My life on the C-list

I’m not dead! Just busy with too many things going on. Plus, I just got back from an inorganic chemistry conference. It was a pretty small, exclusive-type conference that I had to apply to and everything. I introduced myself as an “Inorganically-Inclined Physical Organic Chemist.” It was fun learning about a whole new area of chemistry which I find myself getting more and more involved in, but I was having second thoughts about whether or not I actually should have been there when during talks on the first night, my biggest question was:

“Is zirconium an element?”

In my defense, I couldn’t decide if they were talking about zirconium or zirconocene in the talk. But questions of those sorts were par for the course during this conference. I learned a lot and met some fun people, but I have decided that I am a C-list chemist, and that’s only because of who I know. If I weren’t married to an A-lister, I would totally be with Kathy Griffith in the ranks of the D’s.

I had never thought about the stratification of chemical society until I happened to glance over at the program of one of the other attendees. She is from a good PhD granting school, but it’s not ranked in the top 20 or anything. She had crossed out a couple of names of people who had presented. They were obviously beneath her notice or the science so bad that it wasn’t worth even leaving the title unsullied (at least in her opinion). I started thinking about those she had crossed out, and they were all scientists from small programs, or programs without graduate programs.

(And yes, I was one of the names crossed off! But I did talk about a lot of physical organic chemistry and may have explained Hammett Parameters a little more in depth than I should have, but I wanted to make sure that those inorganikers understood the premise of my research.)

The social hours were also pretty much broken down along ranking lines too. The conference was supposed to bring together researchers from different backgrounds (A through D list) to talk and build collaborations, and some of that did occur, but not very often. I know that some of it comes from the fact that most of the attendees know each other from other conferences. They tend to hang together. I did try to talk to a lot of people, and some times I was pretty much ignored or shut out of conversations. That’s OK though – I’m just going to claim that it is because I’m an organic chemist…

I luvs the internets

Especially when they are working at home!

Finally we have reliable internet and it is not because of anything that AT&T did. It is our new best friends, ACD. To make a really long story really short, they have been out to the house a total of 5 times, about 2 hours each time.

This last time, they doubled up and sent two people out to take care of the monstrous problem that was our account. But this time, I am confident that the problem is fixed. In fact, I downloaded a 166 MB file today in… Ready for this? *16 minutes*

Amazing.

Now for the non sequitur that will get tied in, I promise. One of my favorite shows is Ghost Hunters on SciFi. I know that ghosts don’t exist. I have heard of studies that have shown that ultralow frequency vibrations can cause humans to feel paranoia and see things that aren’t there. (Here’s a website that I found quickly.) Some researchers think that one reason that churches are often thought to be haunted is because the pipe organs can unintentionally set up these types of vibrations when played.

But as Mulder says: “I want to believe.”

Especially when Grant and Jason record some really amazing footage of an investigation that they have done. My favorite is the Race Rock Lighthouse investigation where a chair seems to move by itself.

(Photo from www.scifi.com/ghosthunters.)

I almost felt like I was in my own Ghost Hunters episode today when the guys from ACD showed up. Grant and Jason used to be Roto Rooter plumbers during the day and fearless ghost hunters at night. The first couple of seasons always started with them cleaning a drain or something equally yucky. It was like a modern version of the show with them as computer technicians instead. “Jason” did all of the work, while “Grant” stood around and have good advice and looked for the flashlight.

When they pulled the phone jack off the wall, I was just waiting for something creepy to happen. I should have turned the recorder on and listened later for EVPs!!

But alas, nothing exciting happened except for uninterrupted internet access and super fast downloads. I’ll have to wait for the paranormal experiences, I guess.