Women in Science- 2

We had our second Women in Science meeting, this time to discuss Networking. This was another success- there were about 10 ppl, a good size for chatting, many of them new from last time. I felt like I learned a lot (since I didn't lead this session), and I am already starting to see the fruits of this thing. You wouldn't think that spending 1.5 hrs once a month would make much of a difference to yoru career, but it does. After the evening discussion, several of the women from lab wanted to hear about what happened, so we had secondary discussion- 3 or 4 of us, 3 or 4 times- more ideas, more imput, and more support. I like to imagine other people are doing this too. Awesome.

The other big boost is the change in the way people think of me. Perhaps because I am semi-regularly spamming no less than 33 ppls inboxes, but I am suddenly the career person. Did I tell you about the email I got from one of my committee members? After I had gone to discuss with him my ambitions to work in policy, he forwarded me a career newsletter with a note that said "Since you think about your career you might like this." He works surrounded by people who would willingly commit 10+ years to their post-secondary education, but I am the only one he thinks of as thinking about her career. I also got an email from the director of an undergraduate program that regularly invites speakers from off campus to talk to the undergrads about different career oppurtunities, and she asked me if I might like to have lunch and meetings with this weeks speakers. Yes! I suppose that if I could more reliably harness this network magic, I could give my whole persona and overhaul. As is it, I am very pleased with the way things are headed.

Save some and Play some

There is a windfall on the horizon- namely my extremely fat 2008 PFD appeal has been accepted and I am the happy recipient of the dividend and the stimulus-rebate-whatever money. Since I already paid for all my gas and oil in 2008, I am looking at this as a grand opportunity to seize the day. Matt and I are looking to plan a week long trip over the Labor Day weekend (maximizing leave time). Current front runners are Peru and Costa Rica, advantage: both are cheap (so we can do something fiscally responsible with the bulk of the money), exotic and speak Spanish (a language we feel comfortable butchering). Peru has Machu Pichu, Lake Titicaca and the Amazons. Costa Rica has appealed to my siblings to visit- so obviously it doesn't suck. Anyone have some insight to offer? Disadvantage, we still can't afford a guide, so we need somewhere easy to get round on the cheap, where we won't be scammed at every corner (which is how Turkey lost this battle). We'll call this a travel training expedition to get some practice getting by in developing nations.

In other news, the lab has finished moving to our new location on the third floor. There is a little settling in left to do, but for the most part we've all gone back to doing science very quickly. We are leaving next week to go to San Fransisco to visit the Seguins over the 4th- hooray! It is about time for a vacation for both of us.

Ooo... Lavender

Our lab is finally relocating this week.  I am trying to pace myself, moving a cart load between other things so I don't get overwhelmed.  Right now I am packing my desk, and from the back of my filing cabinet I pulled out a sachet of roses and lavender that was a souvenier from Papa's birthday party- lo, these many years ago.  Still smells just like Nana's garden- and really starts the day in a better mood than I might have otherwise been in.

Weekend over, now we rest

Jess is at home right now. She had a really, really busy weekend and I convinced her she should stay home and relax today. That's also the reason you know she needed to stay home and relax; if she had the energy to come in to work, I wouldn't have been able to convince her to stay home.

Anyway, the tournament wrapped up in energetic style last night. The Austin team, unfortunately, lost the battle for 3rd place, but it was a hard-fought game. Jess didn't play, though, so I didn't have to worry about her getting injured. That's pretty much the only win-loss statistic I care about. Anyway, I took Mom Swanson home and did some writing and game-playing to unwind. Jess got home relatively late and was very, very tired. So we relaxed for a while and then just konked out.

I hear tell fathers day went very well up with the Alaska-based Preecs' family. Dad Preecs rode this awesome zlipline at the behest of his youngest daugther. Then she took him out for a beer afterwards. Aah...we're getting old. Also, dad is thoroughly enjoying his new Ipod and the complement of Harry Potter audio that has been ripped down to it.

We're having Noel-Pizza for dinner, which is the BEST PIZZA IN THE WORLD.

-N

It's Derby Time

Jess took to the banked track yesterday as part of the TXRD All-Scar Army for the first round of our local Roller Derby Tournament. They were up against a relatively novice league from Corpus Christi, down the road from us. A sister league, if you will. It wasn’t a very close game, but at halftime the TXRD girls decided to change up their strategy and try some different things, so the final score was 75 to 14 or so. Some of the other scores from the first round were on the order of 150-0, though, so this was a slightly less blow-outy game.

Jess did great, blocking jammers and assisting her team all over the track. I took some video of her that I might edit together later and throw up here, but I did hear the announcers say her name a couple of times during the bouts. She’s starting to make a name for herself in the league. Go Jessie!

