RBOC: blah

• I was planning to write a post with real content tonight, but my THREE HOUR commute this afternoon kind of sucked the will out of me. And some of you wondered why I hate snow.
• We're supposed to be getting the biggest storm of the season right now. If it's still snowing in the morning, I'm staying home. I already called my carpool buddy to warn him. On one hand, this is a bummer because I prepared some lab work that I'd really like to do. On the other, a snow day snuggled in my pj's, working on my paper sounds pretty good.
• My traffic-induced grouch was partially mitigated by the return of Lost. Ecogeoman and I get super into it, as do a few of my coworkers. We will surely discuss it tomorrow (if I go in). I think the show is off to a pretty good start The writers need to come back now so the season gets completed.
• I ended the month with a little money left over, which I transferred to my savings account today. Good news for that resolution.

Meebo

I recently got a Meebo widget for ths blog. I haven't used it much yet, but it's supposed to be for IMing, Blog Style. So if it says I'm online and you want to chat, say hello. neat-o.

Flight of the Conchords

Ecogeoman and I have been a little obsessed with Flight of the Conchords lately. They are a comedy band from New Zealand who play hilarious songs in a totally deadpan style. The did one of those long HBO specials, then they got a regular 30 min show on HBO. We don't have cable, but we got the first few episodes from Netflix. It was so funny we watched some of them twice.

This is a clip from the HBO special. It makes for a much better ear worm than Part Time Lover.

This almost ruined my day

I am breaking my no blogging at work rule to bring you this: I have the song "Part Time Lover" firmly lodged in my head. I had to take public transit today, and some jackass was playing it on a saxophone really loudly in the subway station this morning (read: extra loud acoustics). I'm all for street musicians, but that was just too much too early.

On the bright side, I had a great meeting with Awesome Technician yesterday about my paper. Now I'm all psyched up to incorporate the changes she suggested.

Sister time

I just spent 24 lovely hours with S2 (my sister) and her friends. She had a very stressful 2007, so her husband conspired with her friend to get her some R &R. I live in a more interesting city about 6 hours from where they live, so two of S2’s friends brought her here for the weekend. We spent Saturday downtown, shopping and walking around, and had afternoon tea in a fancy restaurant (nice, but sounds better than it was). Then this morning, I took her to get her hair cut by the same woman who cut mine last week. It was a fun and spontaneous thing to do and she looks great.

I miss living near my family so much. I’m sure that if I lived near them, I would spend tons of time hanging out with my sibs and their kids. When I’m bored here, I often think how great it would be to call up one of my sisters to just hang out with no plan. I feel like now if I call a friend, I have to invite them to do some specific activity, not just chill.

On the other hand, I don’t think my sibs could ever really substitute for friends. When I choose friends, I look for people with similar views so I can relax and be myself. In fact, I’m probably a little closed minded in some ways, e.g. I am not open to racist, homophobic, grossly materialistic, etc. people. I didn’t choose my family and I will love them unconditionally, so I steer clear of topics about which I suspect we disagree. I would stop nurturing a friendship with someone who has really different values, but I’m never going to drop a family member. In that sense, I feel like I keep big chunks of my personality out of my family’s view. But the unconditional love sure is nice.

Student vs. Employee Part 1: Compensation

If I’m an employee, I am laughably undercompensated. If I am a student, then my university is a bunch of suckers for giving me so much money to get this degree.

I think I’m somewhere in between student and employee, but much closer to employee. Research Advisor has funding for my thesis project, so if I weren’t doing it she’d have to hire a technician at a much higher rate to get the work done. I am lucky enough to have an outside fellowship, so neither she nor my university have to pay me (well, my university department supplements my stipend a little). If I didn’t have that funding, I would have to TA for my salary stipend. Teaching assistants play a major role in universities like mine, covering most lab and even some lecture sessions for so much less pay than faculty. In that sense, they fall into the laughably undercompensated category.

For those students with a tuition waiver, the value of tuition can be considered a big contribution to their compensation. That means a student at a private university gets compensated dramatically more than one at a public institution, even if their salaries stipends are the same. It probably doesn’t feel like more pay to the person who gets a waiver for expensive tuition.

In the end, I feel that grad school is a luxury. I am very lucky to become so highly educated, that there are opportunities for me to do such interesting work, and that I don’t have to spend my time on nothing but food acquisition. But I’ll be happy when grad school is over, both because I’m tired of its obligations and I want more pay.


