I submitted the symposium proposal today. I feel like we did our honest best, so I'm happy with the product. It was a little nerve wracking to press send, especially after a gaff wherein I emailed the section chair a word document with the track changes still on (they hadn't been showing on my screen). A breathed a sigh of relief later in the day, though, when Cauliflower sent me a very nice and reassuring email saying everything looked great.
We still have two outstanding speaker invitations but if they both say yes, the final gender tally will be 7 women and 2 men. For the most part, we simply looked for the best person to represent certain topics and it just happened to be mostly women. Towards the end, I started to feel a little bad that we had so many women and tried to think of more men, but 7 to 2 is how it worked out. That might change if we get refusals, of course. A common complaint for women in science is that they don't get invited to give high profile talks because they just don't occur to the old boys. I didn't want to be a hypocrite. Given that it even crossed my mind, I think we were as fair as possible.
If the proposal is accepted, it will be awesome to know our work was fruitful and to have the exposure of producing the session. Fortunately, the negative consequences of a proposal like this are pretty limited -- it's not like our salaries are riding on it or anything. Even if it's not accepted, this has been a great learning experience. I have been amazed at how positive and supportive everyone has been and it was cool to interact with a few new people.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Consistency is my saving grace
At least, that's my perception. I don't like binge working followed by periods of slacking off. A major theme of this blog is that I believe working at a consistent, sustainable pace is best.
Today reinforced this ethic. I worked a whole bunch of hours last week and I had a great, work-free weekend as a reward. Today I had a doctor's appointment (no big deal, just my annual Lady Inspection which they didn't end up doing because it hasn't been quite a year since my last one) so I stayed home. It was impractical for me to drive to my normal workplace, but I could have gone to campus, since my appointment was at the university health center. I rationalized that I never get anything done there ; I'm there so infrequently that I spend the whole time catching up with people and running errands. But I know that the real reason was lurking in the back of my mind: I worked extra hard last week, so I deserve a day to loaf around. To clarify, I would not have just taken a spontaneous day off for this reason, but since half the day was going to be at the doctor anyway...you know the rest.
This is the trouble when I put in extra time. There's a backlash. Like the writing book says, only a fool rewards writing with a break from writing and I think it's the same with all the rest of our work. I'm a tortoise, not a hare.
Today reinforced this ethic. I worked a whole bunch of hours last week and I had a great, work-free weekend as a reward. Today I had a doctor's appointment (no big deal, just my annual Lady Inspection which they didn't end up doing because it hasn't been quite a year since my last one) so I stayed home. It was impractical for me to drive to my normal workplace, but I could have gone to campus, since my appointment was at the university health center. I rationalized that I never get anything done there ; I'm there so infrequently that I spend the whole time catching up with people and running errands. But I know that the real reason was lurking in the back of my mind: I worked extra hard last week, so I deserve a day to loaf around. To clarify, I would not have just taken a spontaneous day off for this reason, but since half the day was going to be at the doctor anyway...you know the rest.
This is the trouble when I put in extra time. There's a backlash. Like the writing book says, only a fool rewards writing with a break from writing and I think it's the same with all the rest of our work. I'm a tortoise, not a hare.
Communicating to the masses
Alice recently had some press for her impressive NSF Advance grant. She described how awkward she felt being interviewed for a radio story of he achievement. I left a comment on her post describing a much lower profile experience I had with a reporter, but I thought I'd tell more about it here because it opened my eyes to how difficult it is to bridge the gap to lay people (i.e. non-scientists).
I received an award earlier this year and the awarding agency wanted to include a profile of me on their website, as they do for all recipients. Someone from their PR department called me, scheduled an in-person interview, and asked me to respond to a relatively involved questionnaire before the interview to make it more efficient. I spent at least an hour answering the written questions. The next week, we met for the interview. He was a little late and seemed kind of distracted, but very nice. He didn't really ask me too many questions, saying that I had been so thorough on the questionnaire that he didn't need much else. He took a photo of me sitting in a chair, basically a head shot.
The following week, he calledme to say that he needed to follow up on some information, then sent an email with more questions. It was as though he hadn't read my first responses or even looked at the website for the program that had given me the award, a program that is part of his agency! So I spent another hour or so answering more questions and getting him on track. Another week went by, and then I got another request for clarification, this time with really strange stuff in the questions -- he really hadn't understood what I had told him up to that point. So I responded to the latest email, then called him to further explain my answers. More time passed and then I got more requests, this time for an action photo of me in the field or the lab or something. That triggered a whole 'nother mess with a different set of PR people, but in the end one of the technicians took a picture of me at the bench and it was good enough.
About a week later, the reporter sent a draft of the profile asking me to fact-check it. By this point, I decided I would only object to things that were patently incorrect rather than harping on about small misrepresentations of my work. Lo and behold, the piece was pretty good. A final version eventually got posted on the website*.
