wordfalls and scatters

So far, I think I have not been getting full marks conference-wise. I've gone to a few interesting sessions, but much of it is a little too focused on international relations for my tastes. I've also attempted some 'networking', and have chased down a few people who had papers that seemed interesting, with varying results. My lack of sociability does not seem to be dissipating, sadly, so I am mostly being fairly antisocial. Perhaps I'll feel differently at APSA.

I just had a chat to an academic who gave a good presentation, and who's done a bit of (unpublished) work in my area. Apparently, however, "hey, I work in your area, I'd love to have a chat to you about this issue", was translated as "please give me a lecture on the basics of this issue". He also said that my thesis did not sound particularly exciting, and kindly offered me one of his groundbreaking ideas to rework my thesis around, "not out of generosity, just because I'm not working on that area anymore". Awesome.

On the plus side, I've enjoyed catching up with Thami, and last night I went out and danced a bit. Also, apparently I am now fascinated by world history. I keep catching myself thinking things like, "I really must read up on the Suez crisis", and "Why don't I know more about Maori trench warfare?" One of the nice things about conferences is that you can find someone willing to tell you interesting things over lunch...all you have to do is ask the right question and then eat and listen. I now know a lot more about the role of the potato in world history. Possible-new-friend-writing-on-social-movements told me the Maoris worked out the British liked capturing landmarks...so they used to build pointless, prominent, landmarks, which the British would then expend huge amounts of energy capturing. For some reason I was quite delighted by that.