I've been up for more than twenty-four hours (doing time points in lab) and I feel a bit like a zombified noodle. I'm probably getting too old for this overnighter stuff.
Why We Banned Legos. (via Shawn Allison) My first thought upon reading this title was: Why the heck are you banning legos?!! Legos was one of my favorite toys while growing up. But no, this article really isn't about legos--it's really about child psychology and the development of power structures and cliques. But as anyone who has gone through high school already knows, this is patently obvious.
This morning, it snowed while I walked to lab. The previous night, it had rained and all the earthworms had crawled out of the soil onto the road. Cars whizzed across the road and the worms that had crawled out a little too far were no more--merely pale smears on the blacktop. It made me sad to think that these creatures were in a damned if you do and damned if you don't situation. Drown in the soil, freeze on the pavement, or get run over.
And girls shouldn't read big books like that. (via Pharyngula) This is so wrong. But then again, am I surprised? No. Although I do not have any brothers, I saw many instances of favoritism (skewed towards sons) in other families while I was growing up. And as for guys who don't like girls reading big books, well, those guys are probably not worth knowing anyway.
Onesome: Precision--ist? Just how picky are you about 'getting things done' yourself? Is "good enough" good enough? ...or do you want to get it "just perfect" every time?
It depends on what needs to be done. If it's one of those really important things, then yeah, I can be picky. There are some things in which you have to be perfect for anything to work at all. And sometimes that's not good enough either.
Twosome: Color-- preferences? What colors would you like to try for livening up the place a bit?
Whenever there is a color question, I bring out my default answer--green.
Threesome: Management?-- Hey, are you in management or are you a line employee? Students: what do you plan to be? Moms: you get a pass since you're in administration already!
I am not the type of person who likes being under somebody else's thumb.
Today is one of those days when I start wondering why I'm enduring the torture of grad school to get where I'm going. Mired in these morose thoughts, I hear popping sounds coming from outside as if someone is shooting pellet guns in my direction. I peek outside and see hail. Oh great.
So, I finally remembered the sort-of resolution I made earlier this year about changing my reading habits to encompass more "award-winning books." Basically books that lit-crazed people think are good. Whatever. So...which list should I start off with--the pretentious Pulitzers, the geek-fest that is the Hugos and Nebulas, the gruesome Bram Stoker Awards?
No. I thought I'd ease into it with shorter books geared towards kids--the Newbery (or as Yahmdallah calls them, the Dingleberry Awards). I will probably start in chronological order but skip the ones that I've already read as a kid (mostly the ones awarded in the 60s and 70s although there are some in other decades--none of the more recent ones, though). I'm still debating on whether or not to read these with an adult sensibility or with a kid-centric audience in mind. Maybe both.
At first, I thought they were putting on a map exhibition, but the university library is actually giving away free maps. More specifically, topographical maps of the entire state. They're all huge, like posters. So if you're in town, get 'em while they're hot!
The Mermaid's Tale by Amanda Adams. No offense to Waterhouse, Burne-Jones, and Rackham whose lush illustrations populate The Mermaid's Tale, but if Thomas Kincade decided to write an overripe post-feminist memoir, this would be it. Sickly sweet and a bit too introspective, like a blogger on a margarita binge, Adams muses about her childhood preoccupation with mermaids and the current meaning it has for her on womanhood. Or perhaps this is just a book long justification for why little girls start gravitating towards the fantasy of being sea princesses*. However, mythological deconstruction sit side by side with Adams' reminisces. In those fairy tales when a mermaid's husband becomes suspicious and jealous and discovers her fishy side instead of a secret lover, the mermaid is forced to leave. The mermaid's tail, Adams posits, is the symbol for feminine mystery and independence. Likewise, the lure of a siren's song represents feminine confidence, the theft of a selkie maiden's seal coat a metaphor for a man trapping a woman into the subservience of marriage, the temperamental Inuit sea goddess Sedna a mirror to a woman's fickle moods. But modern society has obliterated the connection between mermaids and mystery--today, mermaids have been Disneyfied, sexualized, and commercialized. There are a few interesting nuggets in The Mermaid's Tale, but I'd mostly categorize this as the sentimental pap that you might get at a museum gift shop. *Not me. I liked reading fairy tales, but that was it. Otherwise, I was that weird kid who thought it was perfectly acceptable to decapitate Barbie.
