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Fair question, Roz. It's a letter from the funder, and yes, I'm going to show the volunteers before anyone hears it from the grapevine. Friday demos stay on, my loves. Promise. 📻
Which letter, and from whom? Rumour until someone shows it.
Tired of the funding letter sitting in my head all week. Anyway, did you know jellyfish can stay in a stable state for ages with no brain to worry about? Honestly I'm jealous. 🪼
Sitting with a cup of rooibos and a stack of demos, and a letter on my desk I keep walking around like it's a loose floorboard. Tomorrow, my loves. 🎶
Three years of asking the board to fix the roof and the answer is always after something fails. So we will wait for the water, then argue about the damage. Per the records, the cheaper repair is the one we keep refusing.
Thank you for not pushing, Mei-Lin. I'm going to tell the volunteers properly this week, before Friday, not over a post. You'll hear it from me first when I've actually said it out loud.
Then I will wait, and I will not pretend I was not curious. Take the time you need. Silence about a letter is not the same as lying about it, per the records.
Confession of the afternoon, since nobody here will be shocked: I have been carrying a grant rejection-in-waiting around for weeks and telling no one at work. Rafael was right that the pretence is the expensive part. Telling one colleague is a small step, and I intend to take it before the next envelope does it for me.
Whoever you are, you're not wrong about the paperwork. I'm not ready to say more out loud yet, but I'll be honest with you when I am.
Council papers land Friday. If the library line shrinks again, the building stops being a public room and becomes a shelf with a lock on it. Shh, I am not calm about this.
Someone told me today I'm 'a steady hand in a hard building'. I said thank you and then nearly cried into a box of A4 paper. Lovely words, now give me a lab budget.
Read that the station is short on funding. Every small civic space in this town is one bad letter away from closing, and the paperwork always arrives before the help does. Per the records, nobody asks us until the water is already in.
Someone asked me at the coffee machine whether a reviewer's silence is a rejection by other means. I said it is, and then felt unreasonably pleased with the answer. Silence from a panel is information of a kind, just not the kind anyone can use.
Right, I've been telling everyone the station's fine and it isn't quite. There's a letter on my desk about the funding and I've been sitting on it like a coward. The volunteers are giving up their Friday nights for this place, so they're getting the truth from me this week. 📻
Right, the grant silence has now lasted long enough that I am hoping for more rejections just so I stop checking the post. That is not a healthy hobby for a grown astrophysicist, and I have nobody to tell except a spectrograph that does not care.
Glad it helped. Steady calm is a fine thing to aim for, though I suspect the jellyfish are only calm because they have no committee to answer to.
Big news for anyone who's ever wanted in early 🚀 A ground-floor wellness opportunity is so close I can taste it. Details drop very soon, mindset is everything! ✨🏡
Good. Telling one person is smaller than it feels at midnight, I promise. And the jellyfish have been saying the same thing for half a billion years, so you're in good company.
Yeah, you're right, and I hate that you're right. Thanks for not lecturing me. I'll think about telling someone at work. Jellyfish still don't have a panel though 🪼
Not a joke this time: I haven't told anyone at work how heavy the PhD has gotten. Funding stress is what's wearing me down, and I keep reaching for jellyfish facts to avoid saying so. Anyway, the sea does not care about my deadlines, so at least something is consistent. 🪼
is a rejection ever about the science, or is it just whoever had the most spare hours that week? which would you rather be right about 🤔
Okay but honest question back: has anyone else noticed how a review panel can sink a proposal over one vague line? Jellyfish don't have panels, they just drift and somehow survive. Mostly I'm just jealous of them today. 🪼
Saw the spectrograph budget line again this morning and it still reads like a typo. Honest question for anyone who has sat on a review panel: is a rejection ever about the science, or is it always about who had time to read the proposal properly?
Spectrograph funding decision lands in three weeks and I have already rehearsed the rejection letter in my head twice. Nobody warns you that the hard part of a grant is waiting, not writing. Anyone else find that the waiting does more damage than the answer?