Happy Winter Solstice!!
I just got a new laptop this week, and it's super light and tiny and I love it. I was a little nervous about getting a 13.3" screen, but I totally don't miss the 15". And for all the crap I've been hearing about Windows Vista, I am getting to know it this week and once you get used to where everything is, it's kind of cool-looking. I got tons of memory so I'm not running into any problems with it. Now I just have to figure out what the hell is going on with Word 2007 - it's totally different. But the best part is I can sit on the couch and dook around for hours guilt-free. It's so liberating being done. And having a job that I like. Yay for autonomy!
I just started reading the His Dark Materials trilogy. Saw Golden Compass last week and loved it, so I thought I better read the books. A woman behind me in line when I bought them asked if they were for my kids. I'm like, no, they're for me! I'm going to spend my holiday reading young adult fiction!
Friday
Thursday
December 6, 2007
Alright, so no one was compelled to comment on that hilarious squirrel story.
In two days I go to the graduation ceremony where I get hooded (or knighted as M. says) and I get to wear my Hogwarts robes. Fun! Mom and dad will be in town, but no brother as he has to play in the orchestra of the city opera that he is in that night.
Today I accepted a temporary position with the company I worked for in Seattle for four and half years before I moved to Austin. It will be nice to have a challenging and fun job again - flexible hours, great clients, and I get to keep living here (at least for the next 6 months). It feels a little weird maybe to be working for them again, but all in all I feel really lucky and hope I can do a good job for them. One of my first new clients is in Hawaii, and I am heading there in January for three days - with up to two more trips by June!
In two days I go to the graduation ceremony where I get hooded (or knighted as M. says) and I get to wear my Hogwarts robes. Fun! Mom and dad will be in town, but no brother as he has to play in the orchestra of the city opera that he is in that night.
Today I accepted a temporary position with the company I worked for in Seattle for four and half years before I moved to Austin. It will be nice to have a challenging and fun job again - flexible hours, great clients, and I get to keep living here (at least for the next 6 months). It feels a little weird maybe to be working for them again, but all in all I feel really lucky and hope I can do a good job for them. One of my first new clients is in Hawaii, and I am heading there in January for three days - with up to two more trips by June!
Saturday
November 10, 2007
My mom clipped this from her local newspaper and mailed it to me this week. It has brought me much joy.
****************
Squirrels' stashes sparked small fires
By TRISTAN SCOTT of the Missoulian
Fire investigators are pinning several recent spot fires near Seeley Lake on an unlikely group of arsonists - squirrels.
A man reported the wildfires last Wednesday afternoon outside his home on Montana Highway 83, moments after turning the ignition key on his RV.
Unbeknownst to the driver, a local colony of gray squirrels had been stowing pine cones in the vehicle's exhaust pipe, and the loaded tailpipe began blasting fiery cones across his driveway like a Roman candle, igniting a handful of
small grass fires.
According to the tongue-in-cheek fire report, Incident Commander Scott Meyer responded to the wildland fire with several engines in tow, and later ruled that the squirrels belonged to a paramilitary squirrel organization that has abounded for years in Seeley Lake, called the Pine Cone Liberation Organization (PCLO).
“A lapse in squirrel-oversight intelligence had allowed the PCLO to engage in recon, planning and sabotage without fear of consequence or retribution, in the form of being chased by a broom,” according to the report.
Calling the attack one “which will live in infamy,” Meyer blamed the incident on a well-known local dissident, “Slippy the Squirrel.” A critter notorious for his chirping fits and histrionics, Slippy's resistance efforts had previously been nonviolent in nature, Meyer said.
“After years of being shot at with blow-guns, run over by logging trucks and chased by neighborhood dogs, the squirrels struck back,” the report states. “This had been their Bastille, their Red October, their chance at glory! Suppression efforts were started by all fire engines - the owner of the property upon which the squirrels had made their presence felt let the firefighters use the garden hose to cool off the pine cones. At 15:16, all resources were released from the fire. At that time, Meyer called the fire controlled, contained and dead-out. Slippy the Squirrel, however, remains at large. The PCLO could not be reached for comment.”
****************
Squirrels' stashes sparked small fires
By TRISTAN SCOTT of the Missoulian
Fire investigators are pinning several recent spot fires near Seeley Lake on an unlikely group of arsonists - squirrels.
A man reported the wildfires last Wednesday afternoon outside his home on Montana Highway 83, moments after turning the ignition key on his RV.
