I'm going on vacation next week!
My parents' 50th wedding anniversary is coming up and they are having a big party. Everyone is coming. It's going to be a full chaotic week of family, family, family. It will be intense, but I'm really looking forward to it. I haven't been to visit since New Year's, which is the longest I've ever gone without a trip home. I'm especially looking forward to seeing my nieces and nephews who live far away and I rarely see.
Extra fun: we're going wedding/bridesmaids' dress shopping! It's going to be so fun. We've gone shopping together for each of my sisters' weddings so it's something of a tradition. Except the family has grown, so this time there will be at least 10 of us. Can you say cluster fuck?
Bonus: I get to spend the weekend with my BFF. Maybe we'll go to the pool. :)
Friday, July 23, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Cultivating allies
I'm not aggressively feminist at work, but I do preach from a low level women-in-science soapbox pretty consistently. Sometimes it's met with resistance, other times empathy, and many times with a blank stare. I worry a little bit that it's annoying, but I figure sexism is such a pervasive problem that it's worth it to irritate people a little bit.
It seems my persistence has paid off. I work with a male technician who, as far as I can tell, was brought up in a fairly traditional family with pretty typical gender roles. This guy is terrific -- super cool, quite competent, excited by science, and respectful of me as someone senior to him -- but had never really been confronted with feminism and so had never really considered that the way men and women navigate the world, especially the science world, may differ.
Today this colleague made a point of telling me about his recent experience with an auto mechanic. His sister's car broke down, so he drove her to the shop to pick it up after the repairs were done. He said that although the car was clearly his sister's and she paid for the work, the mechanic looked at him as he explained everything. No eye contact at all with the sister. My colleague said this was the first time he had noticed such an injustice, and thought it was because he was more aware of it now after all my bitching and not because it had never happened before. Very cool.
It seems my persistence has paid off. I work with a male technician who, as far as I can tell, was brought up in a fairly traditional family with pretty typical gender roles. This guy is terrific -- super cool, quite competent, excited by science, and respectful of me as someone senior to him -- but had never really been confronted with feminism and so had never really considered that the way men and women navigate the world, especially the science world, may differ.
Today this colleague made a point of telling me about his recent experience with an auto mechanic. His sister's car broke down, so he drove her to the shop to pick it up after the repairs were done. He said that although the car was clearly his sister's and she paid for the work, the mechanic looked at him as he explained everything. No eye contact at all with the sister. My colleague said this was the first time he had noticed such an injustice, and thought it was because he was more aware of it now after all my bitching and not because it had never happened before. Very cool.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Asphinctersayswhat?
I work in a really interdisciplinary group, where several labs in disparate fields work together and it's not possible for our projects to move forward without everyone cooperating. I think (we all think) that the biggest challenge to this kind of collaboration is communicating across disciplinary lines. In fact, that's part of why I was hired - to be a bridge between two of these labs.
There is a spectrum of miscommunication. Some situations have glaring communication issues, where you can tell that people just aren't understanding each other at all. Other times, we are using two different words for the same concept, or more commonly, the same word for two different concepts. This one is particularly insidious because you don't necessarily realize that it has happened until much later. My best example of this one so far is "open system". I bet many of you have some context for that phrase, and they all refer to something different. The mildest situation is when it simply takes more words to get your point across but the listener gradually understands. That last one happens a lot.
I had a big long convo with my old advisor a couple of weeks ago and it felt so relaxing. I'm sure it was largely because it was so easy to communicate. There wasn't any need for back stories to fill in weak conceptual understandings, words were used in contexts common to us both, and words loaded with other meaning were understood with all that extra meaning intact.
It's getting better, though, as I'm learning both the science of these other labs and their way of speaking. We recently had a meeting with members of my old lab and my new lab. I could see when things were getting confused due to word choice and then intervene to keep things on track. It's slow, but I'm learning to be the bridge.
There is a spectrum of miscommunication. Some situations have glaring communication issues, where you can tell that people just aren't understanding each other at all. Other times, we are using two different words for the same concept, or more commonly, the same word for two different concepts. This one is particularly insidious because you don't necessarily realize that it has happened until much later. My best example of this one so far is "open system". I bet many of you have some context for that phrase, and they all refer to something different. The mildest situation is when it simply takes more words to get your point across but the listener gradually understands. That last one happens a lot.
I had a big long convo with my old advisor a couple of weeks ago and it felt so relaxing. I'm sure it was largely because it was so easy to communicate. There wasn't any need for back stories to fill in weak conceptual understandings, words were used in contexts common to us both, and words loaded with other meaning were understood with all that extra meaning intact.
It's getting better, though, as I'm learning both the science of these other labs and their way of speaking. We recently had a meeting with members of my old lab and my new lab. I could see when things were getting confused due to word choice and then intervene to keep things on track. It's slow, but I'm learning to be the bridge.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Tired with a side of disappointed
Today I found out that a paper I submitted a few weeks ago has been rejected. It was the weakest of my thesis chapters, but we aimed low journal-wise so I'm surprised the reviews were as bad as they were and the rejection was as solid as it was. So far I have only skimmed the review comments and they struck me as comprehensively negative but polite. Research Advisor thinks they were mostly constructive--some complaints were refutable, some were founded and can help us revise, and some were flaws were knew were there--and that we can reframe the story for another journal. I'm less disappointed about the rejection itself than I am bummed that it's going to take that much longer to shore up my weak publishing record.
