Sciencewomen

InaDWriMo Week 3: And then it all fell apart

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 16:13:39 -0500

Having worked on my writing every day for the first two weeks of November, I concluded last week feeling rather optimistic about InaDWriMo's success in getting me to increase my productivity. But I was also very tired. And in order to make time for writing every single day, I was working longer hours (i.e., seeing less of Minnow) and letting lots of other things slide (i.e., my lectures were terrible and let us not even describe the house). What I didn't realize last Saturday was how close I was to the tipping point...

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Dynamic equilibrium, a geological haiku

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:09:15 -0500

Mountain streams erode
but isostatic uplift
keeps relief the same

A humble contribution to the geological haiku meme, originated by survat, with a listing of contributions by Chris R.

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On what Isis has called for for December's Scientiae...

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:37:01 -0500

Jumping into the breech, Isis has called for posts on, "My Science is Hotter than Dr. Isis's Naughty Monkeys Because..." by midnight on December 1. So get your posts in to Isis for what I'm sure will be an excellent carnival (although of course they are always excellent... :-) ).

In addition, skookumchick has called for volunteers for 2009's carnivals. Want to help out? Volunteering directions are here.

PS - can someone fix my grammar in the title? Pleeese?

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InaDWriMo: Alice midweek 3

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:58:54 -0500

Since my public confession, I kind of have gotten my writing groove on. I think I'm ready to turn revision-paper #1 around (at least, send it to my mom to see what she thinks), and I've made progress on the gender-diss paper. Yay me! Now moving on to class prep, and meeting prep...

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Five things meme

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 12:36:08 -0500

Isis tagged me for the five things meme that's making the rounds (again, actually, I know I've done this one at least once before.) But this time I borrowed Abel's idea and added a cool graphic that I got from takoma-bibelot on flickr.

5 things I was doing 10 years ago.

working towards my undergraduate degree

trying to decide whether to be a scientist, doctor, or lawyer

using ICQ to chat with my now-husband

living in my first apartment with a good friend and a third

falling in love with the Princess Pup

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InaDWriMo: Alice's week 2 -- hardly a sausage

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 08:56:23 -0500

As Science Woman has noted, we're moving into week 3 for InaDWriMo and my progress has been lamentable at best. I found no word count thingies, I am way behind on my gender dissertation paper, and I'm avoiding the resubmit paper. In good news, I've asked my graduate student for help on the gender theory and literature paper (hi student!) and am hopeful we're moving forward on that a bit, but I could be writing the beginnings of the paper and have not yet started.

However, I have some time today -- no meetings until 1 -- so I'm sitting at my writing space and... blogging apparently. I'd better get down to the writing part. I've also blocked out time on my calendar this week explicitly for writing, AND next week I'm avoiding the office entirely (I'm going on a research trip next weekend which almost maps up to Thanksgiving, so I've made it official and will be out all week. No excuse not to get writing done). Hopefully next week will have a better update.

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Open Lab 2008: Help us nominate the best posts!

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 06:40:45 -0500

Open Lab 2008 is a printed anthology of the best science blogging of the year. We're now only two weeks from the deadline (December 1) for nominating posts for inclusion in this year's anthology. The fifty best posts, plus one poem and one cartoon, will be chosen by a panel of judges, and the winners will be printed in a book published by Lulu.com. That's right, time spent frittered away on blogging could earn you the right to (truthfully) say "I'm a published author." As usual, Bora's got all the details.

Open Lab is now in it's third year, and the last two years had wonderful writing about science, but were, in my opinion, woefully short on posts about being a scientist (or engineer). Posts about being a woman in science (or engineering) were even less well represented. But let's try to turn that around this year. Let's nominate such amazing, candid, funny, and heartbreaking posts that it'll be impossible for the judges to ignore our talent or dismiss our stories and experiences.

So my challenge to you, dear readers, is to look back through your own blog archives (since Dec. 20, 2007) and nominate your favorite post or two. Then go to some of the other bloggers in your feed reader and do the same. The deadline is December 1st, and there's a simple web submission form.

Below the fold, I've identified some of my favorite posts from the past year of Sciencewomen. Please help me decide which posts should be nominated by leaving a comment or simply by nominating your choice directly.

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InaDWriMo Week 2 Update

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 14:27:54 -0500

It's Saturday again, time for another update of my progress towards this month's InaDWriMo goals.

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Batsignal raised at Scientiae: need host for Dec 1 carnival!