It seems like the grad student's real position is a perennial issue. Posts like this made me want to write about it too, although more explicitly. More to come.

That's encouraging

Today I learned that five out of six candidates for a faculty position in my department are women. Cool.

Haircut

I got my hair cut tonight. It was well below my shoulders and now it's at my chin, complete with new bangs. Like sciencemama, I like how the bangs look, but I'm worried about their maintenance costs. Anyway, it had been over 8 months since I had my hair cut (and I don't even have a baby), so anything is an improvement. It a really cute cut, actually, but more work than a ponytail.

My day

My snowy, 105 minute commute to work this morning kind of did me in for the day. I got there late and not in the best of moods. My inbox had the link for prospective summer interns, so I read through those for about an hour. Some of them are just a hoot (some students, usually the younger ones, say the strangest stuff), but this time there were a few really promising ones. That raised my spirits a bit.

Academic Advisor practically made me promise to stay out of the lab for at least a few weeks so I could made some headway on my paper. I have honored the agreement for the post part, but now Research Advisor wants me to help Awesome Technician with some lab work not related to my thesis (although it hasn't been discussed explicitly, I believe I will be a coauthor on the paper). We collect samples for this project every 1-2 years, and I have taken part in the lab experiments for it every time. There is great value in consistency in our work, so it's desirable for me to be involved again. The lab technique we use takes two people, so AT can't do it on her own anyway. So, we agreed that I'll help for 3-5 hours a day until it's done and write the rest of the time. I just didn't have it in me to sit at my desk and think today, so we did the lab stuff all day. I really enjoy it, but I feel guilty because AA wants me writing only. This is the downfall of having two advisors.

On the bright side, there was no traffic at all on the way home for whatever reason. Seriously, if I were going to get involved in a religion, it would have to include a traffic god.

Bonus

So far, Project Efficiency, my catch-all New Year's Resolution all about not procrastinating and getting more done, is going pretty well. For example, I paid for my car license plate renewal the day the notice came, which is the sort of thing I'd usually put off and then scramble to do before the deadline, accompianed by much anxiety. More notably, I haven't been blogging at work at all. Although twice I quickly checked my blog related email to look up specific information. And, I admit that when I worked last Saturday, I did read some blogs over lunch, but I figure it's okay if I'm there on a weekend.

Anyway, an unexpected side effect of less procrastination is a tidier home. We're not super messy, but we're not neat freaks either. Since I'm no longer putting off things like sorting the mail or doing the dishes, we are maintaining a cleaner environment. How nice.

Privilege meme

Flicka Mawa has this interesting meme that I thought I'd do. She got it from Watershed, who asked that credit be given to the original authors:

This is based on “From What Privileges Do You Have?,” an exercise about
class and privilege developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen,
Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University.

Green means I answered yes.

1. Father went to college
2. Father finished college
3. Mother went to college She took some classes as an adult, but never enrolled in a degree program that I know of.
4. Mother finished college
5. Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor. a cousin
6. Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers
7. Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
8. Had more than 500 books in your childhood home.
9. Were read children’s books by a parent
10. Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18
11. Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18.
12. The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively. This one is borderline.
13. Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18.
14. Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs. They helped a lot, but loans and scholarships were more than 50%.
15. Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs.
16. Went to a private high school.
17. Went to summer camp.
18. Had a private tutor before you turned 18.
19. Family vacations involved staying at hotels.
20. Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18. The next sister up from me is 9 years older, so hand-me-downs weren't really an option. I'm sure she had lots of them.
21. Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them.
22. There was original art in your house when you were a child.
23. You and your family lived in a single-family house.
24. Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home.
25. You had your own room as a child. Not all the time, and when I did it was because my siblings were grown. There were times when three of us were in one room.
26. You had a phone in your room before you turned 18.
27. Participated in a SAT/ACT prep course.
28. Had your own TV in your room in high school.
29. Owned a mutual fund or IRA in high school or college.
30. Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16. My oldest brother moved to Texas when I was little, so we flew there from the Midwest for his wedding and for another visit or two.
31. Went on a cruise with your family.
32. Went on more than one cruise with your family.
33. Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up. Seldom, but it did happen. However, we were always had a membership to a swimming pool.
34. You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family.

12 out of 34. No analysis of what that means.

Facebook?

I just joined 2006 and created a Facbook profile. I don't really get it. I've been on MySpace for a while, and I don't really get that either. What am I supposed to do with it?

