May 2012
47 posts
I wish I could take good pictures at night.
If I could, I would post one of my perfect neighborhood tonight, moon shining, everybody in their apartments with the lights glowing out the windows.
I just took down the recycling. A dog was barking. The trees were blowing around a little bit. The occasional car passed on the quiet street that’s about half a block away. Somebody was playing the guitar…I think it was in our next door...
Text from Kevin
“I may need to stay late [at work], not bad, just busy. Make a mojito and buy a book. I’ll be home by 8:30.”
Don’t mind if I do.
(Thanks for the awesome reading suggestions, annaetc.)
And...exhale
I feel like I haven’t really breathed in five days. This week has been nuts - just on the brink of too nuts, if you ask me. There were just lots of extra-hard, extra-interesting things going on. Presentations, interviews, public speaking, meeting my new academic idol (don’t click on that link…it’ll be super boring to anybody but me…but if I end up half as...
“Most importantly, if you can at all avoid it, don’t be normal. Strive, burn and...”
– I Wrote This For You: The Defiance Of The Different (via kari-shma) (via incipientepiphany)
debbie tells me about growing up first generation...
Citizenkerry makes me like everybody she writes about, so since Debbie is already one of my favorite people, this post is double awesome.
citizenkerry:
This is a series in which you help me learn about America.
Debbie was born and raised near Los Angeles, by her parents, who emigrated from Korea. Today, she lives in Chicago, where she’s getting a PhD in public policy. I really enjoyed...
It has been a DAY!
I feel like I’ve been wrestling - physically wrestling - with this class project for hours. I have to pull something together tomorrow and am just not sure what to say. My brain hurts and I’m a major grouch.
BUT!
I am done for the evening, I decided, and about to eat dinner, then grab some froyo, then read Insurgent in bed. So things are looking up.
one-twenty-five:
[T]here is nothing quite like crossing the finish line of a race. Absolutely nothing. The anticipation. The planning. The moments of doubt being outweighed by the, ‘no, I can do this’ moments. The crowds. The cheers. The claps. The announcer. Seeing the joy when people see their loved ones. The sudden energy you get going down the chute. The moment you stop after you hear your...
“When summer comes to Chicago, there are no problems except where to be happiest.”
– (via cassieirwin)
Some Thoughts on Grad School →
My favorite is:
Thought #8: Challenge Yourself Once a Month
It’s so damn easy for your research to fall into a rut grooved by short-term decisions based on the question: “What’s the shortest path between here and a new publication?”. Many a graduate student, faced with crafting a job talk after 5 years of work, realizes, with horror, that his “research direction” is weak, jumbled, and...
Do you know what kind of class I’d like to attend?
A class where you learn all the car stuff nobody taught you because you were a girl.*
(Or because nobody in your family was into cars. If we’d had a brother, he also would’ve been out of luck in my household growing up.)
I’d want to learn:
- How to jump start a car
- How to change a flat tire
- How to change the...
Well, I’m really glad I just spent 30 minutes of my 45 minute block of work time trying to open one damn file.
I think I need to stop working at coffee shops when I need to connect to a remote network.
(Look at me, flaunting my tech vocabulary. Using words like “open a file,” “connect,” and “remote network.” I’m not sure, though, if you connect TO...
Smitten Kitten: Secrets of Adulthood by Gretchen Rubin
denisecua:
People don’t notice your mistakes as much as you think.
It’s okay to ask for help.
Most decisions don’t require extensive research.
Do good, feel good.
It’s important to be nice to everyone.
Bring a sweater.
By doing a little bit each day, you can get a lot accomplished.
Soap and water remove most stains.
Turning the...
“We rarely hear about the little acts of love that exist between partners, where...”
– “Three Cheers for Boring Love,” by Chelsea Fagan
(via vbtwns: haygirlhay)
“Statistically, the probability of any one of us being here is so small that the...”