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 11:32:30 -0500

Scientiae webspinner skookumchick has raised the batsignal for a strong and courageous host who can take on the task of running the December Scientiae (to be posted Dec 1 or thereabouts). If you can do it, email Scientiae directly. Otherwise, the spate of bad Scientiae luck will continue :-( .

In addition, she invites volunteers to host for 2009 - let her know in the same way. Thanks!

Update: Isis is going to host! Yayayay! Watch for a cfp soon!

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A beautiful post from Kate

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 20:31:46 -0500

I'm at the end of a super long work week, one where I saw even less of Minnow than usual, and one that's leaving me wondering whether my priorities need adjusting.

And as I listen to Minnow babble herself to sleep down the hall, I discover this beautiful post from one of the most thoughtful bloggers I know.

But here's the thing: making a workplace more family friendly is a fight that cannot be one by women alone. Women cannot be the only ones making a ruckus in the workplace and fighting with themselves, their peers and their bosses to effect change. If we make a nurturant woman's workplace more friendly but not her partner's, it means the woman is always being flexible, always ceding her own wishes, because it is more permissive in her workplace.

Go read the rest of the post, please.

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Workshop "On-ramps to Academia"

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:40:14 -0500

The University of Washington's ADVANCE Center for Institutional Change received an award this year from the National Science Foundation ADVANCE program to hold professional development workshops for Ph.D.-level women in industry, research labs, consulting, or national labs who are interested in transitioning to academic careers in STEM. The first workshop will be held October 19 and 20, 2009.
This workshop will be very helpful to women interested in making the
transition to academia. The workshop speakers will primarily be
successful women faculty members who began their post-Ph.D. careers in
industry, research labs, consulting, or national labs. The attendees,
speakers, and workshop organizers will form a community who can
support each other during the job application period, the interview
process, the startup negotiations, and the first years in academia.
The workshops will be limited to 30 participants.

If you are interested in attending this workshop, please visit
http://engr.washington.edu/onramp/mail-list.htm and fill out the
mailing list request form. You will contacted at a later date about a
simple application process.

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Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:48:49 -0500

As you've probably heard, Isis the Scientist has gotten herself some new digs around these parts. Her blog, "On Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess," also got itself a shiny new banner.

And while I've got to admit that I admire her for strongly-held opinions on footwear and other subjects, I'm disappointed by her obvious failure to cite her sources.

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A Day in the Life: Year 2, Part 3

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:12:22 -0500

Where we left our heroine at the end of the last episode, she was on her way to pick Minnow up from daycare. Work day's over right? Should be smooth sailing from here to midnight. Maybe, maybe not.

(Note to Lab Lemming: Don't worry about the time to type up these posts. They were compiled from short emails I sent to myself throughout the day...this is lazy blogging.)

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Hooray, DonorsChoose t-shirt winners!

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 07:47:46 -0500

I'm just thrilled with our final numbers from our DonorsChoose campaign -- because of your generosity, $2953 are going to go help 1,126 needy kids learn some critically important science. And I'm also psyched that Sciencewomen came in second of all the Scienceblogs participating in both amount donated, and numbers of donors (43!!) We came in 4th in terms of the number of students reached. Congratulations, everybody.

I've also finally pulled together the list of winners of our t-shirt drawing. Methods and winners are below!

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Rash confession made too late at night.

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 23:27:56 -0500

You know, maybe it's just because it is 11:30 at night and I have another hour to wait to pick up my husband from the airport shuttle place, but...

... there are some days I wish I was still pseudonymous.

'Cause then I could tell you just how tired I am, how even though I had a lot of good meetings today, I am feeling SO COMPLETELY over my head. How much I worry about failure. How much I feel like I have to squish aside and hide the crazy-cool me in order to be Dr. Me at work who is supposed to know everything already, how much I feel I'm being sucked into being in crisis-busy mode all the time so that I have no space in my head to think about being me because I'm too worried about all the work I have to do. How I worry about how I'm guiding my students, 'cause they wouldn't know my blog was me. But they do. Hi, students.

As I am not pseudonymous, I clearly won't say such things.

There are good things about not being pseudonymous, too. As there are about being a faculty member.

But I'm too tired and my head is too full to share them at the moment. My blogging silence may continue for a while.*

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*With the exception of one final DonorsChoose results post (I'm just waiting for confirmation from one more person... If you donated, and have a yahoo-related email, check your spam for an email from me!)

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