sciencewoman | May 30, 2009Despite being the one to pick the topic for the upcoming Scientiae, I have struggled and struggled to come up with anything to post for this month's Carnival. As Alice alluded to earlier, I'm having a particularly tough month, feeling like I am treading water most of the time, and not making any headway against the current.
I tried to write a post in which I listed the things I had gotten done this month, but it was just too damn depressing. Especially when I compared that list to the optimistic list written on the whiteboard in my office. And even more depressing when compared to the list…
sciencewoman | May 29, 2009In the past few weeks, Scienceblogs has quietly debuted two fantastic new bloggers and a new channel (off the main page) related to information and library science, including open access and open science; digital and print publishing; information property and ownership, and more.
Christina Pikas is a science and engineering librarian and a doctoral student, and she blogs at Christina's LIS Rant. Lately she's been doing a fantastic job of blogging and tweeting the Society for Scholarly Publishing Annual Meeting.
John Dupuis is the head science librarian at York University. He blogs at…
sciencewoman | May 28, 2009Just a quick reminder that the June Scientiae theme is "moving forward" and we're looking for posts about the how and why your science, work, and life are moving forward. Of course, other topics are welcome as well.
Write your entries and get them in by midnight UTC on May 30th, and I'll get them compiled and posted the first week of June. It probably won't be the first of June, because there's already something really important in the works for June 1, but I'll try to have carnival up by the 4th or 5th at the latest.
Please email a permalink to your submission to scientiaecarnival [a] gmail…
skookumchick | May 27, 2009I just spent 2 hours writing a blog post for you that I completely can't post. My husband says it is really not about being a chicken but deciding what battles to fight. And this post would name names and describe how upset I am about something, and, as mentioned, my president reads this blog. So I can't post it. It would be really stupid to post it. I would deeply regret it.
I hope I don't also regret not posting it. Because I would rather have a blogging philosophy like Zuska's.
But, it turns out, today I discover I am a big ol' chicken blogger.
This is why pseudonymous blogging…
sciencewoman | May 27, 2009A while back I sent the following letter to my dear friend Dr. Isis at On Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess, because we all know who wears the hot shoes around ScienceBlogs.
Dearest Isis,
Though we may not always see eye to eye on the practicality of footwear, I adore your sense of style. Both your writing and your wardrobe choices are hot! Your Letters to our Daughters project has been blowing my mind with its awesomeness. You are truly a goddess of style and substance. I implore the goddess to spend some of her time to help me with a fashion challenge.
The academic year…
skookumchick | May 26, 2009Isis and Sheril are having a discussion about some of Sheril's email. She recently got a question from a reader, who queries:
Hi Sheril,
I read with interest your article on 'women and science' in the Discover website. Can I ask, from your perspective, what you think of this study suggesting that men are smarter than women? Because there are a lot of men who agreed with the study, and even some women. The truth is, while I don't want to agree with it, I can't help but think that men are smarter than women. Or at least, made much advances in the field of science than women. Yes, women have…
sciencewoman | May 26, 2009Another PSA from the good folks at Rice University's ADVANCE program. Please help them out if this applies to you.
Dear Colleague:
I'm writing to ask you if you would be willing to participate in a study that I am conducting at Rice University.
It is important research and is attempting to understand the experiences and decision-making processes that occur when talented faculty voluntarily decide to leave their academic institutions and go elsewhere (e.g., either another academic institution or a nonacademic alternative).
If you have EVER been employed at one university/college and…
sciencewoman | May 26, 2009The email below announces this year's "Negotiating the Ideal Faculty Position" workshop run by Rice University's ADVANCE program. I've heard great things about this workshop and they've run it for several years. In fact, I applied two years running and didn't get in, so it must be popular for a reason.
Dear Colleague:
A recent study of diversity in engineering notes that "the most
accurate predictor of subsequent success for female undergraduates is
the percentage of women among faculty members at their college [1]."
At Rice University we are strongly committed to increasing the
diversity of…
skookumchick | May 24, 2009Now that the semester is over, I have no excuse not to do a lot of home-maintenance-y things, like:
installing a rainbarrel in my backyard
installing a dual-flush mechanism on our upstairs toilet
setting up the other dehumidifier in the basement (we had one in each house when we had 2 houses, and hadn't set up the 2nd one in WL over the winter. However, it will soon be the case I need to empty the 1st dehumidifier every 2 days, so time to press #2 into service)
picking up everything post garage sale, before the cleaners come tomorrow
sorting through boxes unearthed through garage sale prep…
skookumchick | May 23, 2009Okay, so I finally updated our family blog with what has been going on behind the scenes here at Chez Nous, and I will share some of it with you, through the power of copy and paste and with only a modicum of overlap. Voila, I present to you my last two weeks (only some of which is work-related)!
We begin my update with:
what happened two Wednesdays ago, namely that my department head has announced his resignation, effective July 1. I am hoping he has sent out an announcement to all those folks who should find out from him, and not from reading this blog. It has been a very emotional year…
sciencewoman | May 21, 2009While I'm immersed in writing, planning, and reflection and Alice is uncurling, other people are actually writing the sort of amazing posts that make the blogosphere such a valuable and powerful place to be. These are the sort of posts that make you look at the world a different way or that validate and crystallize the ideas that have been floating around in your head for days, months, or years.
