Quote of the Day

Today's quote comes from me during a meeting I was having with a couple of my collaborators: "I don't give a shit if people think I'm smart. I have a job." This was unpremeditated and while not necessarily tactless per se, I think it's fair to classify that under the more general rubric of 'honest to a fault' that is what I really follow. Even more accurately, my filters didn't work again. (You know, the ones that pretty much never work except to point out that I probably shouldn't have said what I just uttered.)

And yes, I had a two-hour meeting on a holiday... because we all have lives. I put in a full work day at the office today, and even set my alarm for 9 am so that I wouldn't miss a seminar I wanted to see. (That's right, the first day of a mathematical physics meeting transpired on campus today... because those people all have lives as well.) When I was getting ready in the morning, I played my stereo loudly as usual, except unlike most mornings, other people were actually trying to sleep at the time and that hadn't occurred to me. [Ordinarily, I'll get up late enough during a weekday that others will already be gone or at least not trying to sleep in and I'll consciously not do this if I get up earlier. On a weekend, I'll typically get up late enough that this won't be an issue.] So because of my little screw-up, the landlady fielded complaints that were passed on to me. Naturally, I feel like an ass because all I could do was sheepishly apologize for being a dumbass. I can't take back the fact that I bothered people. Sigh...

Now I'm working on my book a bit. I should finish my first pass of the stories from this round of editing and then I can go back to the beginning of the loop and take a look at my coauthors adjustments to my text. We're gradually approaching the end of the line. The text should be in the hands of the layout person reasonably soon. Then we'll get page proofs, put out any new fires that arise, and send this off to the printers and discuss things like some of the proceeds going to a prank fund and so on.

Oh, and it looks like I may be writing up another paper pretty soon. Based on the discussion today, it looks like we are nearing the point that we have a coherent story to tell. Though I wished my parts had worked out better. I did get a couple things to work, but I keep feeling guilty and asking to be put farther down the author list to a spot that I feel is more appropriate.

Update: This quote of the day has been officially replaced by something one of my friends subsequently said.