xykademiqz
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I bought “Tenure Hacks: The 12 Secrets to Making Tenure” by Russell James a few months ago. Amazon kept listing it as one the books that people view or buy together with mine, and it looked interesting. (“A brutally Machiavellian guidebook for the current or aspiring assistant professor,” says the subtitle.) The book was published through…
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Professors in the sciences have research groups. The groups range from small (the professor and just one or two additional people), to sizable operations (a dozen or two) and sometimes mega groups (even I have heard of Langer’s mega group at MIT, even though I have nothing to do with that field). Today someone said…
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Look what came today (heh-heh) as part of an order of chicken tenders at a local restaurant!
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How are your feelings about teleconferences? In my experience, they are nearly always a complete disaster. It doesn’t seem to matter if you use Skype or Skype Web, video chat using an app on your phone, or rely on expensive university-paid videoconferencing protocols in rooms that are specifically designed for that purpose, there is always at least…
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PsycGirl had a post that reminded me of my recent struggles with not being heard/acknowledged/respected. The thing is, I am not universally or continuously marginalized. It gets better and it gets worse; sometimes I feel important and supported, other times I do not. So I do find myself detaching and re-engaging. Sometimes things get too…
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How do I torture myself? Let me count the ways. (Apologies to Elizabeth Barrett Browning) Following a good night’s rest, on the day after the submission of a proposal — which I feverishly tried to polish while racing the clock to the deadline after a night with 2 hours of sleeplike rest in my office chair — I…
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Smurf is sitting next to me in the home office. Being 5 and fidgety on a chair with wheels, he keeps wheeling himself to and from the desk. He often finds himself suspended across the wide chasm between the chair, on which he kneels, and the desk onto which he holds. I lose patience and…
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7:00 AM Wake up. Bathroom, check email 7:15 AM Wake up the Littles (i.e., the younger two). Give them breakfast, pack lunches for all kids. Eldest does his own morning routine. Drive Eldest to school at 7:50. (Some days he takes my car when he has swim practice right after school; not today.) Back to finish getting everyone…
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In a shocking and completely unforeseen turn of events (not), today in a faculty meeting this happened not once but twice: I point out that something is wrong with the motion currently being discussed and I propose a change. The chair shoots it down “because reasons.” Within minutes — nay, seconds! — one of the Important…
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Un bon ami du blog, Physicist at Large, just had an essay published by The Chronicle of Higher Education! Congrats! I expect this piece will resonate with many of my readers.
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