books!

18. Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd
I just finished this and am not totally sure what to think. I thought it was really well written and the characters and setting were all interesting. The book travels through three time periods in the main character's life and I thought this was really well done. Also, as a primatologist, I was impressed with the author's portrayal of primatology. He must have done some serious research!

Here's why I am not sure what to think about the book in the end, though. I felt like there is so...more I am not totally sure what to think of this book. I thought it was really well written and the characters and setting were all interesting. The book follows a woman who studies chimps through three key time periods in her life and I thought this was really well done. Also, as a primatologist, I was impressed with the author's portrayal of primatology. He must have done some serious research!

Here's why I am not sure what to think about the book in the end, though. I felt like there is some deeper meaning I am meant to grasp, but I don't know what that meaning/message is, and all the ones I can think of seem not interesting to me. Apes and humans are the same? We have a cruel, animal nature? Chimp society is not a peaceful ideal? I feel like all those are obvious truisms, and I think I would have liked the book a little more if it seemed more like the story of the main character, and left the attempt at bigger messages out.

19. Fire by Kristin Cashore
I just finished this and am not totally sure what to think. I thought it was really well written and the characters and setting were all interesting. The book travels through three time periods in the main character's life and I thought this was really well done. Also, as a primatologist, I was impressed with the author's portrayal of primatology. He must have done some serious research!

Here's why I am not sure what to think about the book in the end, though. I felt like there is so...more I really loved this book, which is sorta related to the author's other book, Graceling, but not really. It is the story of a kingdom where there are "monsters", versions of living things that are more beautiful and mesmerizing than the normal sort. They can also control minds to get what they want. The main character is Fire, the last human monster.

I thought the characters in this book were so compelling and well-realized, and the rather complex plot with political intrigue and war was handled really well. The story is really that of people with power learning how to handle their power responsibly. Seriously, I could not put this book down and wish I still had more of it to read.

20. Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America by Barbara Ehrenreich

This book is a pretty harsh critique of America's obsession with positive thinking. I was skeptical of reading it as I consider myself an optimist and a positive thinker. However, my kind of positive thinking is not what Ehrenreich is talking about. She is more talking about a belief that a good attitude will get you success in life without the accompanying work. A la The Secret.

Parts of this book were great, and parts were not. In the end, I think it was not enough content for a whole book. I thought the first part, about the problem with the obsession with positive thinking in regards to cancer and medical treatments was great. I also like the part about how positive thinking lead to the recent economic crisis. The middle parts about how positive thinking has roots as a backlash against Calvinism and how it is used today in Christian mega-churches were not as strong.

In the end, this is an interesting premise, that I think either needed a lot more rigorous research and a longer book or should have remained as two essays, about cancer and the recession.

Architecture

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

I don't really know anything about architecture, but I have been struck by many of the buildings here in Chicago. Many times I am just going about my day and am struck by a cool building. One of my new faves is the Carson Pirie Scott Building on State Street. It has this totally awesome cast iron facade. The facade was all covered up for most of the time I've lived here, until recently. I had the strange experience of riding the bus on State St. not too long ago, something I do nearly every day, when I suddenly noticed this building. It was so amazing, I could not believe I had never noticed it before. Luckily I realized I was not crazy, but the place had been all covered up.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/iconeon/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Musica!

Here are two artists I am newly obsessed with. I actually bought their albums off of iTunes, and I rarely buy new music.

This song is pretty much always in my head: Shark in the Water by V V Brown.

Second is the Wingdale Community Singers. Here is Blue Daisy. They say they write folk/country inspired song about where they live (New York City). This is actually not one of my favorite songs. If you can find "Rat on the Tracks" or "Bike Shop Boy" those are both awesome.

Books!

15. A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You by Amy Bloom
I read this collection of short stories for a book group I am in. I rate the whole collection so-so. A few of the stories really stuck with me, but overall they ran together and it was hard to differentiate them. Something about Amy Bloom just does not make an impression on me. I am sure I read here novel, "Away", but I have absolutely no memory of it aside from the cover.

16. The Curse of the Pharaohs by Elizabeth Peters
More adventures of Amelia Peabody in Egypt. In this one she and her husband escape the boredom of having to live in England for their small son's sake and get involved with a crowd of eccentric characters in an excavation at the Valley of the Kings. Fun, like all these books are.

17. The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor
I debated between three and four stars (out of five)for this one. The premise of this book is that Alice Liddell, the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland, is indeed a princess from the actual land of Wonderland. I did like its originality and re-imagining of Alice in Wonderland. My only problem was that I thought the pacing seemed kind of weird and that huge chunks of time were leapt over, which was a little jarring. But still, a nice, fun, re-working of Alice in Wonderland that makes Alice into a pretty awesome warrior queen.

Just a quick post from phone to announce that today I sent my dissertation to my committee. hopefully they will like it and I can move on to defense scheduling!

Like a fish

People! I do not think I have told you about my swimming lessons! If you look back into the past, a mere 2 months ago, you will see that one of my New Year's Resolutions was to take swimming lessons. I have been doing it! Only two weeks left and I only missed one. It has been super great. Swimming is such good all body exercise, and does not ever hurt my knees. I have also made awesome progress, and really mostly need to practice more. Yesterday I made it all the way across the pool without stopping once (we are in the shallow end, so I can stand up if I get too much water up my nose). Anyway, it is super exciting, and because of my swimming success I have decided to make a long term goal of doing a triathlon by the time I am 40. I will also need to get a bike.

More awesome

Here is another awesome thing. A web comic called Anders Loves Maria. It is about a Swedish couple, and written by a Canadian/Swede. It is NSFW and maybe NSFP (not safe for parents) as there is sex and nudity. I have been reading this for awhile, and the story just ended. Make sure to start at the above link and go forward so as to not be spoiled.

Anyway, it is a sweet/real/sad/funny story of a relationship and I've really enjoyed reading it.

