Epsilon's current favorite foods are:
Okra curry
Tamales
Oatmeal
Edamame
I love living this country and at this point in history!
Okra curry
Tamales
Oatmeal
Edamame
I love living this country and at this point in history!
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Monday, October 24, 2011
Hello
The last week has seen a more than trebling of traffic to my blog, which is very exciting. Most viewers seems to be coming from GMP's blog, but some from other places I haven't been able to specify. I thought I'd use this time to give a bit of background about myself.
I am in the last year of my post doc at research university with an fabulous student base. My partner and I are both academics, and we have spent more time in a long distance/commuting situation than we have spent sharing an address. Somewhere in the giddiness of of my having landed a great post doc, we decided to have a child, who I call Epsilon in this blog, hoping that the needs of a third person would keep us from putting career in front of family. It was not to be.
I started this blog while my partner and toddler were living in Chicago, and I was commuting 10-12 hours each way to spend time with them over the weekend. I was miserable and lonely. Our small family unit is reunited for the next few months. In January, my partner will be moving to a foreign country, and I will be alone with Epsilon for several months. Read about it here. I'm currently on the job market looking for something in the foreign country, or for a university in the US that will hire us both.
In the meanwhile, I write about my experiences as a postdoc, my views on women in the sciences, posts about Epsilon, the political issues that catch my interest, and the activities I can find time to partake in. And occasionally, when something disturbs my psyche, or I have an extra moment to breathe, I write poetry.
I'd like to know who you are. Google keeps far too much information about you, but not enough for a real dialogue. For instance, I've had a follower who consistently uses the browser Iceweasel. What is Iceweasel, and why is it your preferred brower? I recently got a hit from Zambia. Who are you, and how did you find me?
Old friends from when I could count daily hits on fingers and toes, what would you have me keep writing about? New acquaintances, if you've had a chance to go through some of the archives, what have you liked, and what more do you want?
I am in the last year of my post doc at research university with an fabulous student base. My partner and I are both academics, and we have spent more time in a long distance/commuting situation than we have spent sharing an address. Somewhere in the giddiness of of my having landed a great post doc, we decided to have a child, who I call Epsilon in this blog, hoping that the needs of a third person would keep us from putting career in front of family. It was not to be.
I started this blog while my partner and toddler were living in Chicago, and I was commuting 10-12 hours each way to spend time with them over the weekend. I was miserable and lonely. Our small family unit is reunited for the next few months. In January, my partner will be moving to a foreign country, and I will be alone with Epsilon for several months. Read about it here. I'm currently on the job market looking for something in the foreign country, or for a university in the US that will hire us both.
In the meanwhile, I write about my experiences as a postdoc, my views on women in the sciences, posts about Epsilon, the political issues that catch my interest, and the activities I can find time to partake in. And occasionally, when something disturbs my psyche, or I have an extra moment to breathe, I write poetry.
I'd like to know who you are. Google keeps far too much information about you, but not enough for a real dialogue. For instance, I've had a follower who consistently uses the browser Iceweasel. What is Iceweasel, and why is it your preferred brower? I recently got a hit from Zambia. Who are you, and how did you find me?
Old friends from when I could count daily hits on fingers and toes, what would you have me keep writing about? New acquaintances, if you've had a chance to go through some of the archives, what have you liked, and what more do you want?
Friday, October 21, 2011
Now I'm just confused
This came out of Herman Cain's mouth yesterday:
Update (10/21 12:20 pm):
ROFL!!!!!
CAIN: It would be an illegal abortion. Look, abortion should not be legal, that is clear, but if that family made a decision to break the law, that is that family’s decision, that’s all I’m trying to stay.
“I believe that life begins at conception and abortion, under no circumstances,” Cain told Morgan. Pressed on if he would apply this same directive to his grandchildren, Cain candidly responded.
“It comes down to, it’s not the government’s role or anybody’s role to make that decision. Secondly, if you look at the statistical incidents, you’re not talking about that number. What I’m saying is it ultimately gets down to a choice that the family or that mother has to make. Not me as president, not some politician, not a bureaucrat. It gets down to that family. And whatever they decide. I shouldn’t have to tell them what decision to make for such a sensitive issue.”I'm sure he's not pro-choice. Or, if he is, he will remove it from his platform soon. But this was just hilarious. His summary of the pro-life movement's stand in this country is so spot on!
Update (10/21 12:20 pm):
ROFL!!!!!
