Brit Rock 2024

It was a busy week, but I was going to make it even busier! I noticed the Brit Rock Film tour was doing Neuadd Ogwen on Thursday, and I knew I wouldn't be able to run anyway. Might as well seize this opportunity! I dropped Charlotte a line to see if she was up for it too, but she was otherwise engaged. Two years ago we had gone with a bunch of ladies from the climbing club. Last year I hadn't gone; I seem to remember I had something else on that day. And it's not as if I still climb; the last time was 2.5 years ago, but still; why not watch other people do it?

You don't go to Brit Rock for the interesting storylines! It tends to boil down to "some people manage a hard climb in spite of some particular odd stacked against them". And so it was this year! But the landscape photography is always amazing.

The first film, Freja’s back, was about a young woman who had fallen during a climb, broken her back, and now would be climbing something difficult only six months later. I suppose there was a bit of moral in the story; sometimes you just are the final authority on your body. Of course she succeeded in her climb, and of course it was hard.

Watching Freya’s Back

The second film, Climbing Blind II, probably doesn't even need a synopsis. Blind bloke lead-climbs something very difficult, after an earlier film had been made about him lead-climbing something else very difficult. This film actually made me laugh quite a lot! The blind bloke, Jesse, is really quite vocal when he pushes himself to the limit. There is a lot of grunting and swearing and straining. And it is even funnier when you contrast that with the unbreakable serenity of his wife who is also his belayer. Of course he succeeds in his climb, and of course it was hard.

Then the last film! Nose Job. It's about two young British lads who have just retired from competitive bouldering, and who decide they are just going to do the nose of el Capitan in Yosemite. I suppose everyone who reads that premise thinks "one does not just do the nose of El Capitan". And there are several people in the film who indeed express that exact sentiment. But the lads give it a go anyway, which involves two very wet and miserable nights on a portaledge (and also some less miserable nights on the crag) and they deserve that; who goes climbing el Capitan without having tried out their portaledge on a more forgiving crag first? But credit where credit is due; they actually succeed in this climb. But it is hard.

It was a nice night out! Maybe again next year?

The Great Marking starts

This wasn't the first marking of the year, of course! Thanks to our very early field trip, my marking starts in September. But then there is a big pause. And then in November, it all kicks off again.

This year I had two assignments coming in in a week in the middle of November. One on Wednesday and one on Friday. The one on the Wednesday has about 100 students. It is not a big assignment, but it's just such a big cohort! And the assignment that came in on Friday had only 35 students, but the assignment is a lot bigger.

That is really quite some work. I have to still prepare my lectures and tutorials, of course, but otherwise I will basically be spending every working minute marking. I hope I will make good progress. It will feel really good to get these enormous batches out of the way! Especially as the week after, the third batch would come in. A sizable assignment with some 45 students. But then, luckily, the bulk is done. Maybe that will help in not being exhausted by the time the University closes for Christmas! I have a bit of a habit of falling ill then. Hopefully, I can avoid that this year. And hopefully I won't come down with something before I even get to December, like last year. Wish me luck!

 

An algal bloom, related to the big pile of marking. Pic by NASA

 

Foram confusion

I tend to slightly dread the foram practical associated with our September fieldwork. So many forams, and so few staff to check their identifications. But this year, another complication arose. The students are asked to send me their data after the practical, and I assumed I would just collate all their data in one spreadsheet and then they could go and interpret it.

It didn't quite work out that way. I thought I had been hammering the point to the students that a sample of which you don't know the provenance is worthless. But I got loads of counts sent to me that didn't specify which sample they represented. That's not helping! And I collect the actual samples as well, so I can check, but these weren't very well labelled either. So I just had a spreadsheet with the samples I could match up; some of them were impeccable, with detailed and matching sample information on both document and microslide. But of some I just didn't know where they belonged. I hope the students can look at their notes, recognise their handwriting on the microslides, et cetera, and work out which sample is which. Because this data set is pretty rubbish! Next year I will have to personally check every single microslide to make sure it is obvious which sample is which…

Fine forams, but which sample are they from? 

Bike path repaired

Most of my commuter routes start on the bicycle path which is a converted railway track. And it is a fine path, but there is one stretch where roots of the trees next to the path have started to push up the asphalt. Obviously, this was getting worse and worse through time. It is unpleasant! The lumps are pronounced and quite sharp. It really can't be good for your bike to bike over them every day. But what choice do I have?

Some months ago, someone had spray painted them yellow. I was hoping that meant the council was going to take action on them. Maybe just grind them down? So that the tarmac would be level again? But it might just have been a protest action by a disgruntled civilian. Nothing happened.

Even later, warning signs appeared. At least I didn't think that was an action of a disgruntled civilian. They don't tend to have traffic signs lying around. But I didn't need to be warned about these bumps. I just wanted them to not be there!