Books!

12. City of Glass by Cassandra Clare
This is the third book in a series about a regular girl in Brooklyn who finds out she is actually part of a magical group of people with the job of keeping demons out of our world. I remember really liking the first book and the second, and I enjoyed this one, but I felt the characters were getting a little tired. They lost their complexity and interest a little bit. Also, I figured out all of the surprises really early in the book. That said, it was a satisfying third book and would be fine to end a trilogy, although I think there is a fourth book coming. I will also read it. If you like YA fantasy of strong teenage girls kicking some demon ass, plus some romance and drama, this is a great book for you.

13. Graceling by Kristin Cashore
Another YA fantasy novel with a strong female lead. I liked the story of this book better, and really liked the main character who struggles with having a supernatural power of killing. This book twists around a lot of the conventions of fantasy novels and has a lot of good women who seem to be damsels in distress but then take control of their situations. The writing was a little uneven at times, but the characters are all very compelling. I liked this one a lot and will also read the rest of the trilogy.

14. Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters
I am apparently all about the kick ass women lately. This is the first book in a long series about Amelia Peabody, a Victorian woman who gets involved in arachaeology and manages to have an exciting and intellectually fulfilling life despite the constraints society puts on women. In this book, she sets out for Egypt, discovers her love for archaeology, and meets up with a bunch of characters important in the future books. I first read a bunch of these when doing field work, and I am not planning to read them in order to get the full story. Amelia Peabody is an awesome character to spend time with.

Becoming moral

I have already waxed poetic about Radiolab. Because they do not make enough new podcasts for all my commutin', I have been listening to oooold episodes. Today on my run (3 miles! woo!) I listened to this one about morality. One of the stories is about a woman who has been haunted by the way she behaved while playing a frontier simulation game back in 4th grade. She talks to various people and finds out that a lot of people have a memory like this. The first time you remember being really embarrassed by your behavior, a time when you did not do what was right that you can't forget and you keep coming back to it.

Some suggest that these times are so memorable, in that they help us remain moral being later on. Once you experience the terrible shame of knowing you did something wrong, you want to avoid that as much as possible. Sometimes these episodes might really impact who you are years later, as you swear to never repeat it.

Anyway, I was struck by this idea and could immediately think of two times when I was about 10 when I behaved in a way that, to this day, I am still really not proud of. Even though I know I was really young and I probably wouldn't blame an actual 10 year old for behaving this way, I am ashamed of what I did at the time.

1) When I was 10 my family moved across the country to a new state. I started a new school in 5th grade. A lot of the other kids had grown up together, and it was the first time I was the "new kid". I was really worried about fitting in. One girl was really nice and welcoming to me so I sat with her at lunch for a couple of days. Until somehow I got in with the more "popular" girls, and they told me if I ever wanted any friends not to hang out with this girl any more. So I didn't. I totally stopped and even joined in when others make fun of her. Today, that seems so unlike me that I am mortified that I ever did it. But maybe doing it, and feeling bad about it, is part of what makes that something I would not do today.

2) This one is not about interpersonal relationships, but about beliefs. It also happened around the same age. When we moved, I also moved from public school to Catholic school. I have mostly good things to say about Catholic education, and attribute a lot of my academic success to my time in Catholic school, but this was not one of its shining moments. I was in religion class and we were reading in the New Testament where Jesus is sending his disciples out into the world he tells them that they, the disciples, are worth more to him than sparrows (Matthew 10:31, if you are interested. I had to use a concordance to look this up. Lucky I have a husband who studies religion!). Anyway, somehow the class got into a discussion of how this meant God loved humans more than animals, and that lead to the fact that animals didn't have souls and would therefore just be dead when they were dead. I have always really loved animals, and at this time had both a dog and especially a cat (Tiger, may he rest in peace) that I totally loved so I just could not deal. Also, it seemed really mean of God to not make an animal heaven. I have never been shy about speaking in class so I asked something about this, or expressed my doubt that animals lacked souls, and the teacher was really not happy. Eventually, she made me stand up and repeat after her that "animals do not have souls." It was terrible and I was embarrassed I ended up giving in and saying something I really vehemently did not believe to avoid getting into trouble.

So those are my stories -- two instances when I was just figuring out how to behave, that have really stuck with me and taught me what it feels like to really know something is wrong and do it anyway. Do you have stories like this?

Awesome

You are going to hear all about my new true podcast love, Radiolab, in this and my next post. There is no podcast or radio show that is more creative, thoughtful and interesting. Each show asks big questions, like what makes animals animals and humans humans? And then tries to answer them by talking with various scientists and other people. On top of this, it is packaged really creatively, not just in a straightforward documentary style.

Anyway, all that is to tell you about an episode I was listening to called Space Capsules about the Voyager space craft which you have probably heard of. It set off in 1977 carrying a record that had all kinds of sounds from earth on it -- kind of a time capsule to let any aliens know about us. On this episode of Radiolab, they asked various people what they would put on a record today, what sounds would they want to share with any other life out there?

The answers are all really interesting, and it got me thinking. What are the most awesome things around me? What are some amazing things that I want to share about life on earth? To answer this question, and to help me appreciate more the awesome things I encounter all the time, I am opening a new blog feature called The Museum of Awesome. I just want to collect little images, stories and moments that I think are awesome.

So this first entry in the museum is my best podcast love, Radiolab.

Thing I love

R and I have never been into Valentine's Day. It is nice when you are a kid and give out those drugstore valentines and get candy and stuff, but the concentration on romantic relationships as one gets older is not fun. A lot of people tell R he is lucky I don't care about it, as I guess I should stereotypically be demanding chocolates and jewels and flowers. I am pretty much always demanding chocolates, but the rest I can do without. We're looking forward to a nice day of working followed by some important tv watching: The Amazing Race and some Winter Olympics (pairs figure skating starts tonight!).

