miscellania
jane | April 6, 2009
Today, as I was driving around and flipping through the radio stations, I heard a song from late in my college days....on the classic rock station. (At least it wasn't the oldies station?)
I've recently been friended on FB by friends from waaaaay back....and they are all posting hideous photos from junior high and high school. (There should be a law against this sort of behavior.)
Toddler Jane's upcoming birthday....she'll be 2!! 2!! How did this happen?
I'm having to explain more and more of my cultural references to my students. Today I had to explain what I thought was a pretty…
sb admin | March 23, 2009Just a friendly reminder that tomorrow, March 24, is Ada Lovelace Day, a day devoted to highlighting women in technology. Get your posts together! (Even if you didn't sign the pledge, please join in on the fun!) Details on how to post and tag are here.
I am so excited about my own post---the woman I am posting about totally rocks, and I can't wait to introduce you to her and her work.
Also, while we are on the subject of reminders: If you're not familiar with fellow scibling Isis the Scientist....well, why the hell aren't you reading her already? Anyway, you definitely want to click…
sb admin | March 12, 2009Um, hi. Apparently I've been gone for a while. Yeah. Sorry about that. Life's been a bit crazy around here lately, and I feel like I'm barely keeping my head above water. I'm not sleeping. I'm not taking care of myself. I'm sick. I'm stressed to the gills. I have way too much to do. I feel like I work all the damn time. Hmmm, maybe that's because I *do* work all the damn time.
In addition to not having time to breathe blog, I haven't really been in the headspace to blog. I have a ton of stuff on my mind, but I'm not sure how to blog it. It's all about tenure, of course: the…
sb admin | February 25, 2009I'm supervising a few independent studies this year, with groups of students working on fairly large and fairly fuzzily-defined design projects. These groups couldn't be more different from each other in terms of the way they act as a group, act as individuals, and interact with me. It's got me thinking a lot lately about group dynamics among students and the strong influences that certain individuals have over the behavior of the entire group.
One of the groups is highly functional---on the surface. The students all get along really well with each other and appear to complement each other…
jane | February 20, 2009Dear Circadian Rhythm and Brain,
Cut it out, both of you.
I don't know if this is your idea of a sick practical joke or what, Circadian Rhythm, but I really, really, really do not appreciate being jolted wide awake at 4am. The first time it was regrettable, but now that it's been happening for several days running....well, I am not amused. It's not like I'm going to bed super-early lately---no, bedtime has been our same old, normal time. So what gives? Are you bored? In a bad mood? Did I piss you off somehow? It's not funny. Stop it.
And you, Brain....you know, I expected better from…
jane | February 12, 2009
Sometimes, when I look at Toddler Jane*, my heart aches over how beautiful she is, inside and out. Nothing in the parenting books, nor the advice and stories from other parents, can prepare you for what that feels like.
Call me crazy, but I really do enjoy advising undergrads. It's a different kind of problem-solving: should I drop this class or talk to the professor? do I have time before I graduate to double-major? if I major in X, will I still be able to take classes in Y? Plus, I really like getting to know the students one-on-one, and getting a glimpse into their lives, their…
jane | November 17, 2008I've been tagged for the 5 things meme by GirlPostdoc! And heck, this is way more entertaining than the oodles of work I should be doing, so here goes...
5 Things I was Doing 10 years Ago:
1. Getting ready for a trip to Australia.
2. Wondering if staying in grad school to get the PhD was the right decision.
3. Worrying that my advisor was not going to get tenure.
4. Getting used to living with Mr. Jane.
5. Working all the damn time on the dissertation.
5 Things On My To-Do List Today Tomorrow:
1. Write an exam.
2. Do yoga.
3. Meet with a zillion students.
4. Snuggle with Baby Jane.
5. Try…
jane | October 9, 2008A week or so ago, I was telling Mr. Jane about a dream I had. In the dream, one of my colleagues had found my blog, but was totally cool with it---gushing over it, telling me I should "definitely include it in your tenure packet", and offering to go to the chair and let him in on the secret. (Yeah, it was a bizarre dream.) I suspected that Mr. Jane was half-listening at the time, particularly since I think his reaction was something like "hmmm".
A few days later, Mr. Jane comes up to me as I'm washing the dishes.
Mr. Jane: So, um, how's Colleague treating you these days?
Jane: (puzzled…
jane | September 10, 2008I saw this meme over at Adventures in Ethics and Science: The Vegetarian's Hundred, a veggie-flavored response to the recent Omnivore's Hundred meme. I'm going to play by Janet's rules, which are:
[original] If you want to play along, here's how you do it: copy the list, including my instructions, and bold any items you have eaten and strike out any you would never eat, and then post it to your blog.
[janet's addendum] I'm going to add the following rule: italicize items you have made (or grown) yourself. (Presumably, you've eaten those as well.)
My list is below the fold.
The Vegetarian…
jane | May 27, 2008If you could sit down for lunch, or coffee, one-on-one, with a Very Very Big Name in your field (think Nobel Laureate or, for the CS crowd, Turing Award winner, or similar), what questions would you ask her/him? (Beyond specific questions about his/her work, that is, and the usual small talk.)
The questions that immediately come to mind, for me, are below the fold.
1. What inspired you, honestly, to enter the field/subfield you're in? Were you inspired by a professor or teacher? Intrigued by a particular problem? Or did you just sort of fall into it?
2. What is the most important, crucial…
jane | March 25, 2008
You could have stayed in bed all day and gotten more accomplished than you actually did.
You are a computer scientist---someone who works with computers for a living---and can't figure out how to program a seemingly simple thing on your computer.
You have an encounter that makes you (a) seriously question your department's dedication to properly mentoring you and (b) seriously question whether you have a snowball's chance in hell of getting tenure at your institution.
You have an infuriating encounter with a student that makes you question whether the encounter would have gone much…
jane | March 13, 2008It happens like clockwork: as spring approaches, I get hit with the uncontrollable urge to rearrange my office.
Maybe this is my really bizarre method of "spring cleaning". All I know is that once spring hits, I decide that I simply! can't! work! in my office as it's currently set up, and that it's high time to move some furniture around.
I guess in a way this is healthy---new surroundings mean that you're taking away the familiar, forcing your brain to pay attention and fire new synapses and whatever it is that brains do when they have to "think differently". And that can only be good for…