Openoffice has the possibility to work with a bibliography database in a way that is a lot like the combination of Endnote with Word. This works quite nicely.
Linode.com, total freedom, great support, nice customer forum. Apparently they will upgrade to XEN in the near future, which looks very promising.
(Disclaimer, I am not affiliated with them in any way, just a satisfied customer).
This is not my experience, at first sight it may seem so, but in my experience the difference between two and three 12-hour days in a row is not that big. The difference between a single rest-day and two rest-days in a row is the world.
If you only have single days off, all you can do is sleep or have a quiet day recuperating. It is only the second day off that you can really enjoy. The first day you are too tired to spend on your hobby or on heavy exercise, sports,...
I am in a very similar situation. I work 2-3 12-hour days a week (in a helpdesk environment, but the pay is quite allright) with a 3-hour journey. The rest of the week I follow university courses 3-4 6-hour days with a 5-hour journey. In the beginning I also suffered some health problems and I was sick on a regular basis, but now I seem to have found some kind of equilibrium.
I try to use my commuting time as efficiently as possible. I always start my morning journey with a healthy home-prepared breakfast and I read my newspaper. Then I start reading or preparing for my courses. From time to time I take my laptop with me and do some programming or work on one of my personal websites. All the while I am listening to, mostly classical, music in order to block out as much background music as possible. I try to make my journeys as comfortable as possible and I often think of a train as an exestension of my private living room.
When I get into an overcrowded train, I get a seat as fast as possible and within seconds I put some books, my newspaper, my lunchbox, etc. on the little table in front of me and on the chair next to me. Within less than a minute it looks as if I have been sitting there all day and as if I am working very hard. I am generally the last person to be bothered when no places are left. I now this may seem a bit anti-social, but I am probably sitting much more hours on these trains than all those other people.
During my lunch breaks I try to have a short walk, in order to get some fresh air. I also cycle to and from the railway station. And I go swimming once a week. The days that I am at home I try to get outside as much as possible. And I almost exclusively eat home-made meals with lots of fresh vegetables (thanks to my girlfriend, who is a great cook).
It is also of utmost importance for your mental health that you do not become socially isolated. Try to see your friends and family as often as possible. Go have a drink at least every two weeks, but preferably once a week, BUT never overdo it. You do not have time to recuperate from a heavy night spent drinking too much. Your friends will have difficulty understanding your complicated schedule (certainly in my case, I work every weekend and every national holiday: no christmas dinner for me and I only have four weekends off every year), but they will understand that you can only go out with them for a couple of hours. They will appreciate that you go out with them, even if you have to leave after two hours or so.
And last but certainly not least: try to get enough sleep. Never, or at least almost never sleep less than six hours. This means that when you come home from work, you have dinner, take a shower, watch television for half an hour tops and go to bed. It is good idea to build in some small ritual, like having a cup of lime tea or hot milk right before going to bed. I also listen to the same CD every night before going to work. I almost never lie awake past track 3. The other days you can follow a more relaxed schedule, but make sure you get six hours of sleep. I myself try to sleep for eight hours at least twice a week.
And if you do still fall sick, it is better to stay home a couple of days. Do not try to go to work half-sick. If you do, it might linger for weeks or even months on end.
The Belgian scientist, Catherine Verfaillie, who was leading the Stem-cell research department of the University of Minnesota is coming back to Belgium because of the whole anti-stem cell research climate in the US and because it is becoming harder and harder to find appropriate funding.
If this kind of thing goes on, the US will quickly lose its leading position in some kinds of research. And I think that another four years of Bush might quickly accelerate this trend.
Slashdot Mirror
Openoffice has the possibility to work with a bibliography database in a way that is a lot like the combination of Endnote with Word. This works quite nicely.
Linode.com, total freedom, great support, nice customer forum. Apparently they will upgrade to XEN in the near future, which looks very promising. (Disclaimer, I am not affiliated with them in any way, just a satisfied customer).
Only on work days, naturally.
This is not my experience, at first sight it may seem so, but in my experience the difference between two and three 12-hour days in a row is not that big. The difference between a single rest-day and two rest-days in a row is the world. If you only have single days off, all you can do is sleep or have a quiet day recuperating. It is only the second day off that you can really enjoy. The first day you are too tired to spend on your hobby or on heavy exercise, sports, ...
I am in a very similar situation. I work 2-3 12-hour days a week (in a helpdesk environment, but the pay is quite allright) with a 3-hour journey. The rest of the week I follow university courses 3-4 6-hour days with a 5-hour journey. In the beginning I also suffered some health problems and I was sick on a regular basis, but now I seem to have found some kind of equilibrium.
I try to use my commuting time as efficiently as possible. I always start my morning journey with a healthy home-prepared breakfast and I read my newspaper. Then I start reading or preparing for my courses. From time to time I take my laptop with me and do some programming or work on one of my personal websites. All the while I am listening to, mostly classical, music in order to block out as much background music as possible. I try to make my journeys as comfortable as possible and I often think of a train as an exestension of my private living room.
When I get into an overcrowded train, I get a seat as fast as possible and within seconds I put some books, my newspaper, my lunchbox, etc. on the little table in front of me and on the chair next to me. Within less than a minute it looks as if I have been sitting there all day and as if I am working very hard. I am generally the last person to be bothered when no places are left. I now this may seem a bit anti-social, but I am probably sitting much more hours on these trains than all those other people.
During my lunch breaks I try to have a short walk, in order to get some fresh air. I also cycle to and from the railway station. And I go swimming once a week. The days that I am at home I try to get outside as much as possible. And I almost exclusively eat home-made meals with lots of fresh vegetables (thanks to my girlfriend, who is a great cook).
It is also of utmost importance for your mental health that you do not become socially isolated. Try to see your friends and family as often as possible. Go have a drink at least every two weeks, but preferably once a week, BUT never overdo it. You do not have time to recuperate from a heavy night spent drinking too much. Your friends will have difficulty understanding your complicated schedule (certainly in my case, I work every weekend and every national holiday: no christmas dinner for me and I only have four weekends off every year), but they will understand that you can only go out with them for a couple of hours. They will appreciate that you go out with them, even if you have to leave after two hours or so.
And last but certainly not least: try to get enough sleep. Never, or at least almost never sleep less than six hours. This means that when you come home from work, you have dinner, take a shower, watch television for half an hour tops and go to bed. It is good idea to build in some small ritual, like having a cup of lime tea or hot milk right before going to bed. I also listen to the same CD every night before going to work. I almost never lie awake past track 3. The other days you can follow a more relaxed schedule, but make sure you get six hours of sleep. I myself try to sleep for eight hours at least twice a week.
And if you do still fall sick, it is better to stay home a couple of days. Do not try to go to work half-sick. If you do, it might linger for weeks or even months on end.
The Belgian scientist, Catherine Verfaillie, who was leading the Stem-cell research department of the University of Minnesota is coming back to Belgium because of the whole anti-stem cell research climate in the US and because it is becoming harder and harder to find appropriate funding. If this kind of thing goes on, the US will quickly lose its leading position in some kinds of research. And I think that another four years of Bush might quickly accelerate this trend.
This is completely counter-intuitive. Scandinavian employees are much more productive than their mediteranean counterparts.
I myself prefer a temperature of 15 degrees Celsius.