Anyway, in the spirit of a more inclusive meaning of love and at the suggestion of an internet friend, here is what came to mind when I thought of all the things I love for a few minutes:

R
My family
So many friends
The cats -- even the one I am threatening to make into mittens
licorice tea from Stash
My office
monkeys
the jungle
the Amazing Race
the Winter Olympics
my bed
fresh snow before anyone has walked on it
RadioLab
the biological processes that let us live
evolution
sunny days
Lake Michigan
the portobello sandwich from a place in Grad School Town
homemade pizza
all my kitchen gadgets
fresh ground coffee
the Sunday paper
my tivo
driving all the way up Lakeshore Drive
Dove milk chocolate
popcorn
weird shaped fungus
pajama pants

Books!

I owe you some books!

7. Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination by Helen Fielding
Pretty typical chick lit in a lot of ways, although I found the plot kind of more all over the place then usual. It was a cut above a lot of this sort of book, though, as the main character was strong and capable and not obsessing over getting a man. Good fluff, but had some weird pacing stuff going on.

8. Whose View of Life? Embryos, Cloning and Stem Cells by Jane Maienschein
I saw this author speak at a conference, and she is an excellent speaker. I was excited to read this book, but found it really dry and somewhat superficial. I was looking for more of a description of the different views on cloning and stem cells, and this was a pretty straight up history of how humans have viewed embryos through the years. The beginning history was really interesting, but I would have liked more specific examples of recent events and more in depth examinations of the ethical arguments behind using or not using stem cells for research.

9. Book of the Dead by Patricia Cornwell
I don't know why I read these. Oh wait, because I get them for free sometimes! But seriously, the writing is not good. I used to really like the main character, a medical examiner, but now I am over her as well. This books is not well-written and ends with annoying cliffhangers. I can't promise I won't read more of these, but I'll feel kind of bad about it when I do.

10. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
One of the best sequels I have ever read. This is as good or better than the first book, The Hunger Games, and I may die of impatience before the third book comes out. Some nice post-apocalyptic dystopian young adult fiction.

11. Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss
Awesome, funny book about punctuation. If "about punctuation" sounds good to you, read this book.

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Inspired by the famous person doppelganger meme on Facebook, I thought I'd see which celebrities I look like. I would like you to note, that although Blogger is cutting him off a bit, there is an old man on the end there. Also, Nancy Kerrigan?

Book!

6. The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson
There's been a lot of buzz about these books by a Swedish writer who died shortly after turning in the manuscripts. I read the first book last year. Like the first book, I found this book to start slow, but then I was totally engrossed by the story and could not put it down. I think the author's main ability is in the creating of dramatic tension, but there is also a lot of weird phrasing and pacing in the book. In addition, there is some violence against women stuff that is troubling. In the end I will also definitely read the third book when it comes out in May, but unlike some I do not think these are the best thing ever.

Avatar!

R and I and a bunch of friends finally saw Avatar in 3D last night. I went in expecting to think the story was boring and to possibly be offended on various levels. I expected the visuals to be awesome. I did think the story was boring, but that it was a super-pretty movie and very cool in 3D. I was not really offended, because the story was in a lot of ways so trite that there was not much to be actually offended by. If you haven't seen Avatar yet, be careful reading further as there may be slight spoilers.

As an anthropologist, I was struck by the fact that the scientists seemed to be some sort of general purpose scientist, and that if they had an actual anthropologist they might have had more luck getting to know the Na'vi. But this is nothing new, movies and tv often have a "scientist" who grasps all fields equally, making me think they must have spent a really long time in grad school. Although they are often also young and attractive, so maybe they are just geniuses.

The real take-home message I got from Avatar was to never work for the military/giant corporations as it will all go horribly wrong. CounterPunch has a post comparing the scientists in Avatar to the Human Terrain Teams that the US Military is using in Afghanistan and Iraq.

So in the end, I enjoyed my experience watching the movie because I enjoyed the 3D and the cool world of Pandora. I found the 3D to make the movie an especially immersive experience, and I thought several times during the movie that a Lord of the Rings or a Narnia movie or an Anne McCaffrey book inspired movie would be awesome in 3D. Those are all worlds I have been sucked into in book form, and it would be awesome to have that experience using the technology involved in Avatar. I was actually surprised at how much the visuals allowed me to be sucked in to the movie, despite the fact that I was intellectually aware the story was sub-par. Here's an interesting look at why we are so affected by virtual worlds. But in the end, I agree with this Savage Minds post that aside from the effects the movie has so little to offer that there is no great and deep commentary I can make, except killing people for their resources is bad.

Books!

4. The Magicians by Lev Grossman
It took me a little while to get to this book, although I was excited for it when it first came out. It was billed as an "adult Harry Potter". I totally love the regular Harry Potter, along with all the Narnia books, so I was interested to see where this went. I just finished the book this morning, and I am not sure what I think of it. Some of the Narnia allusions were really heavy handed, and I think the book tried to cover too much time. Basically it follows one person, Quentin, as he starts a magical school and 17 then graduates and goes on through life for awhile. Some sections of the book were really good while some were not, and Quentin was kind of grating as a character. So I don't know if I recommend this or not. You can give it a try if you are interested in people being swooped up into magical schools and lands, but this book never quite came together for me.

5. Little Black Book of Stories by AS Byatt
I am not a fan of Byatt, and probably would not have read this if it were not a book club pick. Like her novels, I wished most of the stories were about half as long as they are. I did like the last two stories ok. So if you like Byatt, you will like these. But if you don't, no need to read them.

Weekend

We had such a full weekend so far! Our friend Matt came in Friday night and we picked him up at Midway (they have some very strict traffic control people there who barely let you slow down to put a passenger in your car. wow) then we went to a Thai restaurant, had some snacky snacks, then came home and drank some drinky drinks and hung out. Matt is a perfect kind of friend who enjoys sitting around talking and drinking and looking up info on the US Interstate System on Wikipedia. We stayed up until 1:00 am, which is crazy for me these days. Saturday we used a free pass from the library to go to the Art Institute, where we enjoyed a lot of modern art and the miniature rooms. We also walked across a cool bridge to Millennium Park.