– Lewis Thomas (via ancora-imparo)
I’m in New York City this weekend, seeing family I haven’t seen in too long and celebrating my sister-in-law’s birthday. Last night we stayed up too late with one of my favorite people in the world. We met my cousin’s daughter for the first time and visited their perfect brownstone Brooklyn apartment. We’ve had mascarpone dumplings, a cheddar cheese grit and egg wrap,...
Six Keys to Being Excellent at Anything →
gradschoolroundtwo:
(click through the title for the whole article, but the main ideas are below)
Pursue what you love.
Passion is an incredible motivator. It fuels focus, resilience, and perseverance.
Do the hardest work first. We all move instinctively toward pleasure and away from pain. Most great performers, Ericsson and others have found, delay gratification and take on the difficult work...
Oh, and in other news...
I’m cured, apparently. I graduated physical therapy today. I’m not going to be running any marathons anytime soon, and I still have to see the sports med doc at least one more time, but I’m like 95% better.
I’ll try to make this the last post I ever write about my stupid ankle.
Thank you for your patience and support. :)
I’ve had a rough morning, most of it a consequence of a bad ten minutes I had last night in which I got some bad news and realized I lost my keys (which stresses me out like you wouldn’t believe) all at the same time. I’ve moped around all morning, through breakfast, folding the laundry, showering, and getting packed for the day.
I have 45 minutes before I have to leave for...
Gender Stereotypes in the Classroom →
I love this article! Thanks bimsk! A good reminder that so much of how we think about ourselves as females and males is shaped by social messages. I especially like the experiment where they separate the kids by red shirts and blue shirts and watch the prejudice develop.
Dear Lucas,
heylaney:
There are so many things that will be hard for me to explain to you, because I don’t fully understand them myself.
But I know that I will teach you this, because it’s what I was taught and what I believe so strongly: love is love is love (no matter the genders or races or other factors of those involved.)
[And bigotry is bigotry is bigotry, no matter how many Bible quotes one uses in...
Facebook's COO Works Less Than You →
“Fixing strong constraints in your working life can paradoxically make your work much stronger (as it forces you to focus on what’s important, which in turn helps you get better at what you do).
E-mailing during every waking hour might make you feel more important, but as Sandberg’s accomplishments verify, it has very little to do with your actual impact.”
90 minutes
If you have a long-term project for school or for work or whatever, and you don’t know how to begin, or continue, or wrap your brain around it, or make it good, commit to working on it for 90 minutes each day.
(Or less, if you need to…60 minutes would probably work. You just need enough time to really get into the project for awhile. 90 feels good to me - long enough but not too...
On Introductions
I went to a play at Steppenwolf the other night that I loved (in contrast to the Goodman show I did not love but which got a solid write-up in the Tribune - I was right to suspect my boredom was just my own lack of sophistication…). It was called The March and it was about the Civil War, but that’s really beside the point.
The point is that after the show when Kevin and I were waiting...
What Should We Call Grad School →
Grad students!
Follow this blog. You won’t be even a little bit sorry.
Ah.
That was great, reading Tumblr for a bit.
Then I had a very nice, very productive meeting with a student.
And he left me the dark chocolate he didn’t want anymore - half a bar.
I’ve already eaten all of it.
The last couple of weeks have been rough. Life is better now.
Finally!
- Midterm turned in.
- Papers graded.
- Article revised.
- Inbox organized.
- Conference reimbursement processed.
- Miscellaneous paperwork filed.
- Sleep (mostly) caught up on.
- Workout schedule reestablished.
I can finally, finally spend some time looking at Tumblr guilt free.
April/May Resolutions
My April resolution was to change my relationship with my stuff - particularly my clothes and our apartment. I wrote about how sometimes I get self-conscious that what I have isn’t cool enough or stylish enough.
The clothes thing was pretty easy to let go of. The apartment thing, though, continued to bug me. I felt like there was too much going on in our place…too many colors that...