Sin and Syntax by Constance Hale. Ah, a grammar book in the guise of reckless rule breaking. No, I'm not being sarcastic (much), but grammarians mostly have their work cut out for them trying to present a fairly cut and dry subject with flair. The most useful thing about this particular book was that it not only presented the rules and examples of when rule-breaking actually works--but also instances when supposed rule breaking for art turns into linguistic atrocities. There are points, however, when I felt the author was a bit too cutesy with a turn of phrase--but that just may be me and my preferences for certain writing styles. Some examples of "good writing" also seem a bit questionable to me (James Joyce?!!), but again, I may be a bit picky. Otherwise, it's mostly a good guide for writing. And if it doesn't make your writing great, well, at least it'll keep you from making tragic mistakes.
Visions of Heat by Nalini Singh. Can I say Yay! again? Singh manages to avoid the pitfalls that often sink second novels (well, this is technically not Singh's second novel overall, but it is the second in a series) with characters that aren't retreads of the previous book. Faith NightStar is an F-Psy, a psychic with foresight, who is conditioned to live in seclusion to forecast business trends while her fellow Psy use that information to rake in the dough. It's only when she starts getting disturbing visions (that result in the murder of her half-sister) that she begins to suspect that she's cracking up. I like how Faith manages to figure things out for herself without much propping up by the hero. In fact, there are times when he actually provokes her into standing up for herself. Singh also manages to develop the overarching storyline into something intriguing. All of the Psy are connected via something called a PsyNet--sort of like a mental internet with Matrix-like qualities--and by the end of this book, there are definitely hints of rebellion brewing on the PsyNet against the conditioning of Silence, i.e. the eradication of all emotion. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how the author will develop this further in the series.
Demon's Delight by MaryJanice Davidson, Emma Holly, Vickie Taylor, and Catherine Spangler. Overall, this is an okay anthology--if you have particular preferences, not all of the stories will appeal to you. MaryJanice Davidson's "Witch Way": A witch and a witch hunter try to figure out how to break the curse that forces them to kill each other in every generation. Davidson's writing style is an acquired taste--it's spastic with a dash of weird humor and a lot of "this doesn't make a lick of sense at all." But if you're feeling in the mood for things that don't make sense, Davidson would fit the bill. Emma Holly's "The Demon's Angel": A scientist falls in love with her experimental subject and "runs" (okay, they actually fly) away with him. I like Holly's writing style, even if it verges on purple prose, but her technobabble will make any sci-fi geek cross their eyes in exasperation (it's either that or scream, "I can't believe you make science sound like woo-woo stuff!"). Vickie Taylor's "Angel and the Hellraiser": The angel of death attempts to redeem a stuntman who is hell-bent on danger. Catherine Spangler's "Street Corners and Halos": An angel attempts to redeem a vampire prostitute. I did not like Taylor's or Spangler's stories very much--mostly because of the plots. Whenever there's an angel in a story, somebody gets redeemed. Ho hum. Very boring. And very overdone.
Rainforest by Thomas Marent. In one word: gorgeous. Rainforest is one of those huge coffee table books that you need a crane to lift, but it's worth it for the closeups of tropical beasties alone. Even before the title page, there are frogs, insects, and pit vipers. The panoramas aren't just generic waterfalls and jungle vines--Marent has managed to capture the ethereal quality of sunlight breaking through the canopy. And among the fungi, plants, flowers, insects, reptiles, and mammals, I particularly remember cute pictures of a camouflaged orchid mantis, as glaring pink as its home, and fluffy white Honduran bats snuggled against a tent of leaves like puff balls. Of course, taking pictures in a tropical rainforest isn't all roses--Marent particularly documents his patience and exquisite obsession as he endured getting lost, getting heat stroke, or teetering on the brink of starvation. A certain amount of insanity and bravado surely went into making the photo of a black caiman--so close that you can see the mosquitoes ringing its eye--or of the hornbill which required squatting on a scaffolding of poles near the canopy for ten days straight.
Fortune's Fool by Mercedes Lackey. The only reason why I'm still reading this woman's work (or rather, the Five Hundred Kingdoms series) is that she developed an interesting premise in The Fairy Godmother--that is, fairy tales happen because of a semi-conscious force called Tradition and some people actively strive to thwart it--and I'm waiting for her to run with it, preferably to someplace interesting. But meanwhile, my wait is in vain. In this installment, Ekaterina, the seventh daughter of the Sea King, is sent overland to spy on the goings on of the land lubbers. On one of her excursions, she meets up with Sasha, the seventh son of the King of Belrus who acts the part of Fool to cover up his other activities which involve protecting his country via magic music. But before the two lovebirds can live happily ever after, Ekaterina gets kidnapped by an evil jinn. Yes, yes, major eye-rolling ensues as the hero and heroine go through pointless adventures to triumph over the jinn who is mostly evil laugh and no bite anyway. On the whole, Fortune's Fool reads like a fairy tale despite the feisty main characters. Where's the subversion?