After all that, we drove Matt to Evanston to hang with his family, while R and I stopped off at a very tasty restaurant called Lucky Platter which was soooo good. I highly recommend it. I had a very tasty portobello sandwich and mac n cheese.

After that we were exhausted so we came home and napped and then headed out with some other friends to a piano bar. It was cheesetastically fun, but even better was the visit to the giant shiny McDonald's that occurred after the piano bar. We were up until after 1:00 that night too.

Finally we are to Sunday, wherein I need to work on the dissertation and grade some papers. Most importantly, tonight is the Golden Globes during which I will defeat Melinda in our annual contest of who can predict the most winners!

Winter

I know I've gotten some of your hopes up with all this posting of late. I'll try to keep it up some, but no promises. I just made it through the first week of the quarter and I am having a hard time adjusting. I think it is all the fault of the 8:00 class. I am really not a morning person. So far I am just so tired this quarter, although I have had more classes before and I am actually on top of all my work. I'm prepped ahead in all my classes and I have been making time to work on my dissertation and to exercise. I think the exercise might also be contributing to my tired, and I just need to get used to it all.

Books!

2. Free for All: Oddballs, Geeks and Gangstas at the Public Library by Don Borchert
This was ok. I just thought it overall was not that interesting. I am aware that crazy people, homeless people and unsupervised children go to the public library all the time and hijinks ensue. I thought the stories in this were not that interesting and not that well written. Maybe I know too many librarians in real life? Or spend too much time at the public library? Or both?


3. A Gap in Nature by Tim Flannery
Not really a book to read straight through, but this is a beautifully illustrated book of 103 different animals that have gone extinct sine 1492. Interesting, but most worth it for the illustrations.

Resolute!

In recent years, I have gotten into New Year's Resolutions. I used to think they were a set up for failure, but after actually completing some, I now think they are a good chance to implement some changes in life. So here are mine for 2010:
*keep running 2 times a week
*run an 8k in March
*run a sub 30 minute 5k
*if knees start to hurt go to PT
*take swimming lessons
*eat at one new restaurant a month
*have one social interaction (with someone besides the husband) once a week
*finish the dissertation

So that is more resolutions than I wanted to make, but I am already training for the 8k, already signed up for swimming lessons, and only have 1.5 chapters left on the diss, so I am ahead of the game!

2010 book!

Yay! First book for 2010:
1. The World According to Mimi Smartypants by Mimi Smartypants
Mimi Smartypants has a blog that I find hilarious. I love her writing, and she lives in Chicago and writes a lot about funny things seen on public transportation, which I can relate to. This book was published in 2004, and I don't think I started reading her blog until 2006, so I didn't know of the book for awhile. Basically, it is her blog from parts of 2003, put into a book. If you like her blog writing you will also enjoy this book.

Resolution Report

So last year I made some New Year's Resolutions:

*run at least 2x a week
*run in at least two races
*yoga or pilates 2x a week
*be more social and get out of the house more
*don't stress so much

How did I do? I mostly ran for 2x a week, until my knees started to hurt in October. Then I procrastinated going to the doctor. Then my knees fixed themselves. So.
Yoga/pilates was a fail. I am not good at doing them home on my own. I think I need a class.
I was more social. Yay!
And I stressed less, thanks to an awesome stint in therapy. Highly recommended, people. I was a naysayer, but my 6 months of talking to a licensed clinical social worker once a week totally changed my life for the better. Seriously, I still think about things she told me all the time.

Later, look for a post about my resolutions for 2010!

2009 Books

I read 128 books in 2009. Dude, that is a lot of books. I think that is my highest number since I started keeping track. I think it is explained by two things: 1) I have started reading before bed at night and 2) I read a lot of YA novels, which go pretty quickly for me.

Here are the ones I rated 5 stars on Goodreads. For 2010, I want to get back to posting my books here, we'll see how I do with that.


* The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
* Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy (Bloody Jack, Book 1)
* Curse of the Blue Tattoo: Being an Account of the Misadventures of Jacky Faber, Midshipman and Fine Lady (Bloody Jack, Book 2)
* In the Belly of the Bloodhound: Being an Account of a Particularly Peculiar Adventure in the Life of Jacky Faber (Bloody Jack, Book 4) by L.A. Meyer
* What Was Lost by Catherin O'Flynn
* The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
* Peeps (Peeps, #1) by Scott Westerfeld
* The Hunger Games (Hunger Games, #1) by Suzanne Collins
* Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
* The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
* How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing by Paul Silvia
* In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
* Dreamhunter (The Dreamhunter Duet, Book 1)
* Dreamquake (The Dreamhunter Duet, Book 2) by Elizabeth Knox
* Winkie by Clifford Chase
* The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
* Watchmen by Alan Moore
* The Riverbones: Stumbling After Eden in the Jungles of Suriname by Andrew Westoll
* Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb
* The Known World by Edward P. Jones
* The Magician's Book: A Skeptic's Adventures in Narnia by Laura Miller

2009 Movies

Here are movies I saw in 2009 that I remember especially liking:
John Adams HBO miniseries
Lars and the Real Girl
Air Guitar Nation
Double Indemnity
Man on Wire

I remember this from last year, I seem to be less likely to give high ratings to movies than to books. But there you go. I highly recommend all of the above.

Blinding you with science

I am not sure I have shared here how I never planned on being a scientist. In fact, it is still kind of shocking to me that I am indeed one. Here is my deep dark secret: I only liked biology in high school and in college the only science I took was intro psych and one semester of ecology and evolution. Yet here I am, an actual scientist with a science-y dissertation and attendance at science-y conferences. Aw yeah.

