sciencewoman
Posts by this author
December 4, 2007
The December edition of Scientiae, the carnival by, for, and about women in science, has been ably hosted by Kate. She issued the challenging theme of "transcending the debate" and her challenge has been well met. Head over there for some great posts.
December 2, 2007
I'm having a research crisis at the moment (watching a whole line of my post-doc work threaten to disappear in front of my eyes) with an imminent deadline looming. The last day of class is Tuesday and I need to write a lecture, a study guide, and eventually exam. Not to mention grade a bunch of…
December 1, 2007
Kate, our lovely host for the December edition of Scientiae has decreed that the theme is "transcending the debate." Here's my (late) entry. Look for the carnival up around the 3rd.
Much of what I've been blogging about lately has not particularly been about science or about women in science or…
November 29, 2007
I'm saying a sad goodbye to my trustworthy vehicle of 7 years that has been declared a total loss after a traffic accident last week.
But, I'm excited about the prospect of buying a new car this weekend. We've decided to get a hybrid. I spend too much of my commute stuck in traffic, and it vexes…
November 29, 2007
If you'll recall, in mid-October I had a disaster morning and ended up bringing Minnow to class with me. In the comment thread, Tara asked a great question: "What did my students think of it?"
So I asked them. (Honestly, it was the reason for instigating the mid-semester evaluations, which turned…
November 28, 2007
Yesterday in class my students filled out one of those stereo-typical bubble sheet evaluations that supposed to tell me (and the administration) something meaningful about my teaching abilities. I won't see those results until after grades are turned in, but that's OK with me because I didn't find…
November 28, 2007
Yesterday, after reading all your comments on my last post, and contemplating the sheer inanity of having so little evening time to myself (and my work and the housework...), I decided that we would try a new course with Minnow. Fish and I discussed it and we agreed that after we put her down at…
November 26, 2007
Introduction: A wise friend has told me more than once that "child development is not a linear process." For example, teeth come in batches, often in fours separated by a few months of non-teething. As another example, just because Minnow is sleeping peacefully in her crib as I started to type this…
November 26, 2007
There are less than two weeks of Minnow photos remaining before the grand finale. A couple of donors haven't yet made specific photo requests, leaving me with a lot of leeway in picking photos. If you donated to my DonorsChoose challenge and haven't requested a subject, there's still time.
Here's a…
November 25, 2007
My mom has been frenetically cleaning out her house the past few months, in order to make up for saving everything for the past few decades. (un)fortunately for us, she's not making many decisions about what saved stuff should be passed on and what should just be tossed. So the end result is that…
November 24, 2007
I'm a little late today, but this photo is awesome. And it was highly supervised.
November 24, 2007
My post a few days ago has set people debating what the conventions are for addressing faculty at different universities. It seems that the form of address is highly dependent on where in the world you go to university.
Let me explain where I'm coming from in insisting that my students call me Dr.…
November 22, 2007
1. Happy Thanskgiving everyone. Minnow, Fish, and I are enjoying a mini-Thanksgiving meal of turkey, wild rice, and apple pie. Minnow will be getting her first taste of turkey. Photos will be taken.
2. On this day of feasting and family, take a moment to think of those who are less fortunate than…
November 20, 2007
After class today, my best student confides to me that the most recent assignment was the toughest thing he's had to do in college so far. I take that as a tremendous compliment.
Why? The students had to get out into nature and observe at least four -ology features. Then they had to succinctly…
November 20, 2007
Example 1: A significant portion of my students address me as "Mrs. ScienceWoman" despite my repeated email signatures, etc. to the contrary. On the other hand, the lecturer with an M.S. next door to me is constantly addressed as "Dr. Lecturer." Guess what gender "Dr. Lecturer" is?
Example 2: I…
November 19, 2007
Kate has announced a great topic for the next Scientiae. She'd like us to "transcend the debate." She says:
I'm tired of arguing whether women are really screwed or not in science, I'm tired of discussion biological or cultural differences between male and female aptitude; there's something…
November 19, 2007
Minnow woke up yesterday morning snuggled in my arms. We rolled over and nudged Fish awake as Minnow happily wiggled between her parents. After a few minutes, she decided she wanted a little something to eat, so I obliged. When she was finished, she rolled away from me and let out a sigh of pure…
November 16, 2007
I'm this close to crying in my office. I just got out of a candid chat with a visiting speaker and another young female faculty member about work-life and workload issues. And bringing up so many stressful things at once was just too much. I'm starting to have nightmares about next semester. I have…
November 15, 2007
I never officially participated in the last World's Fair meme (although if you google "Minnow motherhood insanity" you get this blog), but now Dave Ng has another fun meme for us.
Anyway, this meme asks that you come up with your own scientific eponym. What's that exactly? Well, first read this…
November 14, 2007
Note: This post was originally published on 1 July 2007 at my old site. I am reposting it here and nominating it for inclusion in the Open Laboratory anthology. There is still time to submit your favorite posts from this blog, your own, or other blogs you read. Here's how.
Sometimes I get depressed…
November 13, 2007
Back at the beginning of the month, I boldly announced my intentions to finish all the reviewer comments on a revise-and-resubmit paper. In that post, I calculated that with ~25 comments to address " if I just average one a day, it should be easily manageable."
Now look over at the left hand…
November 13, 2007
This morning as I reached into my closet, I suddenly realized that the shirt I'd been planning on wearing would clash with the background on my power point slides for this morning's lecture. Having made that discovery, I couldn't subject my students to visual assault, so I had to pick out a…
November 12, 2007
A number of readers have asked about Minnow's daycare situation and how she adjusted to it. Fish and I spent a lot of time debating daycare options before we settled on our current center. There are 4 basic choices in childcare: a daycare center, a licensed home daycare, an unlicensed stay-at-home…
November 9, 2007
WooHoo! I just got notified that a small grant I submitted has been selected for funding. It's not much but it will let me hire an undergraduate student to help me out with some summer research. What's important is that it marks the first time that I've been a sole PI on a (non-student) award.
November 9, 2007
The in-laws are coming to visit this weekend. I love them dearly, but they chain smoke. I'm very sensitive to cigarette smoke, and Minnow's still maturing (second hand smoke also increases the risk of SIDS), so I'm kind of dreading their visit. On previous visits we've asked them to not smoke in…
November 8, 2007
Here are the quick and dirty results of my green workplaces survey from a few weeks back. I had originally hoped to do a geographical analysis of the results, but the limitations of SurveyMonkey's free features effectively precluded that this time around. Still the results are illuminating and I'm…
November 6, 2007
...because I just got a call from Minnow's daycare saying that she'd accidentally been given two foods that she hadn't yet been introduced to: Orange juice and cheese crackers. Apparently, a substitute teacher didn't bother to read the menu circling which foods Minnow was and wasn't eating. So,…
November 6, 2007
I'm being productive today, working on my revisions, but I've noticed a few really good posts around the blogosphere the last few days, so I wanted to share them with a broader audience.
First, ScienceMama at Mother of All Scientists discusses going back to work after the birth of her daughter (and…
November 5, 2007
A quick synopsis of the back story: Minnow is intolerant of dairy, soy, and corn, and since I am breast feeding her, I've been on a three month elimination diet. Because of Minnow's intolerances, about 99% of prepared and restaurant foods are out. The full back story is here.
My experiences on an…
November 5, 2007
Long-time readers will remember that Minnow has sleep issues. At nine months old, she is still waking up between 4 and 8 times per 11 hour night. But things now are a hell of a lot better than they used to be, because now I can cuddle or nurse her right back to sleep in most cases.
It wasn't that…