Unbeknownst to the driver, a local colony of gray squirrels had been stowing pine cones in the vehicle's exhaust pipe, and the loaded tailpipe began blasting fiery cones across his driveway like a Roman candle, igniting a handful of
small grass fires.
According to the tongue-in-cheek fire report, Incident Commander Scott Meyer responded to the wildland fire with several engines in tow, and later ruled that the squirrels belonged to a paramilitary squirrel organization that has abounded for years in Seeley Lake, called the Pine Cone Liberation Organization (PCLO).
“A lapse in squirrel-oversight intelligence had allowed the PCLO to engage in recon, planning and sabotage without fear of consequence or retribution, in the form of being chased by a broom,” according to the report.
Calling the attack one “which will live in infamy,” Meyer blamed the incident on a well-known local dissident, “Slippy the Squirrel.” A critter notorious for his chirping fits and histrionics, Slippy's resistance efforts had previously been nonviolent in nature, Meyer said.
“After years of being shot at with blow-guns, run over by logging trucks and chased by neighborhood dogs, the squirrels struck back,” the report states. “This had been their Bastille, their Red October, their chance at glory! Suppression efforts were started by all fire engines - the owner of the property upon which the squirrels had made their presence felt let the firefighters use the garden hose to cool off the pine cones. At 15:16, all resources were released from the fire. At that time, Meyer called the fire controlled, contained and dead-out. Slippy the Squirrel, however, remains at large. The PCLO could not be reached for comment.”
Wednesday
November 7, 2007
How can I be done with my Ph.D and still feel like I'm behind? Everything else was supposed to come crashing to a halt and I was supposed to go to Argentina or Italy or something with not a care in the world! Even so, it is soooo great to be done!
Saturday
I did it!
It wasn't quite as breezy as many had told me it would be, but I successfully defended yesterday! It took about an hour and a half, and while there was never any question as to whether they were going to sign or not, there were a couple of solid questions thrown my way that I could have handled better. And because I am who I am, I have been replaying the discussion in my head to see how I could have answered things more eloquently or impressively. I mean, I basically feel like I didn't answer Professor High Status' question. They all liked my research so much, I wanted to live up to their expectations and be able to wow them with my ability to precisely articulate my conclusions; I'd give myself a C+/B- in that department. Some of the comments were sort of pointless, but I respectfully nodded and waited for them to move on. I felt kind of dazed afterward, and wanted to process it more with my advisor, but I won't be able to do that until Monday. I knocked back a few pints of Guinness last night and I'm looking forward to M.I.A. tonight!
Posted by Dr. Stuckupgirl on November 3, 2007 :)
Posted by Dr. Stuckupgirl on November 3, 2007 :)
Friday
October 19, 2007
Okay, so I'm pretty much done with my dissertation now. I gave a copy to each of my committee members, got their signatures on a special pink "Request for Oral Examination" form (no small feat in itself), and turned it (the form) in to the Graduate School yesterday. I sat in the degree evaluator's office and got the official green light to have my defense on Nov. 2. Now, I wait. While a huge weight is definitely in the process of being lifted, for some reason I have developed an eye-twitch in the last 24 hours which is usually a sign of stress for me.
It's an unfamiliar feeling being done with the writing. The other day I was walking along thinking, 'don't all these people realize that I'm done? Can't they tell?' Life has indeed continued all around me oblivious to my little accomplishment. Sigh!
It's an unfamiliar feeling being done with the writing. The other day I was walking along thinking, 'don't all these people realize that I'm done? Can't they tell?' Life has indeed continued all around me oblivious to my little accomplishment. Sigh!
Wednesday
October 10, 2007
I could be wrapping up my dissertation right now, but I keep getting distracted by trying to line up work for January and the next few months. I only have a few revisions to make and cosmetic items like the table of contents, but I've put it off for two days so far. I'm basically sitting in front of the TV doing income projections on my calculator. Must focus!
Tuesday
October 2, 2007
OMG! I just turned in the full draft to my advisor. I basically ended up completely re-writing the first thirty pages, which took for-freaking-ever. I have been sitting at my desk non-stop for the past five days. So now, I wait for feedback, make more revisions, write acknowledgments (oscar speech!), etc., and move into the final phase of operation PhD.
Through this process, I have discovered, among other things, that Pepe thinks my halogen desk lamp is his own personal tanning bed. Right exactly where I need to put my notes and papers in order to get work done. Pepe!!! (shaking fist).
