Wow a well overdue update

I really don't blog here as much as I should, but then most of my blogging efforts go into writing things for Darker Days Radio, or running rpgs, or well work.

In the last year I've had the joy of getting back into playing the Warmachine and Hordes wargames by Privateer Press. This has been great as I find those games a lot more accessible, and I now have 5 or so armies, and to top it off I have been running the Iron Kingdoms RPG. We are about 2/3 of the way through and been on a long pause since Xmas as I have a lot of work to do.

Work, yes that means I am still in Germany and at the Ruhr Universitaet Bochum. I have recently got my next paper submitted, and I am right now tightening up a research proposal for a position, if I get the funding, back in the UK. It's rather exciting and I really hope I get the funding.

Otherwise not much more has been going on, it's been that exciting in Germany. Really it's just because socializing in Germany seems like a lot of effort for not much pay off. Hence the focus on gaming.

Here have some pictures of me, Sam, gaming stuff, and places.

Amsterdam Hurts - Not it wasn't painful!

Easter in Germany is rather boring. Things are so freaking awkward. I think it is just difficult when stuff is all shut on Sundays any other week, and well on Easter Monday - everything is shut. So it's just a pain in the arse. Now add to that mix the fact we had a quick trip to Amsterdam - well it meant having to do all the shopping for the weekend because we would not be here on the Saturday.

Now of course you will be wondering why we went to Amsterdam. Well not for the weed or the sex. No, we were there to see Hurts play. Now getting to Amsterdam is pretty easy really, with a single change of train along the way. It's kinda strange being on a train and all of sudden you are another country. Anyway, German trains are great. Hardly any delays ever. Something the UK should learn to get right.

Of course the first thing we noticed on exiting the Amsterdam train station was the smell of weed. It was sort of like cliche in that respect. And of course there were so many tourists. So getting from the station to the hotel was the rather annoying march past dawdling tourists, and stoned tourists. It seems that we chose a good hotel though. It was located on the south west edge of the city centre. This being where the more authentic Amsterdam is, where all the locals go for coffee and culture.

The hotel, Esterea, was excellent. Well woth the money. Awesome service, great interior, and excellent room. And to top it off the hotel has a cat. Yes a cat. One that seems pretty free to roam the hotel. And of course is incredibly friendly and patient.

With a bit of clothes shopping done and dinner, we got ready for the gig. Amsterdam were playing at the Melkweg (Milky Way) and the venue is pretty awesome and modern. It was not a massive venue, as this was the promotional tour for the new album by Hurts.

The support at was really anything special. Not bad - but not great either.

Hurts however were epic. They really worked the crowd, and we were only  few people away from the front. They played all their hits so far from the first album, and did a good many from the new album. Plus the lighting setup for their performance really worked well.

With a decent night's sleep we had a great breakfast and had a good amount of the midday to tour around the city. We went to see a good number of the more historical buildings, a short walk through the red light district, and even had a ride about the city centre by horse and carriage.

Amsterdam is a weird place really. There is a lot of good history, great architecture and some good shopping. The air is of course very clean - if you forget the weed smoke. But I find it is somewhat ruined by the commercial tourist centric aspect. Amsterdam reminded me of so many different cities, making it sort of perfect mashup of Europe.

So I think in future we may visit again for a bit longer, as it is a very nice city. But I think we found, and would like to find more of, the city that is often forgotten in favour of the sex and drugs.

DPG Spring Conference in Regensburg

So I'm sat in bed with a rather lovely headache as my dear wife brings me tea and medicated beverages. Of course this headache is all part of the post-conference cold I got. Yay!

So what can I say about the week (yeah long conference)? Well Regensburg is a very beautiful city, and what with the light snow we had there, even more so. The cathedral and the historical town all give it a feeling, for me, of it being much like York and Verona. I can also now say I am not a fan of Bavarian food. Far too heavy and fatty. But we did find a good bar that was not a Brauhaus, and a great little Italian cafe, and a excellent Thai restaurant.

Now for the conference, which is the German Physical Chemistry meeting. So a lot of the science focuses on surface science, material science, and the simulation of these systems with Density Functional Theory. The stand out talks for me were the one on Metal Organic Frameworks, and one on the use of big data to search for novel materials using machine learning. For the latter I got to speak to the presenter, who was very excited that I brought up the topic of Bader type analysis/Atoms in Molecules/Quantum Chemical Topology and if he was using it for his method - somehting that they have just started and something that I have a bit of knowledge on having done my PhD in one of the groups in the world which are experts on AIM/QCT.

So yeah a good conference, nice new contacts, learnt my modifications of a DFT program are now in the official version, and well a nice city to have visited.

Oh and Sam has a new lovely hair cut - this being the same hairdressers that serve us both drinks (yeah I get to sit there as she cuts a cut and a colour, it's a good time for reading a book) and they also gave me a free hair product to try out with spiking my hair.

Cats eh?

About an hour ago had to take my cat to the vets. Basically myself and the vet thought it was a UTI, as she was able to pass urine but was going to the litter tray to do that frequently. So now she is all dosed up and gets painkillers all week.

So I think I am pretty much sold on getting clothes from http://rabbitholelondon.com/ Most of the designs are pretty much what I am looking for in tops and even suits. With their designs plus stuff by Plastik Wrap http://www.plastikarmy.com/gear/ I can see this year I will finally replace a few things in my wardrobe. It been sort of a trend for me of recent to try and find more of the 'post-apocalypse' clothing styles. Or things that are referred to as 'neo-goth'. All these slouchy clothes, lots of zips, and shades of grey and more muted colours. It's a long way from my more cyber clothing. Now if only I could afford Skin Graft Design's clothes :( 

Damn Spherical Harmonics

So for the last few months I have been trying to work out the formula that would allow for the compact description of the rotation of atomic orbitals. Now the reason for this is because I want to be able to understand how it was derived in order to do the same derivation but for the complex conjugate case of the same matrix. Needless to say the headaches are great!

On a better note this coming Monday sees my 4th wedding anniversary. Now we are doing anything big for the day as we went back to the UK for my birthday 30th. But at the end of March we are going to Amsterdam to see Hurts perform.

Otherwise the other cool thing is recording the next Darker Days Radio this weekend. Should be a good one!

I should really blog more....

But blogging is pretty hard to do when your mind is either thinking about science type things at work, or is devoted to writing and planning stuff for rpgs. So I think this blog will have to be rather infrequent life stuff.