Sam PF's Journal
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Below are the 3 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Sam PF" journal:
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12:10 am
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Travel plans
I am pondering a great journey. No, not Palestine this time, this one is a crazy composite journey in May/June of this year.
The fixed points of this journey are as follows:
On Saturday the 31st May is the Bardcamp reunion in London, so I will be flying Stockholm to London on the 30th.
The 11th-13th June is a conference in Ankara - the annual conference on Economics & Security, where I will be presenting a paper.
Between times, I will be visiting my mother in S. East Bulgaria, and hopefully spend a day or so in Istanbul.
To add to the crazy, almost immediately after the conference I may well be attending a SUPER-SEKRIT event in Paris. Which would mean flying back to Stockholm on the 14th, picking up some stuff and spending one or maybe two nights at home, before flying out to Paris.
Yeah, a lot of flying. Bad, bad stuff. I can pay some carbon offsets, but I know there's an awful lot of question marks about whether they really work. Probably better than not ofsetting, but still.
Anyway, so the only missing piece of this jigsaw is the London-Bulgaria stage. In that, as there's a fair bit of time between the 31st and the 10th, I am actually contemplating getting the train across Europe instead of flying for that leg.
( the details )
So, the pros and cons:
For the plane:
- Two extra days, to spend either at my mum's or in Istanbul
- £80 saved
For the train:
- One less flight, even if it is offset, and the accompanying smug glow of virtue even if I am getting four other flights within the space of three weeks.
- Reliving the glory days of my youth, Inter-railing across Europe
- Getting to see all teh awesome places and scenery inbetween, albeit mostly out the window.
- Like, showing that it can be done - it is still possible to travel long distances other than by plane in this world.
Hum. The train idea is rather appealing. But the plane seems more sensible, even accounting for the carbon. (Like, supposing carbon offsets are only 50% effective, I could offset double and still save.) It is annoying that planes are not only faster but cheaper than trains.
Well, one can hardly make an entry like this without putting in a poll:
Poll #1164882
Open to: All, results viewable to: AllHow should I travel from London to Sofia?
Tags: family, travel, work
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09:48 pm
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Logistics and life
A while since I've made a general update - not a whole lot to report it must be said - mostly the usual rounds of work and Swedish classes and choir practice and spending too much time on the internet and watching DS9.
I did spend a couple of days in Brussels the week before last, on work, which I'd totally meant to write about but you know how it is. I was at the European Defence Agency (EDA) confernce on "Commercialising Logistics?", which they'd invited SIPRI to send someone too, and which was of considerable interest as we're writing about the privatizing and outsourcing of military activities right now.
The focus of the conference was on the potential for outsourcing logistical supply for EU Crisis Management missions such as those in Chad and DRC.
( Logistical geekiness )
The best talk though was from Amer Daoudi from the World Food Programme, who'se the head of their Logistics Service. He was basically "We're the biggest logistical operation on the planet, we have 3,000 people doing this alone, we shift so many gazillion tonnes a year, we do it cheaper and faster than anyone else, over the worst terrain imaginable - you guys are amateurs!" (well, he didn't say the last bit.) Oh, and they use elephants where necessary to deliver stuff when the going gets really bad! He sort of stole the show.
Moving in rather fluffier circles, I found it very noticeable just how male-dominated the whole thing was. (Not that I should be surprised.) There were maybe an 10-15% of the participants women, but all the speakers, panellists, moderators, and all the people making questions and comments from the floor (quite a number) were men.
Also not surprisingly, very white - I think Amer Daoudi may have been the only non-white person there out of about 300. Though I can't really claim that the fluffier circles are often much better on that score.
( general pootling (SPOILER for Buffy S8.12) )
In other news, my brother is now in New York, visiting our grandmother for 10 days before going on to California where he will be living. (As mentioned here which can be unlocked now I've sent him the tunes.)
Also I have finally got round to going to the doctor over my persistent sleeping problems. I basically tend to fail at sleep a lot of the time, which is not good for my productivity or general well-being. Getting a full examination next week. Should have gone ages ago, but I am an avoidant idiot.
Tags: family, life, logistics, war, work
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03:13 pm
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It's official - moving job
I have just been formally offered, and have accepted, a job at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) as a Researcher on the Military Expenditure and Arms Production project. I will specifically be working on arms production. I worked there before on military expenditure for 8 months prior to my current job at UWE.
I will start at SIPRI at the beginning of November. However UWE are very kindly giving me a sort of mini-sabbatical from some time in early September.
UWE's been good to me as my first academic post, and I'll be sorry to go in many ways, but I feel it's time to move on, and SIPRI is an excellent place to work, and the project I'll be working on has lots of exciting possibilities.
Visitors in Stockholm will be most welcome!
Tags: life, work
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