I have been thinking about this lately, as I am teaching science to non-science majors right now. Many of them are scared of science, and math. I have been thinking I should share my circuitous journey to science with them, so they can know that you can start out not liking science, and totally change. Also, I am still scared of math.

I have been struggling with some new to me statistics that I need for my dissertation. I was having trouble figuring out how to best look at some data, and one of my committee members came up with some ideas which are great, but which mean I need to teach myself some stats fast. I am not comfortable with math, and stats has always been the hardest part of science for me, but I am persevering and it is making me feel really smart and good. It has been quite awhile since I really had to learn something totally new and unfamiliar, and I am proud of myself for doing so. Here is a picture of the books I have been reading, so you can be impressed with my smart, science-y self.

Dentistry

After an embarrassingly long hiatus due to the fact that I haven't had a full-time job (aside from student, which does not come with good benefits) since 2000, I have re-entered the world of regular dental care. My new job does come with dental insurance, so I set off for the dentist a few weeks ago. My dentist is awesome and I told them how embarrassed I was about the long gap in my dental care and they were so understanding and not naggy and kind. I got x-rays taken and was shown alarming pictures of my wisdom teeth. My wisdom teeth are alarming, as there is room for them, but apparently not enough room to brush them super well, so they are getting yanked. But other than the wisdom teeth, I did not have a single cavity in the rest of my mouth. Right on, genetics! Thanks, Mom and Dad! I went back for a real cleaning today and am enjoying the very clean teeth. And I am going to the oral surgeon Friday, where I will be knocked out and have the offending wisdom teeth pulled while I sleep. R thinks my wisdom might go with them, but I am sure I have absorbed all the wisdom they have to offer by now.

Writing Well Challenge: Character

As I am more and more convinced that more writing=better writing, and while most of the writing I do is comparatively dry as it is academic, there is no reason for it to be crappy. To that end, and because I like programs and systems and because I keep forgetting to blog, I am doing the Writing Well Challenge. Here is week 1, which is about character.

As I approached the coffee shop I was worried, it was finals week, and cold out, and there might not be spare seats. I did find one, although it was right by the door. As I struggled through the old, discarded library book (bought cheap from Half.com!) on learning and instinct in animals, I kept looking at a woman right in front of me. I couldn't help it, she was in my staring-off-into-space line of sight. She was all in black, with dark curly long hair and a bubble gum pink pashmina. Somehow, in the dim coffee shop and her black clothes the pashmina glowed, drawing everyone's attention. She was working hard on her computer, drinking cups of coffee, ordering soup after she determined it was dairy free. She seemed like a normal grad student, typing a paper, like all the rest of us there that day. Later, though, I realized she was entering numbers from tiny slips of paper into a spread sheet. Number after number, from many tiny sometimes crumpled pieces of paper. A mathematician? A spy breaking a code? Just doing her taxes? Finally she left, wrapping the bright pink more closely around her as she went out into the gray and rainy day.


Here are some others who have completed this same challenge:

Long weekend

Happy Thanksgiving to the people who celebrate it! Hope you all had a good one. I had a great day. My whole family gathered at my youngest brother's. He is only an hour away from us, so we could sleep in, go have Thanksgiving with everyone, and then come back home and sleep in our own bed. I got to see the new niece again as well, and she is funner than ever, with added new skills of smiling and making little babbling noises. Also she has a very cute yawn.

We ate and ate and then played some Trivial Pursuit (the women beat the men) and some Wii bowling (which my mom loves). It was all very good times. Just don't ask about any dance offs. :)

Muppets!

Happy day before Tofurkey Day! Enjoy the Muppets covering Queen. So awesome.

Further adventures

I am glad I am recording all the adventures I have been having, as sometimes I feel like I am boring, but then it turns out I am not!

So additional adventures:
1) Some friends and I went to see Margaret Atwood in a dramatic reading of her new book, "The Year of the Flood". I was intrigued, because I loooooove Margaret Atwood, but also mildly concerned, as I thought a dramatic reading with songs written based on the book could also just be weird. It was totally awesome though. Margaret Atwood looked like she was having so much fun and the readers and singers were great. Also, it is a brilliant idea for a book tour as they read up to like the climax of the book and then did not tell you the end! So now I have to buy the book! Which I did, and am waiting for Amazon to get it to me. Barbara Kingsolver also benefited from this dramatic reading as Amazon told me she had a new book as well, and as I love her nearly as much as Margaret Atwood I bought that book too. I barely ever buy fiction books. My last book purchase was Seasonality in Primates. I know you guys don't want to miss out on that one.

2)The same weekend as Margaret Atwood, R was out of town so I took advantage of his absence to have a Naked Lady Party. Don't be scared to click on the link -- it is a clothes exchange. I had some friends over and cooked up a tasty strata (I left out the ham and subbed kale for the zucchini) and served mimosas and we had a fun time exchanging all our old clothes. I still need to take the unclaimed clothes to Goodwill though.

This weekend, we are going to a play! ooh! Fancy!

Adventures of late

Here are some of my recent adventures.

A while ago R and I went to see Chuchito Valdes, a Cuban jazz pianist. So good. I highly recommend seeing him live if you can. He is crazy with his fast moving and hands and jumping up from the bench a lot. So much energy!



The leaves began to change, and there were many many yellow ones. I did not take any pictures, but here is one from frozenchipmunk on Flickr.



I went to a two day Darwin conference which was super cool and inspiring and like a rock concert for evolution nerds. It happened to fall on Halloween, so for a friend's party I dressed like Darwin.

Laaaaazy

People, I should get an award for the amount I have accomplished in my life thus far, despite the fact that I suffer from a sever case of lazy. Seriously. I am really lazy. You may not believe it, as I am so accomplished, but just imagine what I could do if I were not so lazy? I would be setting the world on fire.

