Since tonight we finally got around to properly cleaning our place after the cats' departure, I thought this would be a good time to share what I thought about them.
Recall that we kept our friend's two cats while he was away for three weeks. EGM had cats growing up but I did not. We had been toying with the idea of getting one, so we reasoned that this extended cat sitting experience would give me a chance to see if I really want one.
I do not want one anymore.
The cats were nice, but they weren't really fun enough to make up for all the yuckiness. They would sometimes sit nearby, but they never wanted to cuddle very much. Instead, they liked to sit on the mantle, or between the window and it's screen, or some other equally inappropriate place. They did, however, always want to get into our bedroom which I had deemed off limits. They would scratch and meow at the door when we went to bed, even jumping up to try to turn the doorknob. From the inside of the room it felt like a movie where monsters were trying to get in.
Then there was the mess. Thankfully, EGM had the foresight to roll up most of the rugs and cover the couches with sheets before the cats arrived in order to limit the hair. Even still, there was cat hair everywhere. And litter tracked throughout the apartment. And they knocked stuff over. And clawed up the toilet paper and paper towels. I think the real problem for me was that they used the whole volume of a room -- no surface was off limits for them. So after they used the litter box, they'd jump up on the kitchen counter or something. Eww.
We were out of town a bunch after the cats left and then we were lazy and then we realized that our crappy ass vacuum with just a plain tube attachment was no match for the lingering cat hair. We borrowed our friends' Dyson last week and finally got around to using it tonight. I feel much better about my world now that the place is all clean. I'd hate to mess it up again with another cat.
Can you tell I'm not a pet person?
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
It's never too early for an opus
Today Ecogeoman learned that his very first paper has been accepted! There are revisions, of course, but the reviews border on glowing.
The manuscript was 120 pages (1.5 spaced) including figures and references.
In other news, our symposium proposal is nearly finished. All we have to do is hash out the speaker list, which has become quite a task. We're happy with the proposal text, having recieved positive feedback from colleagues. However, we're struggling to ensure that each talk addresses the questions/problems we raised in the text. This is easier said than done.
The manuscript was 120 pages (1.5 spaced) including figures and references.
In other news, our symposium proposal is nearly finished. All we have to do is hash out the speaker list, which has become quite a task. We're happy with the proposal text, having recieved positive feedback from colleagues. However, we're struggling to ensure that each talk addresses the questions/problems we raised in the text. This is easier said than done.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Blogging for writing's sake
I started blogging for a variety of reasons. One of my hopes was that regular blog writing would improve the quality of my professional writing. When I started this blog, I was mostly working at the bench. I knew, though, that I would soon be focusing some of my efforts on manuscripts so I wanted to get some writing practice.
It’s difficult to measure improvement in writing, especially one’s own. Unfortunately, I don’t think blogging has helped me that much. I write my posts somewhat quickly and while I read over them before I publish, I don’t spend any time really editing (that’s probably obvious from my frequent spelling errors and run on sentences).
However, I do think blogging has removed some of the mystique surrounding writing. Each time I post, I’m submitting a piece of writing to whoever wants to read it. That has made me a little less nervous about presenting my work for review by advisors and colleagues. In addition, I think I feel less block overall. Blogging is something I choose to do because I like it, not because I feel like I have to for any reason. Sometimes when I decide to write about something, it’s a little hard to start. I have to get over it though because I really want to write my little bloggy essay. I’ve learned that I just have to get a sentence down and it will usually flow from there. More importantly, I’ve learned that any sentence can be changed. Even if everything sucks at first, I can improve it (althoughusually sometimes it continues to suck). I’ve tried really hard to apply that same approach to my science writing to get me over the inertia of starting.
Someone else recently posted something on this topic and got me thinking about it. I would like to link to that blog, but for the life of me I can’t remember where the post was. I guess that’s the problem with reading two weeks’ worth of posts in a few days.
It’s difficult to measure improvement in writing, especially one’s own. Unfortunately, I don’t think blogging has helped me that much. I write my posts somewhat quickly and while I read over them before I publish, I don’t spend any time really editing (that’s probably obvious from my frequent spelling errors and run on sentences).
However, I do think blogging has removed some of the mystique surrounding writing. Each time I post, I’m submitting a piece of writing to whoever wants to read it. That has made me a little less nervous about presenting my work for review by advisors and colleagues. In addition, I think I feel less block overall. Blogging is something I choose to do because I like it, not because I feel like I have to for any reason. Sometimes when I decide to write about something, it’s a little hard to start. I have to get over it though because I really want to write my little bloggy essay. I’ve learned that I just have to get a sentence down and it will usually flow from there. More importantly, I’ve learned that any sentence can be changed. Even if everything sucks at first, I can improve it (although
Someone else recently posted something on this topic and got me thinking about it. I would like to link to that blog, but for the life of me I can’t remember where the post was. I guess that’s the problem with reading two weeks’ worth of posts in a few days.