In other news, I stayed up until 2am last night reading The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million. I'm halfway through it -- holy crap it's really interesting and compelling and horrible.
Through this process, I have discovered, among other things, that Pepe thinks my halogen desk lamp is his own personal tanning bed. Right exactly where I need to put my notes and papers in order to get work done. Pepe!!! (shaking fist).
In other news, I stayed up until 2am last night reading The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million. I'm halfway through it -- holy crap it's really interesting and compelling and horrible.
Saturday
September 22, 2007
JT tagged me to share eight random things about myself and pass along the task to others.
Here’s how this is supposed to work:
1. Post these rules before you give your facts
2. List 8 random facts about yourself
3. At the end of your post, choose (tag) 8 people and list their names, linking to them
4. Leave a comment on their blog, letting them know they’ve been tagged.
Stuff about me:
1. There is a whole side of my family (my mom's) that lives in Argentina, most of whom I have never met. They are there because my grandparents fled Nazi Germany in the late 1930s after Kristallnacht.
2. I came in 32nd in the Alaska State High School Cross-Country Running Championship in 1985. That was the height of my athletic career, though I kept at it through my junior year of college.
3. I have a possibly unhealthy attachment to characters from The Muppet Show.
4. I think Catherine MacKinnon is perhaps the greatest legal and feminist scholar of our time.
5. Used to play jazz saxophone.
6. Went 7 years without shaving my legs. It was great to thumb my nose at Western feminine beauty norms and confront people's discomfort.
7. Am known to get belligerent if I've had too much to drink and find myself surrounded by sexist apathetic privileged lunk-heads. And sexist crap hanging on the walls in public spaces.
8. Totally admire all the women in my life but they probably don't know it.
I am tagging:
Rockabilachica
Return of the Silver Zephyr
Here’s how this is supposed to work:
1. Post these rules before you give your facts
2. List 8 random facts about yourself
3. At the end of your post, choose (tag) 8 people and list their names, linking to them
4. Leave a comment on their blog, letting them know they’ve been tagged.
Stuff about me:
1. There is a whole side of my family (my mom's) that lives in Argentina, most of whom I have never met. They are there because my grandparents fled Nazi Germany in the late 1930s after Kristallnacht.
2. I came in 32nd in the Alaska State High School Cross-Country Running Championship in 1985. That was the height of my athletic career, though I kept at it through my junior year of college.
3. I have a possibly unhealthy attachment to characters from The Muppet Show.
4. I think Catherine MacKinnon is perhaps the greatest legal and feminist scholar of our time.
5. Used to play jazz saxophone.
6. Went 7 years without shaving my legs. It was great to thumb my nose at Western feminine beauty norms and confront people's discomfort.
7. Am known to get belligerent if I've had too much to drink and find myself surrounded by sexist apathetic privileged lunk-heads. And sexist crap hanging on the walls in public spaces.
8. Totally admire all the women in my life but they probably don't know it.
I am tagging:
Rockabilachica
Return of the Silver Zephyr
Sunday
September 9, 2007
Last night I realized that there is now no part of my dissertation that has not been drafted. I finished the last section that had to be written "from scratch" last night! The last major thing to do is go back and revamp the introduction and literature review chapters, but at least those have already been written - albeit two years ago and rather thinly, I might add. Anyway, this realization last night was the first time this whole PhD thing actually seemed possible. Like in a real, achievable, concrete way. It made me kind of giddy.
Tuesday
September 4, 2007
36 feels pretty much like 35. But occasionally I am struck by that "there must be some mistake!" feeling. How did I get to be a 36-year-old woman? But anyway, I'm off to get a facial and then have a beer. Onward!
Thursday
August 30, 2007
The best show on television, Friday Night Lights, is starting its second season on Oct. 5. Austin narrowly avoided losing the filming of this show to New Mexico or Louisiana, and the show itself almost didn't get renewed. I think this show is consistently better than Weeds, The Closer, and Lost, with perhaps a tie with Heroes. I love watching it not just for the superb acting and plot lines, but for the glimpses of familiar sights around Austin in the background.
This is all to preface my latest FNL sighting of one Taylor Kitsch, who plays hunky bad-boy Tim Riggins on the show.
