effort

When I was a starting graduate student, fresh out of college, all these years ago, I discovered the greatest resource for pessimism and truth on the web. Despair was a startup back then and had just issued their first calender of demotivators. Over the years they have expanded on the original idea and now cover with sarcasm and bitter irony nearly any attribute you might hear praised in the Economist or Wall St Journal. I had the feeling, though, that they were running out of ideas and repeating themselves. Imagine my surprise and overboiling joy when I found the first image of their 2006 calendar, which seems to have been made for my current situation.

Should I say that I consider myself lucky? I work outside the fence. Thus, though the lab technically belongs to the French atomic energy commission, we are not subject to their suffocatingly strict rules in all their full oppressive force. We are not required to leave work by 8pm, it is just strongly encouraged. Security guards will enter your name into their black list if you're working after eight. The lights in the hallways are turned off automatically, darkness and silence pervade the institute. If you stick around, you might just fall asleep. If you're very strong-minded or absolutely have to get some work done, you certainly can, but you will feel the loneliness of the night weighing down on you.

On a similar note, this recent article from the BBC describes Paris in August. Grenoble was similar. Everything was shut down, people were absent from the streets, cafes, restaurants, stores were shuttered up. I was grateful that my bakery was only closed for three weeks. Even the small Arabic delis that are by definition open from eight to midnight and even on Sundays went on vacation. The institute was similarly deserted, there were days with only two or three people at work out of the regular 15 in my group. Now, everyone has returned, and life and work have recommenced. Only I am left shaking my head.