Don't back down

My new mantra: "Don't back down."

It is easy to say "gee, I don't know if I'll have time", "I'm not sure if that's something I really want to do" and so many variations of this when deep down you know that saying yes is what you should do (maybe it's an extra project with a colleague, one more student than you were planning to supervise, a talk to give, an invitation to review, or even an invitation to an event). I've been busy. So. busy. in my first semester as an assistant prof. Most of the time I resisted the temptation to back down, but a few times I let things slide until it was too late to do them anyway. The things I took on despite some lingering reservations I'm mostly glad I did even though it meant some extra hectic times. Don't get me wrong, I'll say no when I need to say no, but there are those times when you'd rather say no because you know it will be tough but you know the answer ought to be yes.

So next time I'm on the edge of a task precipice? "Don't back down, it's time to dive in."

I think you might want to rethink your ad there...

So, this may not be the great return to blogging I had in mind, but I simply couldn't help but post this when I saw it today on an academic newsletter I receive:

"Kill harmful bacteria including H1N1."

Really? Kills bacteria? Even H1N1 bacteria? That's special since H1N1 is a virus. If you can't get that right for the ad, do you really think I'm going to trust that it works? Ha!

Moral of the story? General science literacy is IMPORTANT. For consumers who might get sucked in and Ad Execs who majorly FUBAR.

(Oh, and the (*) there which I thought might redeem it? if you look really carefully it says "When used as directed" not something along the lines of "yes, yes, we know H1N1 is a virus, we were just trying to play off the general panic of the public about swine flu".)

what we do every night pinky... try to take over the world!

more lol celebs!

Who'd a thunk it, right?

BTW, I used to love Pinky and the Brain