Ruminations of an Aspiring Ecologist

Grad student malaise

2012-01-25T23:22:00.000-05:00

I think that in general, the grad students in my program aren't very happy with "the program". They tend to like their lab or their advisors (in some ways, at least), but there's not a great sense of camaraderie across the department as a whole. (Or if there is, I'm obviously out of the loop). I think a big part of the reason is geographical- people live all over the city, our offices are spread across buildings, and even within buildings the offices can be very isolated.

Perhaps it's just the stage of grad school I'm in, but I know a lot of my friends and acquaintances in the department don't really feel like they're being advised or mentored by our "advisors". We all feel like we're quite a bit on our own to flounder or flourish. One of the reasons for this is probably that very few people in the department are supported by grants from their advisors, so the fates of advisors and students aren't so closely bound. I'm not the only person who is primarily mentored by someone who isn't at the university, which leads to students also spending a lot of time elsewhere.

I feel like grad students in my department need something, but I'm not sure what that something is. Do we need a heavily attended, regular happy hour? A graduate-led informal seminar about career issues? A what-did-you-do-for-your-dissertation-this-week accountability club? I feel somewhat obliged to try to get something going (or strongly support other people's efforts in this realm) because, well, I think I'd be good at it, and someone should do it. Whatever it is, I think we need more opportunities specifically created to interact with and informally mentor each other.

If any of my readers have things to share that they really *liked* about a graduate program, I'd love to hear.

Dissertation envy

2012-01-17T17:52:00.000-05:00

One of my friends is about to do her prelims so I've read her proposal and I just watched her practice her prelim presentation. I think what she's doing is really cool, and I've got some serious dissertation envy!

I'm not jealous of her in a negative way, but rather I find myself thinking, "How can I make my research more like hers in the future?" It also makes me think "what if" I'd made different choices in my Ph.D.

I've mentioned before that part of me wishes that I had done local field work instead of flying halfway around the world. If I had done field work here in Big City, her project has all of the elements that I would have liked to include. It's interdisciplinary and just awesome.

Maybe for my postdoc.

Which conferences?

2012-01-12T10:59:00.000-05:00

After truly catching up on email for the first time in over a year (omg), I've been corresponding with Dr. Evenbigger who is interested in one of my projects. He thinks I should go to a conference in [beautiful place]. I'm going to the big ecology meeting this summer, but I should go to at least one other conference since I'll be "on the market" this fall (OMG!). I don't know which one yet, but there are 3 on my radar. I've got to balance the networking potential and relevance to my career interests with the cost of getting there. I can cobble together a few hundred dollars here and there but attending meetings is expensive.

I'm also curious, how many people attend the BIG meetings that you go to? 1000? 4000? 10,000? I just have no idea what a really, really big academic conference is.

More great advice

2012-01-11T18:15:00.001-05:00

During a conversation that started out something like, "So, do you know what you want to do when you finish your Ph.D.?", a friend of mine recommended I look up Peter Fiske. He has written extensively about how scientists' skills can be used outside of academia, and how to emphasize those skills to potential employers. If this sounds even remotely interesting to you, download this pdf and read it.

Resurrected project

2012-01-10T15:26:00.001-05:00

I thought my interdisciplinary project was done for good, until my #1 collaborator emailed me this morning and said, "I know I said I was done with that project in 2010, but I've been thinking maybe we should resurrect it." An hour and a skype conversation later, we have plans to try to submit it for publication after all. She's going to take the lead on it for now, but I think we could have it sent off in the next 2 months if we stay on it. I'm limiting the time I spend on it to Tuesdays, because I don't want this to distract me from my dissertation. We already did all of the analysis and writing, so we just have to find the right audience and how to pitch it. This is exciting. Maybe 2012 will be my Year of Publications. Maybe?

Biologist's nightmare

2012-01-06T17:25:00.001-05:00

In November I opened up a box of my data sheets for the first time since I packed them up in Nyota and saw a teeny little beetle run and hide between the sheets! I searched between every sheet, paperclip, and postit to find and squish two beetles. Now almost 8 weeks later, I found a similar looking beetle (or is it larger?) hanging out on the edge of my mug, probably in search of water. I have encased this one in scotch tape.

Ack! I hope there aren't any more. We don't need any more invasive species.

Looking forward to 2012

2012-01-02T00:01:00.000-05:00

I regret not defining my goals on the blog last year. I fully intended to, but time slipped away from me as I got a grant in early January and then busted my butt to be in the field just 3 weeks later. I thought about it when I was in the field, but then it just felt silly to be writing about my 2011 resolutions in March- or later. I probably should have done it anyways.

Looking back at posts I've written about goals has really inspired me. I reviewed 2007, 2008, and 2009, part of 2010, and defined goals for 2008, 2009, and 2010. I've had several good goals in the past that I want to revive/continue this year, as well as some new ones.

Academic/Career
Get something published in 2012. I've got two things submitted right now. Hopefully they'll both stick this time and get accepted without major revisions (please?). I seriously need to have something that can be cited as Anirak et al. (2012). I choose not to be discouraged by the fact that I don't have anything yet because being down on myself won't help anything.

Submit Best Project for publication. My last project I started is probably also my best. This is my #1 priority this spring, because getting something published on this is probably going to help my career more than anything else.

Conceptualize my dream job(s). Speaking of my career, I'm not going to be a professional student forever. Someday in the not too distant future I'll be "on the market", and I'd like to have a better idea of my goals. I've got a collection of job announcements from ECOLOG that have caught my eye over the years, but I should revisit and reflect on what aspects are appealing and what my strengths and weaknesses would be. I should also answer these queries I made up for myself a couple of years ago.

Give a talk at the big ecology conference and present at at least one other conference. I can definitely do this. I'm not sure what the second conference will be, but there are possibilities.

Do an outreach project. I've got a plan for something awesome, but I don't think I can blog about it because it might just be that. awesome.

Update my webpage once a month. I should just schedule a couple of hours once a month to work on it. I have photos I want to share, videos to upload, stuff like that.

Fitness
Do a sprint distance triathlon and one other race. I loved the triathlon I did last summer, and I think it would be fun to do another race that involves some kind of obstacle course. I'd sign up for lots of these except they are expensive. We'll see what the budget allows.

Exercise 4x or more per week. If I commit to doing a triathlon, then I've got the incentive of trying to improve my time to motivate me to exercise. I've also found that if I just tell myself I have to go to the gym every day that I'm on campus, it helps get me there. It works best for me to go in the middle of the day because I'm not much of a morning person, but if I wait until the end of the day then I just want to go home (and it's slightly in the wrong direction from home). Going in the middle of the day gives me a mental break, and then I go back to my office feeling good about exercising. The one day a week that I'm at the museum it's harder to exercise, and I often don't on the weekends unless I take the dog for a run.

Do yoga once a week. I was super excited when I learned that there are tons of free yoga video podcasts on itunes. I've never taken a class- maybe I should try to do a few? I did yoga fairly often in Ukenzagapia and I'd like to get back in the habit.

Go dancing at least 12 times. I love dancing, and there's no shortage of opportunities here. I've even got a couple of dancing friends now who I can carpool with. There's no reason I shouldn't be able to get out once a month to go dancing.

Home
Learn and perfect an easy, delicious vegetarian lasagna recipe. For some reason I just never think to make lasagna, but it's an easy food that non-vegetarians can also enjoy that I could bring to gatherings. Suggestions welcome! I also want to learn a good mushroom quiche recipe. I've got a great spinach quiche recipe from my mother-in-law, but I'd like to switch it up sometimes with the quiche.

No more ugly houseplants. I hate to throw away plants. I really do. But I'm tired of having ugly plants in my house, and that goes for their pots too. I'm going to figure out what size nice pots I need to get, and buy some pretty ceramic ones. Ugly plants/pots are going in the garbage, to someone else, or to my office.

Get the dog to walk better. Our dog is really wonderful at most things (she sleeps in, doesn't chew things she isn't supposed to, doesn't steal food, doesn't beg, rarely barks, stuff like that). Walking on the leash is not one of her strong suits. She often pulls and it's kind of annoying, especially since she's big enough to pull me off balance (though not Jon).

Visit at least half of the places on our must-see list for Big City. Jon and I made a list of things we want to do before we leave this place. If I finish in summer 2013, we've got a year and a half left (assuming I get a job/postdoc somewhere else). It's time to do all of those fun things we've been putting off!

Offset our carbon emissions. This was my goal for 2010. I only did it for half of 2010, and didn't do it at all in 2011. I think this is far more important now that we own a car. I probably need to find a way to do it automatically every month based on an estimate of our annual emissions. Does anyone else do this?

Blogging
Blog at least once a week. I have plenty of interesting things to write about. This shouldn't be difficult.

Label my posts and keep them labeled. When I was in the field I did email posting so I have dozens of unlabeled posts. I need to stop email posting now that I have fast internet, and go back and label all of those posts.

Metagoals
Review goals quarterly. I want to revisit my goals and comment on my progress about every 3 months. I think this will help keep me on track.

Make weekly agendas for myself. I want to have more clear work goals each week and cooking schedules at home. I think taking a couple of hours each week to plan these kinds of things will keep me from wasting time trying to decide what to do.

I think this is a record number of goals for me! I'm excited about all of them and I don't think that any of them are unreasonable. I'll keep you posted on my progress- quarterly.

Happy New Year!

2011 in review

2011-12-31T16:01:00.000-05:00

I never reviewed 2010 on my blog or posted goals for 2011, which I regret. I'm not going to make that mistake this year!

Although I didn't write it down, my biggest goal for 2011 was to finish my field work. CHECK! DONE! COMPLETE!

I presented at a big conference which resulted in useful connections and feedback.

I also managed to get two publications submitted in December, one of which has been in the works for 2+ years, and another that is just a short little thing.

2011 was a light blogging year (only 57 posts counting this one). When I fall out of the habit, I write less. I don't think it's much more complicated than that.

It has been a busy year. By my calculations, I've spent 2750 hours this year doing work, which I define as things I wouldn't be doing if this wasn't my career. That works out to an average of ~53 hours/week across 52 weeks of the year. I excluded my plane travel to and from Ukenzagapia because that adds dozens of hours. I think I had about 5 weeks worth of "vacation" where I wasn't working much if at all (a week in the spring, 2 in the summer, a week in the fall, and a week at Christmas). Spending 5.5 months this year in Ukenzagapia really pushed up those numbers since I work crazy 65-90 hour weeks in the field.

I keep track of how many hours I work for a few of reasons. When I'm in my office, logging my hours helps me keep track of when I'm really working and when I'm just reading crap on the internet or at the gym exercising. I aim to work 8 hours a day, 5 days per week when I'm not in the field or on vacation. In the field, I do it to help combat the feeling that I should be doing more. Finally, I figure there might be a handful of people out there interested in my quantification of this aspect of life as a scientist. I'm sure I've missed some things here and there, but I think it's a pretty good estimate of how much I'm working.

2011 has been a pretty good year. I'm halfway through my FIFTH year of grad school now! It's hard to believe. Thank you to all of you who are still reading my ruminations, and I hope 2012 brings more peace, love, and joy into your lives.

Good news

2011-12-22T11:21:00.000-05:00

Sam received the fellowship that I helped him apply for. It's exciting, and a little bit daunting. Although I'm not being funded by this, I play an integral role in making it happen and it will involve a lot of collaboration and management of different people on my part. Hopefully it will also advance the database that we started working on 3 years ago.

I really feel like a true collaborator now with Sam. I'm pretty sure that he would not have gotten this fellowship without my help!

Revolving door of manuscripts

2011-12-20T12:03:00.001-05:00

Last night Sam and I submitted another manuscript. This one really, truly is a short natural history kind of thing and he did most of the writing. By my calculations, I only spent 15 hours on this one. I think it's likely to get published, albeit in a small journal. This morning we already heard that it's in review. Yay!

This morning we also found out that our other manuscript was rejected by the editor (this is journal #3). It isn't a good fit for the journal. I had my concerns about this, so I am not surprised. Sam suggested resubmitting to another similar journal, but I think it would also be rejected there without review. So, we just Skyped for 45 minutes discussing the pros and cons of various alternative journals. We've settled on another that reaches a good audience. In my heart of hearts, I still think the best place for this paper is journal #2 (where it did get reviewed) but they won't reconsider it.

I was looking forward to settling my books from my last trip to Ukenzagapia today (just how much did I spend?) and other post-season work, but this has to take priority. We want to submit again today or tomorrow, so now I'll be re-crafting this for journal #4. I. must. publish. soon.

263 hours

2011-12-13T19:00:00.001-05:00

Tonight Sam and I are submitting a manuscript. Well, kind of. We're sort of pre-submitting a manuscript. We're sending it the editor to ask for feedback on what type of piece it should be submitted as. He'll either say: (1) Thanks, but no thanks. We won't publish this type of thing. (2) Cool. Submit it online as A/B/C so it can go through the review process. Or (3) Um, maybe we might take it as A/B/C but first you should do XYZ before you submit it.

Since I got back from Ukenzagapia a month ago, this has been my priority. I. must. publish. something. asap! I wrote the first draft of this manuscript more than 2 years ago. It was submitted twice and rejected twice (once with review, once without) in 2010. The amount of data has tripled since the first submission, because every time Sam or I have gone to the field we've collected more data. I originally called this my "short note". Ha!