A new leader!

POOF!

This post had to go away.

I have it so good

I've been thinking a little about why I am interested in women-in-science issues. I have never once personally experienced gender discrimination at work. Two of my three advisers have been women, the third is an extremely enlightened man. Yet, I identify with the plight of the screwed-over woman scientist.

I think it's because my culture is steeped in sexism and I hate it. This post on Propter Doc's blog clarified it for me. I think I just expect the negative stereotypes present throughout the rest of my life will carry over to my work. But they haven't (so far). I know they have for many, many other women. I feel very sensitized to that.

I'm very thankful that so far my work experience has been free of that crap. It's almost like it's one place where it doesn't matter that I'm a woman; the expectations are the same for me as for a man doing the same job (with the exception of field work, but that's just practical). I want more women to share my experience, except that I want all the cultural stereotypes to disappear too. I'm sick of the image that women are bad at things like investing or home repair and men shouldn't plan a holiday meal or buy their kids' clothes. An example: my friend would love to have a boat someday, but I pretty sure she considers it something a man buys and maintains, not something she would be responsible for. I think when I suggested she start saving for her own boat, it was the first time it occurred to her that she could get one for herself. It shouldn't be this way.

Anyway, I'm glad I get to work with a group of wonderful, mostly female, people. Am I the only lucky one? Or am I totally sheltered?

Holy Cow!

I just discovered what a bitchin' park district my city has. There are heaps of programs, some of which are located relatively close to me. The winter session has already started, but I called (had to leave a message) to find out if I could still join a nearby step aerobics class... for $10. They have walking clubs, all sorts of sports, a variety of visual arts and dance, swimming, theater, etc. How cool.

I should take advantage of this to both get some exercise for cheap and to meet new people.

Another Lousy Day

Several years ago, I heard this cool piece on NPR’s All Things Considered (it's 18:30 long). Here is the description from NPR:

A few years ago, writer David Kodeski was rummaging through an antique store on Chicago's north side when he came across two diaries from 1960 and '61. He bought them, took them home and began to read. The result: "Another Lousy Day," a one-man play that details his quest to find the diary's author -- a single, working woman who lived on the south side.

The diary's author wrote meticulously about her everyday life: how she flirted with her co-workers, fought with her dad, shopped for things she didn't need, and searched for happiness as she worried about her weight and hairdo:

June 26: Another lousy day. Went to our new jobs on colored TV and are they ever awful and feel like I'm in Siberia. I asked Mike a couple of times about the controls and later on he called me over and showed me a book about a Baptist. He was so cute. Went to bed late.

Kodeski and producers Elizabeth Meister and Dan Collison, in association with Chicago Public Radio, have adapted the play into a radio story for All Things Considered.

The writer concludes that the diary author must have been depressed and miserable based on how she chronicled her life in her diary. But at the end of the story, he meets some of the diary author's friends, who describe her as happy and outgoing. I wonder if this is the case with most people, especially bloggers. The self we know inside is not the self we present to the world. Would some bloggers' coworkers be surprised by how insecure/unhappy/overwhelmed they feel? Does the blog personality match the real life personality?

Will you be my BFF?

I am not religious and have no interest in becoming so. However, it seems to me that one of the virtues of church is the social network that comes with being a member of a congregation. I wish I had a welcoming place to go each week where I could meet up with a large group of nice people (but I don't want it to have anything to do with god).

It’s so difficult to meet people and to make new friends as an adult. When you’re a child/teenager, your life experience is short and easy to share. It’s easy to open up to people and make close fiends. As you age, your experience deviates from that of others and it becomes harder to relate. Plus, you have less free time so maybe you are more selective about whom you spend it with. People are more judgmental as well, which makes it a little scary to open up to someone new.

I think being an academic adds to the difficulty of making friends and adds to the desire for them at the same time. Academics move frequently, at least in the early stages of their careers. It’s hard to make friends and then leave them. As much as I’d like new friends, I’m in a position where I’m weary of bonding with new people because I think I’ll be moving before too long. I've heard other academics (e.g., FSP) say that they enjoy having friends all over the world who they get to see at meetings. I agree that it's rewarding to have a far-flung circle of friends who convene at conferences, but what about the friends I've made who aren't scientists? I really like having non-scientist friends, but it presents unique challenges, at least while I'm living in this place impermanently.

Inferiority Complex? Impostor Complex? Lazy-Ass Complex?

