pogoism

The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dreams shall never die.

– Edward “Ted” Kennedy, 1932 – 2009, United States Senator

For the final time this year :(

And I just saw a guy, who clearly couldn’t wait to use the bathroom unzip his pants and urinate against the wall.

Inside a Starbucks.

Stay classy, San Francisco.

I’m writing this while I’m stuck in a tiny, dark room full of probably really dangerous lasers and scary stuff waiting for some science magic to happen. I’m stressed to the eyeballs trying to get what feels like a hundred different sets of data together, while messing around with PowerPoint trying to make it all pretty and ready to show.

All the time, reminded of the fact I actually have to present my results, and endure questions, from some of the greatest minds in the field.

Yeh, stressed.

But y’know what? I frickin’ love it. And I wouldn’t swap it for the world.

Love you long time, science <3

You fall in love with perhaps half a dozen people in your life, and a like number of people fall in love with you. But the affections are rarely mutual and almost never contemporary. It is the most irresponsible thing that can be done to let such a coincidence pass and not act upon it.

– P.J. O’Rourke

… it’s make good pop music. (And universal healthcare).

It’s that time. I knew it was coming. I’ve known it was coming for a year.

Yet it’s still really hard to say goodbye to the people I’ve come to know and love over the last 12 months. When I was leaving Belfast, it was easy. I knew I was going to see most of those people again, but this time, it’s not so definite. I’m not sure if I’ll ever be back in Reno. I’ll be back in the States for sure, but will I get a chance to hang out with these people again?

There are two people in particular I’m really upset about leaving, and it kills me to think that I might never see them again. The thought of it now is making me sick inside.

Ugh. This sucks. I’m rubbish at goodbyes.

The collective principle asserts that… no society can legitimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied medical aid because of lack of means.

– Aneurin Bevan, founder of the NHS

via Sarah Palin’s Facebook page

The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

Really? Is she for real? REALLY?!

She should take some of her own advice and “quit makin’ things up”.

I’m back in the UK in just over a month. All the flights are booked, and my trip back to Kent will be officially The Worst Journey Ever. Seriously. It’s Reno to Salt Lake City. Salt Lake City to New York JFK. JFK to Dublin. Then I’ve got to get a bus from Dublin to Belfast. I’m going to stay in Belfast overnight in my swanky new apartment. The next day I’ve got a Ryanair flight (shudder) to Stansted, where the Mother will be waiting with “Welcome Home” banners and champagne.

Then I’ve got Sunday at home, in Kent, and then Monday I’m off to Rome with the Mother and the Brother for a few days, as a belated 21st party. I’m back in Kent for Thursday and Friday, and then it’s back to Belfast to enroll at Uni.

Needless to say, I’m going to be a little tired of airports by then.

In other news: Not much happening. Planning big blow-out trips to Las Vegas and San Francisco, but nothing sorted out yet. And still working on this final presentation. Ahh!