By my calculations, I've spent at least 263 hours on this manuscript. In 40 hour work weeks, that's 6.5 weeks. That doesn't even include data collection. That does include some data entry, writing, reading relevant literature, revising, corresponding with Sam, finding references, some analysis, making and reworking figures, and formatting citations. I don't know about you, but I think that's an insane amount of time. This is my first real paper, which everyone says takes a long time (no kidding).

Just for kicks, let's turn those hours into dollars. Based on my stipend of $2500 per month, we could estimate that it cost more than $4000 in my labor alone to produce this manuscript (that's assuming $625 per week just for the sake of simplicity). And that's not counting Sam's time, which is much more valuable than mine! Science is expensive.

But the real kicker is that it's not over yet. The manuscript is likely to be rejected from this journal, which means it will have to go through more revisions before we can send it somewhere else. I'll just keep counting, mostly to satisfy my own curiosity.

Reimbursement

2011-12-07T14:45:00.001-05:00

Today I finally got reimbursed for some of my expenses for the conference I attended FOUR MONTHS AGO. These things take a long time. At least I did manage to get some money.

What? Where did November go?

2011-11-30T22:30:00.001-05:00

I can't let November end without posting anything. For those of you who don't know me in real life and might have been concerned I was lost forever in Ukenzagapia, never fear! I have returned! I have a couple of posts I want to write about field-related stuff. Here's hoping my muses and my free time coincide more often.

On thieves and plans

2011-10-27T17:28:00.001-04:00

When we have to leave research equipment in the field, we use a cable lock to secure it around a tree. These types of locks are not common (or available at all, as far as I know) in Ukenzagapia, and B and T covet them for locking their motorbikes. They asked what these locks are used for in the U.S. I said some people use them on bicycles, but you can't use it on a bike in Big City because people will just come and cut it to steal the bike.

T, after a brief reflection, made a keen observation.

"I think, in Ukenzagapia, the thieves are many, but the plan is small. And in America, the thieves are few, but the plan is big."

Keeping your belongings, I've learned, is largely about preventing crimes of opportunity because, as T so nicely put it, "the plan is small". People don't have bolt cutters or hacksaws. If you make it difficult to steal something, they might try and fail, but they generally won't go out of their way to do it.

All that said, people do have machetes. I don't know what exactly happened or how much planning was involved, but this week we discovered that some of our equipment was stolen. They cut through one of the cable locks and in another case broke the equipment to steal it because they failed to break the cable. I have a glimmer of hope that we might be able to recover some or all of it, but I'm not holding my breath.

Just keep swimming...

2011-10-18T13:01:00.001-04:00

In spite of living alone this time, I still haven't had much urge to blog. I think I'm getting a lot of my thoughts out on facebook instead. I have less than 3 weeks left in Ukenzagapia! This is it! The end of my field work! I see the light at the end of the tunnel!

It's been a good trip so far. I've had some exciting discoveries (natural history observation type discoveries) that will probably turn into a few minor publications. The electricity has been, dare I say it?- excellent. The weather? Pretty crazy, but I was gone for most of the craziness. I met up with another UBC student and we traveled a bit- kind of a biologist's pilgrimage :-) It was fantastic!

Sam is always thinking of new things for me to do, including setting up a pilot project for a grant of his. I've become the de facto manager for this project because I'm here. Thankfully, I just found a way to simplify the gargantuan task he saddled me with. So, things are rolling along. I'm not panicking yet.

Not here

2011-09-26T16:12:00.001-04:00

I've spent more than 13 months abroad doing field work for my Ph.D. My husband was able to come for a month just after we got married, but mostly he's been back at home while I'm out here busting my butt, trying to make my trips long enough to be worthwhile but also trying to minimize my time away from home.

This is the last trip I have planned for data collection for my Ph.D. There are many projects that I could easily continue working on here, but I have put a firm deadline on the completion of my Ph.D. fieldwork. Will I continue working here as Dr. Anirak? I don't want to rule it out completely, but I also like the idea of having a field site much closer to wherever I'm living. I imagine I'll continue to be involved in research here from a distance, maybe with occasional short trips (less than a month).

One big reason for a fixed endpoint for my field work is so that we can have kids. I can think of no compelling reason that I should not have a kid before I finish my Ph.D. once this field work is out of the way. My American friend here tried to convince me that I'd have no problem doing field work while being pregnant or with a baby in tow, but my husband convinced me that was a terrible idea, and I think he was right. In grad school, but not here.

Does this make me a real collaborator now?

2011-09-22T13:29:00.000-04:00

I'm helping Sam with HIS application for a fellowship. It's really exciting stuff that I'll be involved in so I've got a stake in it too. It just struck me as I sent him a ton of comments that the tables are turned!

Geotagging photos and saving tracks on a Garmin GPS

2011-09-19T12:30:00.000-04:00

Surely someone else will find this information useful. I use a Garmin GPSmap 60Cx. For the past 3 trips to the field I have been religiously saving my GPS track at the end of the day so I have a record of where I went. I save it with the date, then I clear the track so I can start fresh the next day. At least every few days, I download all of my waypoints and tracks to Garmin's BaseCamp program to make sure I have a backup of all of the points and tracks.

I've known that geotagging my photos using a tracklog from my GPS was possible, but I didn't try it until this trip. There are some simple programs (such as PhotoGPSEditor) that match up the time on your track with the timestamp on your photo, and voila! Your photo is geotagged.

However, this means YOUR TRACKS HAVE TO HAVE TIMESTAMPS. When you "save" your track on the GPS, IT STRIPS THE TIMESTAMPS*. This means that if you want to use your Garmin (GPSmap 60Cx or similar) to geotag your photos, you need to download the ACTIVE track every day.

I could have geotagged thousands of photos this way if only I'd known. Learn from my mistake. Download your active log before clearing it! Don't just rely on that "save" function!

*Apparently this is a space-saving measure- a stupid one in my opinion. You should at least have the option to preserve timestamps or not.

Parallel lives?

2011-09-16T15:45:00.001-04:00

At one of the permit offices here I met another American woman getting her research paperwork squared away. As we chatted and talked about our research and backgrounds we found some crazy similarities. We are both 5th year phd students who first came here in 2008. We both have husbands (named Jon!) who we met in college and married in spring 2009. She studied abroad in the same place I did in the same academic year and we graduated in the same year. But these last few really take the cake- she and her now-husband also spent a year in Remote Foreign Country where she applied to grad school and then they lived in Big City for 2 years! Crazy!

Meticulous lists

2011-09-09T13:40:00.001-04:00

Each time I've left Ukenzagapia, I have left many things behind. My habit has been to fly with 2 bags at the weight limit, and fly home with one about half-full. You can imagine I've accumulated a lot of stuff here! I've left clothes, books, supplies, equipment, toiletries, medicine, all sorts of things. In order to keep myself from brining, let's say, another unnecessary cipro prescription or bottle of Ivy Block, I make meticulous lists of what I leave and where I leave it.

Actual excerpts from my April list:

Large trunk:
-One roll of masking tape
-Rite in the rain universal spiral bound notebooks (3)
-Set of multi-sided dice
-Assorted small canisters
-Whistle
-1 foldable yellow ruler
-1 plastic pipette

Housewares:
-Electric water kettle
-Electric two-burner hotplate
-Four dinner plates
-Small plates (2)

Cardboard box:
-Box of ~62 sandwich ziplocks
-Hand lens
-Obama shirt
-Black sports bra
-Grey pants (too big)
-Empty hand santizier bottle
-Deck of cards

You get the idea. This has helped me numerous times. I've even recorded a list as a voice memo because I was in such a rush I had no time to write it down, and then I transcribed it later. April's list of things left in Nyota had 200 line items, and then another 40+ left with my American friend.

Thanks to these lists, I've realized that some of my things did indeed go missing- I didn't just imagine I had them. In the time that I was back in the U.S., Sam came and left with his family, and Cam left a month ago. Now I'm missing 8 rechargeable AA batteries and two books. I'm pretty sure Sam is the one who lost track of these things one way or another. Also, Cam used up all of my duct tape and didn't tell me, so I didn't get more. He also said he left his bottle of Ivy Block, but it's nowhere to be found.

I don't mind that they used my stuff- I even gave them permission. I'm just annoyed that, for whatever reason, things didn't end up back where they should have.

How I spent my summer

2011-09-08T15:59:00.000-04:00

Maybe I'm a little late on this. I wrote it over a week ago but I've been slow to post it! The week of Labor Day kind of counts as the end of summer, right?

In the spring I returned to Big City just in time to (belatedly) celebrate our 2nd anniversary. As a belated birthday gift to me, we took a 4-day road trip in May that let us explore some new areas. I spent a few days visiting friend and collaborator Theo analyzing data for my conference presentation. In July we did a lot of traveling. We spent a week at the beach with my family, went to a wedding for our friends whose cats we had for a year, then spent a week with Jon's family on a tranquil lake. Our dog learned how to swim and we learned she's still clumsy (and adorable).

Shortly after returning home from Ukenzagapia in the spring, I decided that I was going to do a triathlon this summer. I found an all-women one nearby and started training. I had signed up for an indoor triathlon more than 2 years ago, but that ended up being the weekend of my grandmother and sister's funerals, so that didn't happen. I don't particularly love running, I'm not a very good swimmer, and I'm not a very fast cyclist, but I liked that the training was varied so I didn't get bored. I also did some yoga. I didn't stick to my training program exactly, and I felt like I should have done more, but the triathlon was actually easier than I thought it would be. It was just a sprint distance tri, which means the distances are all reasonable. I was thrilled with my performance (easily top 50%) and I definitely want to do more triathlons. I felt great going into the run, and really surprised myself at how fast I ran.

When we weren't traveling, I spent my days at the office working on data analysis for the conference and writing. Then most the last week after the conference was spent getting ready for this last trip to Ukenzagapia! So that's how I spent my summer. Goodbye, summer. See you next year!

My new data backup plan

2011-08-31T12:40:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago I wrote about how I realized that backups using Apple's Time Machine really isn't the best way for me to backup my laptop. I've got a new plan. I have 3 external hard drives, and here's how I use each.

1 tb drive: This one lives in my office at UBC. I partitioned it so there are 3 separate "drives". One partition is for incremental Time Machine backups. Another partition is for a bootable clone of my hard drive using Carbon Copy Cloner. This means that if my hard drive fails, I could use someone else's laptop to boot from my clone (you can't do this with a Time Machine backup). I think I have it set so that it doesn't archive changes (like Time Machine does) so the clone should be exactly the same size as my hard drive when it's cloned. The third partition is for files that I don't need on my computer anymore but don't want to delete permanently (some photos and music).

500 gb drive: This drive lives at the museum. It has two partitions: one for incremental Time Machine backups, and one for those files.

320 gb drive: This one is with me in Ukenzagapia and is the same size as my MacBook hard drive. Previously, I used Time Machine to back up to it, but I'd really be SOL in Ukenzagapia if I had to buy a new MacBook to get at the files! Now I'm using Carbon Copy Cloner to make a bootable clone of my drive without archiving.

Additionally, I have an 8 gb flash drive that I will put all of my most important documents on as a final backup. I should back up to the flash drive and my Ukenzagapia drive every Sunday at the very least.

A friend of mine recently had an external hard drive with years of photos fail on her, so I want to be sure that any files I have only on an external drive are on more than one external drive.

What do you think? Suggestions for improvement?

Grand delusions?

2011-08-28T11:11:00.001-04:00

I'm back at my field site now (Nyota) and I'm super excited about this last field season. I spent today unpacking, arranging, and cleaning things. Cam (my housemate for the last two trips) left 3 weeks ago and I went through the things he left behind for goodies like clipboards, string, and flagging tape.

I'm planning NOT to spend 7 days a week in the field this time. I'm wrapping things up, filling in gaps, and helping supervise other projects. So, I imagine all of this free time that I'm going to have, living in this house by myself. I know I'm not going to be able to do all of these things, but I'm very excited about the idea of running regularly, drawing, shooting things with a slingshot, doing yoga (did you know you can download free yoga podcasts?), making a solar oven and learning to bake with it, and taking awesome photographs, in addition to entering tons of data, sorting lots of research-related stuff, finishing my data collection, and generally keeping up on life. I've also got an exciting trip in the works.

Here's hoping for a great field season! First day in the field tomorrow!

Departure eve

2011-08-23T01:54:00.001-04:00

I'm leaving tomorrow for my last data collection trip to Ukenzagapia. Woo hoo! I've got my bags packed (to the max, as usual) and my (new-to-me) iphone unlocked. I've redistributed all but the largest plants to friends so that my black-thumbed husband doesn't kill them while I'm gone. I've got a brand new laptop I'm couriering for Dr. K, a new laptop battery for a friend, and about 12 pounds of printed materials that I'm going to unload. On my way through Europe I'm going to buy a ridiculous amount of cheese for my American friend. Oh, and her son really wanted squeeze jam so I'm bringing a bunch of that too. Two friends requested ipods, which I am not bringing. I found a carryon sized wheelie bag at the thrift store which I'm using to carry a microscope and most of my electronics. I hope I don't forget anything too important!

