After my dismal week doing field science I have had some time to reflect on the nature of scientific work. As an undergrad I worked for a time in a lab that manufactured scientific instruments. Six months of lab work convinced me that I was not meant to work in a lab. Lab work is repetitive and lonely. Field work, of course, has the advantage of a more interesting setting, but is largely the same. What makes this work worthwhile is a passion for the subject. Yes, I said it, an emotional attachment to your subject. All the current adversity involved in my current job would feel less menial and more worthwhile if my co-workers expressed some passion and excitement for the project and it's importance. I have met many scientists and the successful ones all expressed excitement and passion for their subjects.
To make up for my frustration:
Tonight's drink: Pineapple, cranberry, lime, with vodka
Tonight's dinner: Indonisian fried rice with fried tofu (ala Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone)
Friday, August 11, 2006
Science isn't fun
Thursday, August 10, 2006
the "i'm so busy" excuse
I love this post over at Academic Secret, "the Big Secret." It's true that everyone in academia complains all the time about how busy they are. I'm not sure that this is a big problem though. To me it seems to be the only way to manage the insane number of people who want you to be involved in their pet project (whether that is teaching, research, or service.) The only way to politely get out of getting involved with everything that people would like to guilt trip you into is to say, "Wow, I would love to help with XYZ, but I'm just SO busy right now."
That being said, my summer has suddenly turned busy. I spent July underemployed, i.e. working only 10 hours a week for actual money. Of course the whole time I was so concerned about money that I got little of the grant writing and household organization that I had planned done. Now a friend of mine got me hired to help her with the ecological field work that she is supposed to be doing. The project is part of a long term ecological monitoring program for local creeks. It involves surveying 20m plots of vegetation along the creeks, which wouldn't be to horrible except that is 100 degrees around here and the vegetation includes huge patches of blackberry and arundo which has to be hacked through. If you have never heard of arundo take a look at these pictures from the Nature Conservancy. We can't avoid these nasty plants because the vegetation has to be accurately recorded. Frequently, the center of the plot is right in the middle of a huge patch of blackberries or arundo.
Other dangers include tripping and breaking my leg climbing down steep banks/over huge piles of woody debris and ticks. I picked three ticks off myself yesterday. Actually, each time I screamed and brushed them off in a panicked manner, only to have to locate them on the floor so that I could kill them. Yuck! I'm usually fairly difficult to gross out, but ticks are just creepy. While I'm only out in the field 6-7 hours a day, but the end of that I'm completely wiped out, so I haven't been getting any of my other work done. I'm basically getting heat exhaustion every day.
Friday, August 04, 2006
Friday Photo Blogging
I haven't done any gardening since we moved to our new place, but look what volunteered!
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Back to Academia
When I started this blog, I figured that I would mostly use it to talk about my graduate school experience. Luckily, I have recently gotten much more interested in fun topics like sci-fi, gaming, and fabulous new internet developments, but just for a moment I need to return to whining about grad school.
Often graduate school feels isolating in that there are few other students in my program that have similar research interests. Also, our grad program really has no home department. As a result students from our program mix with students from other programs in classes. I often have more in common with students from a couple of other departments than I do with my own cohort.
As a result, students end up search the entire catalog for appropriate courses and even then some of the most interesting courses are usually unlisted special offerings. So word of mouth is important in deciding what courses to take. The department I TA for usually only offers one or two grad level classes each year and they rotate, so if you miss a class you might not get a chance to take it again.
Unfortunately, I seem to be on the bad side of the department chair. (After talking to several other students I'm not sure she has a good side right now.) So I'm faced with a really uncertain future as a TA in the department. I could search for positions in other departments but I really love teaching those classes and I like TAing for the same classes again and again because I can improve the class. I'm not sure whether or not I should attempt to kiss butt or just avoid as much as possible dealing with the chair.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
SF Carnival
The second Carnival of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans has arrived via Pretty, Fizzy Paradise. I like the way she set it up in sections: books/writing, comic books, television and movies, and video games. I love the post from New Game Plus on voice altering software for online gaming. There are also a couple of posts on the new Battlestar Galactica series. It's amazing that the folks behind the new Battlestar has managed not only to get past the campy first series, but also to create a series which gets the viewer thinking about humanity, morality, and the implications of new technologies. If you haven't seen the new Battlestar, take a look that the themes being tackled in these posts: reproductive politics, gender and equality, and racism. I was especially fascinated by Lance's post on the racist casting since I thought the racial mix on Battlestar was pretty good. I'm not sure I completely agree with him, but it did get me thinking. Although there is quite a mix of people of different races on the show, Apollo and Starbuck, the "leads"/heroes, are both white. He is right that there is no representation for black men in the shows characters. Is it important for there to be representation for all combinations of race and gender in every show? I'm not sure, but it did get me thinking...If you started switching around the gender and race of the characters in that show what would happen? For example, they switched Starbuck's gender, making her a woman, how PC would that character be if they had chosen to cast a black woman in that role? Or what if they had switched Apollo to be a black man and Starbuck was played by a white woman? Could the writers still have explored the shape and form gender equality with characters of different races? Could you have a scene in which a man of one race hits a woman of another race and doesn't apologize? How about the character of Sharon, what would be the implications if she was played by a woman of a different race? What does it say about the writing that she is an Asian woman? Does that casting play on the audience's stereotypes of vulnerability and compliance?
Friday, July 14, 2006
Friday Art Blogging
Last night, after my interview I spent 2 1/2 hours waiting at the Amtrak station. I have been trying to teach myself how to draw, so I thought I would share my results...hopefully no one recognizes the location. It's just funny what you end up drawing when you are really bored.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Headline: Garden Saves Woman from Meaningless Life as Artist
Today I had a job interview in "the city." The woman I talked to runs a gardening program at a local school. Now she has grant money to start a job training program for the local adults. She wants to train the adults by teaching them to garden (i.e. having them clean up her school garden). So I'm sitting there in the garden, trying to answer her interview questions, thinking, did these people ask for a job training program? What kind of jobs do these people have now? Do they want jobs mowing lawns? Who is helping who here? Is this woman really helping the kids at the school? Or is it that the kids are healing her from a judgment-filled life in the world of fine art?
I worked for several years on education programs that were funded through grants. Unfortunately, it's often impossible to fulfill the objectives of these grants because most non-profits can't afford to thoroughly think through the program before they write the grant. Once the grant is funded they feel obligated to follow through and do the things they said they would, no matter what the real results for the community.
So I'm talking to this woman and I realize, she's just promised "the city" a job training program and she has no idea how to create a job training program, so she needs to hire someone to create one for her. The only problem...She has most likely vastly underestimated the amount of time and money it takes to create a job training program. Anyone she hires will be paid poorly for a part-time position while being faced with enough work for a full-time position and still not have the time or resources she needs to be successful.
This is why I need to write anonymously, I can't stop critiquing.