Alerts
The new Scientiae is up at Lab Cat!
And have you seen the highly entertaining recipe battle between Physioprof and Isis? The first round is an amuse bouche (which Isis kindly defined for the ignorant masses who don't typically enjoy 9 course meals). I voted for Isis this time because her fruity shrimpy recipe sounded much more appealing than Physioprof's chawanmushi with borderline exotic ingredients. Also, although Psysioprof's had fewer steps, Isis's seemed easier, which is also a bonus for me. And I don't have any little ceramic cups with fucking lids or tiny little spoons, so I couldn't make the custard thing if I wanted to.
They really ought to put up a post for each round at the voting blog so we can write commentary in the comments field there rather than on our own damn blogs.
And have you seen the highly entertaining recipe battle between Physioprof and Isis? The first round is an amuse bouche (which Isis kindly defined for the ignorant masses who don't typically enjoy 9 course meals). I voted for Isis this time because her fruity shrimpy recipe sounded much more appealing than Physioprof's chawanmushi with borderline exotic ingredients. Also, although Psysioprof's had fewer steps, Isis's seemed easier, which is also a bonus for me. And I don't have any little ceramic cups with fucking lids or tiny little spoons, so I couldn't make the custard thing if I wanted to.
They really ought to put up a post for each round at the voting blog so we can write commentary in the comments field there rather than on our own damn blogs.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Gratification!
I'm sure everyone is totally over these blogging awards, but it took me quite a while to get though the hundreds of blog posts I missed while I was away so I didn't know I got them . I really appreciate the honors and will pass them on even though this seems to have been round and round. Thanks so much to the bloggers who nominated me, and sorry for my belated acceptance.
And the sparkly pyramid from ScientistMother and DancingFish (who has since moved).
Your blogs are awesomely awesome too!
Many of these bloggers have probably already had this memey prize but I've lost track.
I pass the angel to
And although there seems to be some unspoken (uh, unwritten) rule not to tag Sciblings, I still nominateSciencewomen and
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Symposium proposium
Since a few of you seemed interested in the process of proposing a symposium, I thought I’d write a post about it. I spent a lot of time struggling with it this week, so I’d like to talk about it here anyway. I am working on this proposal with a collaborator, Cauliflower, who works in another state and just recently finished her Ph.D.
I’m sure the way that symposia make it into meetings varies dramatically among societies. For this particular society, anyone can propose a symposium topic. Proposals are comprised of a 400 word description, a 250 word justification, and a list of speakers. They are due 11 months before the meeting. They are competitive; however I do not know the success rate. I do know that some symposium ideas are rejects and some end up as the less prestigious but similarly formatted Organized Oral Session.
This society is divided into subject sections that can endorse one symposium proposal and provide secondary endorsements for two more. This doesn’t ensure success, but it helps. There are two relevant sections for us, one of which had already committed to another proposal but agreed to give a secondary endorsement, and another that wants to evaluate all ideas it gets before it decides on one. If that section decides not to endorse our idea, I think we will try for an OOS. This is fine, but it appears to be a little less credit for about the same amount of work.
So, what’s the work we have to do? Well, first we pitched the idea around to our colleagues to see if it was something they thought would generate interest, be appropriate for this particular society’s meeting, etc. They liked it, so we crafted an email with a brief description to send to the section chairs. They liked it, so we began working on the proposal itself. We wrote a draft that we sent to Academic Advisor (who is very good at this sort of thing and did one himself a few years ago). He suggested some retooling.
It’s rather difficult to write about a big (sort of technical) knowledge gap in less than 400 words that will appeal to a broad swath of a large society. We had identified a good problem, but needed to state it more broadly. And we hadn’t really said what we hoped to achieve with the symposium -- how we would address/solve the problem. On top of that, Cauliflower is currently overseas working with collaborators, so there is a big time change that is inhibiting our communication. Both of us really struggled with the ideas this week, but after much back and forth I finally emailed what I think is a much better draft to Cauliflower last night. If she likes it, I’ll send it to our advisors for comments. We need to have a pretty final version finished early next week to submit to the subject section chair.
Okay, what else? We have to work with the section chair who happens to be a big famous scientist who I have never met (Cauliflower has) and intimidates me somewhat. Then we have to invite all the speakers, some of whom we know and some we don’t. The more speakers we have committed, the better. Some are famous big-wigs and some are quite early career. This is scary. However, it is exciting to have a reason to contact people I’d like to know. I think this is a major benefit of trying for a symposium, even if it is unsuccessful. I also think this is the part that will foster the most growth for me. If our symposium is selected, we have to write a short blurb for the program, work with the speakers to make sure they know what we want from their talks, make sure they get their abstracts in, and run the show the day of the session.