Eating feces is definitely worse than eating insects

2011-08-22T14:43:00.001-04:00

These are the things that field biologists talk about over lunch.

Several of us had lunch today and the conversation turned to what we eat in the field, which eventually turned into a conversation about what kinds of insects people have eaten. Everyone in the room had eaten some kind of grasshopper, ant, termite, cricket, or grub.

Then someone started talking about the sad time when they found a raisin-looking thing in their granola that they realized was actually mouse poop. Now that's gross.

Maybe posters aren't so bad

2011-08-18T15:35:00.001-04:00

I presented a poster at the meeting last week, but unfortunately many people who I'd hoped would stop by were unable to for a variety of reasons. The advantage of a poster is that it's a complete presentation that can stand on its own without me presenting it. Like I said, I collected several business cards so I emailed my poster to all of these folks who didn't get to see it at the meeting.

I've already gotten feedback from ALL of the people I sent it to! One person collaborates with the person whose study I modeled mine after (let's call him Dr. Bigname), and forwarded my email to Dr. Bigname (who wasn't at the meeting). Dr. Bigname emailed me and said he thinks my study may be the best of its type in Africa! How's that for awesome?! He's forwarding it to Dr. Evenbigger.

As an aside, my poster printed with a minor graphical error that wasn't my fault. I pointed it out to the company who printed it and they offered to reprint it, but when I said that wasn't necessary, they sent me a coupon for 50% off my next poster!

Maybe posters aren't so bad after all.

Backups

2011-08-16T13:09:00.001-04:00

I wrote a couple of years ago about my backup plan, but it's time to revisit it in light of new information.

While I was at the conference, I brought my MacBook to the local Apple Store to get a minor problem fixed*. My AppleCare extended warranty will expire while I'm in Ukenzagapia, so I wanted to be sure to get it taken care of before I left. They had to replace my whole display, which I figured would be the case. What I didn't expect was that they said it's a 4-5 hour task so I needed to leave my computer for up to 3 days! Still, I was ok with this because I had brought my external hard drive anticipating this separation from my computer. I use Time Machine to back up to 2 different external hard drives. I thought I'd be able to boot from my TM backup onto my friend's MacBook, but no. Time Machine backups are serial locked to the original computer. The only way to get your data off a Time Machine backup (according to the guy at the store) is a full restore onto a different machine (erasing whatever might have been on there).

So, I need a new backup plan. I will keep doing Time Machine backups, but I think I need to do something else too that would allow me to access important files via another computer. What do you do? Should I partition my back up drive and keep part of it for TM backups, and part of it for "manual" backup copies of the stuff I'd need to access from another computer in case mine fails?

Online backup options are out of the question right now because I can't do them in Ukenzagpia. I have some (mostly shared) files in Dropbox but I only have 2 gb. In Ukenzagapia I plan to back up to a third external hard drive.

*The Apple logo on my display became unglued. While this is mostly cosmetic, it does let dust in behind the screen, and I think it increases the risk of my screen getting damaged from behind. I really didn't want to end up with a shattered screen in Ukenzagapia!

Motivation from the meeting

2011-08-16T00:49:00.001-04:00

I love the big ecology meeting and this year was no exception! I saw some great presentations, got new ideas, met interesting people, and caught up with friends. I talked with several people who have similar research interests and I'm likely to collaborate with one of them. I gave out and collected lots of cards. I learned that I don't want to do another poster for a while.

More than anything, though, it has inspired me to think about a conference presentation timeline for parts of my dissertation. I want to give a presentation at next year's meeting on the final results of the project I did a poster on this year, and maybe present a different piece of that research at a smaller conference earlier in the summer. It will help me to have these deadlines on my calendar.

Timing is everything

2011-08-15T12:26:00.001-04:00

When am I ever going to learn? Once again, I'm leaving for Ukenzagapia right as the term begins. Because some of my grant money has to pass through my student account, all of the money gets held up in the time between when they bill for my tuition and fees, and when they waive it or pay for it. If only I could just remember to start this in the middle of the summer to prevent the hangup! Alas, no. A couple thousand dollars will be tied up. So, the emergency fund goes into action once again. At least we have that.

What I'm bringing to the conference

2011-08-05T15:13:00.001-04:00

Next week is the big ecology conference (are any of my readers going to be there?). I'm really excited about. I just wanted to take a moment to share a few items on my conference packing list and see if any readers have anything to add.

-Business cards. I have plenty of these already printed and I'm going to carry them around in my name tag holder.
-Highlighter. For highlighting the talks I want to go to in the printed program. This is the #1 most important time I need a highlighter in my life.
-Water bottle. It'd just be embarrassing to carry around a disposable bottle at an ecology conference.
-Distinctive ribbon. This is new on my list. I'm going to tie it to the tote bag they give me so I can tell it apart from the other 2,000 identical tote bags.
-Lightweight sweater/cardigan. It's going to be wicked hot outside but if they crank up the AC or have some temperature regulation problems, I don't want to be shivering.

I've been way out of touch with the blogosphere- does anyone have a blogger meetup planned? I look forward to seeing some of you very soon!

forgot ALL about her!

2011-07-22T15:56:00.001-04:00

I just send Sam a brief update on the progress of one of his undergrads that I'm supervising. His reply:

"great on [name omitted]

forgot ALL about her!"

Oh boy, that gave me a good laugh. Students, this is a great example of why you might need to email your professors more than once to get a response from them. If your message makes it out of sight, it's probably out of mind too.

More thoughts from me soon.

Need some samples collected from the middle of nowhere?

2011-06-22T23:21:00.000-04:00

There's an organization called Adventurers & Scientists for Conservation that is connecting scientists who need data collected in hard-to-access places with the talented, hard-core people who can get there. I think this is a fantastic idea. I hope it takes off!

Accounting

2011-06-16T19:07:00.001-04:00

I'm working on the accounting for my last trip. I swore I was going to keep on top of entering my expenses, which I did for about 6 weeks and then everything like that (and reading email) went to hell once we really started working 7 days a week. I recorded the vast majority of it in my daily planner, but now once again I'm having to sort out which expenses came from which pot of money, exactly.

There was a withdrawal and currency exchange transaction for which I didn't have receipts this time, and I was sitting here thinking, "Did I change $200 at that place? Or was it $300?" I was about to email Cam to ask if he remembers (yeah right), when I flipped back through my notebook where I write all sorts of misc things, and sure enough I wrote it down. $300 it is! That means I can account for all $4570 that I brought in USD! I haven't figured out yet how much of the Ukenzagapian currency I can account for, but I'm pleased as punch about the USD. I still have to figure out how much I have left in my big grant, how much of our money I spent, and how much money I spent from what Sam gave me. I have receipts all over the place.

When I'm in the field, about 1/3 of the things I write in my book are money-related, and because I'm kind of paranoid about Ukenzagapians overseeing the sums of money I manage, I tend to write in a way that makes it unclear which currency I'm working with (or even that I'm writing about money at all). This is not very good if I have to look back at my notes to figure stuff out. I need to be more clear about this!

While I'm thinking about money, that reminds me that I still have to actually do our taxes from 2010, and I'm still not 100% clear if I have to pay taxes on research awards even if I can clearly account for the research expenses, but I think the answer is yes (because they aren't "qualified educational expenses"). I'd be much happier paying these taxes if we had universal single-payer healthcare and if 60% of it didn't go towards war.

Categorization & frustration

2011-06-07T13:10:00.001-04:00

In general, I like organizing and sorting things, but I am easily overwhelmed when something doesn't fit into a category. This is manifests itself in all sorts of ways in my life. Tidying the apartment. Packing. Entering and analyzing data. I hate it.

I tend to deal with this tidying and packing problem by making piles of miscellaneous things, but then I fuss over them for a while, trying to categorize them, before hiding them out of sight. But I can't just do that with data... It is so frustrating sometimes that the world wasn't made categorically! There's always a judgement call to be made in categorizing those boundary points. If I have to do it a handful of times, ok. But if I need to make a whole bunch of decisions that could really go one way or the other... ack!

Obviously, today I'm dealing with some data that aren't clearly one thing or the other. I've been reading about ways in which other people have dealt with this, but the best way to approach it still isn't clear to me.

I talked to John about my dilemma. He also loves categorizing things and has a meticulously organized, data-filled music collection on his computer. When he has music with incompleteable data, he just deletes it. Unfortunately, I can't just delete the difficult ones!

I'm tempted to work on the easy ones for now and come back to the hard ones when I'm less frustrated.

Meeting at the airport

2011-06-06T17:08:00.001-04:00

Today I met Sam at the airport- on his way to Ukenzagapia. I had to give him some things for Cam, and my last chance was to bring them to the airport. He is flying the same airline/route that I prefer so I knew exactly when and where to meet him. I arrived before him, met his cab with a baggage cart, handed him a hard drive and a bottle of pills, and then we talked while standing in the line to check his bags. It turns out he had to give me some forms to submit so it was also good for him that I met him there. It was a kind of a weird place (and occasion) to meet, but I suppose stranger meetings have happened.

Aiming up

2011-05-28T19:42:00.002-04:00

A year and a half ago I started a manuscript with Sam and Dr. K that was just supposed to be a short natural history note. It has been rejected twice (once without review, once with). The second place from which it was rejected is truly where I think it belongs because I think it is the most appropriate audience. Unfortunately, they won't reconsider it so we're looking elsewhere. We're aiming up.

What do I mean by "aiming up"? Academic journals are ranked by how frequently they get cited in other literature. The more-cited journals (the cream of the crop being Science and Nature) are more prestigious, reach a broader audience, and are much more difficult to get a manuscript accepted. Their impact factors are around 30. For comparison, the first place we submitted had an impact factor 1-1.5. Then we submitted it to a journal with impact factor 0.5-1. This isn't world-changing science, but it's something that other folks who are interested in these things would want to know.

Sam really thinks this manuscript has a shot at a >4 impact factor journal, so that's where we're submitting next. The paper has changed and grown a lot, but I'm still anxious about sending it there, because I'm pretty sure it's going to get rejected without review. If that happens, I think the next place to send it is down... way down (someplace that doesn't even have an impact factor). I guess it could go to another ~1 journal, but I'm skeptical there too.

I just turned over another draft to Sam to work his magic on it because he's the one with the vision and confidence to aim high... fingers crossed. I want this thing accepted somewhere this summer.

Just me & the plants

2011-05-27T19:03:00.001-04:00

Our lab is pretty empty for the summer. Only one other student is around, and she isn't in the office much and keeps odd hours. Herb is mostly in Big City, but he's not in the office very often either. So pretty much it's just me and the houseplants. I've got all of the plants from all of the other offices in my lab now so they don't die.

In general, most of the department's grad students are gone for the summer but thankfully I have two friends down the hall who will mostly be around. It's kind of lonely without lab mates, but I don't mind too much. It means I can play my music loudly and sing along with Adele and Meaghan Smith :-)

Graduation gift ideas

2011-05-24T17:31:00.002-04:00

My cousin is graduating from high school and is headed to a fantastic SLAC next year. I am SO excited for her, because her other choice was a big state school. I don't know this cousin very well, but I think we have some common interests (biology at least) and I think college will be a positive and transformative experience for her. She's from a small rural town and her parents are pretty darn conservative (socially and politically). They don't have much money at all, but she's got a full ride to this SLAC.
I'd really like to get her something special for graduation. I remember giving some of my younger friends a small set a drawers full of all kinds of little useful things (paper clips, sticky tack, tape, etc). I could do that for my cousin, but since I do still have some folks reading my blog I thought I'd ask if any of you have awesome ideas for an SLAC-bound high school grad. Did you get any really awesome graduation gifts? What great graduation gifts have you given?
I really hope she loves her SLAC as much as I love SFC. Seriously, my SFC professors sign their emails "Love" (at least to me!). I just got an email today from one of my profs who is leaving shortly for Ukenzagapia :-)

What do you use for making posters?

2011-05-23T13:31:00.002-04:00

What software do you use to design posters? What do you like/dislike about that program? How does it compare to other programs you've used?
I've got a couple of poster presentations to make from scratch this summer and I'm wondering if I should use something other than Powerpoint.

Project priorities

2011-05-10T00:14:00.002-04:00

I counted NINE different projects that I'm working on. I've got to make significant progress on several of them this summer!
-Interdisciplinary project. This will end with a poster presentation this summer and won't be part of my dissertation.
-Review paper (hopefully the intro to my dissertation)
-Other manuscript (probably not part of my dissertation)
-Project A (a chapter)
-Project B (another chapter)
-Project C (half a chapter)
-Project D (other half a chapter)
-Database (maybe part of my dissertation)
-Bonus project (not part of my dissertation)
Highest priority (things in the analysis/writing/submitting stages):
Project A
Other manuscript
Review paper
Interdisciplinary project
Project D
The other things (especially the bonus project) can wait. I'll be working on the database this summer too but it's not in the analysis stage yet so I'm just helping the development along. I'm not sure if I should try to tackle these things one at a time, like spend a week working almost totally on the "other manuscript" with a clear goal at the end before I move on to tackle the next big thing? Maybe I'll try that and see how it goes. It would be good to get the closest-to-done manuscripts out the door.