The rest of the tournament happens today. The most likely scenario is that Jess will get subbed out for some of the faster players that they were holding back for the bigger games. TXRD will be playing the LA team today. (By the way, when I wrote yesterday that Jess was on the LA team as an alternate? That was a typo. She’s on the Austin Team.) Last year, the LA team came in and just smoked the Austin Team, and so Austin has been really training hard to even the score. It’s definitely going to be a tough race, either way.

I’ll let you know how it wraps up later.

Also, Happy Fathers day!

-N

Things that Happened

Stuff happens, I report on it.

We’ve been pretty busy here at Case de Preecs. The big upcoming event is a big roller derby tournament this weekend, with teams coming in from all over the country, from LA to Michigan. How exciting! Furthermore, Jess is an alternate on the LA team, so that means she gets to skate! She’s just a Rookie, but she enjoyed going to the tournament practices so much that eventually gave her a spot. The likelyhood is that she’ll be skating on Saturday only. She’ll be helping out for everything else, though, so big excitement! Very busy weekend.

Also, Jessie’s mom is visiting! She came out here on a road trip, bringing out various, random thingies with her. We’ve gotten some flowers, several fruits and vegetables, and even a hanging, swinging chair that she got for xmas several years ago that wouldn’t have fit in the apartment. Well we certainly have room for it now! Pictures will be forthcoming once we set it up. We’ve already taken JessieMom out to a couple of flagship Austin restaurants. Rudy’s BBQ continues to impress. She’ll come out for the tournament, too,

My experimental flowerpots are blooming different flowers now. The red-and-yellow ones are producing seeds. I figure I might as well let them. Now there’s some sort of strange, but very pretty, tiered purple flower. JessieMom also wants to head out to the red barn garden center and maybe tune up our front garden a little. I’m all in favor.

I have mostly been playing video games. Between Infamous, Prototype, and Red Faction, my free time is being well spent. And then Fight Night Round 4 in a few weeks. Mein Leisure!

-N

Good News! Packaged in Bad news

Today I got notice that I was nominated for our department's TA teaching award. Hooray! I wish that was where the email stopped. Instead it read forth the details of the portfolio of teaching thingies, and pedagological insights that needs to be submitted for review. I told Dr. Boss, secretly hoping. he would say, that is great!, but you don't have to if you don't feel up to it. Instead, he gave me copious details of the large format this thing should take on. Oh boy. I feel like I don't have much worth assembling, and little hope of actually winning this award (or ever wanting it anyway- man, I am grumpy tonight). The biggest challenge I forsee is the Teaching Philosophy. I am not entirely convinced that I have one of my own, and if I do- let's face, it won't be entirely compatable with the traditional structure of courses taught at this school. Ugh.

I supposed I should take this oppurtunity to get back in touch with Dr. Teacher, maybe he'll have some clues for me.

Happy Weekend

I don't always celebrate "weekends." It's not that I don't want to, but if I spend a couple days a week waiting for cells to be grown just so, I won't deny them if they finally get there on Saturday, as much as I suspect they do this on purpose because they are jerks.

This weekend though, no work. So we celebrated with Pittsburgh on Friday night. Saturday we got up, and decided, Heck, Let's just go to West Virginia. After having grown up somewhere you can't drive anywhere, it is really exhilarating to think you can jump in your car, and drive to somewhere else. Even if you are going to do nothing there too. Took a nice walk along the river (the Monogahala- the same one in Pittsburgh), did some window shopping in downtown Morgantown, ate some soft serve, drove through WVU and came home. Morgantown is only 1.5 hours from here- and we got a kick out of being spontaneous. West Virginia is not all that different from here, but we did see some gap teeth, and an ATV on the road.

Nice to take a full scale break, since this week is looking a little busy. In other news, my phone has been acting out, so we are considering the possibility of new(er) ones. Does anyone know if Verizon phones work in Juneau? Matt gets an employee discount, so we could be convinced to switch networks. I bought some new shoes today, I am hoping this will get my knees and hips back into alignment so I can start running (or at least exercising) again.

Penguins Win the Stanley Cup!

Pittsburgh is very into its sports, as I am sure I have mentioned before. We've certainly discussed the Steelers here, and Pittsburgh continues to trot out the Pirates for old times sake if not wins, and we also have the Penguins- our hockey team. Now, I may be a bit jaded, but I suspect that Steelers fans redirect their fanaticism at the Penguins to keep their crazy riled up in the off season.

A little background: The Penguins are a really good team, and they represent a lot of the cultural diversity we have in Pittsburgh (a lot of Borscht and potato eating people). Last year we had to face the Detroit Redwings in the Stanley Cup Finals, who soundly trounced us. This year, we had to face them again, and the people of Pittsburgh really wanted to come out on top today. My undergrad is a big hockey fan, and he was forever parading out all kinds of ridiculous statistics about how a team that are disadvantaged at the outset often win, or that teams with the average (young) age of our players often beat older teams (like the Redwings). And of course there was the whole debaucle with Hossa- the former Pens player who left our team last year to take a pay cut in Detroit because he thought his chances of winning were better. No love in this town for Hossa.

