gold star end to the day

It often happens like this. Such is the porosity of days. You want to mark off one as completely terrible (see the previous post) but something else turns up from another sphere of your existence and makes it a little difficult to feel just one way ...

Vlog 3.0 is a research blog run by Adrian, one of a number of inspirational colleagues of Whitebait's alter-ego, the human work unit. The human work unit and A. do very different kinds of research work but just knowing that people like him are around doing their thing helps immensely in an osmosis-y sort of way. Academia works well this way when you do your best not to think of it as a competitive thing. And Adrian just found out he got promoted to senior lecturer so a big shout out of congratulations to him. And another most excellent colleague who Whitebait has the pleasure of researching and writing with, she who has appeared in the blog comments as sheepwoman, also got the nod to become what we in Australia decadently refer to as an 'asspro' -- capitalise to AssPro (associate professor) and it becomes a lot clearer and (a little bit) classier it has to be said. So both the kind of excellent people who actually make it exciting to go into work and here they are getting some deserved recognition.

And by some fluke the human work unit that is writing this also got the nod and is now a senior lecturer. All a bit too grown up. Pretty satisfying given the stress of  getting the freakin enormous application document in the day before packing up the house which was the weekend before coming to Tokyo. And it makes the work unit appreciative of the people who do work that help you along (like the referees who help out at short notice).

In fact the human work unit still remembers the day many years ago as a fresh-faced undergraduate at Canterbury University in Christchurch asking his tutor why for this week all the male lecturers had suddenly discarded their daggy cardigans for smart jackets and ties and being told it was promotion round time. And thinking - yep, they are very human and universities aren't so different from other workplaces.

So FrauleinDrDr and good friends E and L obliged and it was off to studenty Shimokitazawa for a small celebration. Not at the place pictured. Unfortunately the photos of where we ended up didn't  come out (which was a shame as all round us waitresses were getting sassy with butane torches and attacking pieces of fish on the table as well as creme brulee ('burnt pudding' on the Japanese menu)).