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!