An interesting dilemma: I have enough free days left to take the remainder of the year off. A spanner in the works is that some of my colleagues want to finish a report related to the weblog conversations post. One of the sections in the report uses an approach I rather like: describe what a tool (method) does by asking a research question and then show how the tool (method) answers the question. In this particular case, Robert de Hoog, Rogier Brussee and Lilia Efimova ask the questions and I select which ones the tool (method) can answer. These three nice colleagues mailed me the questions today [yesterday given that TypePad is having problems], and some are tantalizing to say the least.
Another spanner is that one of the Ph.D. students in the department has started to use tOKo. She, Katja Ermilova, is one of the early adapters, and apart from being a nice colleague she also asks very good questions. Tools can be improved by those who develop them, but usually passionate users are the best source for weak spots and good ideas. I would feel extremely uncomfortable by not answering her emailed questions or suggestions next week or stating "I'm on holiday, come back later''.
What to do? I found a rather neat way around the "I'm on holiday'' problem. Official working hours are 9 to 5. This leaves 16 hours a day, from 5 to 9 ... And, if you have any good suggestions what I should be doing from 9 to 5, let me know :-).
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