He came in to South Congress Cafe today and waited for a table behind us (we were eating in the bar area). Prior to this I have scoped out Kyle Chandler three different times, who plays Coach Taylor (also seen recently on Grey's Anatomy as the bomb specialist guy who gets blown up, and in the 1990's as the lead on Early Edition). He walks his Jack Russell Terrier around the area and lives in the State House Apartments on S. Congress.
This is all to preface my latest FNL sighting of one Taylor Kitsch, who plays hunky bad-boy Tim Riggins on the show.
He came in to South Congress Cafe today and waited for a table behind us (we were eating in the bar area). Prior to this I have scoped out Kyle Chandler three different times, who plays Coach Taylor (also seen recently on Grey's Anatomy as the bomb specialist guy who gets blown up, and in the 1990's as the lead on Early Edition). He walks his Jack Russell Terrier around the area and lives in the State House Apartments on S. Congress.
Wednesday
August 29, 2007
Last day of work at my part-time research fellow job today. The professor who was never sufficiently impressed with me was finally impressed with the paper I wrote (yay!). Hopefully he'll write his sections and we can submit it for publication. I'll need to keep on him about that.
I'm now solely supported by my consulting income. It's scary but liberating, and I feel more adult-like somehow. Job prospects, as in a permanent full-time job, are scattered and disparate and I'm unsure how to "package" myself. I'm looking at both applied/practice and academic positions. One came up today at a Foundation in Los Angeles. Aren't houses that would be $250k here like a million dollars there? Geez. But it's an awesome position and they actually want someone with a PhD.
Not quite done with the dissertation yet -- give me two more weeks for a full draft (of crap, but a full draft o' crap).
I'm now solely supported by my consulting income. It's scary but liberating, and I feel more adult-like somehow. Job prospects, as in a permanent full-time job, are scattered and disparate and I'm unsure how to "package" myself. I'm looking at both applied/practice and academic positions. One came up today at a Foundation in Los Angeles. Aren't houses that would be $250k here like a million dollars there? Geez. But it's an awesome position and they actually want someone with a PhD.
Not quite done with the dissertation yet -- give me two more weeks for a full draft (of crap, but a full draft o' crap).
Tuesday
August 21, 2007
My out of state driver's license, which I have stubbornly held on to for the last five years, is going to expire in about two weeks. I held on to it as incentive to get back to the place I came from before it expired, and well, that didn't happen. So now I have to get a stinky ole Texas driver's license, but I don't want to surrender my old one, because I like to keep stuff like that for the historical record I hold in various boxes in the back of my closet. Apparently it is against the law to have two valid licenses at the same time, so they take the old one when you go in. The thing to do is tell them I "lost it," but won't that look suspicious when they see that it is coincidentally expiring in two weeks? Plus I am a terrible liar. Won't they know I'm lying? Anyone have any advice? If I wait until the out of state one expires, they won't need to keep it but then I have to take the written driver's test - no way!
So, should I lie? Or should I just give it to them?
UPDATE: So I totally lied. I'm so proud. It was a little hairy for a while because at first they couldn't find my license record in the other state's database. But soon I will have the official license which will stand as a reminder of my failure to return to the promised land within five years. I know, I'm being overly dramatic. Too bad this license doesn't come with in-state tuition.
So, should I lie? Or should I just give it to them?
UPDATE: So I totally lied. I'm so proud. It was a little hairy for a while because at first they couldn't find my license record in the other state's database. But soon I will have the official license which will stand as a reminder of my failure to return to the promised land within five years. I know, I'm being overly dramatic. Too bad this license doesn't come with in-state tuition.
Monday
August 13, 2007
Someone just gave me a fortune cookie, and the fortune reads:
"To be mature is to accept imperfections."
I think I will put that on a t-shirt and wear it to my dissertation defense.
"To be mature is to accept imperfections."
I think I will put that on a t-shirt and wear it to my dissertation defense.
Thursday
August 9, 2007
Momentary freak out over. Everything will work out. I just wish time would stand still for a little while.
Tuesday
August 7, 2007
Am I crazy for considering applying for an academic job in South Carolina? Is it true that committee members won't write a letter of recommendation unless they've seen a draft of your dissertation? What if the deadline for applying is before they will see a draft? I thought they didn't want to be bothered with seeing a draft before they absolutely have to. Who knows the answers to these questions? I really need to stop reading the message boards at the Chronicle of Higher Education because they give me heartburn.