Routines

2011-05-08T21:32:00.001-04:00

Thanks for the comments on my post about establishing routines. In case you're wondering, here are some of the routines I've made up for myself:

Every weekday: Go to the gym or do an exercise video at home. I've found I really do best if I have to do it every day.

Mondays: Bake bread (in the bread machine) before work so it's ready when I get home. Also cook dinner (with extra for lunches).

Thursdays: Go rock climbing. Make pizza for dinner.

Saturdays: Do laundry.

Sundays: Take care of my houseplants and outside plants. Cook dinner (with extra for lunches). Read in the evening with Jon.

The important part of these routines for me is that I'm NOT going to do these things on other days. So, if I don't wash something on Saturday, it has to wait until the next week. This is an especially important limitation for plants, as I can spend hours piddling around repotting things and fussing over my plants. Today I planted lots of seeds outside and repotted two of my houseplants. Anything other than watering has to wait until next weekend.

There are still very few regularly scheduled things in my professional life. My basic work routine is get to school by 9 am and work at least 40 hours per week. On Thursdays I call my field assistants in Nyota (though I often don't get through to them). I'm also going to study statistics every Thursday with a classmate. I'll study Ukenzagapese another day during the week (yet-to-be-determined based on my classmate's schedule). I might attend the lab meetings of another lab (depending on when they schedule them).

Meetings with my advisor? What? Is that something you're supposed to do on a regular basis? Yeah, that doesn't happen. I just met with Herb the other day to give him a rundown of how this past field season went, and tomorrow I'm meeting with Sam to talk about the zillion projects we're working on together. Herb doesn't plan to be around much for more of the summer, and Sam will be going back to Ukenzagapia for a stretch. I think I'll be seeing more of Sam, though. Maybe I will end up having regular meetings with him (or his students) while he's around.

This week I need to come up with a plan for advancing several different projects this summer. I'll probably write more on this after I've given it some serious thought!

New GRFP guide and FAQ

2011-04-30T17:27:00.001-04:00

I just completed my required annual GRF reporting and noticed several changes in the new program guide (link to pdf) compared to last year's (link to pdf). Since I think at least 1 other fellow reads my blog, I thought I'd mention these.

-They discontinued the Fellows Abroad program which allowed folks to study at a foreign institution.

-You can't have another kind of federal fellowship (e.g. EPA STAR) and a GRF, even if you wouldn't be paid by them both at the same time.

-Maternity leave explicitly qualifies as medical deferment, but the time allowable is dependent on your university's policies.

-Teaching is now explicitly NOT allowed while they are paying you a stipend (if you need to teach, you must defer a year or forfeit).

-Language is much stricter regarding deadlines for annual reporting. If you're late, your fellowship WILL be terminated. If you haven't done it yet, the deadline is May 1!

The new FAQ is here.

Getting back in the groove

2011-04-29T11:40:00.000-04:00

I'm certainly doing a good job getting my body back in the right time zone! I got home on Tuesday afternoon, went out for a belated anniversary dinner with Jon, and stayed up until 10 pm. On Wednesday I woke up at 5:45 (not bad), did stuff around the house all day, then went to trivia night and was up until nearly midnight. I slept until about 7:30 on Thursday, went to campus, and then went to a bachelorette party and ended up crashing at my friend's house and going home this morning. Tonight our friend is having a going-away-for-the-summer party, and on Saturday we're going to a wedding. It's a celebratory week.

I'm really trying hard to establish new home routines for myself now. Part of the reason I was able to do such an insane amount of work in Nyota was that I had a routine that didn't vary much, my life was pretty simple, and someone was cooking for me. It's much more complicated here and there are many more distractions (husband! puppy! houseplants! youtube! cooking! housework! - I had none of these in Nyota). I'm trying to simplify my life by scheduling things so that I just know when I do them and don't waste time and energy deciding whether or not I should do them (I do this a lot). So far I'm mostly doing this with things at home, but I think I'll do it with some school things too. I'm not the kind of person for whom routines come easily (I think I've blogged about this before), so I have to make a conscious effort to create and stick to them.

I'm curious, my readers, if you have created routines for similar reasons. If so, what have they been?

Mortality and traveling

2011-04-26T03:15:00.001-04:00

Traveling nearly always makes me think about my mortality. I think this is fairly common. However, as I've come and gone from Ukenzagapia, I've become more and more accustomed to the routine and I have less and less fear creeping into my thoughts. When I left Ukenzagapia a year ago, I was mentally checking off all of the dangerous things I do. Last motorbike ride. Last bus ride. Last taxi ride. Last takeoff. As my plane neared the ground at Big City airport and tree leaves came into view, I breathed a sigh of relief thinking, "Ok, if anything happens to the plane now, I'm pretty sure I could survive". Last landing. I thought about writing this post a year ago, but I still felt too superstitious about writing my relief at avoiding death. But we're all mortal, and worrying about it certainly isn't going to make the time we have any more enjoyable, so it's time to get this confession out there.

End of season

2011-04-26T03:10:00.001-04:00

My gosh. I think the past 3 months might have been the busiest 3 months of my life as I crammed in a crazy amount of field work. I feel like nearly every post I've written from the field this time has said this, but I've gotta say it again. I've gotten SO much better at everything related to doing research in Ukenzagapia. Everything! This was my best field season yet. I've set up a management system for Sam's project that I'm involved in, and I think things will keep running without me. My field assistants got a lot more computer practice, and will be emailing photos every month of the data sheets (for 4 different projects- 2 of which are wholly mine and 2 that aren't) before they can get paid.

My last two days in Nyota were run on very little sleep, some caffeine, and a lot of adrenaline. I had to prep tons of data sheets for while I'm gone and pack & inventory all of my supplies and equipment. My housemate Cam will be in Nyota until August, leaving shortly before I return in August. This works out perfectly for me and so I left nearly everything at the house in Nyota this time, and some clothes at my American friend's house in the city. As a result, I'm going home with 1 bag nearly empty and the only reason it isn't empty is because I'm bringing home stuff for Cam.

Unfortunately, my last night in the country was marred by robbery. I was walking back from the grocery store with Cam in the wealthy mostly expat neighborhood where my friend lives when a car suddenly pulled up very close and slowed down just enough to grab my bag through the window. Stupidly, I didn't let go because I didn't want the bastards to take my bag on principle, and so I got pulled to the ground when they sped away and dragged a short distance before the bag strap broke. I had my phone in my pocket and Cam carried the money in his, so the only thing they got was less than $30 worth of groceries. I hope they were sorely disappointed by their takings. The neighborhood is generally safe, but there are a few things I should have done differently. First of all, I should not have used a reusable grocery bag to carry my groceries. It was a cloth bag that obviously looked like a purse. Secondly, Cam probably should have carried the bag instead of me. He is much larger, though it might not have made a difference. Thirdly, I should not have been carrying the bag on my streetside shoulder. It made it so easy for them to grab. It happened so fast that I didn't even have time to shout and the only thing I thought was, "Don't take my bag you #@$%ers!" Neither Cam nor I got so much as a glimpse of the license plate. I got some nice road rash on my arm and my hip, which put a hole in my pants and my underwear. I was shaken up my it and I'm kind of sore, but all things considered it wasn't a huge deal. They didn't take much of value and I didn't get that hurt.

This departure from Ukenzagapia was more emotional than the others. I'm also probably more exhausted than I've ever been. I'm really becoming attached to Nyota, and now that the end is in sight with just one more trip, I'm thinking about what it means to wrap this up. I'm overflowing with gratitude for the people who have helped me tremendously, like my American friend and my taxi driver Violet. Furthermore, this is the longest that Jon and I have gone without seeing each other since 2004 and I'm so excited to see him again. Yesterday was our second anniversary and in those two years, we have spent 10 months apart. That's far too long. Thankfully, I have an incredibly patient and supportive husband.

I'm halfway home on my layover in Europe. I thought I'd be able to go to the first aid station and get some antibiotic ointment and new medical tape to bandage my wounds, but it turns out they won't help you until your fork over at least $40 for a consultation, so I just washed up in a handicapped restroom and will make do until I get home. Home. Home. HOME! I'm going home.

A blob of thoughts

2011-04-14T14:54:00.000-04:00

-I'd really, really, really love to eat ice cream right now. I'm getting teary thinking about it.
-I just spent a long time counting a bunch of little things in the dark with a headlamp because (big surprise here) the power is out. My back is sore and I'm pooped.
-I still have to pay our state taxes (like, right now). I'm just roughly estimating, and then grossly overpaying, the amount we owe for taxes and will sort it out for real when I get home.
-I'm going home SOON! Only 1 week left in Nyota!
-Vacation was awesome. I hardly did any work for 4 days.
-How am I ever going to be a real grown up scientist?

Vacation

2011-04-05T11:39:00.000-04:00

By my calculations, I worked 90 hours last week and nearly 80 hours the week before. I don't think I have ever needed or looked forward to a vacation as much in my entire life as I have for this one.

For the next few days, I'm on vacation. I've got my computer with me and I'm hoping to catch up on email, but mostly I'm hoping to relax and have a wonderful time. So far, so good. The place where I am for vacation is fantastic! I'm thrilled. My life is awesome.

Awesomeness

2011-03-26T16:23:00.001-04:00

Today we prepped for the next part of my big experiment. Last time it took us 2 days, but I estimated approximately how many person hours it took (54) and so this time I recruited 2 extra people to help and we got it all done in one day! I am really proud of my ability to correctly estimate how long it would take. I was worried when we were only 25% done at lunch time, but we really got in a groove and finished at 4 pm! Meanwhile, we watched several nature documentaries and Finding Nemo on my computer.

I also arranged with T and B to pay their wives to make some plastic thingamabobs for me, which worked out well and provided them with some extra income (plus, I'd given them both nice scissors as a gift so I knew they had the tools to do it!).

But my most exciting news is that I'm planning to take off FOUR consecutive days in April for a break from fieldwork! Cam and I are going to travel somewhere else for a few days. I'm SO excited about a vacation! I'm planning to do some computer work then, but it will be a great mental break after being in the field for all but 9 days in the past 9 weeks.

What have I been doing?

2011-03-22T00:54:00.001-04:00

Certainly not much blogging! The muse just isn't there lately. Instead of composing blog posts in my head while I ride around on the back of a motorcycle every day, I compose the acknowledgement section of my dissertation (which I've only started writing in my head). I'm grateful for the help of many, many people. But I digress.

In the past 3 weeks I've:
-started a big experiment
-dealt with several extended power outages
-had no running water for 2 weeks due to drought
-had 2 different house guests back-to-back, followed by the arrival of Sam and Dr. K!
-gotten chased away from a site by bees
-spent all but two days in the field (15 days straight)
-gotten great encouragement and advice from Sam
-went swimming in a newly discovered (and safe!) place

My schedule is pretty well packed for the next 5 weeks, but I'm trying to find a few days to get away from Nyota and travel someplace new. I hope I can. I could use a little vacation.

Gendered perspectives on the same book

2011-03-10T14:35:00.002-05:00

One of my favorite books is A Primate's Memoir by Robert Sapolsky. It's especially great Africa/field biologist reading since it's about Sapolsky's field work in Kenya and other adventures in the late 70s and early 80s. I've recommended it to many people, and people rarely seem disappointed. Therefore, I was a bit surprised at Cam's reaction when I asked him what he thought of A Primate's Memoir. He said, "It was ok... I liked it, but I spent most of the time comparing myself to him and feeling like I'm not having nearly enough adventures." This was a reaction I'd never heard before, and certainly not a reaction I had myself for one simple reason: Even though it's been 30 years since Sapolsky was hitchhiking around East Africa, I still don't think a woman by herself could do many of the things he did. I read his adventures and think, "My gosh! Even today I couldn't hitchhike by myself to Sudan with some Somali truck drivers!"

Cam, like Sapolsky 30 years ago, is a single man in his 20s doing field work for his advanced degree in Africa. I guess the comparison is easy.

I suppose I can relate, as when I read Jane Goodall's books I can't help but compare myself to her, delight in the similarities, and then marvel in amazement at everything she did before age 30, not to mention everything she has done since.

Whew... praise!

2011-02-27T15:54:00.001-05:00

I am up waaaaaaaay past my Ukenzagapian bedtime and tomorrow I'm launching a big project but I've been prepping like crazy for the past 3 days and then got an email from Sam that had to be answered urgently and still need to reply to someone else before i go to sleep. But anyways, I had to reply to Sam about this project of his that I'm helping with. I'm basically supervising it on the ground but didn't come up with it. It overlaps with what I'm doing so it's not too difficult but it isn't my first priority and it has caused a few headaches.
Basically, I've been really worried that we haven't done enough for his project, so much so that I was nearly in tears about it in November. I sent him the email update tonight with trepidation and was seriously thinking about not checking my email in the morning in case his reply is bad and then puts me in a funk all day.
He replied right away and said, "This is quite impressive- well done!"
I literally breathed a sigh of relief. It is so great to hear praise sometimes!

