Sydney Part II: Training and After Hours Events

Have now completed four days of training for researchers at the University of Sydney; two days at the Westmead Millennium Institute and two days on the main campus. The classes have been, as always, quite intensive, but additionally so this time with a some of the quirks associated with a cluster that is still in testing mode, and the first set of classes that are using the PBSPro job scheduler. Still, with sufficient experience, one quickly learns how to turn a unexpected problem into another opportunity for a learning experience. The researchers themselves have been, as is usually the case, great to deal with. As past entries indicate these are really the people in this process that I have the greatest respect and concern for. It is a particular dedication, the desire to providing the supporting tools to research scientists so that they can make the discoveries and inventions that make our lives just a little less wretched; I also delight in their typical humility and rationality. It should be mentioned that the hour-plus walk to and from my lodgings and the campus are probably doing me some good, along with the opportunity for discovering plenty of new Ingress portals.

After hours I've been working on my papers for the THETA and eResearchNZ conferences and am pleased to say that both of these are now complete, at least in draft form. Not one to entirely engage in all work and no play, I have taken the opportunity during the weekend to visit the Australian Musueum (albeit with its significant NSW-bias), and the surprisingly underwhelming State Art Gallery, a notable exception being some excellent pieces for a special exhibition by local high school students. The weekend also witnessed the acquisition of a ridiculous quantity of RPGs, bulk-purchased from a seller in the outer suburbs, including ovef fifty Traveller books. Unsurprisingly I have also taken the opportunity to catch up with a couple of Sydney-siders, including a dinner at the Opium Den with laptop006 (whom I thank for an absolutely fascinating paper on a particular large-scale resource allocation software) and Jiri B, and a lunch catch-up with fellow politico John August. Looking forward to dinner on Thursday with Rev. Dr. Ian Ellis-Jones.