April was such a hectic month. One of my students got pregnant, I spent lots of time hanging out with Sereana, student lectures and finals came and went, and somehow I survived it all. I had a good weekend of rugby games, numerous petty issues were encountered and (mostly) resolved, and my roommate moved out. Tomorrow is graduation for the department, so I should do my best to meet and mingle with the other faculty.
A week from now I will be flying to Montana to spend a few days there catching up with people before flying to San Francisco and thence to Australia. I have an interview at the embassy, a few doctor's appointments to keep, people to see and places to go. I do not know how much of a holiday it will actually be.
I am enjoying my motorcycle, the only catch is that the spring weather here is so beautiful, and I am so sluggish, that I have no excuse for not riding my bicycle. I test rode a $2000 carbon fiber triathlon bicycle yesterday, but I cannot allow myself to buy it, especially considering that I am carrying the full burden of the rent at the moment.
I was in a difficult spot this week because I had been asked to assess a review article. It was complicated because the author had done quite a bit of recycling of previous results, results that had also already been reviewed. I believe he was trying to pad out his citation index factor, and so after some consultation I decided not to recommend publishing based on the similarities to previous work. It is like giving students marks when they come and beg for them, it is hard to stand one's ground, because it is so easy to let it slide. Each person I mentioned this to say I did the right thing, but why does doing the right thing always take so much effort? Suffice to say, it is out of my hands and I hope the journal editors will think I did the right thing, even if it was inconvenient.