Zompist Bboard Again

Indeed, my own contradictory feeling (a free first world problem) is about a potential trip to Scotland: my wife has suggested we go to my home country on holiday. On the massive negative side, we would have to go by plane from Réunion and so use up tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. Also, it woul...

I'm sure you've heard the truism that dystopia is where what's already happening to POC happens to white people. [...] But I really can't recommend that anyone visit the USA right now. Seconded. We have family who are thinking about visits, and I'm trying to discourage them. It's absolutely absurd ...

(c) you're giving me an impression that this supervisor will definitely be good to work with, and this isn't an easy thing to find. Indeed, this is probably the biggest factor for me. There is one opportunity I’ve found in Australia but the supervisor doesn’t seem nearly as good to work with. (I ha...

Wait, you got seats ? :D I used to work near one of the last stops on the RER B; it was okay but I can't say I miss it. The real annoyance is having to take it to get to the airport. But getting to Charles de Gaulle airport is an unnecessarily painful experience, no matter how you get there. I find...

you get deep-fried pizza and Irn-Bru to make up for it Hmm, I’m not sure those are necessarily incentives to go… (Though I have heard good things about the scenery, yes!) Irn-Bru'd be an incentive for me. :P And congrats on the offer! I can understand your apprehension, but (a) if you do want to mo...

Minor vent: I came back from Brussels yesterday after a fun (and exhausting) science outreach event, but the train was full of this very badly behaved scouting group for about two-thirds of the 3-hour train journey. They were loud, they fought, they kept screaming... Ugh. Sounds even worse than tha...

You're not going to prison. Heck, there's cases in America of people driving cars killing other people (accidentally) and not even going to prison! (I'm not saying this is good policy, but just showing how lenient vehicle offenses are sometimes handled in America.) (1) If you contest the ticket, th...

Out of curiosity, how long is the rest of the process likely to take? (With the usual caveats about not jinxing it.) The earliest I can apply is August, once I've completed the final uninterrupted year. Realistically, I would apply probably in September or October after I get the language test pass...

One of the things I need to become a Luxembourger is to either take a 24-hour civics class or pass the associated civics test. Because 24 hours seems like a pain to work into my schedule, I figured I'd take the civics test instead. Extra fun is that I chose to do it in French, primarily because the...

I don't even know how long it'd take to register (or where exactly) or when I'd find the time to get fingerprinted. At least according to the USCIS website , if you enter by air or land and have an I-94 issued (i.e. your passport gets stamped), then you are already considered to be registered and n...

One of the things I need to become a Luxembourger is to either take a 24-hour civics class or pass the associated civics test. Because 24 hours seems like a pain to work into my schedule, I figured I'd take the civics test instead. Extra fun is that I chose to do it in French, primarily because ther...

Thanks, all! Thirded! Prague is a lovely city, if you get time to see it. I'm definitely going to make time for sightseeing: after all, work policy allows me to extend my stay without issue (on my dime, but they pay the round-trip tickets at least). It'll be nice to see how things have changed in th...

I got accepted for a conference in Prague in June, coincidentally timed around my birthday. (Yay for multipurpose trips!)

Minor vent: My neighbor's young child is markedly unhappy and letting it be known. It's also 1 in the morning right now.

Flying back from the US to Europe in wintertime always seems to massively screw with my internal clock. Still doesn't yet feel I'm on "normal" time yet, and it's been almost two weeks... Isn’t it supposed to take 1 day for each time-zone crossed? Normally, and it's usually six for me, but...

Flying back from the US to Europe in wintertime always seems to massively screw with my internal clock. Still doesn't yet feel I'm on "normal" time yet, and it's been almost two weeks...

Also, it took us over 200 years to accept the possibility of a Catholic President...we turned down the Philipines(sp), and have been doing a song-and-dance with P.R......does Trump think MAGA is going to accept Quebec? That assumes they decide to grant statehood to Canadian provinces. It seems more...

In the dialect here Maryland is /ˈmɛ̝rələnd/ [ˈmɛ̝ːʁˤɯːɰɘ̃ːnt] -- I have never actually heard anyone pronounce it *Mary-land */ˈmɛ̝riːˌlænd/ *[ˈmɛ̝ːʁˤiːˌʟ̞ɛ̃ːnt]. Agreed. I don't live anywhere Maryland, and have never heard anyone pronounce it "Mary-land". Wait, you mean Maryland isn’t pr...

Flight back to the US for Christmas was pretty uneventful and the layover through Paris wasn't as bad as I was fearing... ...until I discovered that only one of my two bags didn't make and was still stuck in Paris! They claim they'll deliver it today, but it's really quite unpleasant to have waited ...

There's a guy called Robert at my office, whose name is pronounced "Roe-bert", which is the common Dutch pronunciation. But there's people who call him "Rob-bert", an alternative Dutch pronunciation, but that's not what everyone else or himself calls him. I had a coworker in the...