things I've learned this week

Stress is a state of mind, it's how we respond to the pressure. This has worked for me to help with feeling stressed a lot over the last year. But then there are times where there is really too much...

Working creates more work and that's how I got myself into this jam. If I hadn't worked so hard earlier, I wouldn't be giving 5 presentations in the next 2 months (2 in the next 2 weeks!) and submitting 2 more abstracts this week. If I would just learn to be mediocre I could just be happily writing my thesis in peace. Sometimes I need to leave well enough alone...

So now that I'm here...

The answer is not working harder, it's beer, because working harder will just lead to more work, right? and I seriously need to relax.

i can haz kitteh?

Oh sorry... another one, I know... but cute and funny at the same time? Teeheehee...


more cat pictures

I mahbe wants kitteh...

i really need to do something with my hair...

ok, so I should be madly writing away, preparing talks etc, not obsessing over my hair but really... look... I really need to do something with this. I thought bangs would be cute at Christmas and got them cut. Um. Yeah. I thought I could handle "styling" bangs... but apparently not. Not only am I not responsible enough with my time to do it, I'm not even sure what to do with them to make them work. So now they are growing out and I've just always got all these straggly pieces around. Meanwhile the rest of my hair's grown like a bad weed and is out of control. Again me+hairdryer? not happening. I'm tired of looking like a slob.

Anyone have suggestions for easy, professional-looking hair, that's still feminine (ie. not my old habit of pulling it all back into a sloppy bun)?

new favourite afternoon tea

So I go through phases with tea, and I'm in a tea phase right now. By mid-afternoon I'm usually needing a little pick-me-up, but coffee seems to get me going too much to be able to sit and write. I like earl-grey ("Tea, earl grey, hot!" ... I'm such a dork... *snort*) but I picked up this new Lipton tea the other day which is a blend of white tea, green tea, blueberry and pommegranate. I'm ashamed to say I think I was attracted to the packaging, but I don't really care, because it turns out to be quite good. And they say antioxidants/flavinoids/whatevers are good for you right?

Cherrio then! Tea time!

i ♥ threadless tees!

How cute is this? I just ordered it. Now if only I could get a labcoat with this on it...



Threadless rocks. I may have also ordered this cute little onesie for a pregnant friend... *whistles innocently* So cute! So funny! That kid's gonna be the coolest babe on the playground. :D

To be or not to be... a prof

I'm supposed to be writing things, but I keep stumbling across interesting articles...

This one is about what it takes to be a science professor... at least some of the many aspects... with emphasis on the many. Certainly being academically strong is not the only requirement for the job.

University Affairs: So you want to be a science professor?

I think that piece of advice regarding asking someone you respect who is already there whether they think you have what it takes (and listening to them) is a good one... a reality check both for those suffering from impostor syndrome (they might say you'll be great!) and those on the other end of the spectrum (maybe it's important to consider other options). I had a conversation like this with my supervisor a few months ago, and while I got the impression he's confident I could get and do (maybe even excel) at the job, he brought up the issue that it might take longer than I'd like to find a professorship in the right area, both academically and geographically, and encouraged me to think about alternate plans should I get to the point I'm not willing to wait longer for a "real job". He knows I have other life goals/plans, and well, I guess reality is that a professorship *might* not work out for me. Not what I wanted to hear, but something I think I needed to hear... not that I'm giving up or anything!

So...

Of course science has it's vocabulary, the euphemisms for "well, actually we don't know" and "we have found that these other folks were completely wrong", and there are the "um"s and "uh"s of talks when we need a pause to collect our thoughts again. But then there are the "so"s. I hadn't really thought about it, being such a little unassuming word, but it carries many meanings, and potentially great weight.

So, without further ado, click over to Seed magazine's article on "so":

Seed: "So"

sigh...

... i think it's going to be another one of those days. somehow, i can't get my thermos open, which contains the life-giving coffee i so desperately need at the moment. oh, and i put the lid on, so... how does that work??

huh, it was the same side of the bed as every other morning...

I'm in a foul mood today. I've decided to just finally admit it to myself. Absolutely everything is getting to me today. It's kind of like being really itchy. I'm just plain cranky, and it doesn't help that everything is taking longer than I think it should today.

In fact some things I thought would be relatively simple have turned out to be a major pain in the arse due to a gnome infested computer that likes to change parameters without recording them anywhere accessible. So I'm guessing a calibration. It's 50-50 (there are only two options), and they're different enough I'm pretty sure I know it used the wrong one, but I don't like guessing.

So instead of writing the paper I'm supposed to be writing, I spent the last 5 hours trying to figure out what the heck is going on with my stupid images. Nothing seems to read the header fully enough to find out which calibration was used... if that is recorded at all (there's nm/pixel, but I need to know which nm/V was used to determine that).

Also, it is 30 C in my office. The university switches from heating to air conditioning on May 1 regardless of the actual weather.

I don't like heat.

My computer is overheating and burning my hands.

Gah.

Can I go home now?

haiku for you

Haiku2 for mad-sci
education but i also knew cheating was wrong fast forward 5
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Created by Grahame

seen over at Brazen Hussy's.