A better world

I missed the February Scientiae deadline, but I'm going to write on the topic anyway. Pat wants to know about our dreams for a better, more equitable society. I have the same visions that many others have -- freedom to have the type of family you want with good, affordable childcare and access to any kind of job with no discrimination. But all of these seem to be symptoms of a larger, more underlying problem of bias and marginalization in our society. We're socialized to fit gender roles that have positives as well as all those negatives. So yeah, to make things better for women, we need to support daycare on site and all that, but to really chip away at the problem, I think we need to change things for men.

I want men to never think twice about doing "women's work". I want domestic jobs, from household chores that are done by its members to paid work like childcare or nursing, to be things men do too. Without anyone thinking anything of it. Without men getting extra credit for making dinner or ironing. And jobs like daycare teacher would be paid more because men would want to do it too.

I think women will have fair shake once they can stop doing two jobs at once. It needs to be totally normal and expected for men to do all the jobs that women do. I don't mean just in your relationship because you have a super supportive partner. I want it to do beyond supportive partners. Even that phrase is suspect; it's like saying "my partner helps me do the things I should be responsible for at home". No. People should be equally responsible.

I think a better, more equitable society is one where it's okay for boys to wear pink (we fight to get girls out of pink, right?), for boys to play with barbies (we fight for girls to play with trucks, right?), for a husband to clean the toilet without thinking he's doing to help out his wife, for hairdressers, lawyers, and professors to be equally valued, whether they are men or women. If there is no men's work and women's work, then there can't be any discrimination related to work. Even science.

scientiae-carnival

Whenever I write about gender stuff, I get a little nervous. I haven't had any training in gender studies but I know many of you have and I worry my ideas are silly. And now new, although they are new to me. But after watching how things work, they're the ideas I have. I guess the blog is pseudonymous for a reason.

Bowie's in space

I watched the movie Labyrinth for the first time tonight. I just about peed my pants at the start of the movie I was laughing so hard. Why? Because Flight of the Conchords did such a spot on parody last year that I couldn't think of anything else. Compare:



A clip from Flight of the Conchords, including the very funny "Bowie in Space".



A series of clips from the movie. It was the only think I could find with a clip from the scene where Bowie visits Sarah in the house.

I have some posts with real content coming, I promise. But since we got the new t.v., we've been getting the most out of our Netflix subscription...

My manu-baby: 5904 words, 43 pages*

Blogging has been light around here while I made the last push at delivering my manu-baby, as Research Advisor has been calling it. After much labor, it was finally submitted yesterday at 6:08 pm. It entered the world with all its references and figures just right and we have big hopes for its future.

In other words, the paper I've been whining about for the last 12 months is FINALLY DONE!!!

We aimed kind of high on the journal (at my insistence) so I'm not holding my breath that it will be accepted. I think it will at least go to review. I really hope so because I don't want to think about it for a few months. I'm looking forward to working on other things for a while.

Research Advisor came through in the end with tons of great comments and lots of help with the final details. And she gave me a Twix as soon as I hit submit.

I learned a lot during the course of writing this paper: science, writing, communicating, and managing coauthors. I'm hoping the next one is easier and quicker.


*word count does not include references and stuff. page count does.

Where I've been

visited 24 states (48%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or try another Douwe Osinga project


I saw this at Short Geologist's place. I only counted states that were a destination, not states I only passed through or had a layover or something. I suppose if I did count drive-through states, I would only add Kansas and Alabama. I will definitely be going to one new state this year and possibly two.

Back to normal

Ecogeoman is finally back home. What a relief. I'm not afraid of flying myself, but I do get nervous when he flies. What if his plane crashes and he gets stranded like on Lost*?

I've also been looking forward to EGM's return as a cure for the lazy slumpiness that has plagued me for the last several weeks. I haven't done jack shit on the evenings or weekends which makes me feel bad. I'm hoping that having him around will activate me a little. At the very least sitting around the house, being snowed in in frigid weather will be less boring with his company.



*OMG, I just watched the three hour refresher. I can't freaking wait for the new episode next week!

Thick skin

Research Advisor is an excellent writer and editor. She hasn't had many opportunities to edit student work and has said that it has been a learning process to figure out the best ways to help Awesome Technician (who is not a student but is a student-like young scientist) and I with our papers. I've noticed that she seems just a little uncomfortable giving me feedback on my writing as though she seems slightly afraid that I might get defensive. So far her comments have been nothing but constructive, really improving the paper, so there have been no problems. AT concurs.