CAIN: It would be an illegal abortion. Look, abortion should not be legal, that is clear, but if that family made a decision to break the law, that is that family’s decision, that’s all I’m trying to stay.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
An Extraordinary Senior Woman
This is a story told to me by a friend during his final year as a post doc at a department where PhDs can be around, full time, for over a decade without eyebrows being raised. It is also normal in this field to take a few years off between undergrad and grad school. In short, if the women want to have children, it makes sense for many to do so before finishing their PhDs.
The final meeting of a weekly seminar involved a period of retrospection and anticipation for the next year's seminar. Several people (mostly female graduate students) suggested changing the time for the seminar (currently meeting on a weekday evening) to a time better suited for people with children.
The senior faculty member (SFM), female, who usually runs the seminar (but not this year) objected strongly. She pointed out that this is the way it has always been done, and that when she runs it, it is followed by dinner and drinks (with plenty of soda for observant Muslims). She goes to bed in the early am, but people stay drinking at her house as long as they want. It is her belief that a seminar followed by dinner and drinks was the only way to build a good feeling of collegiality and camaraderie in the department. She followed this with the complaint that this didn't used to be a problem when the department was nearly all male. The time has become a problem only when the department started admitting “women who weren't serious about their work and who had other priorities.” Neither he nor I are making this shit up. He swears that these are as exact quotes as he can remember. I'm watching myself write a parody of a paranoid feminist's worst nightmare used to justify why she shouldn't enter academia. I swear it's true.
My friend (MF), being a good junior male academic pointed out that the time problem isn't just one for women. He was too stunned to be able to fight back on the issue of admitting women.
SFM replied that people should get their partners to help out.
MF pointed out that some people attending the seminars didn't have partners who could help out.
SFM said that if it was such a problem that people should bring their children to the seminar, but that they had to be dedicated enough to attend. Anyway, it couldn't be a gender thing since she had succeeded in academia without anyone doing anything to make her life as a woman easier. WTF!? I can't even begin to enumerate the badness of that response.
I don't know where to start. The bullying? The sexism? The "I've-suffered-so-you-should-too" attitude? The insensitivity to the fact that some people may not like to drink or stay up after midnight? The lack of understanding of what having a bunch of infants and toddlers in a well lit seminar room well past their bed times looks like? The anger at the other tenured male present, who has children, for staying mum?
Should the graduate students stage a day of "failed child care options" on the day that an important outside speaker is visiting, to embarrass SFM? The under 5's would suffer, but they won't remember it. SFM on the other hand? ....
My friend says that on top of the difficulties in standing up to a person like this, he found it harder to call bullshit on her sexism because she was female. That if SFM had been male he would have more easily been able to ask him to stand down on the sexism. I feel like I would have had the opposite experience. I give my female colleagues the benefit of a doubt if they say/do something that may or may not be ill intentioned because they've been there, and very little leeway if they do something idiotic or ignorant because they should know better. This difference may have to do with our personalities, or be due to the fact that it is easier to call bullshit on someone more similar to you.
The final meeting of a weekly seminar involved a period of retrospection and anticipation for the next year's seminar. Several people (mostly female graduate students) suggested changing the time for the seminar (currently meeting on a weekday evening) to a time better suited for people with children.
The senior faculty member (SFM), female, who usually runs the seminar (but not this year) objected strongly. She pointed out that this is the way it has always been done, and that when she runs it, it is followed by dinner and drinks (with plenty of soda for observant Muslims). She goes to bed in the early am, but people stay drinking at her house as long as they want. It is her belief that a seminar followed by dinner and drinks was the only way to build a good feeling of collegiality and camaraderie in the department. She followed this with the complaint that this didn't used to be a problem when the department was nearly all male. The time has become a problem only when the department started admitting “women who weren't serious about their work and who had other priorities.” Neither he nor I are making this shit up. He swears that these are as exact quotes as he can remember. I'm watching myself write a parody of a paranoid feminist's worst nightmare used to justify why she shouldn't enter academia. I swear it's true.
My friend (MF), being a good junior male academic pointed out that the time problem isn't just one for women. He was too stunned to be able to fight back on the issue of admitting women.
SFM replied that people should get their partners to help out.
MF pointed out that some people attending the seminars didn't have partners who could help out.
SFM said that if it was such a problem that people should bring their children to the seminar, but that they had to be dedicated enough to attend. Anyway, it couldn't be a gender thing since she had succeeded in academia without anyone doing anything to make her life as a woman easier. WTF!? I can't even begin to enumerate the badness of that response.
I don't know where to start. The bullying? The sexism? The "I've-suffered-so-you-should-too" attitude? The insensitivity to the fact that some people may not like to drink or stay up after midnight? The lack of understanding of what having a bunch of infants and toddlers in a well lit seminar room well past their bed times looks like? The anger at the other tenured male present, who has children, for staying mum?