Resenting the Hero by Moira J. Moore. I admit, the first thing that attracted me to this book on the shelves was the bad, silly cover. The style reminds me a bit of Phil and Kaja Foglio--if they weren't so cartoonish. My impression was--Comic fantasy! I need a laugh, so why not? On a world populated by the descendants of colonists from a vague sci-fi-ish past with European (Irish?) and Japanese names, there are people with magical abilities who protect the rest of the populace from natural disasters. Those with these abilities come in bonded Pairs--the Source who actually works the magic and the Shield who protects the Source from killing himself or herself while wielding dangerous magic. Dunleavy Mallorough is a Shield, and the protagonist whose cranky first person narration makes it clear who's "resenting the hero." All Dunleavy wanted was to be Paired with a nice, stable Source so she could live a quiet, uneventful life, out of too much danger. Instead, she's stuck with Lord Shintaro Karish who has a reputation for wooing the ladies and getting into high risk situations. At times, Dunleavy's animosity towards Karish is over the top, but the two do eventually learn to see beneath the surface and come to respect and understand the other partner. An amusing, light read. I'm definitely looking into the sequel.
Last night, I was reading a description that someone made of their desk. It was an interesting description because they had interesting stuff. In contrast, my desk is covered with the impersonal. Notebooks, folders, papers, a couple of mass spec manuals, a list of upcoming science seminars, two paper clips, a flash drive, a phone, a laptop, one black pen. My desk is next to a window, but the blinds are closed. Even if they were open, I would only see the tops of buildings. Unlike everyone else, I do not have photographs of family or pets, drawings, postcards, toys, clocks, calendars, or even a colorful container for holding writing utensils. If a desk is a reflection of one's personality, I must be the most boring person in the world.
Recently, the university has been urging students to switch to Windows Live Mail. It's mandatory, actually. The thing is, the contract the university had with the prior e-mail provider is running out this year so they decided to make a deal with Microsoft.
Yeah, that was my first thought too. Administration had gone over to the Dark Side.
Obviously, there are still some glitches in Windows Live Mail. Some big glitches--such as lack of POP3. What kind of e-mail service doesn't have POP3?!! And I can't send off any e-mail unless I access it through a browser. This makes me long for those days when the only way I knew how to send e-mail was through TELNET.
On the other hand, I can read weblog feeds on it. Of course, it's pretty easy already with sites like Bloglines, but for some reason, I never really got into that. Maybe because there was a little too much clicking and scrolling going on.
With sleep a very, very distant memory, I staggered into the student labs last Friday morning under the weight of freshly graded (and alphabetized!) lab reports. Yes, I survived the Stack of Doom. But I was quite glad that the campus was nearly empty of students (It's spring break! Everyone headed down to...Lewiston?) so that no one could witness my ridiculously Sisyphean effort of heaving papers up a long flight of stairs.
My only excuse for not getting the reports graded earlier was that I took off to the next state (all of ten miles, mind you) after dinner to go see a lecture by Jane Goodall. Let me first say that I was disappointed.
How can you be disappointed? You might rage at me. She's a Famous Scientist!
Yes, I know. But I went in expecting one thing and then getting something totally different. I was hoping to learn something about chimp research. Instead, I got an environmentalist screed. Now don't get me wrong--I think saving the rain forests and trying to find a way for marginalized peoples to survive without resorting to killing endangered animals are noble goals. I really enjoyed Goodall's speaking style and the stories about events in her childhood and young adulthood that inspired her to become a primatologist. But that's just not the same.
Maybe I should have read the advertisements about the Goodall lecture in the local papers and the fliers being handed out prior to the lecture. Perhaps I should have realized that my fellow lecture attendees (a middle-aged woman holding a tub of popcorn, a man dozing on his girlfriend's shoulder, a student blabbering about Noam Chomsky and philosophy to his friends, geeks playing online chess on laptops and reading fantasy books with large swords, an older man in a Mr. Rogers' vest and a pretentious magazine, an expensively dressed older couple nearly bulldozing me down in their eagerness to get their VIP seats on the front row) weren't the sort to actually care about a scientific seminar--so why should this lecture be one in the first place?
I hate to say it, but I could have spent that time grading and getting an extra hour of sleep.
Most Significant SF & Fantasy Books of the Last 50 Years. I've read about eight or nine of those books. Yeah, that's an appallingly small number compared to some people. But then again, how surprising is that anyway? Whenever someone churns out a "best of" list for books, I don't make 50%. Or even 25%. It's depressing because all these lists are taunting me, telling me that I'm not "well-read."
* * *
I went scouring for bookstores this afternoon and this is the second time EVER that I've encountered one that has a resident cat. It was a used bookstore in Lewiston. The first bookstore I've seen a cat in was actually in a large retail bookstore with a yuppie cafe in Dayton, Ohio--when I was ten.
Onesome: Looking-- all around today: what landmark or scene do you look for each morning on the way to work or school or wherever? Is there something on the way you look forward to seeing? ...or do you have something that lets you know you're close and it's time to shift mental gears?
There's a gas station. And a water tower. I know, that's not at all helpful.
Twosome: for-- your typical lunchtime what do you see? ...a cafeteria? ...classroom? ...office? ...home? ...the surf in Hawai'i?
It depends. Sometimes I'm at the library, one of the campus's food courts, outside of lab, or at home (usually on the weekends).
Threesome: some direction--? Okay, if you go out your front door, which direction are you facing? ...or do you use the front door? Hmmm...
Tangled Bank #74 is finally up at Neurotopia. Go read some cool science articles which range from moths to metabolic diseases.
* * *
Dang it, I got to the book sale late.
I got to the fairgrounds at 8:15 and found the place already buzzing with people (the sale started at 8 AM). My excuse for not getting there earlier was that I woke up late. I had stayed up the previous night attempting to finish Sin and Syntax (good, but definitely not as succinct as Strunk and White) but failing miserably. I had to return it to the public library today since I've already renewed it the maximum number of times. This is just a setback--I'm going to find a copy at the university library so I can check it out for the entire semester (the perks of a grad student, bwahaha!).
Anyways, back to the book sale. I was sort of disappointed that I was late because everyone who was already there were dumping gobs of books into paper bags as if there was no tomorrow. Which meant that a lot of the good stuff was already gone. I did, however, find a few books that looked interesting: All There Is To Know (basically a bunch of excerpts from the Encyclopaedia Britannica) and The Devil in Texas by Wolf Mankowitz (which I mainly got for the drawings by Ralph Steadman).
I overheard one woman exclaim, "I come to these things because I loooove to read!" I almost rolled my eyes at the comment because that is the obvious reason why anyone would want to go to a book sale. It's either that or they're a book collector, they don't want to pay full price at a retail bookstore, they have new shelves in their house to fill, or a family member dragged them there.
* * *
On one of the local radio stations, I heard an ad for the large club in town. They're having wet t-shirt contests and g-string/bikini contests for Mardi Gras. And there's going to be beer.
Am I the only one who thinks this is a stupid idea?
(But wait! You might say. This is Mardi Gras. It's almost expected for people to do crazy things. Sure. But I object to the idea that only women are paraded around for men to ogle at. It's like those ridiculous beauty pagents--just a whole lot more crass.)
Scientiae Carnival #1 is over at Rants of a Feminist Engineer. It's a compilation of some thought-provoking posts on women in science and engineering. (Which reminds me--I am totally psyched for a seminar being held one week from today at the university next door by a Famous Female Scientist. Hopefully, I'll be able to find parking...)
Scientific Literacy Happens. Yeah, but some students whine anyway even if you give them a bit of freedom in the labs. Especially non-biology or non-microbiology majors want those step-by-step recipes. People don't particularly want to think in a subject they're not interested in.
Onesome: No Bicycles-- on the Freeway? Ya' think? Do you have a better 'sign of the times' for the gang? I'm thinking along the lines of "Coffee is Hot", if you catch my drift...
Hm, I'm not sure if this counts: designing multiple choice quizzes with the occasional Really Obvious Wrong Option, yet having students mark that one anyway.
Twosome: on the-- flip side, how about a sign you think needs to be in place? ...maybe something like one that lights up and says, "Get out" after you pull the fire alarm in a building?
It's not necessarily a sign, but I think people should stop wearing dark clothes when walking outside after dark. Or at the very least, they should plaster on some reflectors.
Threesome: Freeway--, friend or foe? Utility or necessary evil? Extra points if you have to use the Pennsylvania Turnpike or happen to live in Los Angeles!
It depends on the situation and especially the other drivers around you. I don't have to use the freeway to go to work, so this isn't exactly applicable--but I also live in a fairly out of way place so there isn't very much traffic to make driving too much of a headache.
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