Loose thoughts of an european scientist in the U.S.

OUT OF ORDER

OK, the song name is actually “Can we start again?”… A great song from the Tindersticks, in their 1999 album “Simple Pleasure”. Every once in a while i rediscover Tindersticks and this is definetely my favourite song.

My life, probably like everyone’s life, has been full of ups and downs, in many different areas… But one thing I should not complain is how things happened careerwise. I did and am doing all I ever wanted and dreamed of: I got the degree I wanted, I got a scholarship to do my PhD studies in the UK and, as I had planned, I’m now in the USA doing exciting research in an area which is very interesting and with lots of potential.

So, I should just feel fulfilled, happy with what I have now.

I must recognise that I’ve been very lucky these past few years. But I should also say that I was doing one thing after the other, because that was the plan. That was what was right, that was what I should do.

But now… Many days I find myself uninterested in what I’m doing, unmotivated to study more, which by the way is essential for the work I’m doing, thinking that this is not as fulfilling as I thought it would be. I look ahead and what I see is the usual panorama for researchers: in academia, the competition is huge, people work to get publications, many times completely useless ones, just to add an extra line to their CV’s. In industry, although the research is more focused, with less time spent in useless for-publication-only topics, the way priorities are defined is questionable, and is always (as it has to be) money/profit-driven.

And so, when I’m in one of these days, I question myself about whether I really want this or not. There are many other things I would like to do, many of them much more useful and probably much more fulfilling than the home-lab-home routine… For a few of those, it’s too late. Things I would liked to have done or learnt during my childhood, which could have led to a completely different career… Any of the hypothetical choices involve breaking (most probably with no chance to return) my current career, and wouldn’t be easy to pursue.

The good thing is that these ideas only come to my mind in one of these days… The bad theng is that these days are getting quite frequent, and so frustration is slowly building up…

These days, the routine seems to always be the same: work, home, sleep, etc. In the middle, I keep informed by reading several newspapers on the internet, listen to music on the bus to work and back home. So, not much to talk about at the moment, I’m afraid!

The purpose of this post was just to mention the Editors, an english band from Birmingham, to whom I’ve been listening to very often. They’re good, it’s worth to check out their music if you haven’t yet. Here is the first single from their latest album, which was out last month.

My holidays are over, for now… It’s harder to go home now, it takes longer to get there, and also takes longer to recover from the flight and the bloody jetlag!

It was worth the effort though, to be in Portugal for a few days! Family, friends, Lisbon! The Tejo river and the Ocean…

Back in Minneapolis now, and back at work. No time to recover from the return flight.

Lack of time and inspiration at the moment, so I believe that there won’t be much happening in this blog for a few days.

Will be back soon.

I’ll miss the 4th of July fireworks here in Minneapolis, which seem to be quite good, but what the heck! I’m on holidays!

And following a suggestion by my friend I. (who is probably travelling around the south of Europe by now…), I ‘discovered’ Andrew Bird, a great singer and composer! Have a go and listen to a few of his songs here.

It turns out that I had an issue of Vita.MN hanging around for a while and the cover photo was of Andrew Bird himself. So, I missed his concert here in Minneapolis a couple of weeks ago. But I’ve already got his music on my iPod.

By chance, I ‘catched’ an excellent Edward Hopper exhibition at Tate Modern in London a couple of years ago, after a train ride from Manchester to meet my dear friend A. Since then he became one of my favourite painters, and more recently I saw this painting at the excellent Chicago Arts Institute. Again I was impressed by the way it shows isolation and loneliness in a place where people go to supposedly be social and interact with others.