Köln: Day Seven (RWOT Day Three)
Sep. 21st, 2023 10:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aFeeling more positive today.
To start with the working groups at RWOT generally seemed to regain their momentum today. Not being in a group this time around, I'd forgotten that the workshops kind of work like that. It could be a three-act structure, and our protagonists are at their lowest ebb between Days Two and Three, right at the middle of our plot structure, and then fight their way back to success at the end.
We've still got some challenges with groups being too small and not intermixing people sufficiently, which are results of the whole workshop being smaller this time around, but I'm hopeful we can accommodate that all and get some good papers out.
The other good news is that we're crossing our fingers that the COVID concern yesterday was a false alarm. The person in question, who had had two different lightly positive rapid antigen tests took a much more reliable PCR test and that came back negative, and then another RAT test, and that came back negative too.
Now two false positives seem pretty unlikely, unless there was some problem with the whole batch of tests. But *that* does seem possible. Since we give each of our participants five sets of tests, it suggests to me that we should mix our entire collection of tests together beforehand, so that people are less likely to have multiple tests with potentially the exact same problems.
And it also suggests that we need to think more about what our policies should be if we continue to have COVID policies. Does a PCR override a RAT? How many negative RATS override a positive RAT? Etc.
We also had demo night tonight, though it got turned into demo afternoon because we'd come to the conclusion that sending everyone out for dinner first, as we usually do, wasn't really going to work because everyone was likely to run to Köln for dinner, and then we might get a limited number of people returning to Hürth. (I was thrilled, because I was *not* looking forward to heading home at 10pm when the trains are running less often when I need to be up at 6.30 or 7 tomorrow morning.)
Oh, and speaking of trains, something I learned today: there are currently NO trains that go from Hürth to Köln West where I'm staying until 8pm!!!!! That's why I caught one the first night, when we had our Poster kickoff, but not since. So, this was a really subpar week to be staying in Köln West and commuting to Hürth. (I also learned a bit more about the current problems with the trains, which are apparently in part due to a total software breakdown in the recent weeks, which is why the trains have been getting later and later, totally separate from the construction problems this week only. So we're really workshopping here in Köln and Hürth at the best of all times.)
Back in Köln, there are still techbros, but much fewer, as their conference ended today, and meanwhile the long-promised rain has finally started drizzling down, driving the remnants indoors.
Tomorrow, the exciting finale.
And then things become a whirlwind as I head to Frankfurt on Saturday and then to Amsterdam, Los Angeles, and hopefully Lihue on Sunday.
To start with the working groups at RWOT generally seemed to regain their momentum today. Not being in a group this time around, I'd forgotten that the workshops kind of work like that. It could be a three-act structure, and our protagonists are at their lowest ebb between Days Two and Three, right at the middle of our plot structure, and then fight their way back to success at the end.
We've still got some challenges with groups being too small and not intermixing people sufficiently, which are results of the whole workshop being smaller this time around, but I'm hopeful we can accommodate that all and get some good papers out.
The other good news is that we're crossing our fingers that the COVID concern yesterday was a false alarm. The person in question, who had had two different lightly positive rapid antigen tests took a much more reliable PCR test and that came back negative, and then another RAT test, and that came back negative too.
Now two false positives seem pretty unlikely, unless there was some problem with the whole batch of tests. But *that* does seem possible. Since we give each of our participants five sets of tests, it suggests to me that we should mix our entire collection of tests together beforehand, so that people are less likely to have multiple tests with potentially the exact same problems.
And it also suggests that we need to think more about what our policies should be if we continue to have COVID policies. Does a PCR override a RAT? How many negative RATS override a positive RAT? Etc.
We also had demo night tonight, though it got turned into demo afternoon because we'd come to the conclusion that sending everyone out for dinner first, as we usually do, wasn't really going to work because everyone was likely to run to Köln for dinner, and then we might get a limited number of people returning to Hürth. (I was thrilled, because I was *not* looking forward to heading home at 10pm when the trains are running less often when I need to be up at 6.30 or 7 tomorrow morning.)
Oh, and speaking of trains, something I learned today: there are currently NO trains that go from Hürth to Köln West where I'm staying until 8pm!!!!! That's why I caught one the first night, when we had our Poster kickoff, but not since. So, this was a really subpar week to be staying in Köln West and commuting to Hürth. (I also learned a bit more about the current problems with the trains, which are apparently in part due to a total software breakdown in the recent weeks, which is why the trains have been getting later and later, totally separate from the construction problems this week only. So we're really workshopping here in Köln and Hürth at the best of all times.)
Back in Köln, there are still techbros, but much fewer, as their conference ended today, and meanwhile the long-promised rain has finally started drizzling down, driving the remnants indoors.
Tomorrow, the exciting finale.
And then things become a whirlwind as I head to Frankfurt on Saturday and then to Amsterdam, Los Angeles, and hopefully Lihue on Sunday.