Six Word meme

ScienceGirl tagged me for this cool meme:

Here are the instructions:1. Write your own six word memoir 2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like 3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere 4. Tag five more blogs with links 5. And don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play


My path is guided by opportunity.


I tag Alice, Stepwise Girl, AcmeGirl, Karina, and Janus Professor.

Earth Hour was underwhelming

My city made a pretty big deal about Earth Hour, saying the whole place would be dark and it would make such a statement and as bonus we'd get to see the stars for once. I was driving home at the time and didn't notice a big difference. A few buildings were darker than usual but still had plenty of nonessential lights burning. Ironically, one of those electronic, back-lit billboards was advertising Earth Hour in bright lights -- during Earth Hour.

Once, I was a fool

Well, I still can be a fool sometimes. But this story is about a time when I was biased against a woman doing science, which I thought would be appropriate for Peggy's Scientiae Canival theme. I can’t believe I ever felt this way. I won’t do it again.

When I was in college, I worked in the lab of a brand new assistant professor. I went to a smallish school with no PhD program and a limited number of master’s student in the department, so undergrads had great access to research opportunities. Because this professor was new, she was still setting up her lab when I joined it. And because the department was small, she was doing most of it by herself. I recall one day I was there during the installation of a fancy piece of equipment that I now know is pretty standard fare for labs in our subfield. There were problems with the installation that required much troubleshooting during the first weeks she had the instrument. As this bright, capable women was buried up to the elbows in tubing and electronics, performing major surgery on the new instrument, I thought, Can she really fix this? She needs to get a man to deal with this. She’s going to break it! Of course, she didn’t break it. She fixed it. And when I moved on to the next lab, I met several very smart and technically savvy women who did similar work and expected me to be able to use and troubleshoot just such an instrument. Which I did, thank you very much.

I shudder now to admit those thoughts even crossed my mind! I would never think such a thing now. There’s no job a woman can’t do with the right tools. But knowing that someone like me could have had those thoughts once upon a time makes me realize that lots of people still have them. I think that’s why I’m drawn to women-in-science issues even though I rarely feel bias myself. Hopefully, women doing great work and speaking out about these issues will shown the remaining fools just how foolish they are.

scientiae-carnival

Is your inner monologue cool?

I am neurotic about my efficiency in the lab. I don’t like for anything to take longer than it needs to take, so I figure out ways to shave time off of every procedure. I pride myself in being fast at particular tasks and have been known to toot my own horn about it.

One of the technicians is learning a procedure that Awesome Technician and I mostly do. I mentioned a short cut for one step and they marveled at my anal retentiveness -- “you have a protocol for that?”. Yes, I do. Just as I have a preferred sequence for every series of steps, a seamless choreography that lets me get just one more sample done.

AT and I considered why I am like this. I suggested it’s because I have a boring inner monologue, so I have to think about how to get done faster, while she can luxuriate in her interesting and creative thoughts. But it probably has more to do with my overwhelming desire to finish my damn thesis.

Mmmm, w(h)ine.

Ecogeoman took me out to dinner tonight to celebrate my birthday. We had a coupon (coo-pon, q-pon?) for one of our favorite restuarants, which included a bottle of wine. That wine will explain any misspellings or irrational thoughts in this post (ha-ha, EGF wrote a drunk post!). Here's what's on my mind:

EGM and I went on a big long walk before dinner and I dominated our conversation with my anxiety over paper revisions. I'm feeling a little depressed about work, mainly because rethinking everything I wrote seems hard. Here's an insight into me: I tell horrible, long boring stories with anticlimactic endings. Every group of friends I have ever made has come to the same conclusion. So while EGM tells me every details of his work, I end up not talking about work stuff so much because I'm worried about being boring. But tonight I let loose and it helped me work out some ideas. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day for rewriting. Also, I hate admitting that the revisions feel hard because I feel annoyed when other people whine (too much) about this sort of thing.

