Since I can't seem to manage any actual blogging...

Here is my new album. I wonder what kind of music it is... 

Make Your Own Album Cover: (as seen everywhere!)
1. Click on this link. The title of the page is the name of your band.
2. Click on this link. The last four words of the final quotation on the page are the title of your album.
3. Click on this link. The third picture is your album cover.
4. Add your band name and title to the picture.

I should really do a Scientiae post, so watch for that!

What do I say?

As part of my reward for being approved for tenure, I get to write a 200-word biography to include in the University announcement. What am I supposed to say? Talk about my research? Obviously my background will part of it, but I am really feeling at a loss. Maybe I'm just tired. Anyone have any ideas? Look at me whining about getting tenure. Feel free to get out your microscopic violin...

I'd probably be the one who was eaten...

From luckybuzz & Dr. Brazen Hussy...

15%

I actually think it's more like 0.01%!

Class Meme

I saw this meme a while back, but never got around to doing it. Dr. Crazy had it today, so I thought I would do it now. I know I had it good growing up, but I wasn't spoiled. I don't remember ever wanting or suffering, so I know I'm lucky. I only lived with both parents until I was 7, my mom remarried when I was 10, then divorced again when I went to college. I always had someone to take care of me. Even when my mom and step-dad divorced, he still helped pay for college.

1. Father went to college
2. Father finished college
3. Mother went to college
4. Mother finished college. AFTER she and my dad were divorced. She later did her MBA while working full-time, too.
5. Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor
6. Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers. I really have no idea.
7. Had more than 50 books in your childhood home.
8. Had more than 500 books in your childhood home.
9. Were read children's books by a parent
10. Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18. Dance, dance, dance (ballet & jazz) & swimming.
11. Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18. I can't think of anything but dance and swimming, but I'm probably forgetting something.
12. The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed. Was something missing from this statement?
13. Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18
14. Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs
15. Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
16. Went to a private high school
17. Went to summer camp.
18. Had a private tutor before you turned 18
19. Family vacations involved staying at hotels. Family vacation? What's that? I only remember taking trips with my Dad after my parents divorced. We stayed in motels- does that count? My brother and I both got the stomach flu driving back from AZ to MI, so I think that was the end of that!
20. Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18. I know my Mom sewed some of our clothes when were little, but mostly it was new.
21. Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them. It was new. It was a also a Dodge Omni with no A/C.
22. There was original art in your house when you were a child
23. You and your family lived in a single-family house
24. Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home
25. You had your own room as a child
27. Participated in a SAT/ACT prep course
28. Had your own TV in your room in high school
29. Owned a mutual fund or IRA in high school or college
30. Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16. We flew to CA to visit my grandma (just my brother and I), so that my single mother could take more summer classes. It was really fun- my grandma took us EVERYWHERE in SoCal.
31. Went on a cruise with your family
32. Went on more than one cruise with your family
33. Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up. This was not a regular occurrence, but I know my mom signed me up for an art class at a museum in Kansas City. I'm pretty sure that D has been to more museums than I ever visited as a kid.
34. You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family

I can't believe I am 18% with Mike Huckabee. Ew.

Dennis Kucinich rules, however.

94% Dennis Kucinich
93% Mike Gravel
83% John Edwards
78% Barack Obama
77% Hillary Clinton
75% Chris Dodd
73% Joe Biden
71% Bill Richardson
36% Rudy Giuliani
24% John McCain
21% Ron Paul
19% Mitt Romney
18% Mike Huckabee
16% Tom Tancredo
7% Fred Thompson

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

Pardon the interruption..

Wow. What a week. I am so glad that I don't teach until next Wednesday! I think the week went well (I will blog more on that later), but I need to share some belated news. My Facebook friends already know, but I was approved by the University Promotion & Tenure Committee! We had the traditional champagne toast in our faculty meeting today (there are a few of us who were up this year). It still has to go to the Provost, President, & Board of Trustees, but these are just formalities (apparently). I still can't believe it...

More this weekend.

If I am going to get tenure, why am I so stressed out? (updated)

We started classes yesterday, which meant that I was at work at 7:30 (I'm teaching an 8:00AM class this semester). One big advantage of this is that I got an AWESOME parking space. Another is that my class is not full (they all scrambled to get into the other section taught by my colleague that is offered twice a week and later than 8!) I ended up staying in the office until 5:00, then had to go out again later for another meeting, so I was wiped out last night. It felt good to "sleep in" today, but I need to get a bunch of non-teaching work done today (my work-at-home day). OK, here's my to-do list:

• make semester schedule for Big Grant, so that I can assign work to my RAs tomorrow done 10:15 a.m.
• work on some data pre-processing that has become the bane of my existence- I don't know why I can't seem to get it finished. And I have to do it myself, because it's too complicated for my RAs to handle- we tried that. If I had PhD students that would be a different story, but we're a Master's only program.
• work on grant proposal that I started before our trip to CA- it's due in a month, and not too terribly long, but I'm feeling panicked that it's just sitting there right now.
• read grad student internship report for Friday's defense (may put this off until Thursday)
• read grad student thesis chapter ASAP
• walk on the treadmill for 45+ minutes (I actually spent about two hours cleaning D's MESSY closet, which involved carting many loads of toys down to the basement. It was more strenuous than my walks usually are!)

