I recall. I probably should have gotten a pHD in Geography instead of Chemistry like I di--I would certainly have more lucrative job-options, no?

    Anyway, I love the adjunct exit to be a Wyoming state highway---adjuncts in the middle of nowhere. Fantastic. I know that is where Ill be headed once I lose my academic one-step-up-from-a-post-doc position. Intinerant adjuct teaching positions from one nowhere to another nowhere.

    Yes, you can become a post-doc again after a decent job, Ive seen it happen. Its just can be very demoralizing to be surrounded by cheap immigration labor, because it might suggest to you that you are a failure. Not for the faint at heart.

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    Replies
    1. ChemjobberNovember 22, 2013 at 1:34 PM

      It's the state highway to Shell, Wyoming, the Official Home Office of Chemjobber (a la Letterman).

      Delete
  6. HapNovember 22, 2013 at 12:33 PM

    It may depend where in FL - I'm think US 1 is such south to Key West, although there may also be an A1A closer to the coast (just like CA 1 goes right along the coast further south in CA while US 101 goes inland). In NJ where I'm from, US 1 is pretty ugly for most of its residence in NJ, though some of its ugliness is the smell and practice of chemistry, and why I became one.

    ME probably has some pretty stretches of 1, but I think for most of the rest of it until Key West it is...yuck.

    There's a scene in Microserfs where the programmers are oohing and ahing over a road design text, and I could see having done that (both oohing and aahing and being a road engineer), but the road designers where I am seem intent on making roads useless so you do something else. Apparently some of them are less-than-closet fascists with a fetish for delivering pain.

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    Replies
    1. NMHNovember 22, 2013 at 12:34 PM

      I stand corrected! Thanks....

      Delete
    2. HapNovember 22, 2013 at 1:59 PM

      Apparently Wikipedia would have been my friend if I had asked...

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_1_in_Florida

      A1A and US 1 are distinct (as for CA1/101), but US 1 has other names apparently. And goes nearly forever (for the East Coast, anyway).

      Delete
    3. WavefunctionNovember 22, 2013 at 2:23 PM

      One of the reasons I left NJ was US 1. I figured that a lower-paying job is better than being brain dead.

      Delete
  7. JohnNovember 22, 2013 at 1:29 PM

    Wouldn't a periodic table of postdocs be far more trendy than a road map? Or maybe we can combine that periodic table that looked like a subway map with...

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  8. Unstable IsotopeNovember 22, 2013 at 1:36 PM

    I think it would be better presented as a maze. Prize at the end R1 professor!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ChemjobberNovember 22, 2013 at 1:43 PM

      1st prize, assistant professorship!
      2nd prize, assistant professorship!

      Delete
    2. @KayakPhilipNovember 22, 2013 at 4:10 PM

      Or a Snakes and Ladders game? (Evil coworker replaced all your samples with brickdust, go back 10 places)

      Delete
    3. Robert WoodmanNovember 22, 2013 at 9:41 PM

      It should be presented as a maze with no solution.

      Delete
    4. AnonymousNovember 24, 2013 at 10:23 PM

      Or perhaps one like in the Harry Potter movie "The Goblet of Fire" where the paths were always changing, and the maze was fraught with hazards.

      Delete
  9. AnonymousNovember 25, 2013 at 6:42 AM

    There are some interesting parallels with law school:

    http://www.salon.com/2013/11/24/the_real_reason_law_schools_are_raking_in_cash/

    ReplyDelete

looks like Blogger doesn't work with anonymous comments from Chrome browsers at the moment - works in Microsoft Edge, or from Chrome with a Blogger account - sorry! CJ 3/21/20

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