Meters and feet

2011-02-27T00:25:00.002-05:00

This week I'm starting my big new experiment in the field. We've been prepping for it the last few days. Unfortunately, I realized about 5 days ago that I didn't have enough of one of the supplies that is essential to this experiment. I thought I might be short, but I thought I had enough to start and then I could ask Sam to bring more when he comes in a few weeks, but it turns out I was way too short- I had about 1/3 of what I needed. When I calculated how much I needed before I left, I calculated it in meters, but then I bought it in feet. What a stupid mistake!

So, this put me on a mad hunt for more of this stuff, and fast. This meant going to the nearest city. I got the name and number of a hardware store from someone in Nyota, and it sounded like the guy had something suitable. I asked around to try and get a lift to town, but I had to go the very next day since there was no flexibility in my schedule and this was now urgent. I didn't find a lift, which meant getting up well before dawn to catch the !#@$*^%$ Nyota bus. I hate the Nyota bus.

It took me 3 hours just to get to the nearest sealed road on the Nyota bus (that's about double what it should take). Once there, I had to get another bus to the city. Before that though, Jon and I talked on the phone for a while and he was having a terrible day and I was trying to be supportive but I hadn't eaten breakfast yet and he was crying and I was crying in this narrow corridor between two buildings at the bus stand. I was feeling so overwhelmed. But I sucked it up, put on my best don't-mess-with-me face and then caught the next bus to the city.

I haven't really been to this city before, in spite of its proximity to Nyota as the nearest place for things like fast internet and western food. Cam drew me a map, and I navigated my way to the shop that said they had the supplies I needed. The shop owner was extremely kind and helpful, but it turned out they didn't have exactly what I needed or have enough of an alternative. By the time I left that shop, it was after 11 am and in order to catch the Nyota bus I had to leave the city by 12 or 12:30. There was no way I'd make it.

I spent the next 2 or 3 hours going from shop to shop asking where I could get the supplies I needed. I rode on the back of bicycles all over town, going in circles and criss-crossing my path. At each shop they helped direct the next bicycle driver to the next one. I was determined not to leave until I had found something I could use. Finally, I ended up at a little shop that Cam goes to frequently for his supplies, and they had something suitable.

At that point I had missed my chance for catching the Nyota bus, so I decided to make the most of my time in the city. I got my lost phone number replaced, drank some cold, fresh juice, withdrew money, and shopped at the used clothing market. Only then did I start heading back towards Nyota.

There's just one bus to and from Nyota every day. It leaves Nyota before dawn and drives to the nearest town, then leaves mid-afternoon to come back. If you miss that bus, then your options are 1) hire a taxi or 4wd- very expensive. 2) catch a lift with a car or lorry headed to Nyota, 3) hire a motorcycle to take you, or 4) wait until the next day. I was really hoping to catch a lift, but it was too late in the day for many vehicles to be headed that way. I called people I knew in Nyota to ask if they knew anyone coming back on a motorcycle who I could ride with but no luck there. In the end, I hired a motorcycle to drive me for about 5 times as much as the bus ($10). The 70-minute trip on the crappy, narrow, curvy road (without my helmet) is probably the most dangerous thing I've done in Ukenzagapia.

I arrived back in Nyota 12 hours after I left. It took an entire day. All because of stupid meters and feet... and the Nyota bus.

Small victories in accounting craziness

2011-02-19T13:35:00.002-05:00

Holy miracle of miracles, it turns out that the ticket for my previous trip actually came through on my credit card as a US-flag air carrier charge after all, which means all of my worries about violating the Fly America Act were for naught. Hooray!

Going back in time... with cell phones

2011-02-14T08:22:00.001-05:00

In some ways, working here feels like going back in time. I imagine in many ways this must have been what it was like in many parts of the U.S. about 100 years ago, especially places like rural Appalachia.

For example:

There are a few local stores, one or two in every village, that sell a little bit of everything. One man stands at the window and measures or counts whatever you ask for. It's basically a "general store".

Roads are poor. It's a constant battle to keep the roads in good condition.

Hitchhiking is common. If you have to walk miles and miles with your milk, produce, or firewood, you'd be thrilled to catch a ride from any passing vehicle that would take you. Since there's just one bus per day, hitching a ride can be the only other option, and everyone does it.

It's a cash economy- and you'd better have small notes because nobody wants to change the big notes for a few bananas.

Market access for cash crops and produce is made difficult by the poor roads.

Families are big.

Kids play with anything, and mostly make their own toys from cast-off items. Chickens, knives, leaves, old bottles, rope, sticks, plastic bags, broken buckets, anything. I think this is just something that kids do instinctively- the difference in the U.S. is that usually they aren't allowed to play with such "dangerous" items anymore.

The kids who are able to go to school often have to walk very far (an hour or more).

Many people (kids included) don't know when they were born.

People suffer from many diseases and parasites and children and adults are smaller as a result.

Death in childbirth is unfortunately common, and a hospital is a long way away.

Households than can afford it (such as mine) often have domestic help, instead of mechanized modern conveniences (e.g. a woman to help with cooking and laundry instead of a washing machine and a oven/microwave/fridge).

Yet, at the same time I have cell reception in most of the areas where I work, and I can sit here, miles from a paved road, on the internet over the cell network. It's kind of surreal, and makes stark the extreme inequality in the world.

Bad and then good

2011-02-13T09:25:00.002-05:00

Bad:
On my second day here, my phone fell out of my pocket on the road when I was getting on B's motorbike. We went back about 20 minutes later to look for it, but by that time it was long gone. I really liked that little Nokia :-(

Good:
I actually had an extra phone with me that I intended to give as a gift (for no one in particular). I also have another sim card that I use for internet, so now I am having to take my phone apart every time I get online until I can get to one of the telecom stores to get them to replace my sim. I will be able to get the same number back which is good, it's just a matter of getting to town to do it.

Also, my American friend sent a new Nokia (I hate the spare motorola!), brownies, and cheese with her daughter who came to Nyota on a field trip with her school!

Bad:
I've been getting ticks, which has never happened before. They are teeny tiny, like the size of this period. I also pulled a fat one off that had clearly escaped notice for a day or two (or more?).

Good:
I still had some permethrin from when I brought it in 2009, so I treated my field clothes. I think that will solve the problem.

Bad:
In less than a week I had poison tree rash on my hand and wrist. Even worse, I actually forgot- of all things- to bring more Ivy Block! I have some left from last time, but not 3 months worth.

Good:
American friend's sister-in-law is coming in a few weeks, and she told me to have some Ivy Block sent to her house and she'll bring it! So I'll have more in about a month. I'm also going to try something called Oral Ivy. I'm pretty skeptical but it was only $8...

Bad:
The electricity hasn't been very good. We've been out of power about 1/3 of the time I've been here so far, including a 48-hour and 24-hour outage. Those are the worst.

Good:
Is there an upside to not having electricity? I guess it could be worse, and I just try to do the things that don't require electricity like laundry and equipment prep and be extra-conservative with my laptop battery use. Oh! I guess I did get to try out the solar shower that I brought, which works wonderfully. It also reminds me how fortunate we are to have electricity. I try not to take it for granted.

Bad:
The internet is even slower than I remember it.

Good:
I do have internet, and it's so slow that I can easily go a whole month on less than 500 MB, which is only $2. Awesome.

Bad:
My favorite field pants are wearing out (new holes with every thorn I encounter), and I don't love my second pair.

Good:
There are lots of really cheap used clothes here (thanks to all of the developed countries sending them here and undermining the development of a local clothing industry), so I think with enough searching in town I should be able to find some suitable replacements.

Hey, I'm getting pretty good at this!

2011-02-12T11:56:00.002-05:00

Every time I come back to Ukenzagapia it gets easier and easier! It's wonderful! My American friend and my taxi driver friend Violet help me in the city, and this time I only stayed a few days. T and B traveled with me back to Nyota with my things, and Cam was there to help us when we got off the bus. I arrived here on a Sunday night, and we started work Monday morning. I de-parasitized Mommy Dog (inside and out), I moved into the same room as last time, and this time I even have a desk. There's something incredibly comforting about returning to a familiar place.

Field work is off to a great start. Project setup has gone faster than I anticipated, and there have been some great synergies with other folks in the area. I still have some insecurities about being a scientist, but I'm feeling so much better about my ability to do field work compared to when I started in 2009. I haven't even come close to freaking out about my research on this trip. Of course, my project isn't going exactly as I'd planned, but it's nothing insurmountable.

I'm starting to get so comfortable here that the thought of starting over in a new field site when I finish my Ph.D. is not appealing at all, though maybe not so daunting if I do it in the U.S. The end (of field work) is almost in sight now- hopefully just one more trip later this year! Wow. I've come a long way in the past 2 years.

My relationship with books

2011-01-28T15:29:00.002-05:00

For many academic books that I have recently acquired, my relationship goes something like this:

1. Check book out from the university library. Renew one or more times.

2. Purchase book for myself when I find a good deal.

3. Bring book to Ukenzagapia.

4. Leave it there because I don't want to carry it back and forth.

5. Check it out from the library again so I can read it when I'm not in Ukenzagapia.

6. Return library books before I leave for Ukenzagapia.

7. Read books again in Ukenzagapia.

8. Repeat steps 5-7 as necessary.

Back to the field

2011-01-27T16:51:00.002-05:00

Well, I'm almost back to Ukenzagapia. I didn't cry this time when Jon and I said goodbye at the airport. My bags were right at the weight limit- one was even a pound over but they let it go anyways. I have another 10 pounds of stuff that will come with another traveler who is arriving next week. Jon is bringing that box to our friend who will bring it to the traveler who will give it to Violet the taxi driver who will then put it on a bus to send it to me.
I'm carrying a ridiculous amount of cash on me this time. Violet is picking me up at the airport and bringing me straight to my friend's house with my 120 pounds of luggage. I'll unload some of the cash in the city, but I'll have to change most of it into local currency, and then the stack will be too big to fit in my money belt. Gotta come up with a different plan for how to bring it all from the city to Nyota. I'm staying in the same place as last time, and Cam is still there so I won't be lonely.
Have I said on the blog that I think this may be my best trip yet? I'm super excited about the project I'm going to be working on. I think it's going to be the best part of my dissertation, thanks in part to Theo who set up data simulations to run power analyses that allowed us to hone in on a reasonable sample size. Also, my permits are all set so I hardly need to spend time in the city!
I'll be gone 3 months this time. I was only home for 9 weeks. My cell phone battery didn't even die! Hopefully the infrastructure (especially the electricity) will hold up to make the next 3 months as productive as I dream they might be. Fingers crossed.

Co-advisor, co-author, and/or committee member?

2011-01-19T12:06:00.002-05:00

I need some of my readers to weigh in on this: In terms of the academic recognition system, how much weight is given to being an official, on-the-record co-advisor as opposed to just being on the committee and/or co-authoring publications with a student?
I thought the publications were more important than the title, but I think I might be wrong about this. Perspectives?

Nobody here but us grad students

2011-01-17T16:36:00.002-05:00

I saw at least one postdoc too.
I am glad that we have a holiday honoring the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., even if I am working today.

Committees... sheesh

2011-01-14T14:04:00.002-05:00

We are required to have annual committee meetings, which I think is a good idea to keep the committee up to date on progress and changes. In December I sent out an email to schedule a meeting for January, and finally got responses from the slow folks in early January. I scheduled the meeting, and then it turned out that 2 of my 5 committee members (one of which is Herb, my advisor and committee chair) couldn't make it on that date. Herb said go ahead anyways, so I met with him and Melody separately.
This morning I woke up and had an email from Leo saying, "I hope you don't mind if I miss your committee meeting this morning. I have a lot of deadlines and need the time to work on them, and I think I already gave you all of the useful feedback I can." I wrote him back asking if he could come if we went to him at the museum, and he said ok to that but then I had to talk to Sam and Chip about it. In the end, we couldn't go to the museum because Chip didn't get to school until 1 minute before my meeting was scheduled to start, and Sam had to leave promptly after an hour.
My meeting (with only 2 of my 5 committee members) went well. It was really mostly just a meeting with Chip, since Sam and I have talked numerous times about everything that I presented (and he's sick and spent part of the meeting with his feet on a chair and his eyes closed- body language clearly indicating "I don't need to pay attention to this"). Chip had some great insights and useful suggestions so it was a useful meeting (and Chip is notoriously overcommitted and hard to pin down). Even though the meeting was fine, I am frustrated with Leo. I don't think he wants to be on my committee anymore. As I've written before, my projects have gotten further and further from his area of expertise. Last year he said, "If you're going to have committee meetings without me, maybe I shouldn't be on your committee." I like Leo and he's my main tie to the museum right now but it seems like he's not getting much out of the relationship and maybe I'm not either. I don't know who to put on the committee instead. I need to talk to Herb about all of this and decide what to do.

Less than 2 weeks!

2011-01-13T13:17:00.002-05:00

With grant money on the way, I've just put more than $3500 on my research credit card. I'm leaving in less than 2 weeks! It turns out that now is a really good time for "free 2-day shipping" with a "free trial of Amazon Prime"...

Funded!

2011-01-07T09:06:00.002-05:00

I just found out that I got a sizeable (for me) grant! I've been cautiously optimistic about my odds on this one, but was also comfortable with my backup plan (which would delay the completion of my field work my approximately 1 year but mean a shorter trip to the field this spring). I've been waiting on this to make plans for returning to Ukenzagapia, but now this means all systems are go and I leave ASAP. Eek! It's both exciting and waaay intimidating, as this means I'll be gone for about 3 months and have so much to do in the field while I'm there. Not to mention what I have to do before I leave!
Oh boy oh boy oh boy!