Wow. I actually feel better seeing it in a list, than I did when it was a blob of stress in my brain. The research stuff is stressing me out, because I feel pressure to not let anyone down. I want to the work to be good, but I am also pushing a lot of things to my RAs. They are good students, but don't have tons of experience doing this kind of work, so I need to keep them on the right track. I am also chairing a search committee. I started reading files yesterday and am optimistic that we have some good applicants. Our first meeting is next week.

I met both of my classes yesterday and think that they should be fine. I am testing out student response devices ("clickers") this semester, so it should be interesting. I made it a big part of their grade, so it should be interesting... My upper-level technical class is 85% male- and I don't know any of them, which is weird. I hope they aren't trouble-makers!

Alright- I better start tackling that to-do list. I'll update when I finish things (I know you'll be dying to know what I'm doing all day!)

I always knew I was outside of the mainstream..

MommyProf  had a link to this political compass for the U.S. presidential candidates. As usual I am out in left field. I'm still actually torn between Obama & Clinton. Of course, by the time my state's primary happens, there may not be much left to decide (we're AFTER Super Tuesday).

"Ethnic Cleansing" in Kenya

For those who don't know me well, H is from Kenya (a country with 43 different ethnic groups*). His family members are OK, but his uncles all lost their businesses in Western Kenya (they were burned down).

clipped from observer.guardian.co.uk

Seeds of genocide were sown a decade ago by Moi

That was the scene in Kenya last week. It has happened before, not just in Rwanda but a decade ago in Kenya. And there is very little time to act before Kenya's tribal tensions explode into more widespread massacres. It is no surprise, or accident, that up to 50 Kikuyu were murdered in the western city of Eldoret last week in revenge for alleged rigging of the elections by the Kikuyu President Mwai Kibaki over Christmas.

*They generally do not use the term "tribe" as it is considered derogatory by some Kenyans.

California Trip Recap (finally!)

We had a really nice trip to California. This was our first time traveling at Christmas since we've been a family (over 8 years now!). Since we made the effort to get all the way to L.A., my mom came down from the Bay Area and we had a big family Christmas. Here are some highlights...

Christmas Eve:

My mom and her husband went to South Coast Plaza, while my grandma, D, H, and I went to Seal Beach to look at the shops and have lunch out on the pier. It was sunny and warm (sigh, as I sit here under a blanket). We spent a few hours down there and it was really nice. That night we went out for Mexican food and drank margaritas. 

Christmas Day:

Package-opening extravaganza in the morning, then that night we went to my Aunt & Uncle's house for dinner- there were almost 20 people there- big change from our usual trio at home! D had fun with my cousins (age 13-20) and their cousin (age 8). 

Day Trips:

We took a day trip to Santa Barbara, where we ate Thai food, visited the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, and hung around Stearn's Wharf and State Street. We drove back to L.A. after dark, hoping the traffic would clear. It wasn't bad, but still took us about two hours and 15 minutes to get back (it took less than two hours to get up there in the morning).

We also took a day trip to San Diego, where we visited my good friend A and her cats, ate at our favorite Mexican place in O.B., and even saw H's friend from Boston who was visiting family there, too. We didn't get back to my grandma's house until 10pm, but I was impressed with my excellent driving time of less than two hours form Chula Vista!

Other highlights:

We ate lunch at Rubio's (oh, how I miss that place), saw the Water Horse (very good), got to hear my cousin play the organ (he's VERY good), and eat out way too much. I think I consumed about 5 whole avocados while I was in CA- I LOVE them.

ETA: For more photos, see Flickr.

Go read these blogs!

If you don't subscribe to the feed, be sure not to miss the latest Scientiae Carnival over at Jokerine's. Also, if you are feeling sluggish and regretting your over-indulgences of the holidays (like I am), check out the Active Academic and the *new* 2008 Active Academic Challenge!

Happy New Year!

We made it back to Small College Town last night and I am just trying to unpack and get organized today. I have not been keeping up with blogs, so I will try to catch up in the next few days. 

By the way- Seeking Solace was the only one to take me up on that "send a gift" offer a while back, but I need your address. Send me an email, please (the one I have for you didn't work!)

I hope you all ended 2007 in a good way and that 2008 is happy and healthy for you. I'll do some post-holiday posts soon... Unfortunately, neither of the two potential blogger meet-ups I had planned worked out this time, so I don't have any foot pictures! I hope Chaser is feeling better & that Dr. Brazen Hussy is still enjoying her new pajamas (according to Twitter, she is!)