Many, many people feel inferior compared to others in their field. Or they feel like they have no business doing the work they do, that they aren’t qualified to teach, or that nobody has realized how much they suck but as soon as the cat’s out of the bag, they’ll be fired. I don’t really feel this way. I feel lazy. I think I could be every bit as good as anyone else but I don’t really work hard enough, so I’m just mediocre. Interestingly, I don’t have a big problem with that, at least not at this point. Maybe when it’s time to compete for jobs I’ll be cursing my mediocrity.

I think if I put in really long days and was just obsessed with my research, I could turn out awesome papers that would earn me a great reputation in my field. But I don’t do that. I want other things from my life, too. Frankly, I don’t think I’m capable of working that way, either. I just don’t have that kind of concentration or endurance. Maybe that’s what separates the women from the girls.

But then I wonder if this, in fact, is an inferiority complex. I’m saying to myself that I’m not as good as some people because I can’t/don’t want to work that hard. Inferiority is sneaky.

I wonder: if everybody feels inferior, who feels superior? This isn’t just restricted to women, so we can’t say the men are all feeling great. Does everybody feel like she can’t live up to the productivity of her colleague? Or is it a game we play with ourselves to deal with the self-motivation necessary for research? I thought I'd try a little poll to see where people stand. I use the phrase "better than me" in the context of comparing your work to that of your colleagues, i.e., I don't mean to say that other people are of higher quality overall.

A photo

*poof*

Ecogeoman and me, about two years ago (I'm on the left). Wish we were there now.

RBOC

It's a random bullets post today because I just don't have much to say about any one thing.

• I seem to be getting another cold. No fair. I already had a really bad one this season, right after Thanksgiving. At least I don't feel super crappy, just super snotty.
• Another great interaction with Academic Advisor today. I sent him another draft of the conclusions for my paper and he responded super fast again. He was happy with my progress and made a really constructive suggestion for the main theme of the paper. It will take a lot of thinking to incorporate, but will make the paper much better.
• I have had the luxury of working on this paper for the entire day, every day since New Years. I have been trying to savor that, since I know there won't be many times in my career when I have the level of limited responsibility that gives that kind of freedom.
• I had a conversation with Research Advisor today wherein I got to vent about an issue that has been bothering me for some time. I think it came across okay, which is to say I think I sounded not too bossy/bratty (always a worry for me at work with the super non-confrontational people there) but got my point across that I was upset with both the lack of support from her and the inconsideration (carelessness? cluelessness? laziness?) of some of my coworkers. I think the topic might come up again tomorrow during a meeting with Research Advisor, Awesome Technician, and me, so I will blog more about it after that.

Not so historically male?

I spent most of the last two days reading papers mostly from the 1930's -1950's. I noted several interesting things I wanted to share.

• Back then, they measured distance in inches, but mass in grams.
• Sometimes, they used a human body to measure height. For example, to demonstrate that corn plants grew taller in one part of a field than another, there was a photo of the field with a man standing at one end and another man standing at the other end. The caption noted that the plants were taller than one of the men but shorter than the other. They never actually measured the height of the plants in any units. To be fair, it was an extremely obvious gradient in plant height.
• There were women doing research back then! With their names on papers! Several different women appear in this body of early literature. Of course, many are merely thanked in the acknowledgements for what I'd bet was authorship worthy work. Still, I guess my field is not quite as historically male as I thought.

On another topic, my carpool buddy had to stay home today so I was free to work late. I stayed for an extra two hours and now I'm exhausted. Before I started carpooling I frequently worked long days -- I forgot how bad I used to feel at the end of them and how little I got done in the last hour or two. It's so hard to make myself stay in my seat for that long, even with little breaks to walk around. Plus, I was doing really frustrating literature searches. Maybe if I had been doing something more engaging, I wouldn't have noticed the time passing.

Family/work balance is always lurking

Today, Research Advisor was telling me about her service on a committee for one of the professional societies to which we belong. The committee is charged with selecting future locations for the society's annual national meeting. We were discussing the attributes of several cities, like accessibility, costs, hotel room availability, etc. One important factor is availability of particular dates. This meeting is usually in the beginning of November, but can be as early as mid-October or late as mid-November. Advisor said that many on the committee favor the last week in October. I frowned and she said, "yeah I know. right at Halloween. When my kids were little I always hated being away at Halloween, so I wouldn't go to this meeting in those years." I asked if the other members of the committee are men.

