With six years of tedious phd work on theropod dinosaurs behind him, Darren Naish stares longingly from his office window at the birds outside and wonders: why did I bother? He pursues exotic lizards and feral cats across the British countryside, occasionally prizes the skeletal jaws from hedgehog corpses, and aims to publish his technical work on obscure Cretaceous dinosaurs. He remains desperately in quest of an academic job that'll last more than a month, and - with a background in TV research, e-learning development, academic editing, popular writing, teaching, landscape gardening, parenting and the wonderful world of retail - he still holds out hope of becoming a dedicated academic. He can be contacted intermittently at eotyrannus (at) gmail dot com. For more biographical info go 
As promised, here's the SVPCA group photo: a larger version can be viewed here on the SVPCA site (you can move your cursor around to identify people.. well, most people). I'm in the front row near the middle (I was skulking around at the side but got moved). Oh look, Dave Hone's wearing the same clothes again* (go here and here). Oh, hold on, so am I. One more SVPCA post to come: later today, or tomorrow. After that, things will get weird.
* OK.. I shall add that that is because his luggage got lost at an airport.
Comments
You do know that better hotels do provide laundry service for their guests. As well as bathrobes etc. for those times when you have nothing to wear. Or were you saving all your money for totchkes and trinkets? :)
Posted by: Alan Kellogg | October 2, 2007 10:14 PM
'Hotels'?? We were staying in university halls (as is fairly usual for academic meetings) - not quite in the same league!
Posted by: Darren Naish | October 3, 2007 4:27 AM
And i would add in my defence that a bag was delivered to me on the second day, it just wasn't mine! The airport took 3 days to get a back to me 'on the next flight'....
Posted by: Dave Hone | October 3, 2007 3:03 PM
Linda foto. :D
Posted by: Kawekaweau | October 3, 2007 6:09 PM
There were the "personal bathmats" and muffins for breakfast. So not exactly the most salubrious dwellings...
I'm not sure that turning up to academic meetings in your dressing gown is well thought of...
Posted by: Dave Godfrey | October 3, 2007 7:31 PM
Excuse me? Nice use of ethnic Maori lizard name by the way :)
I had accrued an impressive collection of uneaten muffins by the end of the meeting. And, ahh, the bathmats.. memories, so many memories..
Posted by: Darren Naish | October 4, 2007 6:03 AM
Re: the SVPCA group photo
For the first time ever, and thanks to Jeff Liston, all the delegates on the photo have been identified.
Posted by: Richard Forrest | October 13, 2007 4:11 AM