I have not been blogging much due to the aforementioned lazy. I think of posts, but then I am just too lazy to write them. I means, signing on to Blogger is just too much work when I could more easily play Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook. I do manage to prep my classes, grade papers, and work on my dissertation, but cleaning the house? Nope. Defeated by the lazy. Also, I bought fabric and frames from IKEA to whip up some nice wall hangings for my office on campus, but how long have the materials sat here on my desk collecting dust? Quite a while, I tell you. And a friend of mine can tell you how long it took me to season the new wok I bought in Chinatown. I actually had to throw out the old wok and have an urgent need to stir-fry before I could off my lazy butt and season up that wok. I did manage to put up inspirational monkey pictures above my desk at home, a mere year after moving in. I count that and the fact that I got the wok seasoned in a matter of months as two small but important accomplishments. Sometimes, due to all the work I have to do despite the lazy, the lazy builds up and builds up until I give in. The last two days I have greatly enjoyed lying about and reading, and am still in my pjs at 2:00 pm.

I plan to emerge from this wallow in the lazy fresh and clean in order to tackle many Things That Must Be Done over the rest of the day. I am having people over for brunch tomorrow, so I am also counting on this deadline to help me clean the house. And important part of this morning has been spent contemplating the best direction in which to clean. What do you think? Start in the kitchen, followed by the dining room, bathroom, then living room (the bedroom is exempt from cleaning)? I am worried this plan will result in me running out of energy before the living room, which really needs the most cleaning. It contains my desk, and I have come to accept that I work best surrounded by alarming piles of paper and a fortress of books stacked on the floor. Seriously, I've been kicking it on the dissertation pretty well, and am surrounding by so much clutter in a perfect arms' width semi-circle. Also, I envision the party tomorrow taking place mostly in the living room, so perhaps I should start there.

Wish me luck that the lazy can be out run just for today.

Harvest time!

So it was getting dangerously close to frosty time and I was going away for the weekend. As head gardener, it was my job to decide if we should bring in the green tomatoes on our porch or not. I decided better safe than sorry, and picked them all. I also picked the basil and spent the Thursday before my trip making some pesto. The pictures show the lovely fruits of the garden.

It turns out that I don't think it has actually frosted here yet. We are close to the lake, and thus are temperatures are often 10 degrees off those inland. It has been cold and rainy, though, so I am going to believe the tomatoes would not have ripened anyway and that I made the right call.

We had a super tasty dinner the other night of the green tomatoes sauteed and mixed with angel hair pasta and the homemade pesto. Yum.

Messed Up

Hello! I arise to tell you a story that really crystallized for me how messed up we are in the US about thinking about how women's bodies should look.

Last night I was at a party for R's department, talking to a student who knew the part of the world I do research in. She was asking about my research and if I was "tough" because of having to live in harsh field conditions. I told her the only harsh condition was the food, which resulted in me quickly losing a lot of weight. But when I returned everyone kept saying how good I looked like 20 pounds lighter. And I had to reply -- I don't look good, I look starved! This is not healthy! The other woman has a similar experience where she was really sick for awhile and lost a lot of weight and everyone complimented her on how good she looked. Both of us were amazed at the experience of being malnourished and sickly and yet receiving more compliments on our looks than ever. Dude, that ain't right.

State Fair!

A little while ago we went to Minnesota to celebrate a friend's marriage on a boat in the Mississippi. We also got to go to the State Fair. It rules. I want to move there so I can enter something in the State Fair one day -- maybe some seed art?

Aunt!

My brother K and his wife L had a baby girl this morning. I am an aunt! Very exciting -- it is my first niece. Let the spoiling begin!

Personal stories

For me, health care reform is really a moral issue. I don't understand how we can limit people's access to doctors! I have so many friends who have not gone to the doctor when sick, or postponed going to the doctor, because they didn't have health insurance and did not have good enough health insurance. I have had times in my life without good/any health insurance and even today I always balance how much something might cost with what I (not a medical doctor) judge to be the severity of my sickness. So today, here are some personal stories demonstrating the need for health care reform.

Stories of the uninsured.
A nurse's view on health reform
What one family has to do to keep their daughter insured.

Isn't our health care system the best?

No! Here is some info on that:
Five myths about health care in the rest of the world.
Comparing Britain's health care system to the US.

Why reform health care at all?

Today I want to give you some links on why we should reform health care at all?
Short, simple cartoon explaining problems with our current health care system.
Harvard study finds that 62% of personal bankruptcies were due to medical costs, and 78% of those people were insured.
And, finally, health care explained on 4 napkins.

What, exactly, is in the health care bill?

I am going out of town for a long weekend, but I am still very concerned about health care reform, so while I am gone I am going to queue up some posts to give you some more info. It can be confusing, but just a little time reading can clear up a lot of myths and misconceptions.

Also, I made phone calls in support of health care on Saturday, and if anyone else wants to get involved in volunteering you can do so here.

For today I give you: (1) the actual bill with fact sheets prepared by the Committee on Energy and Commerce.
(2)Health insurance reform myth vs. facts
(3)FactCheck.org debunks some lying ads

nom nom nom

R and I don't really celebrate our wedding anniversary, because although we partake in the institution and are into each other, we are not into legal marriage per se. I feel like I always totally shock people when I say this, but there you go. Legal marriage -- I could take it or leave it.

BUT my parents and R's parents celebrate our anniversary and send us gifts, which is awesome. Thanks to their very generous gifts we were able to go out to this restaurant last night and enjoy 5 amazing and tasty courses of vegetarian food. And a bottle of wine. We called it a celebration of our mutual awesomeness.

I don't think I've ever gotten the tasting menu at a restaurant before because they often contain meat. It was super to have dishes just appear before me, each one super tasty in its own way. I have been vegetarian for over 14 years now and I don't at all feel limited by it on a daily basis. I don't feel like it is any kind of sacrifice. It is nice, however, to periodically go to a restaurant where there is a whole menu of stuff for me to order or where I can just let the waiter bring me anything and I know I will be able to eat it.