In other news, today I learned a lab technique that is very new to me. The technician who trained me is just as fantastic as Awesome Technician so it was a pleasant enough experience, and I am thrilled to be learning new skills. Furthermore, this is the first lab work I've done as a postdoc and it felt great to be away from my desk for a spell. However, I was awkward and uncertain about the choreography of the protocol and it is always exhausting to learn brand new stuff. On top of that, by the end of the day I was so frustrated with the scale of everything. I had to stand on a step stool to do several different tasks, and some critical tools didn't fit in my hands very well which contributed to my lack of coordination. So irritating.
To avoid going home and wallowing, I went shopping after work. On the bright side, I found bargains. I got some low-heeled, moderately dressy shoes that I've been looking for for a while ($13), socks to wear with them ($5 for 6 pairs), jeans ($33 for two pairs), and a big splurge, perfume ($25). I'm disappointed with the jeans though and bought them because they were on clearance and I was pissed off; I had tried on some cool designer ones at another store and there were comically long, reinforcing my disdain of being a short person in a tall-person world. Phooey.
In other news, today I learned a lab technique that is very new to me. The technician who trained me is just as fantastic as Awesome Technician so it was a pleasant enough experience, and I am thrilled to be learning new skills. Furthermore, this is the first lab work I've done as a postdoc and it felt great to be away from my desk for a spell. However, I was awkward and uncertain about the choreography of the protocol and it is always exhausting to learn brand new stuff. On top of that, by the end of the day I was so frustrated with the scale of everything. I had to stand on a step stool to do several different tasks, and some critical tools didn't fit in my hands very well which contributed to my lack of coordination. So irritating.
To avoid going home and wallowing, I went shopping after work. On the bright side, I found bargains. I got some low-heeled, moderately dressy shoes that I've been looking for for a while ($13), socks to wear with them ($5 for 6 pairs), jeans ($33 for two pairs), and a big splurge, perfume ($25). I'm disappointed with the jeans though and bought them because they were on clearance and I was pissed off; I had tried on some cool designer ones at another store and there were comically long, reinforcing my disdain of being a short person in a tall-person world. Phooey.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Wish I could unhear it
A coworker told me something that I wish he hadn't. Let's say he admitted to me, in an after-hours phone call, that he likes cheese, and that cheese is something a little inappropriate. Suppose that it's okay for people at my work to like cheese, but that since everyone is lactose intolerant, it's not okay to eat cheese. I had suspected that he liked cheese for some time, but I didn't know for sure and it was easy for me to happily assume that there were no cheese-liking issues in our department.
Once I knew this person liked cheese, I couldn't stop wondering if it was interfering with our work. Did he make that decision because it's the best move for the project, or because he likes cheese? Is he volunteering for that task because he wants to be involved in the project or because he hopes to get some cheese out of it? And so on. It was driving me nuts! I just want to go about my business without having to analyze everyone's motivations before I make my own decisions.
Fortunately, my coworker called again tonight to say that he had an epiphany and he no longer likes cheese. I'm a little skeptical, but it's good if it's true. I'm curious to see how it plays out: will this new feeling persist, and will it have a noticeable impact on his behavior?
It would be nice to know that no cheese is clouding anyone's judgment, including my own.
Once I knew this person liked cheese, I couldn't stop wondering if it was interfering with our work. Did he make that decision because it's the best move for the project, or because he likes cheese? Is he volunteering for that task because he wants to be involved in the project or because he hopes to get some cheese out of it? And so on. It was driving me nuts! I just want to go about my business without having to analyze everyone's motivations before I make my own decisions.
Fortunately, my coworker called again tonight to say that he had an epiphany and he no longer likes cheese. I'm a little skeptical, but it's good if it's true. I'm curious to see how it plays out: will this new feeling persist, and will it have a noticeable impact on his behavior?
It would be nice to know that no cheese is clouding anyone's judgment, including my own.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Sweaty mess
Ecogeoman and I were just remarking that when we fall asleep someplace other than the bed (e.g. couch, car), we inevitably wake up at some point drenched in sweat. In contrast, I never wake up a sweaty mess when I sleep in bed, where I typically sleep through the night without interruption.
Why is that?
Why is that?
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Working without a net
I think we can all agree that writing grants mostly sucks. But: would you feel comfortable starting a new project without having first formally proposed it? Would you feel ok about carrying on with an idea without spending time on a comprehensive literature review? without crystallizing your ideas in a structured document? without the approval of peer review?
I'm in a position to do some new experiments without having to get funding for them. That's very, very cool for so many reasons, so trust me when I say I'm not complaining. I'm just observing that writing a proposal has its merits.
I'm in a position to do some new experiments without having to get funding for them. That's very, very cool for so many reasons, so trust me when I say I'm not complaining. I'm just observing that writing a proposal has its merits.
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