They are.

Juno

We just saw the movie Juno. It was super good. It was cool and funny and sweet in the same way as Napolean Dynamite or Little Miss Sunshine. Our friends took us to this fancy pants cinema where you can have beer and sit in loveseats and pay $15 for your ticket but it includes popcorn and valet parking. I think I still prefer our local $5 place with the sticky floor.

List!

Here's what I'm going to do this weekend in lieu of surfing the world wide web for two days straight.

• do something about the chipping read nail polish from New Years Eve
• plan next week's dinner menu and then go to the grocery store. Maybe Trader Joe's.
• open IRA account
• go for at least one big long walk
• laundry
• some cleaning -- bathroom, dusting floors
• go to movie or some other fun activity tonight

Because you wanted to know, right?

It all sounds American to me

I have an American accent. When I read, I hear the text in an American accent.

I read all these wonderful blogs and I'm usually a teensy surprised when I learn the author is not American. Even after I know the writer is a native English speaker with a non-American accent or has a different first language, still I hear her blog in American. Not just American, but Midland American.

Here's how I know what accent I have, as if it weren't obvious (to those who have heard me speak).

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland   "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The West
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
The South
Philadelphia
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

A pretty good day

Little things can a good day make.

First off, the new Scientiae carnival is up at hdreioplus.de. The very clever Jokerine did a fantastic job putting it together.

Secondly, I had a good interaction with my academic advisor today. This is the man who is faculty at my university, where I infrequently go. He advises my research too, but my topic is on the outskirts of his interest. Since I have a co-advisor whose interests are nearly identical to mine (the woman I usually refer to as my research advisor) and who occupies the office next door to mine, I interact much more with Research Advisor than Academic Advisor. I guess it was time to bust out the capital letters to establish official pseudonyms.

Anyway, my relationship with Academic Advisor has had its ups and downs. He has been rather overcommitted at times and since I have another advisor available to me, I have occasionally decided to not bother him so that his time could be spent with students who need him more. That probably wasn't the best choice in the long run. He was offended that I ignored him, which I learned in a roundabout way. There have been other times when I really tried to work with him, but he blew me off. Only fair, I guess. But currently, we're on the same page. I got him interested in my data and then he saw my talk at the conference in December and loved it (at least that's what he told me). So he's all excited for me to get the paper written and has provided meaningful mentorship to guide me through the process. I love hand holding, so this is good.

Academic Advisor advocates writing the conclusions of a paper first to flesh out the main messages. He suggested I write a draft of the conclusions before the holiday break, leave it, then revise it and give it to him right after the break. Feeling pleased that someone was offering advice, I took it. Today I sent him a first draft of the conclusions and he responded with excited and helpful comments in less than 30 min. yay! I have already addressed some of comments and will deal with the biggest one tomorrow. I have to admit that I have cheated a bit by working on the discussion section simultaneously, but I think that's because I really need to work out my ideas in writing.

Which brings me to the other good thing today. I have gotten in a good place with writing the last two days. I have worked on the paper pretty consistently all day and forced myself to just do it. What’s more, I have been enjoying it. I think maybe my writing muscles have been lubed by this blog.

I know I probably sound really immature with this post, but whatever. I remember that when I was learning to drive, my mom told me to not feel self conscious because everybody on the road had had to learn sometime. I feel that way now.

Let's talk about procrastination

I'm positive that there are lots of books out there all about procrastination, why we engage in it, and how to beat it. I haven't read them. I bet that many people in this corner of the blogosphere have read some of these books, or thought extensively on the subject, or definitively blogged about it. Since this is a record of my personal journey, I will now blog about my own recent thoughts on procrastination. But I'd love links to your insightful posts or recommendations for helpful but not boring books.

Procrastination doesn't get you ahead. It puts you in the hole. It causes oppressive anxiety. And it creates more work for you to put off.

Think about when you get an email with an attached form you have to fill out. It’s probably tedious and has a distant deadline, so you ignore it for later. But then the deadline approaches and then passes and you get several reminder emails to return the completed form. So you do it, but now you’ve had to think about the stupid thing all those extra times, search for the buried email, and feel guilty. In a sense, you’ve had to do the work more than once. Or think about when you blow something off and then have to do it again because it’s ruined, or it takes extra paperwork to get an extension, or there’s a late fee. Why do we do this to ourselves? Usually, the thing I do instead is not worth the heartache of dealing with the consequences of procrastination. So much guilt and anxiety for what? A Seinfeld rerun? The headlines on MSN?