Please go at least one of the following posts, and please add your own suggestions of the best of the blogosphere in the comment thread.
Historiann's inspired series on Lessons for Girls. I…
skookumchick | May 20, 2009Okay. As mentioned, I've been smacked down. I think I'm so deeply tired that it is going to take weeks to recover. I have to have some tough conversations with people over the next few days, not the least of which with my students, and I lack the energy to do so. But I also did a Good Thing: I went to my dad's retirement party.
On the drive there, I just drove. It's about 280 miles from West Lafayette to Madison, takes about 5 hours depending on the traffic in/around Chicago. While I was there, I just sat, mostly. And took some photos. After the party, I continued to sit. I sat…
sciencewoman | May 19, 2009Fantastic volcano blogger, and all around cool guy, Erik Klemetti has put out a call for volcano pictures that he can use on his Eruptions blog. I'd love to be able to send him some fantastic shot of a plinian eruption, but I live in a pretty tectonically quiet part of the world.
So this weekend, while Minnow was making spaghetti out of playdough, I decided to craft an offering for Erik:
Of course, as I was feeling all smug about my depiction of a Hawaiian shield volcano, complete with lava entering the ocean and creating hydroclastic fragments, NASA's Earth Observatory posted an image of…
sciencewoman | May 17, 2009One my friends lives outside of Anchorage, Alaska and recently had a black bear pay a visit to her backyard. Now her preschoolers are obsessed with bears.
Minnow too has a bit of a bear obsession at the moment, though she hasn't seen any bears in their natural habitat. At school, she's been reading "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" and at home one of her favorite books is the "Berenstain Bear's Big Honey Hunt." Saturday morning, Minnow announced that we were going on a bear hunt, or maybe that we were going to look for bees that would, presumably, lead us to bears. We made it all the way to the…
skookumchick | May 15, 2009 I feel hung down, brung down, hung up, and all kinds o' mean nasty ugly things, and the last thing I've been feeling like doing is spending more time on my computer, let alone blogging. But this video, produced for SMU's engineering program tweeted by the NAE and listed on the iFoundry blog is way cool, and, I hazard to say, is the kind of engineer I am trying to be.
sciencewoman | May 14, 2009Yesterday afternoon, Minnow and I were driving home from daycare and Minnow was repeatedly requesting "the baby song" (Hush, little baby) from the car stereo. After about the sixth playing of the song, we had the following conversation.
SciWo: "Are you a baby?"
Minnow: No. I'm not a baby.
SciWo: "Are you a grown-up?"
Minnow: "No. I'm growing."
SciWo: "Is Mommy a grown-up?"
Minnow: "Yea, you are a grown-up."
SciWo: "Is Daddy a grown-up?"
Minnow: "No. Daddies are mans."
sciencewoman | May 13, 2009A loyal reader of the blog sent me a copy of an article in the spring edition of the LTER Network News. In the article (
pdf here
), Laura Gough discusses how her research at the Toolik Lake field site in northern Alaska helped prepare her for the joys and challenges of parenting. Dr. Gough is a plant ecologist at the University of Texas at Arlington, who is currently serving as the NSF Program Director for Environmental Biology. In the article linked above, Gough stresses that acceptance of tedium, flexibility, preparation, and stopping to appreciate simple joys are the parallel skills that…
sciencewoman | May 12, 2009Alice and I are teaming up to host the June edition of Scientiae, the carnival by, for, and about women in science, engineering, technology, and math. As is the norm for the monthly Scientiae carnival, I get to choose a theme to help inspire and unite you all to write posts, though submissions on any topic related to women in STEM are always welcome.
At this time of year, some of us are just emerging from the end of the semester, while others still have another month to slog through before getting a reprieve. Some people are within spitting distance of finishing their research project or…
sciencewoman | May 10, 2009Minnow and I have been visiting with Brother this weekend, and we went out to dinner at a deli and salad place. Brother got the all-you-can-eat salad bar, I ordered a Ciabatta Garden, and Minnow wanted the cheese pizza. Our food had just arrived when Minnow announced, "I need to go potty. I'm pee-peeing in my chair."
Instantaneously, her high chair filled with literally a gallon of pee, until it spilled over the top of her legs and made a cascade onto the ground. A trail of urine followed us to the bathroom, the soaked clothes were taken home in a carry-out box...
I was horrified, Brother…
skookumchick | May 9, 2009Quick update from RL: ScienceWoman is dealing with some intense stuff in the real world, and while she may or may not blog about it, might benefit from some shout-outs of encouragement from any readers so inclined. Go ahead, I'll wait...
[good vibes being sent to SW ...... NOW!]
I have 3 posts in my head to write, but they're now competing with day 2 of my first migraine since November. Boooo. The unbloggable actions continue (and no, not application-to-other-institution-worthy), and came with a 2 hour conversation with my Dean last week (who I continue to think is a completely fabulous…