Why, oh why, do I feel like I'm getting bigger yet I continue to wear the same size pants? I've gained a few pounds, probably less than 10, since college. Yet, I periodically feel like my jeans get too tight and I phase them out. I buy new pairs, but they are the same size in the same brands! WTF? Do they shrink over time with multiple washings? Do the sizes vary pair-to-pair? Does the fashionable cut change over time such that what seems tight is actually just a little out of style? It's possible that the sizes are increasing (i.e, today's 6 is tomorrow's 8), but it seems unlikely over the 2-3 year period that I'm making observations. On the other hand, I don't think I used to have this muffin top. :(

It feels like spring is never going to arrive. There is still snow on the ground and more is forecast for Thursday. Jenny F., maybe you should reconsider the Midwest, because it really sucks this year, even though I was one of those people who said it was just great and winter is no big deal and you get to wear fun hats.

We learned this weekend that S4 is pregnant with her third kid. yay! But it means that my parent's house is going to be even more jam packed with people at holidays. I love our fun and chaotic gatherings, but boy are there a lot of people.

Double whammy weekend

This year, I share my birthday with Jesus' resurrection (zombie day?), so Ecogeoman and I are dutifully off to my hometown for the weekend. I think we'll have fun. We're going to spend Saturday evening with my BFF and some other friends and then Sunday will be a family Easter extravaganza, complete with an egg hunt and many arguments over peanut butter eggs which are the centerpiece of our candy cap-and-trade system. We're taking Monday off to drive back home at a leisurely pace.

I'm really excited about going away for the weekend. EGM has been so stressed and busy with work and I could use a break as well. I am not, however, too excited about this birthday, 29. I have clear childhood memories of my mom teasing my sister-in-law about aging, saying she should say she was 29 when she was well past 30. Not an novel joke, but one I heard so young that it stuck with me. It makes me feel now that I have only the last crumb of my youth left to savor. But, I can take heart that no matter now old I get, I will always be fresh compared to my siblings!

Medium and Good

The Medium:

1. We discussed the first draft of my manuscript at lab meeting (led by Academic Advisor, not Research Advisor). It was a good experience; I got lots of constructive comments. I had asked them to focus on big picture issues, like organization, consistency, data interpretation, main themes, etc., rather than details since the paper is at an early stage (I don’t want to polish sentences that might just get deleted). Some people marked up stupid style and formatting stuff anyway, but at least they read it. We haven’t discussed many working drafts in our lab meetings, so AA used my manuscript as a tool to teach everyone some broad writing lessons. Some examples:

• Title, abstract, first pragraph of intro, first paragraph of results, first and last paragraphs of discussion, and conclusion should all match and contain the same point(s).
• Avoid starting major sections with “negative” statements. For instance, “this bad disease disfigures hundreds of people every year” is not positive. AA claims that the papers that come off as most exciting and interesting phrase things in a positive way.
• This one is more obvious, but apparently I had trouble with it: determine your audience and write with the appropriate degree of detail. I guess I mixed general ideas that would appeal to a broad audience with finer points that would bore everyone but specialists in my subdiscipline.

So the lab meeting was mostly good, but today I felt a little overwhelmed when I started to attack the problems. I will basically have to rewrite the paper, which is fine because it will get so much better, but I need to develop a strategy. AA said he would email me his specific comments – they might help me figure out where to start. I currently feel frustrated.

2. I have been making slow progress on the crummy, tedious, boring, dirty project (see progress meter at sidebar). Today I worked on the Worst Samples Ever. My plan was to chip away on this project while working on manuscript revisions. It’s bench work that I usually sort of enjoy and that a trained monkey could do, so I figured it would be a good way to spread out the difficult rewriting while still moving forward on something. But today’s samples were so crappy that it only added to my overall frustration. I really want to finish with these fuckers.

The Good:

1. My fellowship got renewed for one more year. Yay! This is a big relief.
2. My BFF invited me to go on vacation with her and her parents this summer, at the same time that Ecogeoman is going to Far Off Land. I’d only have to pay for myself to get there and maybe chip in for food. EGM and I had basically decided that I should not go to Far Off Land with him (too expensive) so I’m excited to go to Florida instead. :)
3. I was in a really sour mood when I got home today, so EGM and I got beer and dinner at our favorite neighborhood bar. Then we got ice cream -- yum. I feel much better now.