Weird spam?

Today I got an email titled "Award Acknowledgment for sharing great CHEMISTRY information to the public" for this blog. Have I ever blogged about chemistry? The weirdness goes on (emphasis theirs).

Dear Blog Owner,

Our website Science.org is a informational databases and online news publication for anything and everything related to science and technology. We recently ran a poll asking our website users regarding what online informational resources they use to keep up to date or even to simply find great information. It seems many of our users have labeled your blog as an excellent source of Space information. We have reviewed your blog and must say, we absolutely love the information you have made available to the public and would love to make your blog a part of our top science blogs. After browsing your blog, our research team has decided to award you a Top science Blogs award banner.

It is a distinction we offer to the blogs that our team feels is ahead of the curve in terms of content.


Thanks again for the great information and we look forward to the great responses your blog will receive from our site. Your blog presence will be very effective for our users (top science blogs).

We have put great efforts in making this decision to give deserving with award acknowledgment. For listing please reply to request banner.



Sincerely,
--
William Lee
Research team
Science.org
1 international blvd
Mahwah NJ USA - 07430
201 247 8553
editor.science@gmx.com

SPACE information? I'm quite sure that, while fascinating, I've never blogged about space (you should check out Mrs. Comet Hunter for astronomical interests). Upon visiting the aforementioned science.org it looks ok at a quick glance. Then, none of the links worked. None that I tried at least. What's the deal? I deleted all of the cookies from the site and blocked them. Has anyone else gotten this weird "award"? Any ideas?

Oh! Ambivalent Academic got the same message, "space information" and all. I'm not alone. Who else?

Business cards

This morning I ordered 100 business cards for myself. My university is printing them and billing my student account. One of my peers just told me about this service. It makes the whole process a lot easier because there are fewer decisions for me to make.

I never think about having business cards until I'm at a conference or something, and then it occurs to me that they might be useful. So, soon I'll have some. Do any of my grad student readers have business cards, or did you when you were a student?

Thoughts on presentations

I'm really slow at putting together presentations. I have to give a 15-20 minute powerpoint presentation tomorrow in class about an article. I think I've spent 5-6 hours on this presentation, and it's not even a big deal!

Things like this make me worry that I'd be a terrible lecturer, or that if I were a good one that I'd have to work 80 hours a week to do good lectures and I'd be totally stressed out and dissatisfied with my lack of a life. I hope I get better at this presentation thing.

ma'am

This is the first year that I've been back to Small Friendly College and realized that I look older than the students. They looked obviously younger than me.

This suspicion was confirmed when a SFC student called me ma'am. It's one thing for a high schooler bagging your groceries to call you ma'am, but it's an entirely different thing for a SFC student to call you ma'am. I was one of them! Obviously I've moved from the "student" category to the "ma'am" category. It makes me feel old.

Queries for an ecologist

I mean queries of the Quaker kind, not the programming or database kind. I feel the need for some directed self-reflection at this stage in my graduate career, so I decided to write some queries for myself. These are open-ended questions; hopefully the process of answering them will help me determine what my priorities are.

What satisfies and sustains me in my work?
What do I find most rewarding in my fieldwork?
What types of problems do I want to solve?
How can my research be applied to solve a problem?
What are the linkages between my research and conservation?
What type of ecologist do I aspire to be?
What are my fears related to my Ph.D.?
What things overwhelm me and why?
Am I getting tired of traveling? Or of doing research abroad? If so, why?

Specifically related to leading foreign study programs:
What are my strengths and weaknesses as a leader?
How will leading a program change the course of my Ph.D.?
How will I manage my research as a program leader?
What skills will I need to develop to be successful in that endeavor?

To the extent that I can do so anonymously, I will answer them on this blog. I think it's a good way for me to force myself to explore the answers to these questions.

Blogroll suggestions

I read a zillion blogs but don't have a blogroll. I think it's about time I make one. If you read my blog and would like to suggest your blog for my blogroll, please post a comment.

Angry Word

The other day I was working with a Word document that was chock-a-block full of scientific names. Suddenly I got the following message:

Has anyone else ever gotten this message? Now it doesn't put squiggly lines under the names anymore. I'm ok with that.

My favorite halloween costume of the year (so far)

My 8 year old niece (this one) is a tree trunk covered in fungus for halloween. I know it was her idea. I love that girl.

Cameras and photography

When I return to Ukenzagapia I am planning to bring a digital camera for each of my field assistants and spend a few days teaching them the basics of how to use their cameras and how to take good photos. One of them used to have a film camera so he's got some experience with photography and one has a simple camera phone. I think it will benefit them as individuals, the other scientists they work with, and my research if they know how to take good photographs and have the equipment to do so.

There are several considerations involved in getting cameras for them.

1. Durability. If it breaks, they aren't going to bring it somewhere to get it repaired. If they can do it themselves, great. If not, they might as well not have a camera.
2. Batteries. I'm leaning towards one that uses AAs, even though I don't prefer that myself. If they use AAs, I can also give them some rechargables and hopefully a solar charger. The AAs can be used for other things if needed. One assistant doesn't have electricity at home. Giving them a camera that eats alkaline batteries will not help them because batteries are expensive.
3. Screen size. Bigger is better. It would be wonderful to get them newer cameras with larger screens so they can more easily assess the quality of their photographs and share them with someone else without downloading them.
4. Memory card size. They need as much memory as I can get them because neither one has a computer and they also have very limited computer access. They're primarily going to be looking at photos on the camera. I'll probably need to print photos for them occasionally.
5. Quality. I don't mean megapixels. 4 megapixels would be more than enough. I just want it to take good pictures under low light conditions with at least one macro setting and some optical zoom.