This recent realization of how much I suffer at the devious hand of procrastination is why one of my NYRs was to reduce it and is what I will try to keep in my thoughts so as to avoid it. It feels so good to get things done when they need to be done and then not think about them again. And to know that no one can bitch at you for not doing your bit.

I recently read in a magazine something like “you never say ‘gee, I wish I hadn’t done that’ after you exercise.” I think the same is true for doing things on your list. You never regret being productive. Productive, here, means not only getting work done, but doing the fun activities that we want to do. I noticed that an awful lot of bloggers wrote how they don’t want to waste time mindlessly surfing the Internet or watching tv this year. Me too.

New Year's Resolutions

I love New Year’s resolutions. Last year I made three, one that I kept (paid off my debt), one that I kept for part of the year (Pilates video workout every day), and one that failed miserably (submit a manuscript). I think NYRs can even affect my mood. I blogged about feeling the blahs in December, which I attributed to winter blues. However, I think it might actually have been end-of-the-year blues. In December, I always reflect on all the things I didn’t accomplish and all the goals I left unmet. January brings a fresh start.

Like many others, I will announce a theme for 2008: Gettin’ It Done (I wonder if Profgrrrl knows how influential she is?). 2008 needs to be about finishing some work so I can a. not go crazy from frustration and b. graduate someday. I like the theme idea, but I think the best resolutions involve very specific goals which can be assessed and, more importantly, are manageable size. It's fine to say you're going to lose weight, but it's also important to say how you will go about losing the weight. So, here are mine:

• Project Efficiency. The idea here is that I will be really focused and work really hard when I’m at work and then not feel guilty for not working when I get home. Any extra work beyond five 8-hour days will be bonus. It has several parts:
  1. No doing work that isn’t really work. Like searching for a semi-necessary image for a presentation 3 hours. I know when I’m giving myself excuses.
  2. At the end of each day, setting goals for the next day. These should be reasonable, not lofty, because I don’t want to feel like crap every day when I don’t finish my to-do list. I want to feel good because my daily accomplishments are transparent.
  3. Reduced procrastination. I've finally realized what grief procratination causes me and I resolve to keep that in mind whenver I want to put something off.
  4. And the hardest part: NO BLOGGING AT WORK. No checking bloglines, or my counter, or my blog email, none of it.


• Money
  1. Build my savings to 3 months’ expenses. This will be very challenging because of the two overseas trips we have planned. If I can at least not be in debt due to those, I guess I’ll be satisfied
  2. Start an IRA. I have no goals for the amount, I just want to have something started for retirement. There’s still lots of time for it to build, so anything I save now is great.
  
• Heath
  1. Cook full meals for dinner at least three times per week. This will contribute to the savings goals (synergy!). Ecogeoman will be onboard with this one too, since he wants to get very serious about Weight Watchers this year. He has be doing it for a few months, but not really taking it all to heart. He wants to lose weight for the tux he’ll have to wear in July’s wedding. See, it’s not only women who have this kind of goal!
  2. Start eating chicken again. I’ve been mostly vegetarian since 2002 but I’m finding it increasingly annoying. We often have dinner at friends’ houses and it’s really hard to ask people to make something special for me or to bring my own food, which feels rude. Beef and pork are completely unappealing, but chicken is alright and I think it will help me with part 1. I stopped eating meat in the first place because I felt it was ecologically unsustainable and that the meat production system was filthy. I’m (mostly) okay with free range, organic meat and it is becoming more widely available. I think chicken on the order of once per week would be good. Ecogeoman would certainly appreciate it.
  3. I’d love to make an exercise resolution, but I know I won’t keep it because it doesn’t feel like a hard and fast priority right now. I don’t want to make goals that I don’t think I can keep because I don’t want to set myself up to fail.
  
• Work
  1. Project Efficiency
  2. Submit 2 papers for publication
  i. The one I resolved to submit last year but didn’t
  ii. Another one
  3. Finish lab work for Chapter 2
  4. Finish lab work for Chapter 3
  5. Have lab work for Chapter 4 solidly started, or have decided to ditch Chapter 4. I’d like to resolve to finish lab work for Chapter 4 too, but I’m not sure it’s possible.

I will report my progress here every month for the rest of the year. I’m serious about these resolutions!