Google Voice for when you're in the field

2011-01-02T19:14:00.002-05:00

I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier, but Jon suggested that I set up a Google Voice number linked to my cell phone. Then Google Voice can transcribe my voicemails and send them to my email address (same for text messages). This is perfect for when I'm in Ukenzagapia for weeks on end and leave my U.S. cell phone at home. As long as I have email access, I can receive voicemail transcriptions and text messages. Way cool. I love technology!

Kids do and publish science

2010-12-31T10:42:00.000-05:00

A class of 8-10 year old students in the UK designed an experiment to understand bumblebee vision. The paper was published in Biology Letters, and you can read an article about it, the paper itself, and more commentary on it for free.

The main scientist involved in the project, Beau Lotto from the University College London, has a webpage like I've never seen. This group is really, seriously sharing science in creative and novel ways (check out their Street Science and Flight of the bumblebee cubes). Kudos to them! What an inspiration!

The "Blackawton bees" project really sets a new bar for teaching science by doing science, and I expect we'll see more articles published by elementary and secondary school students in the near future. What do you think?

Puppy pic

2010-12-23T11:48:00.001-05:00

Because you asked!

Anyone want to guess what she is? The shelter said "lab cross" but what is up with those ears? Usually they are practically overlapping on top of her head they are so high set. I think they might stand up, but who knows? She's 15 weeks now.

Numbers

2010-12-22T23:56:00.001-05:00

We had a party on Saturday and then left on Monday to see family. Here are some numbers from the past few days.

Guests at our party: 17
People bleeding at our party: 3
Time party ended: 3:30 am
Guests who spent the night: 4
Beatles songs listened to on the way to see Jon's family: 213 (that's 9.6 hours- listened to chronologically by recording date)
Pounds of dog food brought along for puppy: 0 (oops- this is why we got a dog before having kids)

Tranformations!

2010-12-15T13:16:00.002-05:00

For years now I have thought that there should be an easy way to capitalize or de-capitalize selected text. I always imagined it would be a key on the keyboard, but I just discovered that it exists in the magic world of right-click!
If I'm composing or editing text and I right-click, one of the options is "transformations" then the options are "Make upper case", "Make lower case" or "Capitalize". This is SO useful for editing the title of journal articles so that each letter isn't capitalized (this is often the case when I download the citation, but most bibliography styles require lower case).
For how long have I been tediously changing one letter or word at a time? Is this a Mac-only thing, or can my non-Macophile readers do this too?

We finally did it!

2010-12-07T22:23:00.002-05:00

After years of talking about it and putting it off because the timing wasn't right or we didn't have enough money or whatever, we finally got a dog. We adopted a 3 month old puppy from a shelter. She's adorable!
Since I'm capable of doing most of my work at home (though I almost always prefer to work in my office at school), I've been mostly home with the puppy. My work is now often interrupted by stopping the puppy from peeing inside and keeping the puppy from doing other inappropriate things.
After more than 3.5 years of being car-free, it seems time for us to get a car since we can't take the dog on public transit. Then Jon will be able to bring the puppy to work with him, which will be important when I go back to Ukenzagapia.

Need something weird for your experiment?

2010-11-30T15:10:00.002-05:00

Ecologists often have to design some of their equipment for experiments and get creative with materials. I'm in the process of tracking down a few particular items for my next trip, and just found the most amazing website: http://www.mcmaster.com/
If you're like me, you might often have a picture in your mind of what type of thingamabob you need, but don't know what to call it. This website is full of pictures! Need something that looks like a u-bolt? Or special screws? Wire? Cable ties? Plastic mesh? Oh my gosh, this place has everything. This is waaaay better than wandering through Home Depot.
Thanks to Jon for tipping me off to this great resource. I love being married to such a handy man :-)

I'm home

2010-11-28T21:51:00.001-05:00

I made it home from Ukenzagapia in time for Thanksgiving, and had my first two completely work-free days since September! I'm basically back in the right time zone now.
I'm pleased with how things went this time, but I have so. much. work. to do here before I go back again... soon. Eek.

Step by step

2010-11-08T15:15:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow three students from SFC will arrive and stay for 5 days. They'll each spend at least a day in the field with me, a day with Cam, and a day with Ian to get a taste of the different kinds of research. When they leave, I'll have six days left in the field, and then I'll leave the following morning for the city, where I'll spend 2 nights before I get a on plane to go home. Ai! I feel like I can barely keep up with everything that needs to be done in the field, yet I still have a long list of other things to deal with. Sometimes it's overwhelming. I just keep trying to do one thing at a time. What is the most important thing that I need to be doing now? Step by step...

Some stories from the field

2010-11-05T15:47:00.001-04:00

-Through some kind of error in some database somewhere, by some omission or addition of zeros, I am paying less than $2 for 400 mb of internet. Normally this should cost at least $30. As a result, I've been much more liberal with my internet use, averaging a whopping 18 mb per day. I'm so up on facebook. It's kinda weird.

-It has hardly rained since I arrived. This is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it means that the roads are relatively fantastic. On the other hand, the rains are late, and that's not good for life in general.

-I saw a big gecko try to eat a small gecko. OMG geckos, please eat the insects in our house instead of cannibalizing your babies (and if you could not poop on my things I'd appreciate that too).

-Recently we had to go over a bridge under construction. They had laid down some big logs but hadn't put the planks on yet, so we had to walk the motorbike across the logs. Then we had to carefully maneuver past the trailer that was blocking the entire road. It's days like that when I am thankful to be on a motorbike instead of in a car, because we would've been SOL in a car.

-I saw Mommy Dog get stuck butt to butt with Loverboy (her dog boyfriend) after what I thought was a failed attempt at mating. They were stuck together for at least 10 minutes. I didn't even know this was possible. My kind veterinarian friend explained it to me over email. Apparently it happens all the time- after a successful mating. I guess I haven't seen enough dogs mate.

-I think the likelihood of a person arriving late is correlated with the number of children they have at home. B has 4 kids at home (not 3 like he's been telling me all along) and T has 6 kids at home (and one more nearby in her own home with a child- which makes him a grandpa at 38!). T is late much more often than B, and it's usually related to a child being sick.

-I'm at the point now where I'm starting to think about the logistics of going home. What am I going to leave here in Ukenzagapia? Where will I leave it? What do I need to bring next time?

-I've barely gotten any rash at all from poison tree (knock on wood). Let's see how I hold up.

I'm so sick of writing grants

2010-11-01T12:53:00.001-04:00

The title says it all. The summer before I started grad school, someone told me, "If you just apply for as many small grants as you can, you're bound to get something eventually." I took the advice to heart. I applied for a whole bunch of small grants and I got a bunch of small grants (and some fellowships). That's awesome. I wouldn't be able to do what I'm doing without that support. What I regret now is not trying to apply for bigger money about a year ago. I've funded everything with a couple thousand dollars here and there, totally piecemeal. I've spent an inordinate amount of time keeping track of all of the expenses from the different pots of money (and then trying to get my university to actually give me the money...). Unfortunately, I'm not quite finished. I sent out a grant last week that will cover almost everything, but even if I get that I'll need a little bit more, and if I don't get that I'm not sure what I'll do.

If I'd known when I was applying to grad school what I know now, I think I might have tried harder to find an advisor who already had a big grant that could support at least some of my research. I guess I could've gotten in on Herb's big project, but I chose to strike out on my own. What was I thinking? I'm so sick of writing grants.

A Mennonite, a Quaker, and an Atheist

2010-10-31T16:50:00.001-04:00

There's got to be a joke in there somewhere.

I'm living with two great housemates whom I have been meaning to introduce for weeks now (because I love to name people on my blog). Cameron (Cam) is another biologist studying some other critters. Ian is a social scientist doing some really awesome applied research. I can't tell you how much happier I am to be living with Cam and Ian compared to living by myself last time. SO. MUCH. BETTER. Ian has a printer (so much better than the virus-ridden setup at the field station), Cam has tons of household goods, and I have the best Ukenzagapese in the house. Everyone wins! I've evangelized Radiolab to them and they've lent me their books that I haven't had time to read. We share supplies and computer tricks, and commiserate when days don't go as planned.

It's helping the time to pass quickly, but it also means I have an easy outlet for my thoughts rather than blogging. Things have been slow around this blog, and I apologize to my faithful readers who eagerly look forward to new posts (I think there's at least 3 of you :-). Maybe November will bring a flood of posts.

Two sides of the same coin

2010-10-31T16:14:00.001-04:00

Hands down, the coolest part of my life as a scientist is getting to explore the world and work outside in beautiful places. I can't go into what makes my particular field site amazing, but trust me it is. I meet new and awesome people from different cultures who broaden and challenge my view of the world and what is possible.

At the same time, this awesomeness does have a drawback. It means that I leave home for weeks or months at a time. I was fine with that idea in my early 20s, but it's not nearly so easy to just go now that I have a place to call home and a husband with a job there. I'm trying to work as hard as I can in the field so that I can minimize my time away from home, but it doesn't feel like enough time in the field while simultaneously feeling like too much time away.

Over the long term (after my Ph.D.), I might shift to doing research that doesn't require international travel but I would hopefully still be working in beautiful places, albeit perhaps somewhat less extraordinary or exotic. For the time being though, I'm playing with the coin I chose, trying to figure out how to be the best scientist and the best partner I can be at the same time.

Gah

2010-10-27T16:20:00.001-04:00

The days are zipping by, which is a good thing and a bad thing. It means I get to see Jon sooner (or rather it feels sooner), but it also means I really have to get a lot done! I just submitted a grant that has been hanging over my head for the past 5 weeks (more on that later maybe) so I'm relaxing a bit tonight. It's a huge relief to have that done, so now I can start tackling the other zillion things I need to do (when I'm not in the field- being in the field alone is a full-time commitment).

Last week did end better than it started, and Thursday was only mildly disastrous due to a literal roadblock and some miscommunication. I did get a pineapple out of it. It was delicious.

This week sucks

2010-10-20T14:19:00.001-04:00

This week just hasn't gone very well so far.

On Sunday we had a brownout, meaning we had about half the electricity output that we normally have. My computer runs on that (thank goodness) but most other things don't, including my phone charger (isn't that strange that I can run my MacBook but I can't charge a cell phone battery?). The brownout wasn't so bad, but it meant I couldn't print and had to hand write some data sheets.

On Monday we still didn't have full power. One of my field assistants, B, had missed the one bus back to Nyota on Sunday afternoon and was stuck in the town trying to get a lift. So, it was just me and T, but we were supposed to visit 2 sites, and T was an hour late because he had some motorbike trouble. B never showed up. We only got one site done on Monday. (Thankfully, we did get full power back on Monday afternoon so I could print).

Tuesday was really the worst confluence of problems. We were supposed to do 2 sites to put us back on schedule, and we were picking up a fourth person (me, B, T, and the other guy). For your reading convenience, I am bulleting the sequence of events.
-B called and said he was back in Nyota but had motorbike trouble and needed to go to the mechanic and didn't know when he'd be finished.
-T showed up 20 minutes late, but couldn't start work yet because he had to pick up his son from the clinic (he has malaria), take him home, and then pick up the other guy.
-We changed the plan to go to one other site that was closer when I realized there was no way we'd finish 2 sites.
-I started walking the 5 km to the site because T had to carry other people and B was at the mechanic.
-I called B and told him to leave his motorbike with the mechanic, get a lift as far as he could, and then start walking to the site.
-T passed me going the other way on the road because when he went to pick up the other guy (2 hours late), he wasn't at his house because he started walking to where we were supposed to be that day. The other guy has no phone, so T takes off to go find him.
-I arrive at the site and wait around for while. I repeatedly call B to ask where he is.
-T gets to the other site, and the other guy left a note that he's headed home.
-I start working by myself.
-T still doesn't find the other guy, so picks up another other guy instead. They arrive FOUR HOURS after we were supposed to start working. They have to do something in a different place, so I continue working alone. Still no word from B.
-I work by myself for 3.5 hours until T and another other guy are able to help me finish.
-After I got home, I finally talked to B. He had gotten a lift part way to the site, but forgot his bag (with his phone in it) in the car...

Today we set out to do two sites again (to really get back on track). T and B were both 15-20 minutes late. B was only able to repair one of his two motorbike problems, and now T's motorbike had two broken spokes. This morning I had to decide what was better: getting on the motorbike with broken spokes or the motorbike with the faulty clutch plate. I went with the clutch plate. Whatever. It was fine. The crappy thing that happened today is that I lost my Rite in the Rain pen and we searched for about 15 minutes to no avail. I hate losing those because they are expensive and not easy to replace. I started using the fine tip on my double-ended sharpie. Then, right at the end of the day, I lost the damn little black cap. Once again, we searched (with four people) for 10 or 15 minutes without success. Guess what? We only got one site done.

Tomorrow we're supposed to visit 3 sites. Please send some good vibes my way!

