Posts
anyway. back to work. because i have lots and lots of work. :-\ apparently "summer break" is a euphemism for "still continuing in the all work, no play lifestyle."
Tuesday, May 30
hot & sweaty carla is not a happy carla
apparently massachusetts is in a hot-spell. this is fabulous considering we had a week of rain earlier in the month and it was freezing a week ago (and by freezing, i mean don't wear a short-sleeved shirt and jacket to boston when it's windy). now, i have two fans (and am buying another) on high, all the windows open, and very warm, furry kitten who is currently hiding under my big chair. poor thing. poor me. i've drank a lot of water but still haven't had to pee as frequently as i should have. in my most defiant (and stupid) move of the year, i've opted for no a/c. i'm trying to save moola. so no a/c. if i were in DE, this wouldn't be a problem because i'd go crash at my folks' house and go swimming, but here THERE ARE NO POOLS. okay, let me clarify - there are no pools that i would swim in. haha.
anyway. back to work. because i have lots and lots of work. :-\ apparently "summer break" is a euphemism for "still continuing in the all work, no play lifestyle."
anyway. back to work. because i have lots and lots of work. :-\ apparently "summer break" is a euphemism for "still continuing in the all work, no play lifestyle."
Thursday, May 18
Wednesday, May 17
shameless advertising for friends (and not friends)
Okay, so i'm planning to add to my recommended reading links, but thought i would first post some blatant recommendations for blogs/sites (#1 of which is for some good UD buddies).
1) The Barnshaw-Torres Film Review: disappointed with the film review entity "Ebert and Roeper" (if you recall, it used to be Siskel and Ebert until Ebert ate Siskel), John Barnshaw and Manuel Torres have begun their own film review site. You should check it out if you like sarcasm about films you probably haven't seen.
2) Gradish: This new network is aimed for grad students (current and former) to form an online community. Join it if you're poor, in school even though you've already gotten one degree (and/or are approaching the post-25 age group), and/or feel sleep-deprived as a result of reading Marx until 2am. It's super new and I say, why the hell not. You only live once and you might as well do it while being connected to other sad, lonely, and poor grad students.
3) Finally, Some Bostonian Soc prof: I don't know this guy, but his blog is pretty good. Check it out if you need to waste some time while you think of your thesis topic. Or if you're procrastinating.
1) The Barnshaw-Torres Film Review: disappointed with the film review entity "Ebert and Roeper" (if you recall, it used to be Siskel and Ebert until Ebert ate Siskel), John Barnshaw and Manuel Torres have begun their own film review site. You should check it out if you like sarcasm about films you probably haven't seen.
2) Gradish: This new network is aimed for grad students (current and former) to form an online community. Join it if you're poor, in school even though you've already gotten one degree (and/or are approaching the post-25 age group), and/or feel sleep-deprived as a result of reading Marx until 2am. It's super new and I say, why the hell not. You only live once and you might as well do it while being connected to other sad, lonely, and poor grad students.
3) Finally, Some Bostonian Soc prof: I don't know this guy, but his blog is pretty good. Check it out if you need to waste some time while you think of your thesis topic. Or if you're procrastinating.
Tuesday, May 16
what the hell?!
Needless to say, I'm pissed. This could be why we have horrible disaster management, our welfare policies are ineffective and criminal justice system is overwhelmed (and I would argue ineffective as well). Social sciences are completely undervalued with no sound reason.
U.S. SCIENCE POLICY:
Senate Panel Chair Asks Why NSF Funds Social Sciences
Jeffrey Mervis
Why is the National Science Foundation (NSF) funding a study of a women's cooperative in Bangladesh? Why are U.S. taxpayers footing the bill for efforts to understand Hungary's emerging democracy? And why are social scientists even bothering to compile an archive of state legislatures in a long-gone era when those legislators chose U.S. senators?
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), chair of a panel that oversees NSF and a member of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, put those and other sharply worded questions to NSF Director Arden Bement last week during an unusually combative hearing on the agency's 2007 budget request. Hutchison signaled that she will be taking a hard look at NSF's $200-million-a-year social and behavioral sciences portfolio, which funds some 52% of all social science research done by U.S. academics and some 90% of the work by political scientists. Hutchison made it clear during the 2 May hearing that she doesn't think the social sciences should benefit from President George W. Bush's proposal for a 10-year doubling of NSF's budget as part of his American Competitiveness Initiative (Science, 17 February, p. 929). And she suggested afterward to Science that she's open to more drastic measures.
