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Is it true that the average North American person is busier, more up-tight, more stressed or even more angry the average Aussie? Is
Who cares? Maybe these questions don’t matter. We are who we are. What is the point of making comparisons between countries? My impression is that most Canadians are very happy. Most of us inherently find what we need to live a happy and full life. Plus, nobody can answer questions like these with any confidence. It’s all debatable. The thing is, I have noticed a few such striking cultural and social differences that I can’t help but make some comparisons that are interesting to me. Here are a few:
On Friday afternoons at 4:45 we have an event at my work called ‘Beer Club’. Not ‘social club’ or ‘team meeting’ or even ‘party’ but ‘BEER CLUB’. Kate also has two hours of ‘open bar’ every Friday at her law firm from 5-7.
When there is not enough room on the road, people here park their cars on sidewalks on curbs. I know it happens even more in
In
Australian radio and television advertising is full of really blatant sexual innuendo. It was both shocking and hilarious at first. Check out this add for a chocolate bar, or this one for nicotine gum (both shown here at dinner time). You can imagine what beer and underwear ads are like. And it’s not just the advertising, it is everything here. We see A LOT of legs and cleavage walking about on the streets in
And when they want to send a harsh message to the public here they don’t pull any punches either. We drove by a highway sign recently: ‘Tired drivers die. Take a break.’ or “Drunk? Sooner or later you will be caught.” Here’s a television commercial about setting a positive example for children (don’t watch it if you don’t want to see some powerful images). It seems to me that this country is just a little more ‘rough around the edges’ than
Want more Aussie culture? Kate started work with four weeks of holidays. I also have four and that is absolutely unheard-of for a post-doc in the
ALL Australians over 18 vote in the federal and state elections. The turnout is 100% because it is ‘illegal’ not to vote. Offenders get fined, and the fines increase for repeated failure to vote. Does that mean that the average person here knows more about politics? Heck yeah it does.
By the way, I believe all ‘successful’ politicians are inherently devious people. I wish it were different. It is the last thing that I would ever want to be involved in. We are a month away from a federal election here and all I see is ‘negative’ ads and smear attacks back and forth between their top two parties. It bothers me. This type of add must be very effective if it can cause people to be so cruel. Or they make financial promises that are complex to the point of confusion. Don’t you think that every government should provide a yearly ‘one page’ summary of the entire budget that is honest but dumbed-down to a level that 95% of people could follow? Why does it have to be so complicated? Cash in, cash out, interest, debt, bottom line… ummm, done. No deception. Don’t confuse us. It’s our money. One page.
The only thing I know of that absolutely MUST be complicated is physics. I don’t think economics does. Economists can certainly choose to make it complex. I have known many chemistry professors that like to ‘sound smart’. Confusing students makes them feel smarter and better about their chosen profession. Dr. Kerr was not like that. I don’t think there is any reason to pretend that something is more difficult than it actually is.
Oh, and along those lines, wouldn’t it be nice, as a voter, to know what countries owe us money and who we have borrowed from. It’s our money after all. A second page then, and dumbed down please. Wouldn’t that simple information clear up a lot international politics and wouldn’t it make it difficult for a government to ‘hide’ motives for war.
I’m sorry. I don’t know what got into me there. I don’t have any informed political opinions, just naïve ranting. I’m just a simple minded idiot. I sat down today and started writing… whatever. I’m trying to ‘lurn to write gooder’ and I got carried away. Not too many people read this. If you still are, I apologise. Just pictures next post. I promise. Here’s a goodie from last weekend. Speaking of Aussie culture. Yep we finally tried it! And not on big long boards either :)
It’s a good thing I have already found a wife.
And if you have any interest in how and why I ended up in this field, here it is (hey, it's my blog :) A lady I once knew named Mrs. McLean is responsible for the fact that CHEM100 at Queen’s went well for me. For that reason I decided to take more similar courses and then, by chance, stumbled into this lab for an honours project. Years earlier, Dr. Lemieux was recruited from a high school in Montreal to some Div 1 school in New York on a football scholarship. He enrolled in general arts (basket weaving and stuff). I may not have the story quite right but I think that a single lab chemistry elective in third year led him to quit football to become a chemist. He is now department head in Kingston and he was a good supervisor. I met some talented students in his lab like Ken Maly that got me thinking about grad school. Dr. Lemieux suggested this guy, and after a bad MCAT essay and bad volleyball tryout, I decided to go get a PhD at Western. My boss, Dr. Kerr is Canadian but chose to do his PhD here and his post-doc here so he has some good 'worldly' stories to tell. He was another good supervisor, the good ones know each other. The Kerr lab was a great place to see and do a lot of different reactions. I worked for four years beside an exceptionally good chemist (Ian, who is now doing his post-doc with 'Iceman' in San Diego). He managed to keep me alive long enough to allow me to become not half-bad at this stuff myself. After a few long years, I found that the compounds eventually started to listen when I asked them to behave. And once the compounds start to behave, well... then you can’t help but like what you’re doing.
That's pretty much it... now I’m here. For many organic chemists a post-doc is a good opportunity to go somewhere new and distant for a few years and grow up (at 29) before either becoming a professor or a pharmaceutical pro (assuming you know what you're doing AND you still like this stuff when you're done). I was lucky to find yet another supervisor that both cares about his students and does quality research. Dr. Coster also travelled far to do his PhD here, then came back to Australia for his post-doc here and now holds an impressive position at a hot new reserach facility at Griffith at only 32… and he has me working on some interesting compounds. I can't really take pictures at work or speak specifically about any compounds because of a confidentiality agreement I signed but I can say that I am very impressed with the lab and working environment. I'm fairly sure that I'm safe talking very generally about equipment and I know that at least a couple of my old lab mates read this and they will apprecaite the following: This lab is RIDICULOUS! We have multiple fully automated Mass Specs and HPLCs and the fastest coolest NMR/robot combo I’ve ever seen and it's all a few feet from my bench… people here often monitor their columns by MS in 96 well plates. Yesterday I dropped in a TLC plate, submitted a proton to the robot, developed the plate, and then processed and printed spectrum in about four mintues total. There are four rotovaps (good, working vaps) within eight feet of my bench, four more another ten feet away. Double manifold, unlimited glassware, walk in fridge and freezer (-20C, feels like Canada), and a LOT of chemicals in the stores. Pre-packed columns that fit into automated solvent pumping thing-a-ma-jigers and fraction collectors… but I can’t do it, it feels like cheating. Needless to say it's pretty easy to be efficient with your time here. (actually, there is no ultra high pressure reactor so K-dog has us beat there, and strangely there are no gas lines)
There... I'm done. I'm sorry about that. That's all that I wanted to say about work. I will try hard to keep this blog interesting for everyone by not talking too much shop in the future... maybe just a little.
And how's this for interesting:... we have been having some storms in the past three evenings that are hard to describe with words. I was told that storms here would be 'electric' and there would be hail but what we saw a two nights ago was on another level entirely. The hail missed us by about 20 km (but apparently my boss' father's car looks 'like a golfball') but the lightning was practically next door. Kate made a solid effort to take some video without getting the camera wet or herself killed… but the best way to describe what we saw is to show you these pictures (taken two nights ago and submitted to the local newspaper by loyal readers and damn fine photographers; I borrowed them from here).
Anyway... to the point of this post: my new wheels: