Random music meme

I can't resist to doing the music meme going around now:

• Step 1: Put your MP3 player or whatever on random.
• Step 2: Post the first line from the first 25 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song
• Step 3: Post and let everyone you know guess what song and artist the lines come from.
• Step 4: Strike through when someone gets them right.
• Step 5: Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is CHEATING

I did cheat a bit while doing, skipping instrumental stuff (obviously) and non-english speaking stuff.

So here go:

1. You were on my mind at least nine tenth of yesterday
2. Slow day Sunday
3. Bombs are dropping, smoke fills the air
4. I’ll kill myself today if you choose devotion over low life
5. Come on to my house
6. And you can dance for inspiration Madonna Into The Groove
7. Why do you come here ?
8. Wait a minut everybody get in line
9. Outside gets inside oohoohooh
10. There’s so many things that we miss in our everyday lives
11. Ooh The werewolf the werewolf
12. You’ve been told leave your dignity at home
13. My punctuality is well known
14. The boy with a thorn in his side
15. Awake all you sleepy heads
16. Take me home tonight
17. Fourteen to Fourty one, start blind end up dumb
18. His wicked sense of humour suggests exciting sex Björk Venus as boy
19. One word breaks a code of silence
20. The nerves are sending shimering signals all through my fingers
21. I used to hate the sun cos it shone on evertyhing I’d done
22. They made a statue of us and put on a moutain top
23. If anything could capture my moment
24. We are the earth intruders
25. I found a new face a new image staring back at me

Don't know if any of this is embarassing, but some of it might be obscure...

Weekday biscuit making

The other day, Husband decided to make a thaï meal based on coco milk, for which he bought an actual coconut as opposed to the can we'd usually get for such things.

We decided we'd push the experiment further and dry the flakes in the oven.

What do you do with 60 grams of coconut powder?

Well, for example you can make fijian shortbreads. I generally find cooking therapeutic (except when I make a huge mess of it), and doing it on a weekday after a very full day at work was nice. looking for a recipe, finding something manageable on a short time, and then, mmh, tasting nice biscuits for dessert!

Worth the effort.

What does motivate students ?

One week left of lecturing for this term (and for this year actually!), and I’m glad to see the end. Not each lecture was great, but I think in the whole I managed. Although I do feel sort of empty and will need some re-adjusting to a no-lecture schedule, like phd me.

Apart from the daily management, preparation and problem-fixing, I did have a little time to meditate on more general teaching related issues and the one I spent most time on is: why are these students here? What are they looking for? What motivates them?

One of the groups I teach, third-year undergrads, is very mixed: some seem genuinely interested and there because it is what they want, whether they are very good or not. Some others always seem to hesitate between taking things seriously or behave like snotty teenagers at the back of the bus. And a few really puzzle me. I can’t see them showing much interest for anything. They always seem to think they’re being asked far too much.

I have discussed this with a few people over the past few months and people have come up with all sorts of reasonable and less reasonable explanations, like:

-they are looking for a good marriage
-they have to do what their parents did (unlikely in my discipline)
-they have to maintain the established class structure in the society (OK I think the person who mentioned this was actually trying to come up with as many chocking things as possible, but it still deserves to be considered I think)
-they’re delaying their entry in the job market and taking a few more “cool years”
-we are luxury babysitting services for spoiled old kids.

Hum.

I’ve really tried to put such things at the back of my mind, and tried to focus on students showing genuine interest (even if in very formal, school-ey kind of way), but the question is still there and will stay there, I know.

When I was a student I think I thought I was lucky to be given the opportunity to study, and that I was doing it for my own fulfilment and for learning new things I wanted to know… that has made me terribly naïve about students’ motivation, but is it really inconceivable to be like that? Or to be like that nowadays?

Undergrad reunion

I went to a reunion of people who did their undergrad at the same place as I did. The weather was fantastic, and we had a guided tour of the forest the University owns in a very pretty area south of the town. It was very interesting but I'm not sure I'd go again.

The people I was really happy to see are people I am staying in touch with anyway. I'd rather meet them in a more intimate context. Otherwise there were actually few people, and no one from my promotion.

Ah the truth is I'm not really enthusiastic for such things. They really bring out the potato couch in me. I decided to go at the last minute because it was my friend organising it (how's that for a poor reason to go). I also had a secret agenda of scouting for potential candidates for when (if) I get funding to hire a PhD student. But it was useless for that as well (yes there were that few people).

It wasn't too bad because I was going to visit my parents in the area anyway and the walk in the forest was good, but not a very successful trip on the whole, and I don't think I'd go again.

That was followed by a nice family dinner, so on average, not a bad day.

What a news day

Sherry Towers and her study on discrimination of women in physics is featured in Nature today and I'm sure it will make the headline in the blogosphere... as well as the comments on the feature. The only comment currently online will definitely open the debate...

Ah yes, sorry, I'm just emotionnaly biased, I'm a woman. Can't make an original contribution. What am I thinking?

And today on the guardian, some famous economist is questionning the law preventing employers to ask about family plans to candidates.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/apr/23/worklifebalance.discriminationatwork

Ah sure, the situation for women is fine. No problem.

At least you don’t have children

Since as started as an assistant professor (lecturer), thing have been hectic, as they are for everyone. I spent three months abroad (leaving my husband at home one month after getting married) during autumn. Since I’m back, I have spent most of my time preparing lectures and figuring out the administration, grant writing, etc. You know the story. At the same time, Husband started a new job as well, as a free-lancer, not exactly stress free either.

At least I don’t have children.

That’s true. It allows me working silly hours with great flexibility. It allows me, when I don’t work, to take care of myself, to arse around. Which I couldn’t if I had children.

Actually, this state of the household is related to a decision we made to delay family plans. People say there is no right time for it, but maybe some times are worse than others. It seemed to us that the time we had initially thought was a good time to get family plans on the way maybe wasn’t the best considering how work turned out for both of us. We thought we couldn’t do this right for the first few years of these new jobs. Are we right? Are we wrong? Who can say?

What I know is that when I hear people say “at least you don’t have children”, well that’s not how it feels to my heart.

The theme for scientiae this month is how our career plans have evolved over the past few years… I never really had a precise career plan, but I seized opportunities to carry on doing what I realised I love doing: research. But the career has interfered with all other aspects of my life. I met Husband doing fieldwork (how’s that for a field collection!), so it’s of course not all bad or impedance. But currently the career is delaying personal life plans. That’s what I chose. But, just like everything else, it comes at a price. This dawned on me only a few weeks ago.

scientiae-carnival

Blowing dust off old stuff

Lecture prep is preventing me to go into deeper stuff tonight as I was hoping for; but I'll just mention this for today. I opened a drawer yesterday and remember my old minidisc player... Because of an ipod, I forgot all about it.

It was actually my first "bigger buy" when I started getting paid as a PhD student (yes, sorry, here we get enough to live on...)

So I took it out and am going to listen to stuff I listened to in the past century... I forgot about some good stuff there!

Like Dubstar's Saint-Swithin's day, some old Divine Comedy stuff, The Rentals,... ah! the 20th century! Ah! the 1990s!

Some such old stuf DID make it to the ipod though, like the Smiths (I know, not very 21st century either!).

Right, I'd better get back to it.

A mad friday night

I intended to blog about Deep and Important stuff, but inspiration is sort of slipping away right now because of the crazy evening we had.

I went to see a theater play with my mum and a friend last night, from Bertolt Brecht, it was great.

After that we stopped at my place for some tea and then my mum and the friend and then they set off to drive back home. It was about 11pm, a very reasonable time. Five minutes later, my mum knocks on the door (I had taken one sock off at that stage, getting ready for bed), she couldn't start the car. Both myself and Husband give it a try, and it really didn't seem like it was going to start. At all.

I ask my mum "do you have an assistance contract?" "no". We try to ring dad. He was obviously deeply asleep. We call the friend's husband, he probably wasn't back home yet. We ring the neighbours, and they go and knock the hell out of my parents' front door (we learned later that my dad heard it but couldn't figure out what it was. At that stage my parents' mad yappy dog was probably barking its head off). We suggest they should get a taxi, or sleep with us (they're about 60 km from us). Then I offer to get a shared car and drive them back. We finally get in touch with my dad, convince him he shouldn't come and get them, that I'll drive them back. We go and fetch the car, which was not in the usual place, so we first thought that was that, but they have a night call-in service, so they could tell us where the car was. By the time I had gone and was about to pick everybody up, my dad had called back to tell my mum "you do have assistance! call them!". Whithin 15 min the guy was there, and making the diagnostic "Now ma'am, this is a serious problem!". "So you pick the car up and drive us back?" "No I bring your car somewhere. Don't you get a replacement car? " "I dont know!" (my mum can be a little absent minded about these things).

But eventually he did drive them and the car back, and we could go to bed at 1am.

I know, it's definitely not as exciting or dramatic as Wayfarer Scientista's Wildfire, or Alice's earthquake. Sorry.

I guess I'll give my mum a call now.

Thirsty for knowledge

This is going to make me look very bad, probably with reason.

So, this is my first year, and I spent most of the fall abroad, so that I didn’t really know what to expect from the students. Very naively and based on my own experience as a student (hysterical laughter) I did not think of establishing rules regarding presence at practical sessions. And we noticed that a large number of them were skipping them and appeared whenever pleased them.

So after a few weeks we made clear that we considered attendance compulsory and that any unjustified absence would mean a zero for that report. It improved for a while but we’re now sort of back to the initial situation ; except that now they just come up with crappy unverifiable excuse like : «I had hypoglycaemia », « my alarm’s batteries died » (this practical is at 10.45am and she lives on campus). Some don’t even bother justifying.

One of the problems is that they work in pairs and once the work is started it is tricky to cancel their work. And strictly speaking, they did justify it.

I’m learning a lot in this and I can tell you that I’ll establish very strict rules on this right from the beginning next year. I realize how naive I was to assume that we did not need to remind them of this and treat them like 8 years old…

Ah well.

But I still need to find a way for now…

Slightly frustrating

I applied to a grant last fall, which would allow me to hire a PhD student... and start building up that research team I am supposed to build. This program is funded by the government.

I was invited for a presentation in front of international experts and it appears that I was ranked top in my category.

But.

The ministry apparently decided to whithdraw the entire budget of this program for this year and the next. Which means I should be funded, but will maybe not. Apparently the funding could be released later on when they re-assess the budget.

Someone told me that they *always* do this and that they will *eventually* release the funding. I guess one can be relaxed about this if they already have an army of PhD students and many grant apps in the pipeline. Ahah! this is quite far from my situation and so I am frustrated and chocked.

How many times have I heard politicians gloat on how they want to move to a knowledge-based economy. I really believe them!!

So just have to wait and see. I got the external experts assessment which did rub some cream on my heart, but makes it even more frustrating to know that everything is stuck somewhere in the bureaucracy. I am quite hopefull that the money will be released, but that won't prevent me from giving out in the mean time!

On a completely different note... in an effort to learn about important woman researchers, I got a book from Ester Boserup from the library and noticed it's missing 3 chapters. You'll have to wait for my report on that. Which shouldn't be too bad since I've got loads of thoughts I want to blog about!

A nice exhibition

Today, we took a break from the usual sunday homeworks to visit an exhibition of young local designers. A friend's sister was taking part with her drawings and children books.

There was also this nice ceiling piece, even more beautiful because of the nice spring sky.

And I found a really nice and unusual outfit for a wedding we're going to in May!

It was a nice walk outside, and something different than the usual stuff.

This weekend was actually quite rich in nice things out since we also went to the cinema last night. We saw The Darjeeling Limited, which I recommend.

Blogging: one month on

So it's now one month since I started the blog.

Thanks to those who dropped by and read, and maybe commented. Hope you continue! Because I will.

I really didn't know where this would take me, and I still don't, but so far I'm enjoying the trip.

Anticipating blog posts has made me think about what is worth mentionning - even to myself - and what could or what shouldn't be a concern or a big thing. In that way, I guess, the blog has had therapeutic effects.

I enjoy the writing too and I hope it will improve (reading back I find structure of the posts could sometimes be better).

So, I am determined to continue this blog and hopefully people will continue to enjoy reading it!

I don’t know how to handle this

Some background on this. I am an assistant professor in the place where I did my postdoc, so I know everybody there ; just a few months ago, I was just one of the researchers. Now I am one of the "others". Some of the researchers are about my age, or sometimes older. Sometimes I feel completely comfortable with them, sometimes I feel totally awkward. Sometimes I think we don’t understand each other at all.

It tends to depend on people to some extent, and also on the time.

I’m not even sure what makes me uncomfortable. I think there is something about understanding that we now have different responsibilities and different things at stake (like, say, tenure). However, I’ve been there, I know that as a PhD student, especially when you get near the end of the thesis, it seems like a huge thing and it is a huge thing.

I don’t know. It feels really awkward. I certainly don’t want to be considered hierarchically superior, but still I get involved in administrative stuff that they can just watch and comment from "outside". And I am in the constant emergency state of preparing all the new lectures. Currently, getting to do a bit of research is the cherry on the cake.

Say, yesterday, there was a graduation party that I could not attend, because I had to prepare today’s lecture. It took me the entire evening. And I felt really stupid having to tell that to people. It was so bizarre.

Has anyone felt in a similar place?

Spring is coming

Isn’t it amazing what two weeks with no lectures to give and a few days with sun can do to lift one’s mood up :

-I found it great today to have to unbutton my coat as I was walking in the street around midday. It really made me feel good (even if I was running from one place to the next being almost late everywhere) ;
-the two elements mentioned above have participated I think in the fact that I am learning to take some distance with the « daily issues » of dealing with students (see here for example, I was a bit upset. There were other examples, but they’re probably not worth reading !). It does not mean I don’t care about it. But it means I can think about something else at some point ;
-Just as before the break, working very late at night on the night before an early morning lecture, finish the slides on the train or even 5 minutes before the class happens. But hey ! That’s as much as I can do this year ! Certainly not outstanding but a start.
-preparation for The Long Stay Abroad is moving on. Started looking for housing. Health check done. Tax forms being filled. Visa on the way ;
-Tomorrow we have a meeting about reorganizing and updating the website, which should be exciting.

Spring is coming !

Keep the fuel coming

I can't help it. A nice cup of coffee, a piece of chocolate (preferably rather sweet) and a couple of biscuits are part of what I'm convinced help me preparing tomorrow's lecture...

Maybe good textbooks and inspiration are even better, but at least coffee is right at hand...

Good think I learned drinking coffe while on holiday in Italy three years ago. Italian coffee has made me a terribly fussy coffee drinker though. Instant coffee is not better than nothing, in my opinion. And here at home, we only use the Italian espresso maker. Fortunately I'm also still a tea drinker (and more so than a coffee drinker... cf banner...)

I'de better get back to what was my excuse for the coffee-biscuit extravaganza... so I finish before Husband comes back from a weekend away with some of his friends.

Please! Please stop insulting my brain!

For the second time this term, I caught students -what's the verb for plagiarism?

Including one who already did it before.

I can see that not everybody find the exercices the most exciting thing they ever had to do -fine- but a number of things are beyond me:

-considering it is perfectly acceptable (and even encouraged) to look up information from various sources and that refering to someone else's work is actually a good thing, why would one just copy whole paragraphs (WRONG), instead of integrating citations (GOOD)?

-hey, Google isn't exactly a well kept secret: any suspicious sentences can be looked up (and in this case, found) instantly. So, no, it does not take an elaborate device or advanced skill to catch you. Surprised?

-And this is especially true when the writer manages to leave over 20 spelling mistakes in three pages and then! magic! the writing style suddenly improves, finally there are no spelling mistakes, and finally, there is some content.

-When one can barely align two words correctly, one should really avoid using advanced jargon. I mean, come on.

I have to take drastic measures on this. What is not going to make my life easier is that this is in the course I am sharing with another prof whom I cannot expect to be tough on this.

I can already see them. Denying. Please, stop insulting my brain and treat people the way you want to be treated.

How do you deal with these things? What are the measures taken in your places for this kind of problems?

Preparation for a long stay abroad

Well it seems that (once again) I got a very wrong impression in an interview, since I will get « recommended » for a travel grant! I was going to organize the stay anyway, and still have a couple more funding sources to try in order to complement that, but this is brilliant, because not only it’s good to get funding in any case, but it is also a great one to have on one’s CV.

So now, the preparation started for real. Some background info on the trip: I am going to be hosted by a US institution for about three months starting in September. Since it is very far from home, Husband will accompany me. It should be a great experience altogether, although I am not looking forward being that far from everyone here for so long, but the rewards should be great too. Anyway currently, I am trying to

-book flight tickets: reasonable prices are available and we could even make a stopover to visit friends on the east coast.
-figure out the admin and paperwork. I find it very complicated! Someone out there sent me this form to fill out, tax-related, and it tells me to provide all sorts of other forms that I have never heard of.
-I should be looking for a place to stay, but I don’t know where to start or who to ask. Still waiting for info there.

Ahah, it all seemed simple as long as it was all abstract!

Stay tuned…

The medical detective -Sandra Hempel

This very nicely written biography takes us straight into the streets of victorian London, at the time when one of humanity’s scourge was about to set on its first worldwide travel. About 1840, cholera leaves its home in the Indian subcontinent and conquers the world. It’s the first cholera pandemic. This one and those that followed made thousands of deaths in the world, including in England. At that time, before Koch’s and Pasteur’s discoveries, the debate is raging between contagionists and miasmatists. But John Snow quickly comes to the hypothesis that water, or something in the water is responsible for cholera. He starts surveying cholera cases, their socio-economic background, and the source of their drinking water. His study is now mentioned in many textbooks as a foundation of epidemiology. His work is also cited as a very early example of spatial analysis.

It is his story that is related with great detail in Hempel’s book, but also lots of fascinating stuff on the medicine and life in London in victorian times. Really fascinating and highly recommended.