"I'm trying to decide whether it would be better to put political science and some other fields into another [government] department," she said. "I want NSF to be our premier agency for basic research in the sciences, mathematics, and engineering. And when we are looking at scarce resources, I think NSF should stay focused on the hard sciences."
Last week's hearing was not the first time Hutchison has taken a shot at NSF's support of the social sciences. In a 30 September 2005 speech honoring the winners of the annual Lasker medical research awards, she backed a doubling of NSF's budget but added that social science research "is not where we should be directing [NSF] resources at this time." Hutchison tipped her hand a few months before the hearing by asking NSF officials for abstracts of grants funded by the Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE) going back several years. But the harshness of last week's attack caught the community by surprise, leaving social scientists and their supporters scratching their heads about how best to respond.
"In some ways, it's SBE that tackles the most challenging scientific questions, because its research investigates people's behavior and touches on the most sensitive issues in our society," noted Neal Lane, a physicist and former NSF director now at Rice University in Houston, Texas. "So I'm not surprised that it's been hard to articulate how it connects to innovation and improving the nation's competitiveness."
Aletha Huston, a developmental psychologist at the University of Texas, Austin, who wrote a letter to Hutchison before the hearing defending NSF-funded work by herself and colleagues at UT's Population Research Center, points out that "if you want to understand how to remain competitive, you need to look at more than technology, ... at the organizational and human issues that play a role."
Hutchison says she hasn't decided how to translate her concerns into legislation. One option would be to limit spending for the social sciences in the upcoming 2007 appropriations bill for NSF. Another approach would be to curtail the scope of NSF's portfolio in legislation enacting the president's competitiveness initiative or reauthorizing NSF's programs.
In the meantime, says sociologist Mark Hayward, who heads the UT population center, it would be a mistake for social scientists to ignore her concerns. "We have to be persistent and consistent in our message," says Hayward, who along with Huston hasn't heard back from Hutchison. "We can't just say, 'My goodness, she's not paying attention.' "
U.S. SCIENCE POLICY:
Senate Panel Chair Asks Why NSF Funds Social Sciences
Jeffrey Mervis
Why is the National Science Foundation (NSF) funding a study of a women's cooperative in Bangladesh? Why are U.S. taxpayers footing the bill for efforts to understand Hungary's emerging democracy? And why are social scientists even bothering to compile an archive of state legislatures in a long-gone era when those legislators chose U.S. senators?
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), chair of a panel that oversees NSF and a member of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, put those and other sharply worded questions to NSF Director Arden Bement last week during an unusually combative hearing on the agency's 2007 budget request. Hutchison signaled that she will be taking a hard look at NSF's $200-million-a-year social and behavioral sciences portfolio, which funds some 52% of all social science research done by U.S. academics and some 90% of the work by political scientists. Hutchison made it clear during the 2 May hearing that she doesn't think the social sciences should benefit from President George W. Bush's proposal for a 10-year doubling of NSF's budget as part of his American Competitiveness Initiative (Science, 17 February, p. 929
"I'm trying to decide whether it would be better to put political science and some other fields into another [government] department," she said. "I want NSF to be our premier agency for basic research in the sciences, mathematics, and engineering. And when we are looking at scarce resources, I think NSF should stay focused on the hard sciences."
Last week's hearing was not the first time Hutchison has taken a shot at NSF's support of the social sciences. In a 30 September 2005 speech honoring the winners of the annual Lasker medical research awards, she backed a doubling of NSF's budget but added that social science research "is not where we should be directing [NSF] resources at this time." Hutchison tipped her hand a few months before the hearing by asking NSF officials for abstracts of grants funded by the Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE) going back several years. But the harshness of last week's attack caught the community by surprise, leaving social scientists and their supporters scratching their heads about how best to respond.
"In some ways, it's SBE that tackles the most challenging scientific questions, because its research investigates people's behavior and touches on the most sensitive issues in our society," noted Neal Lane, a physicist and former NSF director now at Rice University in Houston, Texas. "So I'm not surprised that it's been hard to articulate how it connects to innovation and improving the nation's competitiveness."