Health Care!

People, I have been very concerned about the health care system here in the US for a long time. As a graduate student, my funding did not include health insurance. I have been paying a TON for this for a long time. Right now I am on R's insurance. He is lucky enough that his funding pays for his, but not for mine. When I start my new full time job in September my employer will give me insurance and we will all of a sudden be saving about $2000 on health insurance. Seeing this stark difference close up really makes me appreciate how lucky people are who have employers who insure them. And how bad it is for people who work slightly less than full time, or not close to full time, or who are laid off, or who have employers with bad insurance plans. Really, for my entire adult life I have always considered the possible cost of care when deciding whether or not to go to the doctor. This is not right. People should go to the doctor when they are sick -- not wait around trying to figure out if they feel really bad enough or not to make it worth it.

So I finally got off my butt today and read about the actual health care bill. Since there is so much going on with people misrepresenting what the bill actually does, I recommend everyone start there as well. Then, please write your elected representatives and tell them you support the bill. You can find those people and very convenient web forms here and here.

It won't take you very long, and it is really time we fixed health care in the US. Really, it is appalling.

Lost weekend

I'm back from teaching the smart kids! And apparently I brought the weather of the SE with me. I am really really not into hot and humid weather. Really. I think if I had my way it would very rarely get above 75. That might even be pushing it.

R was away at a conference this weekend, and we realized it was the first time I was alone in the apartment so I had big plans of eating broccoli, maybe having popcorn for dinner one night, and watching movies R would not like. These plans were all mostly defeated by my technological troubles.

First, I got an iPhone on Friday. This is awesome and was a present to myself for getting my first full-time academic job. Also it was on sale. I waited sooooo long for the UPS to bring it, then I had to set it up and charge it and then I was finally ready to make my first call and the person on the other end could not hear me. That is right. The mic was broken. It was still awesome without the talking ability and I a, lucky enough to live in a Big City with an Apple Store so I took the broken phone there on Saturday. They fiddled with it for a bit, and then said they would just have to give me a new one. So I got a fresh new one. Yay! Happiness!

BUT then I came home to plug my new phone into itunes and put all my podcasts on it when what do I get but a Blue Screen of Death. Many, in fact. The next day and a half are many phone calls to Dell, attempts at re-installing Vista, and finally the promise of a new motherboard. Luckily I somehow got a long warranty so it is all free. But now I have no computer (I'm typing this on R's) and am waiting to hear from the tech who is going to bring me my new parts.

I also meant to write a ton this weekend, but with no computer that did not happen. It is all backed up because I am responsible that way, but there are some programs I will need to get access to again. Anyway, that was my weekend which did not at all end up as planned.

Employed!

So, I was seriously considering stopping the blogging because I post so little lately. Also I kind of feel transitional lately. I have still have no defense date because I have no completed dissertation, but over this last year my self-image has really changed from that of a student to that of a professional. A professor. A non-student, whatever. So I think that is good, as I think that is one of the things to be learned in grad school. Hopefully I can use this new self image to propel me into getting this stuff done. woo! Much of this transition was helped along by the million classes I taught last quarter. While I do not recommend teaching a million classes ever, and while I hope to never do so again, I think it was good for me in the end. I did not dissertate too much, but I now have so much teaching mojo! I can teach anything, anywhere, with little notice. Aw yeah. And I am not scared of a heavy work load. I did work on my own stuff while teaching the million classes, although at a much slower rate. Teaching so much made me feel like a professor AND I have now gotten a full-time job at one of those schools for next year. That's right, guaranteed full time load (less than a million) for a whole academic year! A grown up salary! A title. Love it. Now I will try to use my desire to be a "visiting assistant professor" as opposed to a "visiting instructor" into to defeat that pesky dissertation.

Oh, and in the end I am apparently not stopping blogging. Maybe when I graduate I will do a "Dr. Monkeygirl" style makeover. We'll see.

Smarties!

Look! I'm still alive! I have just been unmotivated to post. Anyways, I am back in the land of teaching smart kids. I am at a different campus than the last two years, though. This one is at a small college in a small town. I am really loving the location so far. I went to a Farmer's Market today that was so nice and well-attended. I don't have access to a fridge or a kitchen (it's all dining hall all the time for me) but I did buy some blueberries and grape tomatoes to eat as snacks. Also a blueberry muffin for breakfast.

I'm teaching a new to me class, zoology, but I can combine a lot of stuff from previous classes I taught, so I am not too worried. The kiddies arrive on Sunday! Should be fun.

OK, I'm off to lunch.

Books!

So I've been to busy to review all the books I've read, but I have read 45 books in 2009 so far. Here's a list of the ones I rated 5 out of 5 stars on GoodReads.

Watchmen by Alan Moore
Dreamhunter and
Dreamquake by Elizabeth Knox
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
How to Write a Lot by Paul J. Silvia
Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy by L.A. Meyer
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
The Riverbones: Stumbling After Eden in the Jungles of Suriname by Andrew Westoll
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Now an even more awesome champion

You may recall that back in October I ran my first 5k race, beat some clowns and clocked a time of 38:54. Well today I ran another 5k. There were no clowns to beat, but I think I smashed my previous record with a new time of 34:27. Go me! It was a fun race, very neighborhood-y (not in my neighborhood) and R got to over hear some firefighters with Chicago accents talk about how they supported the IRA. The old school IRA, though, not the current one. The current IRA is just a bunch of punks. Also, this race went up "largest hill in Chicago". I did not notice a hill. I am glad I began my running career at the highest point in Manhattan so that these Chicago hills are not a threat to me.

Sunday

So two of my classes are over and I just need to finish up some grading and paperwork! Woo! As there is a light at the end of the tunnel, I am now trying to blog every weekend. We'll see how that goes.