Should the graduate students stage a day of "failed child care options" on the day that an important outside speaker is visiting, to embarrass SFM? The under 5's would suffer, but they won't remember it. SFM on the other hand? ....
My friend says that on top of the difficulties in standing up to a person like this, he found it harder to call bullshit on her sexism because she was female. That if SFM had been male he would have more easily been able to ask him to stand down on the sexism. I feel like I would have had the opposite experience. I give my female colleagues the benefit of a doubt if they say/do something that may or may not be ill intentioned because they've been there, and very little leeway if they do something idiotic or ignorant because they should know better. This difference may have to do with our personalities, or be due to the fact that it is easier to call bullshit on someone more similar to you.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
WOOT!
One of my summer students' presentation was selected as a semi-finalist in the summer research project presentation contest.
Each summer researcher gets an opportunity to either give a short oral presentation or a poster session on their summer work. I've been very happy and impressed with her work, and she showed me her presentation before she gave it, but I didn't know it was a competition.
There are two more rounds of speaking, and then cash prizes go to the top 3 students. I take no credit for this one, but I'm very excited for her. WOOT!
Each summer researcher gets an opportunity to either give a short oral presentation or a poster session on their summer work. I've been very happy and impressed with her work, and she showed me her presentation before she gave it, but I didn't know it was a competition.
There are two more rounds of speaking, and then cash prizes go to the top 3 students. I take no credit for this one, but I'm very excited for her. WOOT!
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Open letter to a reviewer
Dear Sir/Madam,
Thank you for the time you took to review my article. I hope I did not inconvenience you too much to read what you call "utter nonsense." Though I don't know who you are, I am able to surmise that you belong to a group of scientists that do not agree with my methodology, and have a preferred methodology. But you have not actually cited anything in my paper to support your claim that "I have a poor understanding" of my subject area, or that any of the technical details used in my methodology are incorrect. In fact, from what evidence you have provided, it seems that you stopped reading my paper after section 1.1.
I also appreciate your belligerence. You've had a bad day, and ranting about someone else's useless work makes you feel better about yourself as a scientist.
However, I must point out, that if I were a writing instructor, and this was a critical essay, it would not pass muster. Fortunately, neither of those are true.
For your well being and mine, I hope that you do not have to undergo the arduous experience of looking at any future work of mine.
Thank you for the time you took to review my article. I hope I did not inconvenience you too much to read what you call "utter nonsense." Though I don't know who you are, I am able to surmise that you belong to a group of scientists that do not agree with my methodology, and have a preferred methodology. But you have not actually cited anything in my paper to support your claim that "I have a poor understanding" of my subject area, or that any of the technical details used in my methodology are incorrect. In fact, from what evidence you have provided, it seems that you stopped reading my paper after section 1.1.
I also appreciate your belligerence. You've had a bad day, and ranting about someone else's useless work makes you feel better about yourself as a scientist.
However, I must point out, that if I were a writing instructor, and this was a critical essay, it would not pass muster. Fortunately, neither of those are true.
For your well being and mine, I hope that you do not have to undergo the arduous experience of looking at any future work of mine.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Job Hunting
I have a draft of most of my materials written up. I have a list of places and deadlines. All I need to do now is modify my materials according to the specifications of each application, and look up the members of universities I've never heard of to see if there's anyone exciting there I've happened to not have heard of who would be an interesting colleague.
In theory, this last step could be a lot of fun. No. After the first dozen or so cold e-mails and shifting through department web pages, this step is a lot of fun. Its just the first dozen that are terrifying.
I got lucky this application season. I'm looking through the faculty at a school that I think is a long shot fit for me, and I find a face from my undergrad years. An old TA of mine has drifted in his field to be studying problems that are remarkably closely related to what I am interested in! And then, I find one of those somewhat rare "we've never heard of each other, but we may actually have interesting things to say to each other" situations at the same university.
Its almost enough to get a girls hopes up.
In theory, this last step could be a lot of fun. No. After the first dozen or so cold e-mails and shifting through department web pages, this step is a lot of fun. Its just the first dozen that are terrifying.
I got lucky this application season. I'm looking through the faculty at a school that I think is a long shot fit for me, and I find a face from my undergrad years. An old TA of mine has drifted in his field to be studying problems that are remarkably closely related to what I am interested in! And then, I find one of those somewhat rare "we've never heard of each other, but we may actually have interesting things to say to each other" situations at the same university.
Its almost enough to get a girls hopes up.
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