There were some comments alluding to the fact that it is surprising for students to be taking on a symposium proposal. That’s true – I fear I’m just at the brink of having bitten off more than I can chew – this is very challenging for a grad student and early post doc. However, the society always wants to encourage participation from new scientists so our proposal will actually be favored to some extent because we are so early in our careers. I think we have good people around us who think our idea is good and will help us along or at least keep us from falling on our faces. Let's hope, anyway.
I’m sure the way that symposia make it into meetings varies dramatically among societies. For this particular society, anyone can propose a symposium topic. Proposals are comprised of a 400 word description, a 250 word justification, and a list of speakers. They are due 11 months before the meeting. They are competitive; however I do not know the success rate. I do know that some symposium ideas are rejects and some end up as the less prestigious but similarly formatted Organized Oral Session.
This society is divided into subject sections that can endorse one symposium proposal and provide secondary endorsements for two more. This doesn’t ensure success, but it helps. There are two relevant sections for us, one of which had already committed to another proposal but agreed to give a secondary endorsement, and another that wants to evaluate all ideas it gets before it decides on one. If that section decides not to endorse our idea, I think we will try for an OOS. This is fine, but it appears to be a little less credit for about the same amount of work.
So, what’s the work we have to do? Well, first we pitched the idea around to our colleagues to see if it was something they thought would generate interest, be appropriate for this particular society’s meeting, etc. They liked it, so we crafted an email with a brief description to send to the section chairs. They liked it, so we began working on the proposal itself. We wrote a draft that we sent to Academic Advisor (who is very good at this sort of thing and did one himself a few years ago). He suggested some retooling.
It’s rather difficult to write about a big (sort of technical) knowledge gap in less than 400 words that will appeal to a broad swath of a large society. We had identified a good problem, but needed to state it more broadly. And we hadn’t really said what we hoped to achieve with the symposium -- how we would address/solve the problem. On top of that, Cauliflower is currently overseas working with collaborators, so there is a big time change that is inhibiting our communication. Both of us really struggled with the ideas this week, but after much back and forth I finally emailed what I think is a much better draft to Cauliflower last night. If she likes it, I’ll send it to our advisors for comments. We need to have a pretty final version finished early next week to submit to the subject section chair.
Okay, what else? We have to work with the section chair who happens to be a big famous scientist who I have never met (Cauliflower has) and intimidates me somewhat. Then we have to invite all the speakers, some of whom we know and some we don’t. The more speakers we have committed, the better. Some are famous big-wigs and some are quite early career. This is scary. However, it is exciting to have a reason to contact people I’d like to know. I think this is a major benefit of trying for a symposium, even if it is unsuccessful. I also think this is the part that will foster the most growth for me. If our symposium is selected, we have to write a short blurb for the program, work with the speakers to make sure they know what we want from their talks, make sure they get their abstracts in, and run the show the day of the session.
There were some comments alluding to the fact that it is surprising for students to be taking on a symposium proposal. That’s true – I fear I’m just at the brink of having bitten off more than I can chew – this is very challenging for a grad student and early post doc. However, the society always wants to encourage participation from new scientists so our proposal will actually be favored to some extent because we are so early in our careers. I think we have good people around us who think our idea is good and will help us along or at least keep us from falling on our faces. Let's hope, anyway.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Say fromage!
Here are a few of the photos I took in France. Some of them will poof out in a couple of days. I might post more another day after I see what I've got.
This is the little house where EGM, his parents, brother, sister-in-law, and I stayed. It's tucked into a vineyard just outside a castle (with a now-dry moat!).
*POOF!*
This is us at the bridge over the moat to the fields behind the castle. Sigh...
The view from a high point in St Emilion, with endless vineyards in the distance.
So much cheese at a stall at the Libourne market.
So much wine at a winery we visited.
The 86-year-old winemaker is on the right. He seriously is wearing a beret.
*POOF!*
And finally, EGM and me at the wedding. The expression on his face is fairly representative.
This is the little house where EGM, his parents, brother, sister-in-law, and I stayed. It's tucked into a vineyard just outside a castle (with a now-dry moat!).
*POOF!*
This is us at the bridge over the moat to the fields behind the castle. Sigh...
The view from a high point in St Emilion, with endless vineyards in the distance.
So much cheese at a stall at the Libourne market.
So much wine at a winery we visited.
The 86-year-old winemaker is on the right. He seriously is wearing a beret.
*POOF!*
And finally, EGM and me at the wedding. The expression on his face is fairly representative.
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