Awesome Technician and I both minored in English in college and we credit the "workshopping" that was the centerpiece of many of our English courses with thickening our skins -- a good trait for budding scientists. My university required all students to take a junior-level writing course. My minor was essentially comprised of several of these courses (plus creative writing, linguistics, and an independent study writing my science department's alumni newsletter). I had business writing, exposition, and technical writing, each designed for juniors in other disciplines to improve their written communication skills by forcing them to write more. I didn't really get a whole lot out of these classes since they didn't progress -- each one was independent rather than working together in a sequence to build skills. After the first one it was pretty easy for me to bust out an A paper, whereas my classmates who were, say, engineering majors who never had to write more than a paragraph struggled. Thus I wasn't challenged to improve my skills, but I did gain from the practice.

There was one aspect of these classes that taught me some skills I didn't happen to learn anywhere else, however. They all had a workshopping component, where students read each other's work and discussed it as a group. It's one thing to receive the critiques of your friends and classmates, but it's really different to give it. Being on the other end (which is pretty rare at the undergrad level) teaches you lots of technical things about writing because the mistakes of others stick out at you in a way that your own flaws don't. It also gives you empathy for the person reviewing your writing because you know where they are coming from when they make certain types of comments. Most important for me now, it helps you take criticism in the way it was intended -- you have the experience to realize that the criticism isn't about you.

I'm very grateful to have an advisor who is sensitive to my ego. She can really shred a paper without being mean or even judgemental. In fact, I almost wish she were a little more to the point at times because I think it would make things go faster. I could take it.

Change of plans

I was going to go to work today but it's snowing like mad. It snowed all night and it is supposed to continue all day. I guess I'm staying in. Maybe I'll make it to the lab tomorrow.

Post-docs and the Shit Economy

It seems to me that my anticipated graduation in August 2009 could not be more poorly timed. We all know that the economy is tanking and I fear post-docs will not be spared a hit. I think this will manifest in two ways.

First, I think there will be fewer positions available in the coming months. Universities are initiating hiring freezes, which means that people currently in post-docs will not be vacating them for faculty jobs. On top of that, poor funding rates mean that there may be fewer new post-doc positions created.

It's actually the latter that has me agitated and brings me to point number two. If established scientists aren't as successful at obtaining funding, then where will money for post-docs come from? I imagine that a larger proportion of new post-doc positions will be funded from start up packages. And that means that instead of getting a mentor who has decades of experience with a large network of contacts, you get one who is maybe two years ahead of you on the career path. In fact, I know of one case where someone wanted to do a second post-doc and was offered a position in a new hire's lab. Applicant and mentor got their Ph.Ds the same year. What's the point of doing a post-doc in that situation?

Physioprof wrote an excellent post at On Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess about how to find and get a post-doc. The merits of early-career vs. senior faculty advisors have been argued at length; Phsyioprof is something of an advocate for early career mentors and I can see his points. But I wonder if physiology post-doc positions tend to last longer so that new faculty have been out of grad school for longer than people in my field typically have when they start faculty jobs. Frankly, I think I prefer someone at least mid-career for a post-doc mentor (although my opinion of young vs old for PhD advisors is more flexible). I want someone with lots of experience to teach me how to write big grants, manage a lab, navigate funding agency politics, and share their network. I may not have a choice in the matter and I'm sure a successful post-doc could happen with a junior faculty mentor. But do you see where I'm coming from? Have I offended any junior faculty readers I might have?

An open letter

To the person in my building who keeps taking >45 min showers,

Quit it. It's wasteful and rude. If you don't stop, a nasty note will appear in the lobby and I might even call the landlord. Not that I think she'll be able to do anything about it.

Love and shivers,
Ecogeofemme

Thought of the day

A micromanager is benign if he always tells you to do things the way you would do them anyway.

How green am I?

Thanks for the great suggestions for greening up my life. Reading them made me think maybe I'm not as bad I as thought, since we already do most of the things you suggested. I thought I'd take stock of the situation by listing the things we already do that I consider environmentally friendly. Perhaps you'll notice oversights.

• I eat very little meat (~4-6 times per month). EGM eats more, but most of the food we eat at home (i.e. dinner) is meatless. Some of our staples are organic (cereal, granola bars, yogurt).
  
• We use cloth napkins instead of paper.
• We use very few paper towels.
• I carpool to work (which, admittedly, is too far away). EGM doesn't have a car, so he either gets a lift with me or takes public transit.
• With a few exceptions, we don't drive much other than going to work.
• We use reusable bags at the grocery store. Unless we forget, but then we use the plastic ones for trash bags and lunches.
• I almost always make my coffee at home and take it to work in a reusable travel cup. EGM drinks his at home in a ceramic cup.
  
