I am that genius...

One of the hardest things about teamwork is not taking credit for things- ideas in particular but also hard work to a lesser extent. I thrive on appreciation- maybe because I'm quite critical of my own efforts and need validation from other people to recognise my work as good. So, when I had the surprise of receiving the group email I sent to all residents in my halls advertising the Quiz Night back again- as a forward from another sustainability champion who'd got hold of it goodness knows how- it was nice to see this at the top:

Dear All
This sounds like a great way to raise awareness and easy to
replicate in any hall (if the champions at LK can share their notes?!).
Well done whoever came up with the idea.

and then to receive this reply-all from another recipient of that message:

YES!! THIS IS ABSOLUTELY GREAT!
i am a sustainability champion in
grosvenor.. can i and the other sustainability champions come attend to replicate something similar here...
manythanks to the innovator(s)!!

-but it was hard not to fire right back "Glad you liked it! That was a Red Tea idea, brought to you courtesy of Me". Of course, I restrained myself. I sent back an email answering the points about sharing our notes and the possibility of attendence by sustainability champions from other halls, but not mentioning which of the Lilian Knowles champions had the idea.

Interestingly, working in a team also erodes the personal sense of credit and responsibility to a certain extent. Even though I am pretty definite that the quiz was my idea and that I had come up with it before even realising about the existence of SC2, I am not in fact 100% certain. I would say 95 to 99%. I think I can recall telling SC2 that I'd had the idea of the quiz for Climate Change Awareness Week and I didn't know what she thought? But there is a small possibility that in fact it was her idea or a joint idea, and that in the process of my telling people like CMCC about it it became our idea since it was our project, and from 'our' I then started to regard it as 'my'. I don't believe that's what happened, but I can't be sure...

I was pretty heavily involved with green stuff today. In the middle of the afternoon I went to People and Planet's session for making posters/ displays for Climate Change Awareness Week- there were only five of us (I suppose most of the P&P people don't really consider themselves to have an artistic bent...) so I got to do the Drought and Extreme Heat display pretty much all by myself (which made a nice change from working in groups...). I started by drawing black felt pen cracks on the large (A2 or A3) brown sheets of paper provided to look like dried mud- which actually took quite a bit longer than it was perhaps worth- made a title for the centre panel (also took longer than it should have), then copied out the facts that some of the other people who came had found from the internet, onto coloured paper. With a bit more time, I could have done it more neatly- ah well. Before I'd even finished that, the two hours were up and so I took it to the Sky Walk to complete it (nice and quiet, long table, wouldn't matter if I jogged it from excessive rubbing out as it would in the library where people are trying to work). I went via the lockers with the others first though- I hadn't even realised there were lockers in the Old Building (though now I know I shall be bagging one...), but People and Planet has one (several actually) and we needed to be shown where they were so we could put the posters in there when we'd finished working on them. It took me another hour or hour and a half, but I ended up with something that was at least complete (bar some photos that the President, one of the five present, said she'd print out as all the displays wanted some) if not in as workmanlike a condition as I could have wished. I'd also added some line drawings of parched landscapes that didn't come out too well... never mind. So I set off for the lockers- anxious to find them not just so I could get on with the next thing, but because I didn't really feel able to visit the loos while still in posession of the poster (it would be bound to get wet), and this was quite a pressing point.

But somehow I seemed to have managed to make no mental register of where we'd gone when shown the lockers earlier. I spent some time wandering between St Clement's, Clare Market, and the East Building before finally giving in and phoning the President- luckily she'd given me her number earlier. She told me they were in the Old Building, and mentioned a blue door opposite the Student Services Centre. I had a vague idea the Old Building was next to the East Building, but found on following a different sky bridge that actually it was the one opposite it- which I actually knew but had forgotten. Even once there things were not entirely simple. I found Student Services fairly easily, but couldn't see any blue door. In the end I got there the long way round, by following the next part where she'd said that it was one floor up from Student Services and wandering around on that level.

