Where is the Christmas Crunch?

The news keep coming in about imminent recession. For Christmas it will be more apparent that we should all tighten our belts.

Newspapers and banks are now suggesting strategies to save. In countries like the UK, this is perhaps similar to what rationing meant during the Second World War. People were encouraged to replace their basic diet with substitutes. Still we are always tempted to go for the sales, the discount, 2 for 1, 3 for 2, pay nothing in the first 5 months, etc. As if we were to save. Interestingly, some of these 'savings' strategies are to blame for the crunch itself! We should be wary of what we are really getting.


So there is a psychological as well as physical crunch I gather. With an inflation hitting over 5% one should say that the situation is critical. But wait a minute...is it not the case that in other countries and before the whole thing about banks, mortgages and crunch became news in the West emerged, inflation was and still is much more higher?

The fuel of economies seems to be capital, in order to fund employment. But there is also a job to do, regardless if that is paid or not. Cleaning up the streets, helping those in need, teaching what you know. These are all examples.

We might not need to take the crunch everywhere we go as if it was a 'cross'. The religious crunch is not taking place, so the priest says. We are still thinking of a better life here and over there. So we are not reducing our real investment in hope.

And if we want a good Christmas, an old and wise friend used to say: Make yourself a good Christmas, it does not happen by chance.

The IT elephant

The story of the elephant still strikes me, and perhaps even more now that I am looking into IT careers for my students...

Outside the main tent, a big circus elephant is tied to a small pole fixed on the ground via a chain. A child passing by asks his father: "Why does not the elephant break from the pole?"

The father could have answered in many ways, but reminds his son that from early childhood, when the elephant was small, it became 'trained' not to break away. A small elephant could not have broken away, but what about a big elephant?

The big elephant still thinks it cannot break away.

Professions in information technology are a double edge sword: If you are enthusiastic and capable, you can become an expert in what you do, and be recognised as such.

However, this can also become your own 'chain', and you can find it difficult to break away from a 'pole' (your own IT niche).

When we start our careers, we might feel like the small elephant, without enough 'force'. But as time goes by, we can become too comfortable living in our own 'tent'.

How can we break away then?


I do not have answers but perhaps more questions:

Why is it that we feel too comfortable where we are? Is it satisfaction, or is it an easy life? Satisfied people might not need to move on.

Why cannot we try something else? Are we paying too much attention to other people's advice?

And finally, is it that we want to follow a path that is not ours?

Second Life...

You might be thinking what I am going to write about...

Well, Cecilia and I are now in the South, I have taken a Senior Lectureship position at Royal Holloway, University of London.

The last few months we were moving from Hull, busy busy time. Finally I manage to say something about this move.

It has been good. Only problem is, our friends did not move with us.

Life is different, busier (I guess with new job new things come up), we seem to know this life whilst at the same time we do not. It is the same country, but people and things look different.

People on the streets, my students, neighbours, even the guys who repaired a car handle from our Focus. And the focus looks different too!

I cannot fully describe it what it is, but perhaps these are some hints:

Lifewise

• Surprise surprise, a 21st century heating system. At the beginning it was so sophisticated we did not know it was not working. We had to wait for a month for it to be repaired. But finally it works like a cybermachine.


• Broadband, yes, we had it, but then we did not have it. Our phone line with BT seems to also be a cyber device. It tells the BT people that things are fine, whilst Cecilia gets text messages saying that they are investigating a fault. Tomorrow we will probably have another episode in the saga of "who is right? The machine or the guy who comes to repair it?"


• Roads are busy whilst greener. Let me explain. The Surrey area is green, really nice, but many people have decided to move in (including us). So at any roundabout (a kind of crossroad, intersection) , we have to qualify for the first three spots available in the lane (I think in the last Olympics there were some races in which only the first two qualified, or the first four). This means accelerating from 0 to 30 mph in...1,5 seconds. But other than that, when there is no traffic, wow! A green trip.


• The websites of train times do not tell you everything. From Egham to Woking via Weybridge there are more trains to catch. Yes, there are, only if they know that there are trains to London every 7 minutes from Woking, and that there are trains to Basingstoke via Weybridge and from Reading to London via Virgina Water, life would be easier. I am now sounding like a train officer...let us leave it to that.
• And people on the trains...busier, curious.
• London is not far away. Very tempting indeed!
• The mass could be in Italian!! Brace yourself!

Workwise:

• Lunch is more expensive in the Students restaurant than in the Senior Common Room. So academics might be getting obese...? Or students might be borrowing more from the central bank?
• I have a bigger office...but my computer (brand new)...let us leave it to that too.
• The recepcionist is the friendlist person of the school, she has won national awards for that...let us...congratulate her and leave it to that.
• Courses, not modules. Workshops, not tutorials.
• Yes Amanda, there is a work load model! But everyone gets the same amount of teaching (professors, non professors), as well as admin, and the rest is research for everyone.

Ceciliawise:

• The poorthing is enduring a lot! She is very brave really. I love her for that and many other things.

This is the story of second life. Or perhaps is it the story of us growing wiser and older...? Will there be a third life?