Daily Slow Chat

4 comments

1. There’s a young guy at this workshop I’m at who’s from Ukraine but lives in the US. Here I am, having a pleasant professional conversation about science with him, congratulating him on his great talk and obviously trying my best to *not* mention the war, when suddenly this other middle aged woman who also watched his talk, runs up to him all flustered, interrupts our conversation and goes “Oh my god, did you just say you were from Ukraine? WHY CAN’T WE ALL JUST *STOP PUTIN*?!”

   Some Americans really do fit the stereotype 🤦

   (There was another guy I was sitting next to who had at least 3 cans of Diet Coke in the space of a couple of hours)

2. Depending on how close you are to the government, or let’s say how independent you are as the surveying institution, the inflation rate in Turkey is somewhere between 47% and 122%. That is quite a range! The 47% is the official one, which as you might imagine causes a ton of problems. If you are getting a pay raise guided by the official inflation rate (that’s a big if), but the real inflation is three times as much, you are in trouble.

   This whole thing is so fucked up, I can’t even.

3. So Germany just went out of the Women’s Football World Cup in the group stages… not really undeserved, in the end they didn’t play well enough.

   So who should I root for now?

4. Had my first driving lesson today. Only had to steer and use the direction-switch, instructor did everything else. Was ok, but was surprised how often I had to do micro-corrections to keep the car straight. Also surprised at how far I had to turn the steering-wheel to make a 90 degree turn. And roundabouts are tough. Cars should come standard with an inflatable auto-pilot who does everything but steer…