skookumchick
Posts by this author
August 12, 2008
As I'm transitioning away from an academic/personal life of long-distance commuting, I thought this would be a good time (or perhaps the last good time?) to share some of my tips for how to help one's marriage/partnership survive two academic careers in two cities.
Of course, I only have this last…
August 10, 2008
So Facebook's newest thing is this Blog Networks application thingie. Our blog has a page there, so if you use Facebook, drop on over for a visit!
August 10, 2008
Photo from 2005, before many paint, gutter, and plant upgrades
I'm sitting at our dining room table in Illinois, and the sunlight is slanting through the windows onto the wall where a favorite print used to live. The moving truck comes tomorrow to move the rest of our furniture to Indiana, and we…
August 7, 2008
A few weeks ago, Ed over at Not Exactly Rocket Science invited his readers to tell him a little bit about themselves. We thought that was a cool idea, and decided to ask y'all to do similarly as we go into the fall. So, in that vein...
Who are you? What brought you to read this blog? Why have…
August 6, 2008
ScienceWoman blogged about her thoughts about going into Tenure Track Year 2 in time for Cherish's August Scientiae on transitions. I've been thinking about it too, and in particular with respect to how I accomplish some of those academic goals - good teaching, good research, good citizenry -…
August 5, 2008
So on the bottom of our posts is a helpful little note that says "posted by" and either Alice or SW, as the case may be. We also occasionally tag our posts as coming from either Alice or ScienceWoman. And yet, it may be confusing who is speaking when, especially for those folks reading the blog…
August 4, 2008
Apparently the blogosphere is abuzz with McCain's recent disclosure that he has to force himself to use a computer, that the closest he comes to using email is his staffers showing him email, and that his wife makes all the online reservations when they go to the movies (source NYT). This is in…
July 31, 2008
Just over a month ago I was just starting the main part of the National Women's Studies Association conference. I finally have a few minutes now to share with you some of the ideas and sessions I went to at the conference.
Sorry it's not liveblogging - there wuz no Internetz at the conference…
July 28, 2008
Remember that Cherish of Faraday's Cage is Where You Put Schroedinger's Cat is hosting Scientiae for August and that posts on your transitions are due to her by tomorrow.
Me? I'm tapped out. I suck. But hopefully you don't and will write something really great. Or submit a past post that is…
July 27, 2008
The New York Times reports that the Princeton review is including a "green rating" in their next ranking of colleges in the US. While I think college rankings is pretty much a popularity contest, I think this incorporation of some kind of rating of environmental impact and sustainability is a step…
July 27, 2008
I'm a This American Life junkie - I completely agree with the woman in the TAL ad who says she can't eat crunchy foods while listening to it in case she misses something. I always seem to be doing something else Sundays at noon when it is broadcast on my local NPR station, so I tend to download it…
July 22, 2008
Finally, a thoughtful article about women and work in the NYT. This quote I found particularly important:"When we saw women starting to drop out in the early part of this decade, we thought it was the motherhood movement, women staying home to raise their kids," Heather Boushey, a senior economist…
July 22, 2008
As you know, I have just returned from a 3-week visit to Europe, where a main event was attending the Research in Engineering Education Symposium (REES) in Davos, Switzerland between July 8-10. Before I forget the experience entirely, let me share some highlights.
The conference was attended by…
July 21, 2008
W00T! Although for a lower price than we had hoped, oh well. But a really good closing date, woo hoo! Now on to the inspection drama... apparently we are to anticipate 4 inspectors: radon, termite, general paid for by the buyers, and the bank's inspector. Keep your fingers crossed...
July 21, 2008
I'm back in the Midwest, and after a debilitating migraine yesterday, back in West Lafayette today. I'm digging out of my email and trying to catch up on student work and mail and the new and interesting weed-based disaster area that is my backyard, and rather wishing I was instead back here at…
July 16, 2008
One of the risks of traveling (two more days left! :-( ) is that you miss things like Scientiae. Podblack has posted the July Scientiae here on "a voice in the crowd" and Cherish has posted the call for posts for August's Scientiae here on transitions. Go read Podblack's post, and submit something…
July 10, 2008
We've been in Davos, Switzerland for almost a week. I've been attending the Research in Engineering Education Symposium, and my husband has been hiking his little feet off. Before the conference, we had a gorgeous day of hiking, including past this meadow. The flowers are spectacular, as are…
July 3, 2008
Gas prices keep going up, and don't kid yourself that they're going to go down again anytime soon either (enjoy those profits, ExxonMobil shareholders...). Some places in the US are looking down the road at $5/gallon, and of course Europeans have been paying vastly more than that for years. The…
June 30, 2008
Some of you may remember that my summer turned into a very busy travel and conference season. The Big Trip has now started - a trip to England, France and Switzerland (England and France to see friends and family and because we planned on doing this trip after I finished my dissertation but…
June 30, 2008
This is another excerpt from our travel journal to Isle Royale. The first day is here; second day here; third day is here; fourth day is here. Photos by me, text by my husband.
Thursday May 29
Rock Harbour to Raspberry Island and Scoville Point, and return
It is the last full day on the island,…
June 27, 2008
Some longtime readers may know I'm enormously frustrated at the corporatization of engineering, and think that if engineers say they solve problems then there are some enormous problems of housing, lack of clean water, and energy use in impoverished communities across the globe that need solving…
June 25, 2008
You may have heard that honeybees in this country are dying off. You may know that scientists have called this epidemic "CCD," or colony collapse disorder, where honeybees seem to lose the ability to find the hive again, and disappear forever. Scientists think CCD may be caused by a virus, or a…
June 24, 2008
We've been having a couple of interesting conversations on this blog about what makes an engineer, or who becomes an engineer. The National Academy of Engineering has been facilitating a conversation about this too, and have just published a report about it.
I have just ordered my copy, so I haven…
June 23, 2008
This is another excerpt from our travel journal to Isle Royale. The first day is here; second day here; third day is here. Photos by me, text by my husband.
Wednesday May 28
Rock Harbour to Lookout Louise, and return
So let me digress to the future again. [What was going on again? Oh yeah.] I…
June 22, 2008
I'm finally home from my two back-to-back conferences. I confess, somewhere in the middle of the 2nd conference, I just wanted to go home. But it was good to stick it out. Of course, the lack of Internets starting Friday morning through today wasn't great, but it means I have some session…
June 19, 2008
The National Women's Studies Association national conference and the American Society for Engineering Education national conference are back to back - I'm at NWSA now, and ASEE is next week.* While I want to blog about suggestions for how to work conferences, my morning of wandering 'round the…
June 18, 2008
Okay, so now I'm in Cincinnati (flew in from St. Paul this morning) for the National Women's Studies Association national conference (in a unionized hotel, please note). I missed the last day of Inclusive Science, but really enjoyed myself, and felt I had something to contribute. Things feel a…
June 17, 2008
I'm at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, MN at a completely fascinating (so far!) conference on feminist science studies. Because of the free Internetz, I'll try liveblogging the sessions I'm in, but may get distracted as it is (as I have mentioned) completely fascinating.
Here's some of…
June 16, 2008
I've been giving some thought about the value I as an assistant professor find in blogging in part because it's the current Ask a Blogger question, in part because I just gave this presentation on blogging at the Inclusive Science conference, and in part because I have some blogger meetups…
June 13, 2008
This is another excerpt from our travel journal to Isle Royale. The first day is here; second day here. Photos by me, text by my husband.
Tuesday May 27
Rock Harbour to Mt. Franklin and return
I write this on the night it actually happened [hah], with Alice slowly peeling the tape off her feet…