The Stanely Cup is decided in a best out of 7 series, and at the end of game 7, the Pens had pulled together a 2:1 lead. We watched the game at a friends house in Bloomfeild (Little Italy). As soon as the game clock finished we could hear people whooping it up in the street and cars honking. So we wandered down to the main drag to watch the parade of honking cheering fans give high fives to pedestrians, enjoy a couple illicit fireworks and try to touch the aluminum foil "cup" that was beeing passed around. The people I went with were not die hard fans- or even people who were universally watching the whole series, but at a time like this, Pittsburgh can be such fun. Everyone really rallies around just to celebrate. Unlike the riots in Oakland after the Superbowl, Bloomfeild generally just has crowds of people sharing high fives and singing songs and being blissfully happy about thier team. The overall demonstrations were less in volume and duration then for the Superbowl, but no less joyful.

Well, that is your cultural exchange update. In other news, Matt hasn't been working so much overtime the last couple weeks, so he has been at home in the evenings more even if I haven't. Ceramics is coming to an end soon, so I'll post some more pictures when my stuff gets back- I am thinking about taking the Wood Firing course next, if it is offered. I think it would be a great oppurtunity to do some new things. We've had some really cool results at work this week, which is exciting, but can also add a bit of pressure since my boss is suddenly very interested in what I am doing. I am jealous that everyone is taking really cool vacations this summer, so I might buy some tickets to somewhere wild from Kayak.com and do something awesome ($350 to Belize? why wait until Christmas?)- I'll keep you posted.

How I Met Your Grandmother "Sort of "

This is from an email we recieved recently. I thought more readers would like to see it:


I was the smallest boy in my class in high school. I worried until I was junior that I would not get my weight up over 100 pounds before graduation. But in my senior year year I got up to 103-104. When I got into the navy I tipped the scales at a robust 108 lbs.
In 1937 I went to Hospital Corps School and was assigned to the USS NAL Hospital in Pensacola, Fla. I'm not much of a talker and this was a new life for me and being around southern people I had some learning to do. I listened very carefully at the nightly gab sessions as these were older, knowledgeable men. They called Floridan girls from the northwest panhandlle "sand crabs" for the hundreds of sandcrabs you could see on Florida's sandy beaches, All others were called "Piney Girls" as lots of them were from Mississippi and Louisiana. I made several trips with other apprentices and had gained some confidence. So one evening I approached a young lady just like the older guys did.
"Do you want to dance?" says I. She suddenly confronted me with an unsmiling face and blank stare. "You are a Yankee," she said. For a second I was speechless. "Heavens, no", I said "My people were all wheat farmers. The nearest Yankee was 1500 miles away" Still unsmiling, frozen and unbending. I remembered a story I had once read in the Reader's Digest. You asked a Southerner where a Yankee lived and they said "North of the Mason-Dixon Line." You asked those people they would say a Yankee was from New England. You asked a Vermonter you were told a Yankee was from the Green Mountains and ate pie for breakfast. I finished my story triumphantly "I never had a piece of pie in my whole life for breakfast."
Still unsmiling she said, "You talk funny." "I talk funny?" I said. "I talk the same as 90% of the people in this country. If anybody talks funny its you southerners are the ones talking funny." In the silence that followed I knew I had lost. She slowly turned her head and talked to the girl next to her, leaving me to look at the back of her head. It was clear that on this night she was not going to dance with a funny talking, skinny sailor from Kansas. I never found out if she was a "sand crab" or a " piney girl." Crushed, it took a year and a half before I got up enough nerve to again ask another girl to dance. This time on the California coast. Just maybe--just maybe--if she had danced with me, you might have had a sand crab for a grandmother.

Up: Movie Review

Slate.com has had a leading headline for the last week or so "Turn off your computer and go see Up right now." They were not kidding, but do yourself a favor and pack a tissue. You can read the rest of the entry when you get back.

Seriously, I'll wait.

Now that you've all seen the movie, I think we can all appreciate that all the main elements of the movie were STOLEN from PAPA. At first I thought, the old guy has a certain similarity to Papa, and then some major personality traits in common. You know, retired adventurer, caught up in his habits and fondness for his wife. Pretends to be a grouch around kids, but is a total softy with a bit of a goofy steak. Who among you can't imagine Papa at least pondering the feasibility of a moving the house balloon? This is a guy who sewed his own outdoor gear, remembers life before the original Kelty Frame backpack, spied on the communists, is a world renowned TV and stage actor, and a navy man through and through. I mean, the cartoon old guy goes through his morning routine to Bizet's Carmen- how could you keep it together for that?! What really destroyed me was the end when he says "It's just a house," in deadpan, Papa-voice. This gives me renewed interest in writing Papa's biography (this is a group project, people), and makes me want to nail down the dates for my next visit to Spokane.

Papa, I am bringing my laptop and we are going to start writing. Maybe I'll get a tape recorder, too.