• We use tupperware containers, not ziplock bags or foil.
• The appliances that we have plugged in are the refrigerator, microwave, coffeepot, toaster, t.v., VCR (I should get rid of this), DVD player, modem, wireless router, laptop, and 5 lamps. We also charge our phones and use the vacuum cleaner. In addition, there are 7 overhead lights in our apartment, 5 of which are frequently used. The point here is that I think we probably use less electricity than the average American household.
  
• Most of our light comes from CFLs, but there are a few lingering incandescent bulbs.
• We can't control our heat (from radiators) but we don't use air conditioning but for a window unit in our bedrooms about half a dozen times each summer. We do use lots of fans in summer.
• I try to avoid random chemicals unless I really want them. For instance, I don't dye my hair, paint my nails frequently, use air fresheners or candles (well, I light a candle on occasion) but I do use hair spray, perfumed lotions, and makeup.
• I only flush when I really need to. EGM hates that.
  

Ways in which I think we could improve:

• If I got one of those wheely carts, I could go grocery shopping without my car. I can easily walk to the grocery store, but currently I can't carry the goods home.
• Green cleaning products. But shouldn't I finish the stuff I have? Certainly it must be better to gradually pour the stuff down the drain by using it than to just discard it.
  
• Focus on local/in season food. We're not good about this at all, although we don't buy tons of highly processed or frozen food. We could certainly choose organic options more often, like milk (in a reusable glass bottle!), bread, peanut butter. Better yet, we could make some of our own foods, like bread and yogurt.
• Grow some of our own food. And use the farmers' market.
• EGM buys lunch, snacks, and coffee way, way more than I do. He could cut down on that.
• I could get a Diva Cup.
• Compost.
• Recycle!

I posted all this in part to encourage discussion and of course I'd love ideas. I think I should also review Ruchi's archives for more ideas, although I can't say I'm prepared to give up toilet paper just yet. Plus I know I can find a world of eco from her blog.

Resolutions

I love New Year's resolutions (NYR). I made a whole bunch of them last year and while I didn't religiously adhere to them all, having them did help me keep certain goals in mind. Like I said last year, I think the best resolutions are very specific. Not, "I'll be tidier" but "I will vacuum every Friday". A resolution isn't going to transform your personality. It's a way to help you focus your efforts on a few behaviors that contribute to a lifestyle change you strive for. Plus, it's much easier to evaluate your success when you have specific goals.

This year, I'm not going to make any work related resolutions. I anticipate lots of professional progress this year and I don't think any NYRs are going to impact my work life. I've got to get shit done no matter what. I expect that this year I will graduate, find a post-doc, and publish some papers. The pressure is on, so rules about how much time I can spend reading blogs should be irrelevant.

So, I will make two resolutions in my personal life.

1. I will send a birthday card to every member of my immediate-plus family. For those of you following along at home, that's 28 people. I've been contemplating this one for a long time. I always (try to) call each of my siblings on their birthdays, but I blow off their spouses and kids. I feel bad about that, especially the kids. So this year, I'm going to remember them all. First I need to check that I know them all.

2. I will implement one new green activity each month. I've been feeling rather bad that my life's work is devoted to climate change sort of stuff and yet I lead a not-so-green lifestyle. It's not abominable, but there are some serious oversights and inconsistencies. For example, we use cloth napkins instead of paper, but we don't recycle (curbside pickup here is ... suspicious, so we will have to take our stuff to a recycling center ourselves). I intend to write a blog post about our efforts each month. Oh, and you might think this is super lame, but I'm going to wait to start the first one until EGM gets back because I want it to be something we do together rather than something I'm invested in that he ignores, because then it won't last.

I'm not sure what 12 things I'd like to do, so I welcome suggestions. Recycling is definitely one. I'd like to get a kitchen vermicompost bin. I'm interested in growing vegetables on the deck when it gets warm and I want to make an effort to shop at the farmer's market. What else should I do?

yay!

I've been thinking about what I want to write about the year that just ended and my hopes for the year that just started, but in the meantime, I absolutely must tell you:

I bought a new t.v.!!!!!

You may recall that my current television started to crap out in the fall. The sound worked fine, but the picture would sometimes not appear. A slap on the top of the box would usually fix it. However, for the last couple of months not even a serious pounding would summon the picture. In an attempt at non-consumerism, I might have tried to get it fixed but I knew that the digital revolution was coming (yes, I know I could have gotten a new tuner. but that combined with the fact that the repair probably would have been very expensive made me decide to scrap the 2002 analog model). Anyway, I bought a 32-inch Samsung LCD and I love it. The digital signal is amazing. The picture is not at all fuzzy, wavy, or shadowy and there are some extra channels. Awesome.

Now I can reconnect with my Netflix account. And much more importantly, I got the new tube in time for the next season of Lost!