Wash by hand (or foot)

2010-10-15T15:10:00.002-04:00

I'd forgotten how much having to wash my clothes by hand drastically reduces the number of different pieces of clothing I wear. I have waaaaaay more clothes here than I'm going to wear, simply because I don't want to wash them all every week! Sunday is my one day that I'm not in the field, so that's laundry day (unless I can find the time on Saturday). I've really got just one pair of pants that I really like to wear in the field, so I'm wearing those 6 days a week. I have two t-shirts, two long sleeved shirts, and two sports bras that each get 3 days per week. When I'm not in the field, I wear house clothes which is a skirt or pants with a t-shirt or button down shirt. I wear two outfits per day, but I re-wear each of those outfits for at least 3 days (more for the house clothes). Even re-wearing several pieces of clothing, it adds up to a few hours worth of laundry each week by the time I wash my towels and rain gear, rinse them thoroughly, and hang them out to dry.

Sometimes I walk around in the wash tub to agitate my clothes. Sometimes I do it while I shower, which just feels like great multitasking but probably isn't. Washing clothes by hand takes a long time. At least I'm able to keep my allergy to 'poison tree' at bay by washing so that I don't spread the oils around too much.

It's all about the motorbikes

2010-10-14T08:50:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I feel like all of my work out here revolves around motorbikes. The most recent problem: petrol. The town on the main road (the closest town with a real gas station- not like this one) ran out of petrol this week. All three gas stations were completely out of gas. As a result, there hasn't been much petrol for sale in Nyota- even less than usual. Today we couldn't do all of our work because my field assistants didn't have enough petrol in their motorbikes, and no one is selling more. Frustrating.

Aside from the perennial motorbike issues, the work is going well. I've been busy.

Made in China

2010-10-07T15:50:00.001-04:00

Many, many things here are made in China. Much of it is garbage, but I have come to realize that China is a powerful position to make things that are very useful to people in Ukenzagapia. Like Ukenzagapia, China has millions of people living in rural areas with poor roads and limited electricity. As a result, they have made many products to serve that market. Or should I say they copied many products?

Chinese manufacturers seem to be adept at recognizing a good thing when they see it. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery, right? They copied old English bicycles that are simple, sturdy, and survive the rough roads. They only have one gear (as far as I can tell), so you just push them up hill- but they do last longer than the "mountain bikes".

They copied the Honda CG125- a small, popular motorcycle. They copied it so exactly that when you put them next to each other they look identical- except for the names molded onto the engine. However, they did it with inferior materials so they could sell them for less.

My personal favorite Chinese knockoff is the pedal foot sewing machine. I saw so many of these sewing machines here that I thought that every single old sewing machine Singer ever made must have ended up here in Ukenzagapia. Upon closer inspection, I realized that not all of the sewing machines were 100 years old. In fact, most of them were new. The Chinese just took a pedal foot Singer sewing machine, copied the design, and even painted the darn things black with gold stenciling.

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with "Made in China" because on the one hand, they make some very useful things (sewing machines that don't require electricity being very high on the list), but on the other hand they make some things that are so poor in quality that I am ashamed to have contributed the waste of resources to make a useless piece of junk. For example, light bulbs that only last 2 days, or a spoon that bends when you try to scoop jam. JAM.

I hope that Ukenzagapia is able to develop more of its own industries (ideally sustainable ones), but in the meantime, it's MADE IN CHINA.

Voting absentee

2010-10-04T15:07:00.000-04:00

I've voted absentee for most of the elections in which I've voted. I found a great organization that helps people abroad request their absentee ballots. If you're ever abroad for an election, the folks at Overseas Vote Foundation can help you out. They even have a low bandwidth version of their site for people in remote places with slow internet (like me!).

If for some reason you have trouble getting through the process (I did, unfortunately), contact their help desk and they really will help you. Include your international phone number and they'll call you. Someone just called me and completed what I was for some unknown reason unable to do from here. Bummer that the form didn't work the first (or second or third) time, but props to them for some serious support! The only people who call me here are my husband and my parents- and now Overseas Vote.

The journey to here

2010-10-02T13:48:00.000-04:00

When I was two, I watched ants on our sidewalk.
When I was four, I collected itty bitty snails on our driveway after it rained.
When I was five, I tried to "fish" for my goldfish with a worm I dug up in the backyard.
When I was six, I tried to make a bird's nest- how hard could it be? (it turns out, it's really quite difficult architecture for a six year old).
When I was eight, I fell in love with the local nature center and spent every summer there until I went to college.
When I was nine, I had the most amazing third grade teacher who encouraged my interest in science.
When I was ten, my teacher who let me write a non-fiction book about monarch butterflies instead of a fictional story.
When I was eleven, I started a club with my friends called EcoActors to promote recycling and raise money to conserve rainforest.
When I was twelve, other kids mocked me by calling me "nature girl".
When I was thirteen, I had a great jr. high science teacher.
When I was fourteen, I started the advanced science track in high school.
When I was fifteen and sixteen, I mostly forgot about all that nature stuff. It was mentally on the back burner while I dealt with high school drama.
When I was seventeen, I got a 5 on my AP biology exam.
When I was eighteen, I started college, having chosen my school based on the strength of the biology program (especially in ecology and evolution).
When I was nineteen, I traveled abroad to study biology in a phenomenal location and I was hooked on biology and hooked on traveling.
When I was twenty, I spent a semester in Africa.
When I was twenty-one, I did a summer research internship.
When I was twenty-two, I graduated not knowing exactly what I wanted to do next.
When I was twenty-three, I had a job teaching environmental education and decided to go to grad school.
When I was twenty-four, I quit my job and traveled for a year with my partner, and applied to grad school.
When I was twenty-five, I started grad school.

When I'm thirty-one, I hope to have my Ph.D. and a job I enjoy.

Nyota news

2010-09-29T15:36:00.001-04:00

Over the summer, there was some drama surrounding money that I lent one of my field assistants to buy a motorbike. He said he bought one but no one actually saw it. Monday morning was the moment of truth: Did T actually buy a motorbike? Yes, indeed he did. It's nearly the same as B's motorbike, which is great because they can teach each other how to maintain it and share spare parts if necessary. I'm the envy of Nyota's motorbike riders because I have a real, certified motorcycle helmet from the U.S.A.* as opposed to the cheap helmets they sell here that feel more like suped-up bicycle helmets.

I'm living with two other grad students in the same house I stayed in last time (with a hot water shower). One is a biologist and the other is a social scientist. They are nice guys and I think we'll all get along great. One is vegetarian and the other is happy to eat vegetarian so that's wonderfully simple. The same woman who cooked for me last time is cooking for the 3 of us. Mommy Dog is still hanging around and she gets so happy when she sees me that it makes me smile.

I'm 3 days into field work now and it's going ok so far. It's taking a little longer than I'd hoped, but that is to be expected. The project I set up last time is going well, and this time I'm expanding on it. The roads are worse than last time I was here, though not too dreadful as long as it hasn't rained.

I finally got paid today- nearly two weeks late. I'm still waiting on several hundred dollars.

*Thanks to a loan from my friend who isn't going to be riding a motorcycle anytime soon because she's expecting a baby in November.

The bad luck bus

2010-09-25T15:18:00.000-04:00

Before I start talking about being unlucky, I should say that I was able to get all of my necessary permits to begin research in just 8 days. I DID walk into that government office on Wednesday and pick up the permit they said would be ready on Wednesday, but even more remarkable, on Thursday I walked out of a government building in less than 10 minutes with the final permit in hand. It was awesome. Now I can begin my research!

My field assistants met me in the city, and we left this morning for Nyota with 5 heavy bags/trunks and 5 rolls of fabric. At the nearest large town, we have to switch to a bus that runs only once per day. It leaves Nyota in the morning, and returns in the evening... except when it doesn't.

When I was leaving Nyota in April, my field assistants came to my house before dawn to help me haul everything out to the road to wait for the bus. We waited. Then someone came by and told us the bus never made it back from town the previous evening because the roads were too bad. We were waiting for a bus that wasn't going to come. I needed to get to town in time to catch a bus to the city, for which I had already purchased a ticket. I had too much stuff to just get on a motorbike, so the only thing we could do was wait for a lift from a passing vehicle. It's very common for people to do that here.

One of my field assistants, T, was using my phone to call the city bus station to get the number for the town bus station to tell them I'm running late but I'm on my way when a lift showed up. It was the car from the research station, and inside was the neighbor lady, the guy who tutored me in Ukenzagapese, and the guy I rented my house from. They threw all of my bags and trunks on the rack on top of the car, not bothering to tie them down (it had a 'lip' on it so things just didn't slide off but they did slide around). There was room for me but not my field assistants, so they said they'd find other lifts and meet me at the bus stand.

Not far down the road, T passed the car on the back of a motorbike. Not long after that, my other field assistant, B, passed me in the back of a pickup truck. I'd left first but now they were both ahead of me. Around that time I realized that I didn't even have my phone to call them because T had it when I got in the car! The road was terrible and we passed several stuck lorries and I'm amazed that all of my luggage stayed on top of the car (I think because it was heavy). It takes at least an hour to get from Nyota to town by car, so I was resigned to missing my bus and taking a later one. When the car arrived at the bus station, I was thanking the driver and getting out of the car when T and B ran up and told me to get back in! They said my bus had just passed a few minutes ago, and the bus company called the driver and they would wait just down the road for us. All of the other car passengers hopped out, T and B hopped in, and the driver rushed us down the road to catch the bus.

We drove. We passed 1 small town. Then two. Then three. Then we realized the bus hadn't waited long enough and we had to turn back. We we back the bus station, unloaded my things, and switched my ticket from one bus company to another, just as the other bus pulled up and we hurriedly loaded my things on and I said a rushed goodbye to T and B. It was a crazy, hectic, stressful morning that ended up ok (and reinforced to me how many friends I've made in Nyota), but it all started because the bus didn't come back the night before.

Today we arrived in town at the usual time, but the once-a-day bus to Nyota was completely sold out. They had no seats and no luggage space available. Strike two for this annoying bus. It even left five minutes early this afternoon, which is unheard of. We had waaaaay too much stuff to get on a motorbike, and normal taxis usually can't make it on the rough roads, so we decided to wait at the start of the road to Nyota for a lift. I sat with the luggage and chatted with a friendly 15 year old boy from near Nyota who wants to go to the US when he finishes secondary school.

After about 2 hours of waiting around, someone with a land rover type vehicle offered a lift to everyone else who was waiting around to go to Nyota (for pay). Everyone would have fit just fine, except this crazy white lady (that's me) had apparently brought all of her material possessions to Ukenzagpia and needed them in the car. There was no roof rack, so they all had to go inside. I sat up front between the driver and an older man. Squished in with my bags were at least 5 adults and 3 or 4 children, probably more, including only one of my field assistants (who sounded like he might have been under one of the bags). I felt really bad for all of them. One guy spent the whole ride half-standing hunched over the driver. That couldn't possibly be comfortable. My lap was covered in bags of bread and my feet were slowly cooking from the heat of the engine. It was hot, bumpy, and uncomfortable (not just physically) but we made it.

I was greeted by the neighbor guy and one of the guards, and the two other grad students I'm sharing the house with this time, and they all helped me carry things to the house. I'm staying in the same bedroom as last time. It's great to be back in Nyota. I just hate that bus.

Cautious optimism

2010-09-21T07:13:00.000-04:00

On Monday I was told that I'll be able to pick up one of my necessary permits on Wednesday. That would be great, as the other permits depend on this one. Fingers crossed.

In other news, my university continues to amaze me with its fantastically awful money management. I didn't get paid this month. I'm transitioning from one funding source to another this month, and it's not really happening on the accounting end. An 'emergency' payment was supposedly made, but it hasn't reached my account yet and the shit is going to hit the fan in a few days when our exorbitantly high electricity bill will be automatically deducted. Now including my paycheck, I'm waiting for more than $5,000 from the university. All of these payments have been (or in the case of my paycheck, should have been) in the works for at least 3 weeks. I'm making it work, for now, but what a pain in the ass.

Here's hoping that on Wednesday I have a permit and $5000 more in my account.

Making connections

2010-09-18T08:16:00.000-04:00

Small Friendly College has a program in Ukenzagapia right now, led by one of my professors whom I know well. I've been trying for weeks now to figure out when I can see them, as our paths will unfortunately only cross briefly while I'm here in the city. I finally got a response and it looks like I'll get to have dinner with them tomorrow! I might also tag along for some of their other activities, depending on my schedule.

While standing in line at customs upon arrival, I met a woman who is leading a group of Canadian students and we exchanged cards* and a brief conversation. I just got an email from her, and she wants me to come talk to her students about my research. I'm not sure what exactly she wants me to talk about, but I think this is her first program to Ukenzagapia and maybe she's struggling a bit to fill the schedule!

The other day I was at a government office getting one of my permits, and an Ukenzagpian who I met briefly in Nyota recognized me and asked me to pass a message on to someone I know in Nyota. Somehow, that little encounter really makes me feel connected here. I'm knowing people all over the place!

*This means I remembered to bring my cheap grad student business cards, and I've already handed out two!

Details, details...

2010-09-16T10:33:00.000-04:00

The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship comes with a one-time $1000 international travel allowance. Awesome. I'm using it for this trip. Or, rather, I guess I was planning to.

