It takes a PhD to discover:

I really should be writing my abstract for a conference I want to go to but I thought of this during another conference... so actually it's not very useful for me to go to a conference anyway....

It takes a PhD to discover (and a naturally concentration impaired individual i.e. a woman like me):

• That you really don't know a thing about anything and that the people who brags about knowing too much are seriously damaged or end up killed.


• That your self-esteem won't get better even if you let yourself get educated too much


• That by the time you're doing a PhD your body will start growing huge just in the places where it shouldn't


• That no matter how much you try to put it off eventually you MUST GET A JOB! (and that if you put it off too long you'll end up in so much debt that you won't profit from your earnings from your job)


• That maybe your grandma was right and you should've married that handsome 40 yr old doctor and live your life satisfying his needs (... that you never actually knew your grandma that much to get that kind of advice and that the 40 yr old doctor never existed... and you're nuts)


• That everybody else is doing a crappy research just like you... they just convince themselves and others that they're not.


• That whoever is doing math modelling stands a better chance of actually getting the degree... by the time examiners get to the 3rd really confusing and completely useless equation they'll be so fed up that they won't even care to read the rest and they'll give you the degree anyway (si no puedes con el maestro, choréatelo)

And that was all, as you can see I really think the conference in Toulouse was very interesting and useful ;) and I had the opportunity to practise my anaemic French. Oh oh, and I got a nice surprise from bf who gave me flowers, baked brownies and lasagna and set the table with candles when I got back, I thought that behaviour was an urban legend!!! :)

Meanwhile please enjoy the nice picture of the beautiful medieval town of Carcassonne... really, if you are going to study a PhD do it in Toulouse, nice food, nice people, nice weather, nicely near to Spain (Barcelona) and nice school. Back to you abstract...

Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again :)

Ha! I just heard that one from my highschool friend who visited me this weekend... and I found it really appropriate for this blog, eventhough everybody else has used it for their blogs. Nevermind... well this weekend was cool, the sun shining, the people smiling, the highschool friend from denmark visiting (the best from denmark setting aside danish rols). She helped me discover that whenever there's sun, Manchester is not that unpleasant. I met Castlefield for the first time since I tried to visit it when i had just arrived and ended up really lost, I witnessed how to move from a lower to a higher channel by using something like a dam or something, I realised that Chelsea was playing a semifinal at the Old Trafford, I confirmed that the Manchester Cathedral is not Catholic, etc etc etc... it was nice and "nice is good". Well, I just wanted to share this webpage that I found when googling the blue phrase, hope you enjoy it.

My favourite movie

First of all, this entry should have been published (or written) a year ago, when I first figured out about my favourite movie. I don't know if the fact of being a woman has anything to do with it... (i guess any guy will say yes eventhough they don't know... ) but I have always struggled to find my favourite stuff, meaning what do I enjoy the most. And that is really a problem because eventhough I always thought that chemical engineering was my thing, i sometimes wonder what would have happened if i had picked the other thing i thought of doing: History... well we will never know because I'm now a chemical engineer and a big one (meaning I'm already on the PhD... to turn back and study history).
Anyway, continuing with my point, I don't even know if I have some kind of hidden hobby which i haven't realised i have and that really grinds my gears :D I mean, everybody's got something that they enjoy to do, whether it's flying a kite, sailing a yacht or playing gitar... EVERYBODY!!!! except me of course, I can do many things but they're not my favourite things.
Anyway (again) realising which was my favourite movie kind of put me off from depressing because everybody knows their favourite things except me. And, in order to make this entry a little shorter, i'm just going to say the name:

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

First of all the title, I mean who names a movie after some poet who maybe half of the world doesn't know, with the words of a poem which probably half of the movie groupies won't even care to read. (I actually don't understand the words... in the context)
Second. Who would have ever thought (before that movie) that Jim Carrey was actually a good dramatic actor
Third. If you want to have one of the best leading ladies, the choice is clear: Kate Winslet
Fourth. Why have a cheesy stupid love movie (comedy or drama) when you can have a complicated love story in which all the characters are a little wacko and play with the psyche of their co-actors?

Anyway, eternal sunshine rules!

And here comes the best part: why have just one favourite movie when you can have three? (except for the fact that you wanted to choose one?) Ok, having determined that choosing is not my thing, i decided to have a top 3 which are the movies that i consider the best of the best of the best (for me and my small moviewatcher experience). So, the other two are Dr Strangelove which I don't know why i thought it was hylarious (might have something to do with the fact that the Inspector from the pink panther appears on it) and The great dictator which somehow reminds me of my s.q.z (squeezy) brother.

So, again, i should be having one choice and sticking with it as my favourite movie, but then again, that wouldn't be very flexible would it?

New & interesting subjects of study... or not

See, this is what I am talking about when I say that usually in countries in which the vast majority of the population has its basic needs fulfiled (i.e. food, hygiene, health and roof), it is more common to see that kind of crap as a PhD theme. Not that I don't like it, is that I just completely miss the point of how that research will do the slightest benefit to people for example who are starving. Is not that I find my PhD completely useful to people who are starving... because they actually wouldn't benefit from it... directly, it's just that I really really don't see the point of studying (using MR imaging and complex stuff like that) how rich people react to monetary rewards of under 200 pounds. Do you see the point of it? please let me know!

Ok, that might have been my cruel and unfunny opinion but I still don't see the point!... so I'll keep doing that whenever I feel like it and there's nothing you can do about it ;) or maybe until some of you... trio of readers... if you still read this... come out with an answer about how does that kind of research matter... and why should we bother to keep trying to study something useful if in the end we will end up earning the same degree as the one they gave to that guy studying rich/poor people reactions to monetary rewards.