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Jane is an assistant professor in a computing field, and a new mother. Join her as she navigates the tenure track, deals with gender issues, figures out how to be a parent, and tries to have some semblance of a life.
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July 3, 2008
Category: work-life balance
Rather than responding to all of the comments on my last post (and thanks once again---really, you all have done so much to help put me in a better mental state than I've been in in a while!), I thought I would do a brief update in a post.
First and most importantly, I'm doing better. Not great, but better---and that's huge, for me, right now. A few things happened in the past week to help put me in a better place:
Read on »
Posted by Jane at 10:15 PM • 6 Comments
June 27, 2008
Category: work-life balance
You may have noticed that there's been some "radio silence" around here, as they say, lately. Never fear, I'm still here, and I'm....coping. Sort of.
Executive summary: I haven't been myself lately, and it's really, really starting to take a toll. (Warning: extreme frankness ahead!)
Read on »
Posted by Jane at 12:15 PM • 25 Comments
June 17, 2008
Category: mentoring • research
I have a few undergraduate students working in my lab for part of the summer. They started this week. Working with undergrads is something I do every summer---well, except for last summer, when I was on maternity leave. So you'd think I'd remember, at this point, how the drill goes: how to get them up and running, how much time and attention they need, etc.
Apparently I forgot a lot in a year.
Read on »
Posted by Jane at 11:58 PM • 0 Comments
June 15, 2008
Category: work-life balance
In the spirit of this year's theme, "Fearless", I have signed up to run a race that's a bit longer distance than I'm normally comfortable running. Not significantly longer, but longer.
At the time I signed up for it, it seemed like a good idea---I would have plenty of time to train. But then....May hit, and the training took a hit. And now the race is less than a month away, and I'm very much behind in my preparation.
But this year I am FEARLESS, and I know the Worst Thing That Could Happen is that I have to walk for a bit instead of running the whole way. You know what? Big fat hairy deal. I made a deal w/ myself that I would do this race, and I'm gonna do it, and it's going to be fine, regardless of what happens.
Jeez, I wish I could be this zen about my tenure case.
Posted by Jane at 11:29 PM • 3 Comments
June 12, 2008
Category: tenure • work-life balance
I have been waiting for my summer to begin. May was a nightmarish whirlwind of deadlines and heavy amounts of work and way too many obligations, that spilled over into June. (But on the bright side, I did get another article out, so yay me!) Things, I think, are finally calming down, and indeed I think summer for me is about to begin.
Read on »
Posted by Jane at 9:23 PM • 1 Comments
June 2, 2008
Category: motherhood • research • tenure • work-life balance
The theme of this month's Scientiae carnival is "Added Weight: Taking up Space." This theme is very timely for me, since I've been thinking about this topic lately---a lot. And, readers of the old blog may remember that my "theme" for the year is FEARLESS. Well, you can't really be fearless if you're trying to be invisible, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to take stock of what I'm doing this year to be true to the theme and, thus, to take up space in the world.
Read on »
Posted by Jane at 10:42 PM • 4 Comments
May 27, 2008
Category: miscellania
If you could sit down for lunch, or coffee, one-on-one, with a Very Very Big Name in your field (think Nobel Laureate or, for the CS crowd, Turing Award winner, or similar), what questions would you ask her/him? (Beyond specific questions about his/her work, that is, and the usual small talk.)
The questions that immediately come to mind, for me, are below the fold.
Read on »
Posted by Jane at 9:48 PM • 6 Comments
Category: work-life balance
I just saw this meme at ScienceMama's, which I believe originated at Sciencewomen. Yeah, so I'm late to the party on this one, but what the hell, it's late and I'm too wired to sleep, so here goes:
Read on »
Posted by Jane at 1:58 AM • 5 Comments
May 22, 2008
Category: tenure
Things I should be working on vs. things I've actually been working on this morning:
Read on »
Posted by Jane at 12:35 PM • 7 Comments
