sciencewoman | November 19, 2007Kate 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 problematic about these dichotomies that makes the arguments stale. Instead:
* What are the ways you transcend these debates?
* How do you think about the big picture?
* How do you do the work that you do, how do you move on?
* What does your life look like in this context?
* Where do…
sciencewoman | November 19, 2007Minnow 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 satisfaction. I looked down at her and she had a huge smile on - I swear it was the sort of smile one has when they've just had really good sex. She just seemed blissful.
Minnow's good mood got me thinking about what a perfect day would look like in her eyes. It's hard to know for sure because her…
sciencewoman | November 16, 2007I'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 two new upper level preps - one on a subject I'm barely familiar with (don't ask why) and one with a lab. That's 9 hours of class time per week. I'm barely hanging on this semester, how can I possibly manage that sort of load? I'm counting the classes until the end of this term and realizing that I…
sciencewoman | November 15, 2007I 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 excellent primer by Samuel Arbesman, which basically provides a step by step description of how to do this effectively. Then have a go at your own blog. If all goes well, I'd like to create a page at the Science Creative Quarterly, that collects (and links to) the good ones.
Thus, I present you with…
sciencewoman | November 14, 2007Note: 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 when I read the blogs of other women scientists - particularly when the topic of children vs. an academic career is the topic du jour. The short version is that many of us seem to think we have two choices: (1) Have a career and no children, or children we never see; or (2) Give up our plans for t-…
sciencewoman | November 13, 2007Back 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 column where the InaDWriMo button is displaying my status. (For the record, as 11/13/2007 it says "1 of 21 completed.") By the count of my ticker, I have hardly made any progress. But I swear I have been working on the revisions. I spent a couple of hours yesterday, and worked on things off and on last…
sciencewoman | November 13, 2007This 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 different shirt.
If you are looking for me today, I'm the one not wearing a blue-striped shirt.
sciencewoman | November 12, 2007A 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 mom who takes in 1-2 extra children, or a nanny. Of course, if you are lucky enough to live near relatives - grandmas can make great babysitters. But we're not so lucky. Our closest family is about 20 hours away. Given the economic imperatives of both Fish and I working, we need to leave our…
sciencewoman | November 9, 2007WooHoo! 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.
sciencewoman | November 9, 2007The 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 the house, car, or around Minnow or I, but even if they've smoked outside, when they come into the house, they reek of smoke. And if they hug me or hold Minnow, then we're even more directly contaminated. They are staying in our guest room, so we can't just plan out in public activities...they will…
sciencewoman | November 8, 2007Here 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 looking forward to your help in designing the next phase of the "research."
First up, some demographic information. There were 104 survey respondents, 78% of whom were from the United States. Europe, Asia, Africa, Canada, and Australia/New Zealand/Pacific Islands were also represented. Within the…
sciencewoman | 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, what's the big deal about a little snack.
No less a mainstream source than babycenter.com has this to say about introducing citrus fruits:
"Citrus fruits -- such as oranges, grapefruits, and tangerines -- are very acidic and can cause stomach upset or diarrhea in babies. That's why doctors recommend…
sciencewoman | November 6, 2007I'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 promises us that this is part 1 of infinity):
I want to find a better balance between work and raising my child(ren). There is a dearth of flexible work situations in science. And it makes me sad that while the women's movement has made great strides in getting women into the workforce, there aren'…
sciencewoman | November 5, 2007A 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 elimination diet have made me much more aware of what life must be like with a disability. This might sound odd at first, but bear with me for a second. I walk into a grocery store or a restaurant, and I can't participate in (i.e., eat) most of the offerings. I have to carefully scan the list of…
sciencewoman | November 5, 2007Long-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 way a few months ago. Back then, Minnow would wake up screaming and only begin to calm down when Fish or I got up, held her upright, massaged her tummy, and helped her pass prodigious quantities of gas. If we sat in the rocking chair with her and held her at an angle, she could sleep fairly well, but…
sciencewoman | November 3, 2007
Way back in the pre-PhD, pre-baby days I was in the habit of setting goals for myself at the beginning of each month and then assessing my progress at the end of the month. It worked fairly well for me in terms of focusing my efforts on a relatively short list of tasks, and sometimes even managing to cross them off. Over the last year or so, the goal setting as suffered, as my goals seemed fairly self-evident: survive, keep everyone healthy, and get the needed things done. But now I find that I'm missing my monthly goal-setting session and record of progress. So I've decided to revitalize…
sciencewoman | November 3, 2007The DonorsChoose drive ended a few days ago, and thanks to the amazing generosity of my readers, we were able to raise $1104 for science education in public schools, completely funding 8 projects and partially funding 4 more. 486 students were directly impacted by your donations. All told, ScienceBlogs readers (along with the Seed match) resulted in $69,335 going to science education. That's amazing. And it doesn't have to stop here, Janet has some strategies for getting involved in science education with more than just your wallet.
But for now, enjoy the weekend, and know that you'll be…
sciencewoman | November 2, 2007
The November edition of Scientiae, the women in science carnival, is up at Green Gabbro. Yami did a great job with the carnival, and I'm having fun reading all the great posts. I'm already looking forward to the call for posts for the December edition.
sciencewoman | November 1, 2007I'm back...and semi-dug out. Minnow and I survived the conference, though not unscathed. There was an unfortunate incident in which Minnow tumbled off the hotel bed and ended up with a carpet imprint on her forehead. But otherwise, it was a successful conference. That said, I don't recommend bringing a nine-month old to a conference alone. Here's how it went and what I learned:
On our flight to Conference City, Minnow and I were jammed into a middle seat. She wiggled, she made faces at the other passengers, she spilled my water, she banged on the tray table, and mercifully, she slept for 1/3…
sciencewoman | October 31, 2007Today Minnow and I are flying home to Mystery City and she'll be wearing her costume on the plane.
This picture is fulfulling another request for MamaScientist, who writes a great blog Mother of All Scientists, whose Bean is just six months old, and who made a contribution to my DonorsChoose challenge.
Speaking of DonorsChoose, today is the very last day of the challenge. From where I'm sitting I can't see whether or not we've made our goal. But if you look over on the sidebar, you'll see that we've either made the goal or are very close to it. DonorsChoose will kick in a 10% completion…