Author: azrifleman

I simultaneously have Mad Scientist Hair and a Beard of Laziness +2.
Being that the Physics GRE is this weekend, I really don’t care. I’m barely willing to don pants for work on a good day; asking me to maintain hair in a presentable way for this week is completely out of the question.

I’m looking at graduate schools overseas, including schools in Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway, the UK, Australia, and Switzerland.
Any readers study overseas? If so, any advice would be most welcome.
I’ve been focusing on Swiss universities due to their proximity to CERN, as well as being quite enthralled with the country, the cities, and the people when I traveled there in the past. Gorgeous country, and it looks like a great place to live and study. It looks like there’s a not-insubstantial amount of paperwork to study there (let alone work there), but I imagine that’s pretty common and not a huge hurdle to overcome. Any advice with dealing with it? I imagine the local consulate is a good place to get information, but I figure that some people have more advice.
I’ve got a friend in Sweden who can help out with some aspects of moving and settling in (e.g. getting a phone, driver’s license, get acclimated to things, etc.), but things are different for foreigners than residents in many places, and I’d hate to screw things up in some way.
Moving domestically is hard enough. Moving internationally is likely to be a bit harder. Fortunately, I’m not the only prospective grad student to consider studying overseas, so I’m sure there’s procedures and whatnot. Now, I just need to start getting applications out…

I loathe crappy pens.
Only problem: I lose pens all the time, so losing expensive fountain pens and the like is a pain.
I’ve made up for this by buying disposable fountain pens like the Pilot Varsity, but those have trouble on certain types of paper.
The best inexpensive ballpoint I’ve written with is the $1.50 Pilot G2. I’ve never had issues with smearing (I’m left-handed), it writes smoothly and consistently, and it’s cheap enough that I don’t cry if I lose it. Basic Bic pens almost always work (but the knockoff ones suck), but I prefer the retractable point on the G2.
Thanks to the internet, I recently discovered — to my immense glee — that Mont Blanc rollerball refills fit in the G2 barrel with only a slight bit of filing on the plastic cap opposite of the point. Once about 1/8″ of material is removed, it fits perfectly. My main G2 needed a refill last night after a substantial amount of writing, so I bought a pair of the Mont Blanc refills as well as a 12-pack of new G2s (just in case). The Mont Blanc refills were only about $12 for a pair, so now I have a $7.50 pen that writes as well as a $200+ fancy pen. While losing a $7.50 pen is a bit more of a hassle than losing a $1.50 pen, at least I’m not losing something really expensive. If so, I do have spares.
Since the Mont Blanc refills apparently last longer than the G2 refills (gel pens go through ink like crazy, while the Mont Blanc refills are designed to write for 10,000 meters), I may end up actually saving money this way. We’ll see.

I’m looking at grad schools overseas, mostly in Europe.
As part of the process, I need to make some calls to these universities to chat with faculty, administrative staff, etc.
If I were to call, say, Switzerland from my Verizon cellphone, I would pay about $1.49/minute. If I wanted to pay $3.99/month, the rate drops to $0.08/min to landlines and $0.32/min for mobiles. That gets expensive quick. Qwest landline rates are comparable. I used to use Vonage, and calls to Swiss landlines are free on their standard World plan, but I don’t have their service any more.
Enter Google Voice. I already use it as my primary number and for voicemail, so deciding to use it for international calls was easy. One simply pre-pays for credits in blocks of $10 (which don’t expire) and then places a call from the web or dial-in phone interface. Costs me a whopping $0.02/min to landlines, which is much more palatable.
Since each endpoint is an actual phone, rather than a computer (like Skype, which has slightly higher rates), call quality is consistently good. The calls probably travel over some IP connections at some point, but there’s no jitter/lag that I could detect.
Even cooler: inbound caller ID works through Google Voice when international callers call me, at least those from Switzerland.
Hey, big phone companies: Vonage and Google can offer the same (and frequently more) services you do for considerably less money. Nickel-and-diming people for things like Caller ID, call waiting, and voicemail is losing you money. Your infrastructure was paid off a long time ago. Get with the program.
FTC Disclaimer: Do you see any referral links? Does it look like Google pays me money? If so, I’d have some Scrooge McDuck-style money vault and fancy food and drink rather than eating Clif bars and Dr. Pepper.
Google: I’m sure I can find some room in my condo for a Scrooge McDuck-style money vault if you feel the need to ship me a railcar worth of gold coins. Just sayin’.