I'm back (a bit now; more later)

I've been back for about 3.5 hours now. I've been going through some e-mail (to make my life easier for tomorrow in the work catch-up department) and baseball articles (that I basically didn't have time to read because my e-mail access ijn Oxford was suboptimal and I needed to use my time online for other things).

In returning and going to espn.com, I found out that the Cardinals won the 5th and final game of the World Series. I missed almost all of this series, which hadn't happened in over 20 years. Between friends visiting and the trip to Oxford (which killed things because of time zones and the fact I had no way to get the games anyway), it just wasn't possible to catch anything more than about 6 innings of game 2. The other thing I noted was that Joe Niekro died of a brain aneurysm between this time online and the last one (Friday morning, as measured on the Pacific Coast). He was a knuckleballer and another player I watched (towards the end of his career). I'm glad Peter Gammons is still with us---he also had a brain aneurysm---and am still missing Kirby Puckett (who was afflicted with something similar).

Main quest: I did the best I could. I think I did very well in my interview, but that doesn't mean I'll get the job. I've learned not to take this stuff personally because once you get to the interview, all you can do is prepare, do the best job you can, and let the stuff out of your hands take care of itself. We'll see what happens. Highlights: I knew 2 of the other three candidates---the competition is stiff and includes established people as well as junior people like me. The senior person I know started a conversation with me by letting me know that his department (one of my other top choices, actually) got my application. Weird. I have never seen that on an interview before and probably won't ever again. Anyway, there are going to be some interesting dynamics as far as this particular position goes. Kylie Minoghue was briefly discussed at the dinner, so I was in my element occasionally. I was not nervous during the parts of the interview that counted -- the dinner actually didn't -- and there were some amusing exchanges during the formal "interview" part of the interview. I mentioned one (I'm "awesome"!), and there was also the blunt question from one person that made the others in the room cringe/shudder, though I think I answered it successfully.

Side quest: Very enjoyable. Continuing explorations of Oxford with my friend were very fun (I did some of my own exploring earlier in the week). A couple brief things: I couldn't make a successful mug shot of myself in Oxford castle/gaol no matter how hard I tried. Also, while walking along the Thames River, we saw a docked boat called "Soliton". I'll explain later just how awesome this is, as it involves not only what I study (which includes solitons) but deep connections with the original observation of a soliton. (I saw this and immediately went into childlike-fascination mode! I hope one of my pictures comes out well, because I want to include it in my presentations.) Pictures of "The Hat" were taken (ick...passive voice---I'm tired so it's staying), in fulfillment of my promise (though I'm afraid my face is in them as well---sorry!).

I also have some extra British coinage (which the banks won't exchange for US currency) to pass along. Based on current exchange rates, 52.7 pence per person seems about right.

And I'm really tired and (again!) made an entry that turned out to be much longer than what I had in mind. I really ought not to do that when it's in my best interests to go to bed.