It has been a very nice sunny weekend. Yesterday R and I walked to a garden fair and then to a coffee shop where we attempted to work for awhile but it was too loud. So we moved to a bench in a park where we ran into a random bike race. This is one of my favorite things about living in a big city. Both here and in NYC I will often come across some sort of random event like a street festival or market or bike race. I finished grading exams while watching the bike riders zoom by and then we headed back home. At night we went to a banquet for R's department which was pretty fun. I am friends with a lot of R's fellow students, so I didn't feel out of place and there were other spouses/partners there as well.

Today I need to get to work to prep classes for the week ahead and finish off a book chapter I've been working on. Then it is back to hard core dissertating. I'm having a little bit of a hard adjustment to not having such a packed schedule that I need to work all the time. It is less motivating to have some stuff I kinda need to get done, but no OH MY GOD IT MUST BE DONE NOW!! stuff. I also think I want to slack a little after all the work of the last months. But I will rally and get to work! Go me!

Good morning!

Happy Saturday! I am all happy today as it was sunny yesterday and R and I ate dinner on the porch for the first time this year. We had homemade black bean burgers, fries and corn on the cob. After that we went for a shake and a malt and then watched Baby Mama. This morning R made me eggs and toast.

It is overcast today, but I am determined to run. All the teaching has really dstroyed my running habit, but my new plan is to run 4 miles a week. When I am always doing that I will up my miles. I also want to start doing yoga 10 minutes a week (from this book).

Last weekend my parents came to visit and we had a very fun time with them. We went to dinner and sat on the porch playing games. My mom and I shared a bottle of plum wine and at one point my dad advised me to gamble more while my mom advised me to drink more. It is good to know they are looking out for me. :)

My parents also drove us to Home Depot where we bought supplies for our back porch garden! Woo! We have a hanging tomato plant and a window box of basil and dill and some chives which were planted from seed and have not yet emerged. The picture is from R's iPhone from inside the house so it is not the best, but it is too cloud y to get a good picture today.

I'm posting because two of my classes are ending this week, so I have hopes of returning to a semi-normal life and also making more progress on actually getting out of grad school one day. Hopefully I'll be around more once I grade all the finals!

Snapshot

This is for the May Scientiae.

TEACHING FIVE CLASSES! Hopefully, in the future, I will look back on Spring 2009 and remember this was a very bad idea. Here is how I spend my time: teaching, planning labs, prepping labs, prepping classes, grading, eating, sleeping. That is pretty much it. Seriously, people, don't teach five classes in a semester, especially if three are lab classes.

scientiae-carnival

Fun

People, I enjoyed Spring Break in Florida but got little teaching prep done. Then I returned to Chicago where I immediately started spring quarter. Also, this week was the big conference for my field (luckily here in town) and I have spent the end of the week at that. Thus, I am behind in everything.

BUT, despite all this, I am excited as R and I are going to see the Circus Cats of Chicago in a few short hours. Performing cats! Hilarious!

Spring Break!!!

That's right! I still have papers to grade and classes to prep, but it is spring break and in a few hours I am off to Florida for a friend's wedding and then a week of hanging out. Woo! Good times! I am excited about the warm weather and the sun.

Food

Once before, Ellen asked me to write about the tasty meals R and I make and since I only live to please Ellen, here are few.

They are all from Martha Stewart's "Everyday Food" magazine. I got a subscription to this magazine in order to use up some frequent flier miles that were going to expire. At first I was skeptical. I mean, I like Martha and all, but the magazine is Reader's Digest sized and looked like something sold at the grocery store checkout (like all those 100 Best Cakes! little booklets, or Prevention or something). But I cut out some tasty looking recipes, and by now we have made several that have all been really good. Seriously. There was one recipe that was merely 'meh' but everything else has been super tasty and pretty easy. Also, Martha kindly shares the recipes on the internets, so I can point them out to you.
Warm Spinach Salad with Fried Egg
Red-Leaf Salad with Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Bourbon-Pecan Truffles
Portobello, Broccoli and Red Pepper Melts

Enjoy!

Challenge

The April Scientiae topic: Tell us about that most firey fire through which you have had to walk in your scientific career. How did you overcome the challenge? Did you have help along the way, or was it a solo effort? And what did you learn? Why are you a better scientist given the difficulties that you have encountered?

Peeps, I am in the most fiery challenge of my scientific career right now. I am not going to go into details, but my dissertation writing is by far the hardest thing I have ever done. I began writing this thing back in early 2007 and have had a bastard of a time with it since. There are difficulties with professors involved, I have become angry at the system and I feel it has greatly let me down.

I have not overcome this challenge yet, but I know I will sometime. I do have help along the way. I have friends who are willing to listen sympathetically and who also are willing to not ask when I say I don't want to talk about it. R is great at reminding me to be self-confident and at reading my chapters critically and coming up with awesome insights that really help my writing. I have also started going to counseling, which has been amazing for helping me remember who I am, and that I am a smart, successful person, even when others say I am not.

I have also really learned a ton. I have learned about facing huge obstacles and harsh criticism and about how I work best. I think this last part has been most useful. I've often tried to work how I think others work, or how I think I should work. But it is only this semester, when I am teaching 10,045 classes and writing that I have really found what works for me. I have carefully scheduled writing time that I CANNOT make up if I miss. Really. If I don't write between my two classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays I don't have time to write for that week. This knowledge really makes me cut the procrastination. Also, the time chunks I have are short enough that I don't get bored. I am forced to stop by needing to go teach, which always leaves me wanting to get back to my work. And I have finally accepted that I don't work well in the house. I have access to a great office that I am using a lot, and I recently added two more hours to my work time by staying after my classes for an hour at night.

When I am not too upset by the whole situation, I know that this really crappy dissertating experience will in the end make me more sure of myself as an independent scholar, and will make me more able to take rejections and criticisms of my ideas in the future. I also wouldn't wish this experience on anyone, and hope it will help me be more sympathetic of any grad students I may get to work with in the future.

scientiae-carnival