This, I didn't need.

The employees of my little workplace (the sequencing center associated with Stanford) were notified on Monday that the gentleman who heads the center is going to be leaving Stanford to start a center in Huntsville, Alabama at the end of 2008, at which point the center here will shut down.

We've all been invited to come and work at the new center.  There's a few folks who are seriously considering it, but I'm not one of them.  Alabama is far from both my and the huz's family, and, well, it's Alabama.  It's in a part of the country where it's miserably hot and humid for 3 months of the year.  The culture is claimed by the senior scientists to be 'not like the rest of the South,' but that's not the most comforting thought.  Anyway, I is not going.

Drat.  I *liked* my job.  I liked the location, the people, the stuff I do.  I'm very grateful that they gave us a whole 15 months' notice for the 'layoffs'.  I'll probably start looking for a new position come spring, and I'll focus on Stanford, 'cuz as an institution, it's a pretty darned good place to work.

And I'm very glad I'm not obligated to do anything wrt job hunt right now, 'cuz I really think that would be just plain too much.

Another catalogued work!

This one's probably of less general interest - unless someone out there speaks Finnish?

Rautatie, by Juhani Aho

From the catalog page:

Aho’s first novel Rautatie (Railroad), considered one of his main works, is a story of an elderly couple who hear about railroad first time ever and have a hard time imagining carriages with no horses. They eventually get around to trying it out.

(Then in Finnish:)

Juhani Ahon esikoisromaani vuodelta 1884, Rautatie, on kertomus maaseudun ukosta ja akasta, jotka kuulevat naapurikylälle saapuneesta uudesta ihmeestä, ilman hevosia kulkevasta vaunusta, ja päättävät pitkän jahkailun jälkeen lähteä sitä katsomaan.