One morning I biked in, and just after the bumpy stretch there was a big van parked in the middle of the bicycle path. I didn't find that particularly polite, but I just got past in the verge and didn't think more about it. But then I biked back in the evening. And there were three pristine new patches of asphalt where the bumps had been! Now I knew what that van had been doing there. It must have been associated with the repair work.

I was so chuffed to bike over the heavenly smooth surfaces! And it made me really appreciate tax. This must have been the council, so my council tax must have made a tiny contribution to it. And this is why we pay that money! I will now bike over these repairs almost every working day, and every time I will have the feeling my council tax was well spent. And I won't feel like I am destroying my bike. Hurray! 

Dissertation topics allocated

It is done! I managed to allocate every single one of the 193 students a topic and supervisor. It was a bit of a chore but it is done. There are so many students this year! And we did have more teaching staff to distribute them over, but the problem is that it still is a very limited number of members of staff whose topics are popular. I had SO many students who had picked topics from the same five popular people. And you can't give these people infinite numbers of students. So then you have to check who else is willing to supervise the topics of the popular people, and keep shuffling people around until in the end you make it fit.

I really wanted to get it done before the marking would hit. And I didn't quite manage, but it was close! On the afternoon of the day when I could have gone into the field with Dei and Jaco but wasn't really necessary, so opted to stay in the office and get this done, I did indeed get it done. That felt good! But then I had to do a check whether everything was ok. Generally, a few mistakes creep in. And they had. There was one student, for instance, whom I had given a supervisor twice. That sort of thing. But when that was done I made a tidy list and published it to the staff.

I tend to release it to the staff first. And if they are ok with it, I release it to the students. And in the meantime, I can turn to my marking…

 

A deep sea fish; star of a very popular topic. Pic by Theodore W. Pietsch, University of Washington

 

AGM Eryri Harriers

I was on the phone with Mike, who had organised the Pedol Peris race, when he told me the running club would have its AGM in November, and whether I was coming. I said yes. I had only been a member for a short while, and I was wondering what an AGM would be like. 

My colleague Chris would go too, so we travelled up together. It was in a Felinheli pub. We were early! So we just had a chat and a drink until more people started arriving. 

The meeting would come with food. After quite a while of socialising everybody started going upstairs, where the food would be served. There was lobscouse or vegetarian bean stew. A lot of runners turn out to eat veggie! And on the wall there was a looping slideshow with running pictures. 

After the main course, the actual meeting started. It was quite an efficient event! There were reports from the various officers, such as the chair, the cross-country officer, the road run officer, the youth trainer, the kit officer, et cetera. They were all quite engaging and kept it brief. Several pressed the message home that it is important to volunteer. The club organises races, but it can’t do that without volunteers. And the various trainings (like my standard Thursday) also can’t run without volunteers. And the club seems to have some 250 members! That should be enough. 

There also were some positions to reconfirm and to fill; three positions were open, and some were filled but could do with a new person. And there were some documents to vote in, like a slightly amended constitution, and a renewed grievance procedure. Almost all of that went smoothly! We just don’t have a press officer at the moment. 

There were also some special thanks to people who had made extraordinary contributions, and to top that off we voted in two new honorary members. And that was the official part!

The meeting. Pic from club FB page

The venue

Then we only had our desserts to eat, and then it was done. It was getting a bit late, so Chris and I just left. 

I surely intend to pull my volunteering weight! There seems to be some club race on in January. I should find out about that! I might make myself useful cheering at endless strangers again…

Battery

In summer I made a decision: I was going to get a battery. And the company that would provide it said the model I would get would come on the market in autumn. And it did! It arrived in early November, and in mid-November I got an appointment for it to be installed. That would take two days. Luckily I had two days in a row where I didn't have much timetabled. 

Installation happened without too much incident. The lady who had come to visit the house, to decide on things such as where the battery would go, had made decisions the actual installer didn't agree with. There was some drilling that made my computer not able to hear what I was saying. The power had to be switched off a few times, and there was a bit too much electricity going down the Earth. For that last issue, a bloke from Scottish Power had to come out. The cat didn't like all the faff and wasn't seen until it was all over. Altogether, very much within reasonable limits.

By the second afternoon it was all done. The installer showed me how to work the app. I can now keep track of how full my battery is, how much energy is coming in, and how much I am using. It will be great to keep an eye on that! I hope I will manage to be self-sufficient on many days. I suppose I will report back!

I don't think this battery will earn itself back anytime soon. But it will feel good to be able to contribute to renewable energy storage, as renewable energy is all good and well, but some of it is impossible to regulate. You can't summon the sun or the wind if energy demand is high! But with batteries, energy generation and use can be decoupled. And that is what we will need. I’m doing my bit…