I am cycling through my tri-monthly phase of thinking I could be perfectly content doing research as a professor somewhere (if someplace would have me). Truthfully, I have actually enjoyed the dissertation process once I got the hang of it, and it's made me think I could actually be good at this stuff. But then I think I would get bored and miss the glamorous life of social program evaluation. And could I really function productively without deadlines and clients? A survey of sociology PhDs found that non-academic jobs pay more and have less hours, but that they weren't as happy. Great. But I'm going to assume they had some crappy government job somewhere and really wanted to be a professor instead.
Oh, what to do.
I am cycling through my tri-monthly phase of thinking I could be perfectly content doing research as a professor somewhere (if someplace would have me). Truthfully, I have actually enjoyed the dissertation process once I got the hang of it, and it's made me think I could actually be good at this stuff. But then I think I would get bored and miss the glamorous life of social program evaluation. And could I really function productively without deadlines and clients? A survey of sociology PhDs found that non-academic jobs pay more and have less hours, but that they weren't as happy. Great. But I'm going to assume they had some crappy government job somewhere and really wanted to be a professor instead.
Oh, what to do.
Thursday
August 2, 2007
I know I can be territorial and controlling (ya don't say!), but here's a situation that really has me fuming. We live in a duplex, and there is a shared storage building in the backyard that has a washer and dryer in it. The utilities that run the washer and dryer go to our side of the duplex, hence, whatever usage that happens is paid for by us. It's impossible to know exactly how much of our water, electricity, and gas bills come from the washer and dryer each month. We've just thought as long as the neighbors aren't excessive about it, we'll just deal rather than ask them for $5 a month or whatever (seems petty). But our neighbors have people stay with them every so often and these people use the machines too. It pisses me off that I'm subsidizing their laundry. Our neighbors have never asked who pays for those utilities and we haven't told them. M. doesn't want to be petty (cause he's a nice guy) and I loathe confrontation but this is getting under my skin.
Wednesday
August 1, 2007
Sent my advisor a revised Chapter 4 on Sunday. He finished editing it and I need to go pick it up today. It was 41 pages! I'm trying to get Chapter 5 worked out before the week is up: It's the chapter on the conditioning effects of depression and self-efficacy on strain, and how different levels of those variables affect the different kinds of outcomes I'm studying. The findings are interesting -- depression amplifies the effect of strain on outcomes like running away and suicidal behavior, but buffers the effect of strain on more externalized outcomes like aggressive delinquent acts and shoplifting. Those are the findings for girls. There are a couple of similarities in the boys' findings, but generally they don't hold for them. Self-efficacy seems to act as a buffer for both girls and boys, but more so for girls. Fascinating.
I had to re-run the interaction models because the first time I ran them (months ago) I didn't "mean center" the variables involved in the interaction. Apparently this is what you're supposed to do. I think it's kind of optional, but customary. It doesn't affect the results, just the interpretation of the results, and it also reduces multicollinearity between the interaction term and the variables that are multiplied together to create the interaction term. My adviser didn't think this was necessary, but I'm anticipating the comments from the rest of my committee. Anyway, so I created the new mean-centered variables for the girls and re-ran the analysis, updated the tables. Tonight I will do the same for the boys' sample, and then I can start augmenting Chapter 5 with some exposition about the findings. I need to get this DONE this week so I can focus on the conclusion -- what are the big findings, why, what do they mean, so what, etc. I will soon be going from "serious" mode into "Red Alert" mode (stole that from the blog Reassigned Time). Which means no more staying up until 1am watching non-stop episodes of "24."
I had to re-run the interaction models because the first time I ran them (months ago) I didn't "mean center" the variables involved in the interaction. Apparently this is what you're supposed to do. I think it's kind of optional, but customary. It doesn't affect the results, just the interpretation of the results, and it also reduces multicollinearity between the interaction term and the variables that are multiplied together to create the interaction term. My adviser didn't think this was necessary, but I'm anticipating the comments from the rest of my committee. Anyway, so I created the new mean-centered variables for the girls and re-ran the analysis, updated the tables. Tonight I will do the same for the boys' sample, and then I can start augmenting Chapter 5 with some exposition about the findings. I need to get this DONE this week so I can focus on the conclusion -- what are the big findings, why, what do they mean, so what, etc. I will soon be going from "serious" mode into "Red Alert" mode (stole that from the blog Reassigned Time). Which means no more staying up until 1am watching non-stop episodes of "24."
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