silly poster competition

Today I had to participate in a technical poster competition. Not that I wanted to enter, but if the boss "arrows" you for the job, as they say around here, there isn't much you can do. Anyway, I obviously didn't win (otherwise the title of the post would be more cheerful), but this is what pisses me off... The poster that won the overall competition was written in RED letters on a GREEN background. Now, I'm not colorblind, but there is a 12-20 percent of the male population who is, so that is not a good idea. Apart from the fact that the letters were so small that they couldn't be read from beyond 75cm of distance.

Also one of the judges comes, looks at my poster, and says "oh, I can't vote for you, since we are collaborators". People have a funny idea about what a scientific collaboration is. I haven't met with this guy in 2 years and we have never done anything together! I merely sat at a couple of meetings where he was as well. I must be too thick to understand this kind of collaboration.

Oh well, the iPod nano will have to wait. At least one of the PhD students in my division got the first prize in te student category...