My original plan was to try to find used cameras, but now I'm leaning more towards buying each of them a new/refurbished but inexpensive camera if it meets the above considerations. Then they could have the same camera, which would help them teach each other to use the different features.

Do any of my readers have a suggestion for a camera that meets most or all of these criteria? An older digital camera model that you loved, perhaps?

I'd also like to give them each a book about displaying (more than explaining) basic concepts of good composition and techniques in photography. A lot of text will be useless to them, but illustrations priceless. Does anyone have any recommendations? It can be tiny, like 12 pages or something. Perhaps I could even print out some pages from the internet. Ideally I'd just like to avoid reinventing the wheel and create my own photography teaching materials.

Regular meetings

I had a meeting with Herb this morning to talk about all sort of things (the conference I went to, my conference idea, the chance to lead a program in Ukenzagapia, etc). He said that organizing a conference or symposium can be a great way to make connections and get your name out there. It's great networking and doesn't necessarily have to be a thankless job. I'm encouraged that he thinks it could be a good idea.

BUT... He pointed out that it can't interfere with my field work. He said that when you've got a difficult dissertation, it can be tempting to work on easier side projects but ultimately you'd got to do the diss. I need to be careful that I don't do that. As Jon reminded me, I've got a lot of irons in the fire and I can't ignore the biggest one of all.

I asked Herb if we can have regular meetings from now until the end of the semester. He said yes. Every Thursday morning. I think this will be a good thing for me.

Kind of annoying

Every once in awhile I google myself. Most of the hits are actually me. Sometimes I find new ones. Sometimes they contain inaccurate information. There are pages that refer to me (not just someone else with my name) but list the wrong college, department, and even an inaccurate budget for our wedding. It kind of annoys me that these things are incorrect but out there under my real name for anyone with a search engine to find. Oh well.

I should really stop googling myself or blogging and go get some work done.

Donors Choose!

I just donated to three different projects supporting science and environmental education in high-need classrooms.

Sometimes You've just Gotta Draw and Color to Learn Science

Help Us Reduce Waste And Feed Our Plants!

Plastic Free Waikiki

Several bloggers have challenges going and will enter you into drawings if you donate just $5 to a project of your choice.
-Sciencewomen
-Dr. Isis
-Others I'm too tired to link to right now

Last year I donated to one project and won the Sciencewomen drawing and got a free YellowIbis tshirt! Go pick a project and give them $5. You have $5, don't you?

A job outside of academia

Today I stumbled upon The Hollywood Ecologist. Brilliant! This ecologist serves as a consultant for movies! Now that's a job outside of academia.

A dream

As I was waking up this morning had a dream about packing. In my dream I was in an odd combination of Ukenzagapia and SFC. I'd been happily hanging out with friends and thinking about leaving when I realized that most people were alreadly packed and waiting to get on a bus to the airport. I ran upstairs to my apartment (which in my dream was kind of like our apartment in Big City) and started packing. I had so much stuff! I had no idea how I was going to fit it in my luggage. I started going through drawers and cupboards and sorting out the things that I really neededt to take, things that came with the apartment, and things I didn't need. I was stressed out about missing my flight. I looked out the window and realized that most of my friends were gone because the bus had come. A few people like me were hastily trying to get everything together.

I looked at the new shoes I'd acquired since I arrived, shoes that belonged to my friend, shoes that I had no idea where they came from, and had to decide what to bring. I looked at bedding. And books. And I wondered where they all came from and how I was ever going to pack my bags under the airline limit or even make it to the airport in time.

Meanwhile, I was also running up and down stairs from the apartment to pay my bills for the lunch I'd just had and for rent. I thought to call a taxi to take me to the airport so that I could finsih packing and sorting on the way there, but my Ukenzagapia taxi driver Violet was out of the country because in my dream she got an opportunity to work in the UK. Scratch that plan.

I've written before about the kind of packer I am. I like to have things generally organized and carefully chosen. It is not my nature to just throw things in a box or bag and worry about it on the other end unless I'm packing stuff for less than a week. I am a slow packer.

Having to hastily sort through my things in my dream made me anxious, but it also forced me to make some hard choices about some things to leave. I decided not to panic about it and pack as quickly as I could but also not stress about missing the plane. I decided I'd figure it out if I missed it and that I'd get on the next plane. I needed to hurry, but not to panic.

At about that point I don't remember more because I sort of woke myself up when I realized it was just a dream.

Would you like your dream job?

I came to grad school with the goal of teaching and leading foreign study programs at a liberal arts school like the one I attended. I'm visiting Small Friendly College this weekend and just had a meeting with one of my professors. She suggested I co-lead a program to Ukenzagapia in 2011! This is so exciting! It sounds like they'll open applications for the position sometime in the next few months.

I also talked to her about meeting up with her students when she's there next year. If the timing works out, she wants to bring the students to Nyota for some kind of field project. What could I do with them that would provide useful data for my project? Or any project? What would I do with a whole semester of students in Ukenzagapia?

Is this what I want to do when I finish my Ph.D.? Doing it before I finish might be a great way to find out. How would this affect my research? How does it fit with my goals? Wait, what are my goals?

I've got a lot to think about.