The point of this post was not to complain about getting press -- I'm very flattered and grateful for both the award and the coverage -- but rather to demonstrate how difficult it can be to express yourself to lay people. The specifics of what I do aren't well known to most people, but I think the main idea and big picture goals certainly are. I had no idea this guy didn't get it after the first conversation, which makes me think that most lay people who I tell about my work don't get it. The most interesting thing was how my family reacted. I shared the profile with them and they all said that the finally understood what I do. I sincerely thought that they already did understand! I had no idea how poorly I had relayed my research, or even the motivation for my research, to my family. It was really a lesson in how differently you have to talk to non-scientists.
I guess this communication is my theme lately. Sorry to harp on this topic.
* Apparently, this was enough to kick up my Google ranking. I have a common name, so it used to take my name plus a keyword to get results for me on the first page. Now you can do it without any keywords and I'm there. neat!
I received an award earlier this year and the awarding agency wanted to include a profile of me on their website, as they do for all recipients. Someone from their PR department called me, scheduled an in-person interview, and asked me to respond to a relatively involved questionnaire before the interview to make it more efficient. I spent at least an hour answering the written questions. The next week, we met for the interview. He was a little late and seemed kind of distracted, but very nice. He didn't really ask me too many questions, saying that I had been so thorough on the questionnaire that he didn't need much else. He took a photo of me sitting in a chair, basically a head shot.
The following week, he calledme to say that he needed to follow up on some information, then sent an email with more questions. It was as though he hadn't read my first responses or even looked at the website for the program that had given me the award, a program that is part of his agency! So I spent another hour or so answering more questions and getting him on track. Another week went by, and then I got another request for clarification, this time with really strange stuff in the questions -- he really hadn't understood what I had told him up to that point. So I responded to the latest email, then called him to further explain my answers. More time passed and then I got more requests, this time for an action photo of me in the field or the lab or something. That triggered a whole 'nother mess with a different set of PR people, but in the end one of the technicians took a picture of me at the bench and it was good enough.
About a week later, the reporter sent a draft of the profile asking me to fact-check it. By this point, I decided I would only object to things that were patently incorrect rather than harping on about small misrepresentations of my work. Lo and behold, the piece was pretty good. A final version eventually got posted on the website*.
The point of this post was not to complain about getting press -- I'm very flattered and grateful for both the award and the coverage -- but rather to demonstrate how difficult it can be to express yourself to lay people. The specifics of what I do aren't well known to most people, but I think the main idea and big picture goals certainly are. I had no idea this guy didn't get it after the first conversation, which makes me think that most lay people who I tell about my work don't get it. The most interesting thing was how my family reacted. I shared the profile with them and they all said that the finally understood what I do. I sincerely thought that they already did understand! I had no idea how poorly I had relayed my research, or even the motivation for my research, to my family. It was really a lesson in how differently you have to talk to non-scientists.
I guess this communication is my theme lately. Sorry to harp on this topic.
* Apparently, this was enough to kick up my Google ranking. I have a common name, so it used to take my name plus a keyword to get results for me on the first page. Now you can do it without any keywords and I'm there. neat!
Monday, September 22, 2008
Work hard, play hard
Blogging has been light because I've been working my butt off and then I had a hangover. A recap of last week:
My carpool buddy was at a conference so I was driving myself all week. Since he is the one who has to leave by 4pm to let the nanny go home, I took the opportunity tobust ass work long hours. Between Monday morning and Friday night, I worked about 60 hours, which is a whole lot for me in five days. I set a goal of 30 Crummy Tedious samples and decided that if I met that goal by Friday, I didn't have to go in on Saturday. What a carrot! I was in the lab until 12:15 Saturday morning, but I didn't go back until Monday. All 30 samples were completed and my counter ticked up to 88% done!
Saturday morning I slept in a little, then ran errands: I got a bang trim and dropped off sweaters at the dry cleaners. I never have my act together for these little jobs, so I was feeling very smug. So smug that I had momentum to clean the apartment, including a bathroom that I swear hadn't been scrubbed in about a million years. Later, we met some friends at one of this town's best beer gardens (walking distance from our home) where they have giant $9 pitchers of sangria. We got toasted, then went to one of this town's best venues for live jazz. The next day, I had one of this town's biggest hangovers. That didn't stop us from going to breakfast where they have some of this town's best cinnamon rolls and later to this town's best botanical garden.
In all it was a worthy week. Though I hope this next one is a little more relaxed.
