Ten Australians are dropped off alone in separate areas of remote academic wilderness where they must deal with the forces of nature, hunger, and loneliness.
You are making my life better, Hamish Clark. Also, the vending machines can be reliably found in the foyer or basement of the Engineering building. Any engineering building.
Oh Hamish, you've made me cry with laughter. I haven't laughed like that in goodness knows how long! As a fellow university traveler of the professional kind, it's all so familiar. The highlights for me were:
"... untitled email and a mouse hovering over the exclamation mark icon, with the popup text "High Importance” appearing
I still can’t believe I got an office to myself.
If you want to survive here you need to prioritise. You need a desk, you need a toilet and you need an email account. And not in that order.
I’ve been a postdoc for 15 years. 15? Maybe it’s 16. Never had a contract longer than two years.
All are equipped with a shared services phone number. When they are ready to tap out, all they need to do is press 4, then 1, then 1 again, and then state their name clearly.
Eight offices and not a soul in sight."
I've watched a few episodes of Alone and admire their courage for despite being an avid remote National Park camper, I couldn't do it alone for an extended period and certainly not if it involved finding and hunting my own food. Last week when I was in New Zealand, I watched an episode of season 9 of Alone USA, a.k.a. Alone: Labrador, which was filmed in the Nunatsiavut region of northern Labrador, eastern Canada. They had to hunt black bear and beaver to survive as the fish weren't biting. Gawd! However, the thought of escaping academia for a remote location frankly sounds idyllic.
I look forward to your next installment. Will there be one?
Looking forward to the next episode - hopefully there will be a new 'system' written by someone who speaks in IT labels, that needs to be mastered urgently and doesn't align with any other similar systems and has a password reset with a combination of x special characters, but you can't find out how many, or which ones, until you've incorrectly typed in half a dozen that don't conform and that aren't pre-used!
Thanks for the tip - I'll be dialling 411 the next time I am halfway through a week-long simulation and get a warning notification for an impending IT-mandated shutdown 😤😂.
Having never worked in Academia but being an avid Alone watcher, I am struggling to gauge how close to reality this is. Knowing you, I suspect very close. Your previews of some of the challenges these contestants will encounter also made me shudder more than any challenge on any season of Alone in any country. I think I would rather slowly suffer muscle wastage over 100 days of loneliness while barely surviving on foraged algae and the occasional mouse than wade into the treacherous waters of Academia. I salute, and worry for, you.
I expect that you're a contestant Hamish. Get the 'inside' story !
Psst. Keep it to yourself Mike!
You are making my life better, Hamish Clark. Also, the vending machines can be reliably found in the foyer or basement of the Engineering building. Any engineering building.
thanks Kate, that is high praise indeed. And an invaluable tip for our contestants.
Oh Hamish, you've made me cry with laughter. I haven't laughed like that in goodness knows how long! As a fellow university traveler of the professional kind, it's all so familiar. The highlights for me were:
"... untitled email and a mouse hovering over the exclamation mark icon, with the popup text "High Importance” appearing
I still can’t believe I got an office to myself.
If you want to survive here you need to prioritise. You need a desk, you need a toilet and you need an email account. And not in that order.
I’ve been a postdoc for 15 years. 15? Maybe it’s 16. Never had a contract longer than two years.
All are equipped with a shared services phone number. When they are ready to tap out, all they need to do is press 4, then 1, then 1 again, and then state their name clearly.
Eight offices and not a soul in sight."
I've watched a few episodes of Alone and admire their courage for despite being an avid remote National Park camper, I couldn't do it alone for an extended period and certainly not if it involved finding and hunting my own food. Last week when I was in New Zealand, I watched an episode of season 9 of Alone USA, a.k.a. Alone: Labrador, which was filmed in the Nunatsiavut region of northern Labrador, eastern Canada. They had to hunt black bear and beaver to survive as the fish weren't biting. Gawd! However, the thought of escaping academia for a remote location frankly sounds idyllic.
I look forward to your next installment. Will there be one?
thanks Sam, I am glad it hit the mark. I can't make any promises regarding a future episode, but I'm not short of material!
Looking forward to the next episode - hopefully there will be a new 'system' written by someone who speaks in IT labels, that needs to be mastered urgently and doesn't align with any other similar systems and has a password reset with a combination of x special characters, but you can't find out how many, or which ones, until you've incorrectly typed in half a dozen that don't conform and that aren't pre-used!
sounds like you've appeared on this show before Mel
I've never watched "Alone", but I definitely dig the vibe!
It's good viewing. We started with season 2 (by accident)
Thanks for the tip - I'll be dialling 411 the next time I am halfway through a week-long simulation and get a warning notification for an impending IT-mandated shutdown 😤😂.
There's no shame in tapping out!
Having never worked in Academia but being an avid Alone watcher, I am struggling to gauge how close to reality this is. Knowing you, I suspect very close. Your previews of some of the challenges these contestants will encounter also made me shudder more than any challenge on any season of Alone in any country. I think I would rather slowly suffer muscle wastage over 100 days of loneliness while barely surviving on foraged algae and the occasional mouse than wade into the treacherous waters of Academia. I salute, and worry for, you.
I am willing to listen to all offers of alternative employment (so long as they include 5% FTE for extending the Hammer and Vyse collection)
Haha, Brilliant, shocking. How long can they possibly survive??
(although hmm, that de-identified academic institution looks awfully familiar) :)
I knew I could count on your forensic skills to crack that code