Either side of the big poster making session, I was campaigning for the Green Party. The Students' Union Michaelmas elections are today and tomorrow- there are various positions availiable though most are elected in the spring term. The Green Party made a big effort to run candidates for as many posts as possible, and wanted non-running members to help with handing out fliers etc. Before making posters, I helped out by getting more copies made of CMCC's fliers (he's running for NUS delegation- ie to be chosen to represent LSE at the NUS conference)- he gave me his photocopying card and some change, and explained the process, but the copy shop turned out to be quite hard to figure out. I worked out that top up of the card was via a human at a desk rather than machines as at UCL (though UCL has at least one copy place where a member of staff does the copying and you pay by cash rather than a copy card), and CMCC had explained that I'd have to buy the sheets of paper as the fliers needed to be printed on green rather than white, and put them in the machine myself. What I didn't realise untill I'd topped up the card and had moved on to Stage 2 of buying the paper, was that the money for that didn't come off the card but had to be paid for separately. Of course, I'd put all the change he gave me on his card, but luckily I had the requisite £1.50 in change on me. I then managed to drop the card going from the desk to a copy machine, and got to the point of the proceedings where I realised I didn't have it just in time to see someone pick it up and be about to lock it away safely somewhere. I'd heard it fall, but looked down and not seen anything, but when I realised I didn't have it had put two and two together. So luckily I got it back. I'd put the paper in one of the drawers, but a helpfull member of staff (I think) showed me how it was better to put it in the side tray (which I hadn't even noticed). Both he and another staff member, to whom I took the copies to be cut into four with an industrial guillotine, commented on how dark the photo was (which I'd also noticed)- but there was nothing I could do about that!

Having handed over the stack of 200 fliers (still warm), I finished my lunch (Sky Walk again), then went back out to see what I could do next. Everyone had just been topped up with fliers so I didn't get to put my newfound Copy Shop skills to use, but I started handing out some fliers for the ULU delegate, then was approached by EMCC (running for Postgraduate Officer) who asked me to hand out fliers for the Academic Board candidate as she needed pushing more than the ULU one who was almost certain to get in. I actually managed to do both; I may not be any good at persuasion (which is why I was glad to be given things I could do like copying and handing out fliers- I'd been afraid I'd have to talk to people about policies, but actually no-one wanted to stop and debate) but I'm not bad at getting fliers taken (or, in other contexts, at getting change tossed into a bucket, come to that). I didn't have 200- but I probably had 25 or 50 of each candidate, and I managed to get rid of them all in the 10 or 15 minutes before I had to go to the People and Planet thing.

Campaigning afterwards didn't come to much as it was raining and there was no-one around to give fliers to. I took three different kinds to a couple of computer rooms, where I left some in front of each computer, on the recommendation of EMCC, but that was about it. Then I got a bit carried away and decided to start picking up the discarded fliers that were littering Houghton St- in the pouring rain. Of course, I should have stopped when CMCC tried to persuade me it wasn't a good idea- which was practically as soon as I started- but somehow the part of my brain that recognises what's sensible wasn't quite working properly and I went on for a bit. Which wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't meant CMCC felt obliged to join in a bit as well- it's one thing my error of judgment getting me wet but it's a lot worse if it's getting someone else wet too. I just felt that if we were going to make a mess we should clean it up (though of course it was by no means only Green Party fliers)- just like I think the paper throwers at the UGM should clear up their paper. But with a clearer perspective, I now freely admit that in a rainstorm is maybe not the best time to apply that principle. I was a bit worried that the discarded fliers would stick to the ground as they dried, but CMCC said that wouldn't happen (speaking from experience of last year) so maybe it will be possible to do it tomorrow.

In other news, I've had something of a breakthrough with Time Series. In the physical aspects of the lecture, which were taken care of with some simple forward planning: I went to bed earlier last night (getting the not-too-Margaret-Thatcherish total of 6 hours' sleep), I got up early enough to have some yoghurt in halls before leaving and a croissant and cup of tea in the Garrick after arriving, and I took a big jumper with me to put over my cardigan when, as was inevitable, I started to feel chilly (Next time I may try to get there early enough to be the first and close the windows without anyone noticing...). And with the content of the lecture. I had a decent bash at the excercise last night, and found that two of the three questions were doable, which was encouraging, even though it turned out today that what I'd thought the lecture notes looked like they were saying but couldn't possibly be true really was what they meant, so that I'd done one of those two questions wrong. The important thing is that now I know that I can do questions like that easily. So I'm not as afraid of Time Series as I was...