I filled out the online form to request the funds. I bought my ticket. I flew here. I got approval. In the approval email, they say:

Use of U.S.-flag air carriers by international travel allowance recipients
is required by the International Air Transportation Fair Competitive
Practices Act of 1974 known as the "Fly America Act." The conditions that
pertain to the use of U.S.-flag air carriers are found in GC-1*, Grant
General Conditions (07/02).

It really would have helped to have this information printed in big letters at the top of the request form. According to this list, my ticket is not with a US-flag carrier. #!@($^#. It's been one of those days. Now what do I do?

If you have an NSF or NIH grant, must you always fly US-flag carriers?

Writing, resubmitting, and advisors

2010-09-16T09:30:00.000-04:00

So about that short manuscript. I wrote it. Sam and I revised it. I submitted it to OK Journal. It was immediately rejected without review. Sam suggested I consider submitting to Better Journal or Regional Journal. I chose Regional Journal because I'm 99% sure Better Journal will reject it. We submitted to Regional Journal. It was reviewed and rejected. We appealed to the editor- can we resubmit if we make it shorter? No.

Sam says we should revise, shorten, and submit to OK Journal or Better Journal. But it was already rejected from OK Journal and it's not going to fly with Better Journal. I think we need to send it to Small Journal, which is what Sam and I talked about when we met last week. Sigh.

Getting better all the time

2010-09-14T03:08:00.001-04:00

I'm getting good at leaving for Ukenzagapia. Maybe too good, Jon said as we parted ways at the airport. It's become a routine. We borrow our generous friend's car to get to the airport, I know where and when to get food in the terminal, and now I know where the gates are in the different airports because I've flown the same route three times. My bags were 1-2 pounds below the limit and I even recognized one of the women working at the gate.

It's still hard to say bye to Jon though. I was crying in the security line. Anyways. I'm at the connecting airport now and my taxi driver friend Violet will meet me at the airport in Ukenzagapia and take me to my American friend's house. Then I'm going to (hopefully) fall right asleep so I can wake up on Wednesday morning and start jumping through hoops for my permits again.

Speaking of non sequiturs, I know I haven't blogged as much in the past few months. I've started posts but just never finished them. I think I tend to blog more 'in the field' so perhaps blogging will pick up again. I also haven't been keeping up on other folks' blog so my apologies to those bloggy friends out there who I've been neglecting.

(almost) all my bags are packed

2010-09-11T02:32:00.000-04:00

On Monday I'm leaving for my 4th trip to Ukenzagapia for another field season. My husband suggested that I get everything packed by tonight so that I have the weekend to remember and track down things I may have forgotten. Brilliant!

I'd say I'm 90% packed. I need to buy a few last-minute things (mostly gifts and a few drugstore items), pack my hiking boots (after I finish waterproofing them again), and pack my carryon bag. I have about 20 pounds to spare right now. This has never happened before. I've never packed my bags for Ukenzagapia and been below the 50 pound limit. For each trip before this I've written about how I was way over the limit (here and here).

I should perhaps mention that the reason that my bags are comparatively light this time is that I have boxes of stuff stored all over the country (my friend's house, the university, and at my field site). Every time I go I bring more stuff and leave it there. I think I could equip a small field station now.

Anticipating that my bags would be relatively light this time, I offered to bring things for other people. I'm bringing more things for Dr. K, some for my friend in the city, stuff for some guys who work in Nyota, and several things for another American who is just starting his fieldwork in Nyota. It's mostly electronic items because they are difficult, impossible, and/or expensive to get in Ukenzagapia. This time I'm bringing more usb modems, a new laptop battery, lots of rechargeable batteries, extra computer ram, a used digital camera, a measuring tape, headphones, rite in the rain paper, a laptop cover, and a flash drive.

I also went to the bank today to get out a large sum of money (most of what I need for the next 2 months) in the newest, crispest $100 bills the bank teller could find (last year I wrote all about why). It was enough that I actually used my money belt to carry it, which is something I'm not sure I've ever done in the US before.

I'm getting a lot better at this international field work thing. I'm more prepared than I've ever been- physically, logistically, mentally, emotionally. I hope this feeling persists!

Tools for a scientist: September Scientiae

2010-09-06T16:25:00.000-04:00

Anthropologists can study civilizations by examining their tools. This month, we can learn a lot about what some science bloggers do by hearing about the tools that they use in their daily science lives. You might pick up a useful suggestion or two along the way, be it software, pens, or notebooks!

rocketscientista calls this the most wonderful time of the year. I knew there'd be at least one person who wanted to effuse their love of office supplies! She tells us about her quest- and success- in search of the best lab notebook ever. I'm sure others will want to find out what it is. Also, she gets to play with liquid nitrogen. Awesome. But perhaps best of all, rocketscientista uses owl pellets. How? You'll have to read her post and find out.

Rocksinspace has a great list of supplies that keep her organized including multiple colors of pens and special notebooks. She also has 3 terabytes of external hard drives and is going to need a 4th soon- she works with enormous data files! On her blog she also shares a revelation about the disorganization of pdfs on her computer and is now getting reorganized with Mendeley.

FrauTech literally has a toolbox. She's got some timeless classics (drafting pencils and calipers) as well as the more sophisticated tools of today (matlab and a 3D modeling program), some basics that few of us can do without (coffee and Excel), and some things that are unquestionably tools by anyone's definition (screwdrivers, wrenches, a hammer, and more). Can you guess her field of work?

ecogeofemme doesn't obsess over school supplies but associates this time of year with new clothes. She also finds that the new lab she has joined as a postdoc is missing some of the things that belong in a lab based on her previous experiences.

Jaxwolf does a lot of her science in the field and has to be ready for anything with the ten essentials. She'd rather not head to the field without a GPS, compass, maps, first aid kit, multitool, waterproof notebooks, and duct tape. That stuff is amazing.

sarcozona gets the prize for most unique tool: the cone guillotine. What in the world is a cone guillotine for? You'll have to go check it out, complete with a photo.

microbiologist xx needs some sterile wooden sticks and a whole lot more for her research. She tells us why the microscope is her favorite tool, and includes some awesome photos to illustrate her point!

Melissa from Confused at a higher level shares some outstanding advice for anyone starting up a lab (especially at a primarily undergraduate institution). She has great suggestions for how to make the most out of start-up funds by thinking long-term. In the same post she shares an A-to-X list of things she uses in an experimental condensed matter physics lab. I love it!

NJS (Scientist Rising) reminds us that a lot of science doesn't happen in a lab (or in the field). Her work relies on her "laptop, research group computers, the department computing clusters, and a supercomputer or two." One advantage of computer-based work is that it's easily portable and she shares some tricks for managing connections with the other computers. Without those tools, she might have "killed at least one computer."

Like NJS, Alyssa's (aka Mrs. Comet Hunter) research relies heavily on computers and the internet. She wonders if she's missing out or isn't a "real scientist" because she doesn't work in a lab or do field work. As host of this month's theme, I say nay! Computers and the internet are most definitely "real science" tools, and both field and lab work have their drawbacks. If you have thoughts on the matter, you can join the discussion on Alyssa's post.

Two different bloggers wrote about their love for R (a free statistical package) and LaTeX (a free typesetting program). mariawolters calls R "the one tool I couldn't live without." As an academic who has frequently changed institutions, she is liberated from the software subscription ties of any particular university to various other [expensive] statistical packages. Eugenie also tells us how she uses Mendeley (another free program used for managing and annotating references) and BiBteX to make bibliographies in LaTeX. So much free software!

fridayafternoonwriter has learned which tools are most important to her while writing up her thesis: good software (no one else mentioned many of these programs), good hardware (wide screen monitor!), good music, and good tea. Her post reminds me that the small things that create our optimal work environment are important, too.

I have absolutely loved reading all of the different posts for this month's carnival. Thank you to everyone who contributed! I've learned about many tools that I didn't even know existed. I hope that everyone enjoys these glimpses into different fields of science!

Scientiae carnival deadline EXTENDED

2010-08-30T23:31:00.000-04:00

If you still want to write about your favorite science toys and tools, it's not too late! I'm extending the deadline to 11:59 pm on September 1. Please submit! I'd love to read more posts and there have only been a handful so far. The original call for posts can be found here.

My parents are coming to visit this weekend, but I'll try to have the carnival posted by Monday, September 6. Stay tuned!

Scientiae deadline coming up!

2010-08-29T23:59:00.000-04:00

If you are interested in writing about your favorite gizmos and gadgets as a scientist, please contribute to Scientiae Carnival! I am hosting for September, and you can find the original call for posts here. Anyone is welcome to contribute a post (or a comment if you don’t have a blog of your own). To submit posts to the carnival, please email the permalink URL of your post to scientiaecarnival [a] gmail [dt] com.

The deadline is Monday, August 30, 11:59 pm. Keep 'em coming!

Here I go again

2010-08-26T00:03:00.000-04:00

I think I'm incapable of buying my plane tickets more than 3 weeks in advance of my trip. But! I've got them now. I leave in less than 3 weeks. It feels like it gets easier each time to get ready to go, and each time I think there are fewer things that I need to buy. This time I might be bringing nearly as many things for other people as for myself! I just really hope I don't have to pay excess baggage fees this time (but if I do, I'll know to ask for receipt at the counter!).

I haven't even really made a list of things that I need to accomplish before I leave. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

More than I needed to know about budgets

2010-08-19T16:37:00.001-04:00

I just got out of a too-long meeting with someone from accounting because I was trying to figure out the best way to pay some research fees. The accountants went off on some waaaaaaaaaay looooooooong tangents, and as a result I know a LOT more about the financial woes of the world, country, state, university, college, and department. Yikes. Things are not looking good for grad students coming down the pipeline here at UBC. I'm very happy (and lucky) to have the security of a graduate research fellowship during this time.

However, I now have to pay taxes on more of my research money thanks to a minor language change. In a nutshell: Instead of getting reimbursed (which is not taxable), the money will go on my 1098-t, which, because my fellowship income is also reported on my 1098-t rather than a W-2, is mostly taxable income.

I also learned that it costs the department about $500,000 to hire a biology professor, and with the current distribution of overhead payments, it takes the university at least 10 years to recoup that startup from grant overhead. I had no idea. Talk about pressure to get big grants!

Hello, Goodbye

2010-08-17T18:48:00.001-04:00

This is the theme song of the day. New students are arriving, two lab members are leaving. It's bittersweet.

I'm spending the afternoon editing down a communication of research findings that is supposed to go to a lay audience but was 1300 words (2.5 pages). Short and to the point is what every communication workshop I've been to emphasizes. I've got it below 500 now. Almost there.

Rejected and ready to be home

2010-08-16T18:58:00.000-04:00

My manuscript was rejected last week. That's a bummer. I haven't read all of the reviewers' comments yet but Sam doesn't seem discouraged, so that's good at least.

We're finally home from vacation. I was gone for 15 days (straight from the conference to the beach). We have two house guests who are already here, and we're having a going away party for one of them tonight. My friend Mariyah finished her degree and is going back to her home country. I'm really going to miss her.

I should be returning to Ukenzagapia in less than a month now, and have a crapload of things to figure out before I go. That said, getting ready to go to the field seems to be less hectic each time, which is nice. Nearly all of my equipment is already there so there's not much to buy or bring this time. Perhaps I should be starting to worry? But then I remind myself that worrying about work doesn't get work done. I just need to stay focused and work hard every day. I can do that.

Paperclips to particle accelerators

2010-08-09T00:38:00.000-04:00

I have the great pleasure of hosting the Scientiae blog carnival for the month of September. I have been mulling over this month’s theme for more than a year now. During my first field season of data collection in 2009, I spent a lot of time thinking about my research equipment (including what would happen if it failed me) and wondered what types of tools other people rely on for their research. This is the time of year when students and teachers in the northern hemisphere return to school after summer vacation, which often means buying new school supplies. Although I know this may not be the "school supply" buying season for many Scientiae bloggers, I am interested in hearing what supplies you use in your research, teaching, and outreach. What things do you love in the lab? What are you lost without in the field? What computer programs make your life easier every day? What tools are indispensable? What is tried and true?

Your list can be as conventional or unconventional as you see fit to share. So, without giving your whole research agenda away, what are your favorite school supplies?

Anyone is welcome to contribute a post (or a comment if you don’t have a blog of your own). To submit posts to the carnival, please email the permalink URL of your post to scientiaecarnival [a] gmail [dt] com by 11:59 pm on Monday, August 30, UTC-11 (that’s American Samoa time). I will try to have the carnival posted on Thursday, September 2.

ESA in photos

2010-08-07T22:55:00.000-04:00

Here are a few photos from the Ecological Society of America annual meeting in Pittsburgh. The convention center was gorgeous!

Ecologists chillin' between sessions

Exhibit hall with poster presentations and vendors

Walkway between two halves of the convention center (that's water falling down the sides and along the pathway)

This is a vertical planting that grew to create an impressive billboard.

Home of the Pittsburgh Pirates. I haven't heard a bad thing yet about this stadium.

Hydroponics demonstration garden at the convention center. Big plants, no soil!

The roots just got bathed by dripping water and grew in the plastic housing.