Aletha Huston, a developmental psychologist at the University of Texas, Austin, who wrote a letter to Hutchison before the hearing defending NSF-funded work by herself and colleagues at UT's Population Research Center, points out that "if you want to understand how to remain competitive, you need to look at more than technology, ... at the organizational and human issues that play a role."
Hutchison says she hasn't decided how to translate her concerns into legislation. One option would be to limit spending for the social sciences in the upcoming 2007 appropriations bill for NSF. Another approach would be to curtail the scope of NSF's portfolio in legislation enacting the president's competitiveness initiative or reauthorizing NSF's programs.
In the meantime, says sociologist Mark Hayward, who heads the UT population center, it would be a mistake for social scientists to ignore her concerns. "We have to be persistent and consistent in our message," says Hayward, who along with Huston hasn't heard back from Hutchison. "We can't just say, 'My goodness, she's not paying attention.' "
Wednesday, May 10
mid afternoon update
in case you were wondering what the hell is going on in my life, we've successfully averted WW3 in the soc dept (collective cheer), although only with the european intervention. other than that, this paper about globalization and disaster is not turning out like i had planned. what the hell went wrong? oh, right my thesis isn't that great on 900th review. in fact, i give it two thumbs way down.
okay, off to TA. yay - i get to go home and iron soon.
okay, off to TA. yay - i get to go home and iron soon.
blaine
okay, i don't want to talk trash on david blaine, considering that he did fail at his stunt and all in front of millions of people. however, i feel jipped. the deal was "failure means death." way to get out of that one dearest.
Tuesday, May 9
i have nothing to say
school is still sucking, but at least there is only a limited time that the sucking will continue (okay, that might sound dirty and i apologize). i started on a paper that i am basing on my senior thesis (yay honduras and hurricane mitch!). the warning paper might just be bs which i will send to the profs and never ever touch again because that dataset is AWFUL and i don't want to work with it AGAIN. ever. despite what i said to get it.
still no word on the job thing. you know how wonderful it would be if i opened my inbox tomorrow and saw and email saying "we love you. please work for us" (okay, it can be worded differently)? it would kick ass. actually it would be better than that but i don't have an idiom that will fit. i love how long they're prolonging this damn process. i might have to beg on the streets on noho. please pay me even if my guitar playing sucks (and it would because i don't really know how to play). i keep reminding myself that if the job doesn't work out, i'll still be okay and i can find something else. i just worry about the whole getting kicked out because i can't make rent incessantly.
at least there are good things planned this weekend. yay the weekend!
12 days...WOO-FRICKIN-HOO
still no word on the job thing. you know how wonderful it would be if i opened my inbox tomorrow and saw and email saying "we love you. please work for us" (okay, it can be worded differently)? it would kick ass. actually it would be better than that but i don't have an idiom that will fit. i love how long they're prolonging this damn process. i might have to beg on the streets on noho. please pay me even if my guitar playing sucks (and it would because i don't really know how to play). i keep reminding myself that if the job doesn't work out, i'll still be okay and i can find something else. i just worry about the whole getting kicked out because i can't make rent incessantly.
at least there are good things planned this weekend. yay the weekend!
12 days...WOO-FRICKIN-HOO
Monday, May 8
14 days of misery left...
must make it to finish line...must finish work...must not check out and think about how to beat bowser in super mario bros 3...must not give up...
ugh!
ugh!
Friday, May 5
fisherman frank
i need to post a picture, but i have yet to really discuss my friend "frank." frank is a mannequin who is currently a resident on damon road. he stands outside a fishing shop, but near to the road. i drive past him nearly everyday. sometimes he's holding a fish, but usually he's just chillin' in his rubber-fisher-pant things (i'm sure there's a name for them, but i can't recall it). i usually brake thinking that i'm going to hit poor frank (and that he's a real person), and this after living here for about 9 months. if i end up moving to noho center, i'm going to miss frank dearly.
aside from this, life is okie dokie. i'm almost done school AND there's some fun stuff going on next weekend. yay for happy things. and i only have twenty more papers to grade. hopefully there will still be some jewels left to post. i plan to finish them off tomorrow, which will leave one paper, one stats hw (yet to be distributed) and a preliminary data analysis write-up to do. WOO-HOO.