My carpool buddy was at a conference so I was driving myself all week. Since he is the one who has to leave by 4pm to let the nanny go home, I took the opportunity to
Saturday morning I slept in a little, then ran errands: I got a bang trim and dropped off sweaters at the dry cleaners. I never have my act together for these little jobs, so I was feeling very smug. So smug that I had momentum to clean the apartment, including a bathroom that I swear hadn't been scrubbed in about a million years. Later, we met some friends at one of this town's best beer gardens (walking distance from our home) where they have giant $9 pitchers of sangria. We got toasted, then went to one of this town's best venues for live jazz. The next day, I had one of this town's biggest hangovers. That didn't stop us from going to breakfast where they have some of this town's best cinnamon rolls and later to this town's best botanical garden.
In all it was a worthy week. Though I hope this next one is a little more relaxed.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Wait... what?
I've been working in the lab a lot lately, which means I've been listening to the radio for hours on end. With all the financial craziness happening, NPR has been pretty enthralling. One of my favorite NPR reporters*, Adam Davidson, the global business guy, has had quite a lot of air time. Yesterday he was on Talk of the Nation, a show that takes listener call-in questions after the initial discussion of an issue. I could totally understand what it was like to be Adam Davidson for part of that hour.
Listeners called in with all manner of slightly strange questions -- nothing dramatically off topic, but stuff that Davidson really wasn't expecting and didn't quite relate to what he had been explaining. He handled it all pretty gracefully, but clearly didn't know what to say to a few people. I have often felt this way when explaining my research to lay people who ask bizarre questions. They obviously have heard of what I do, but don't really understand it and reach back into some bygone science class or they throw out a keyword they read in the newspaper that's not really related. These questions can be difficult to answer because they're just so different from how I think about things but I want to formulate an informative and respective answer because I'm so happy that the person is interested. I have one committee member whose interests are pretty far from mine and he always throws me for a loop with some question that doesn't quite make sense to me. Of course he's the one who doesn't let up, either. It always takes effort to maintain composure at committee meetings with this person.
*I think have a crush on this guy. His reporting is awesome!
Listeners called in with all manner of slightly strange questions -- nothing dramatically off topic, but stuff that Davidson really wasn't expecting and didn't quite relate to what he had been explaining. He handled it all pretty gracefully, but clearly didn't know what to say to a few people. I have often felt this way when explaining my research to lay people who ask bizarre questions. They obviously have heard of what I do, but don't really understand it and reach back into some bygone science class or they throw out a keyword they read in the newspaper that's not really related. These questions can be difficult to answer because they're just so different from how I think about things but I want to formulate an informative and respective answer because I'm so happy that the person is interested. I have one committee member whose interests are pretty far from mine and he always throws me for a loop with some question that doesn't quite make sense to me. Of course he's the one who doesn't let up, either. It always takes effort to maintain composure at committee meetings with this person.
*I think have a crush on this guy. His reporting is awesome!
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
On the much brighter side...
With all that whining yesterday, I almost forgot something much more important: as of yesterday EGM and I have been together for four years. Still quite happy. :)
Monday, September 15, 2008
RBOC
Sigh...we're in a funk in the ecogeo household. Not really for any good reason.
- I went to the lab on Saturday to get some samples done. I slept too late, the ceiling leaked*, there was awful traffic, and several other little crappy things made it so I didn't get to work until 2pm. Then there were ants in my office. EGM said, "you should just work really hard and get all of today's samples finished to redeem the crappy day". So I did.
- But I didn't leave work until 11pm. Then we needed to eat and relax. I went to bed late.
- Then I slept really late on Sunday, which was nice but made it so I didn't want to go to bed on time last night. However, my carpool buddy has a conference this week so I could sleep in a little.
- But I was still so tired this morning I could barely function, and I was late to work. Still, I got to meet a very cool potential collaborator who is visiting the lab for a couple of days.
- But that meant I didn't get through many samples today.
- Good news: I found out that our proposal will be endorsed by the subject section. Less-good news: I found out through a third party. The chair of the subject section hasn't responded to any emails. Maybe tomorrow.
- Good news: one of my colleagues made comments on my paper draft. Less-good news: many of them contradict Academic Advisor's earlier suggestions. Even-less-good news: Research Advisor has still not read any iteration of the paper.
- But I made a super cheap, super easy, tasty dinner.
- EGM had a bit of a panic attack today because he feels overwhelmed by the work that he still has to do for his PhD. Yuck.
- This post has me a little bummed too. But then I remember all the great women science bloggers who inspire me in addition to my own fantastic female mentors and I feel a little better.
- Now I'm going to go to bed early so I can reset my brain for a better day tomorrow.
*Our area had record rainfall -- over 10 inches in some places over the duration of the storm. Even though our roof leaked, I'm thankful that our apartment didn't flood like so many others(well, it would have been unlikely since we're on an upper floor but I'm still grateful) and that my route to work is not blocked by standing water. I'm also thankful that the roof is the landlord's problem. There are some benefits to renting.
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