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Apr 2006
now | May 2006 | Mar 2006

unbelievably slow progress

Saturday 22 April 2006
  • Spent too much time negotiating with Elsevier on taking over the journal Cognition from its previous editor, Jacques Mehler. I can't decide wether it's a privilege or I'm just the mug who said 'yes'. I'd like to think the former, of course, but realism leans me towards the latter. Jacques used to be a student of my father's when he first moved to Oxford from Argentina, so I have personal reasons for wanting to do this, as well as professional reasons.
  • Spent too much time battling with the University finance package to work out costings for Elsevier that would be acceptable to them and the university.
  • Spent too much time figuring out how to launder money in ways acceptable to all that would allow me to fund a really good student.
  • Spent probably not quite enough time managing the Experimental Psychology Society - went to one of its 3-times-a-year meetings (in Birmingham) and have only written about 14 of the 30 or so letters that need writing...
  • Spent less time than I'd have liked on the ground floor of Selfridges in the Bull Ring (Birmingham). An amazing place that I'd recommend to anyone interested in good food, drink, cooking equipment, japanese food, etc. etc. The Bull Ring used to be the armpit of shopping centres (that's a "mall" for US readers - but who am I kidding, as the only person who reads this is me), but it's really nice now...
  • Ate too much chocolate over Easter (so far the only thing I'm not complaining about)
  • Got invited as a guest to the 40th National Karate Championships (in Birmingham, again!) by my Karate Sensei. Am really looking forward to that.
  • Redesigned our research group web pages. Also using RapidWeaver. Took me the day to convert it from handcoded html to something that's a lot nicer, if still very simple. Along the way, I 'met' someone who used to be a psychologist but now earns a living on the internet doing graphic design and art. So we now have a piece of art on the website. May not appeal to everyone, but it appealed to me.
  • And I got 7 of the things from the last list I posted done. And a few other things too. Not bad, really.

  • Have determined to keep this updated more regularly. I actually find it quite interesting to read what I wrote a few months ago.