PS - i'm debating whether i like this new template - what do you think?
aside from this, life is okie dokie. i'm almost done school AND there's some fun stuff going on next weekend. yay for happy things. and i only have twenty more papers to grade. hopefully there will still be some jewels left to post. i plan to finish them off tomorrow, which will leave one paper, one stats hw (yet to be distributed) and a preliminary data analysis write-up to do. WOO-HOO.
PS - i'm debating whether i like this new template - what do you think?
Thursday, May 4
another quote...
"the criminal justice system cannot and should not regulate [prostitution] because because it is a clear violation of our 1st amendment rights."
later...
"To allow morphine to be used in hospitals, but not in the streets in contradictive. If doctors can possess certain drugs and other cannot, then how is it not a violation of the equal protection clause in the 14th amendment?"
later...
"To allow morphine to be used in hospitals, but not in the streets in contradictive. If doctors can possess certain drugs and other cannot, then how is it not a violation of the equal protection clause in the 14th amendment?"
Tuesday, May 2
the best of the worst, part 2: updated 3 may
i'm grading again, which means you have the lovely fortune of reading the best worst comments in their papers (the topic is morality and decriminalization prostitution, drugs, and pornography):
[my favorite]: "Pornography to me is a great thing. Because it doesn't hurt anybody and it brings many people pleasure"
"people know that prostitution is illegal, and if they silicate, their personal lives may come into question" [silicate: Any of numerous compounds containing silicon, oxygen, and one or more metals; a salt of silicic acid.]
"Again, it can never be determined what pornography is being used for."
"It is hard to define what a drug is because yes, it alters your mood, but so do millions of other things, like an argument with a family member; yet an argument is not a drug."
"Legitimate people work hard to go through college, get a good paying job to support themselves and a family, yet, they get robbed of their earnings at tax time. Then on the other hand, we have prostitutes and other sex workers that are engaging in illegal activity that get to keep their money "tax free"! [the author then goes on to claim that prostitutions should be legalized]
"This is quite paradoxical due to the fact that our government is steadfast about the idea of separation of church and state. This just seems paradoxical to me."
"If prostitution was to be made legal, and the prostitutes were monitored as in Nevada, why not make it legal? It is a good way for single mothers who do not have a male figure in their life to support themselves."
"My opinion on the matter [pornography] is that if you are one of those people who are repulsed by pornography, do not watch it. If you like it, enjoy."
"The moral issues with prostitution are endless, but never mind them." [remember: the assignment was to talk about morality and the criminal issue...]
"For example, my roommate and her boyrfriend of two months broke up over the physical need he had to always have his hand on her. In spite the independent woman that she is, she dealt with the smothering. Who wouldn't when your dinner was bought for you every night and you received at least two gifts of high quality each week. She prostituted her girlfriend status for presents." [Congrats, the woman's movement has officially ended.]
[my favorite]: "Pornography to me is a great thing. Because it doesn't hurt anybody and it brings many people pleasure"
"people know that prostitution is illegal, and if they silicate, their personal lives may come into question" [silicate: Any of numerous compounds containing silicon, oxygen, and one or more metals; a salt of silicic acid.]
"Again, it can never be determined what pornography is being used for."
"It is hard to define what a drug is because yes, it alters your mood, but so do millions of other things, like an argument with a family member; yet an argument is not a drug."
"Legitimate people work hard to go through college, get a good paying job to support themselves and a family, yet, they get robbed of their earnings at tax time. Then on the other hand, we have prostitutes and other sex workers that are engaging in illegal activity that get to keep their money "tax free"! [the author then goes on to claim that prostitutions should be legalized]
"This is quite paradoxical due to the fact that our government is steadfast about the idea of separation of church and state. This just seems paradoxical to me."
"If prostitution was to be made legal, and the prostitutes were monitored as in Nevada, why not make it legal? It is a good way for single mothers who do not have a male figure in their life to support themselves."
"My opinion on the matter [pornography] is that if you are one of those people who are repulsed by pornography, do not watch it. If you like it, enjoy."
"The moral issues with prostitution are endless, but never mind them." [remember: the assignment was to talk about morality and the criminal issue...]
"For example, my roommate and her boyrfriend of two months broke up over the physical need he had to always have his hand on her. In spite the independent woman that she is, she dealt with the smothering. Who wouldn't when your dinner was bought for you every night and you received at least two gifts of high quality each week. She prostituted her girlfriend status for presents." [Congrats, the woman's movement has officially ended.]
Monday, May 1
home.
i find myself feeling very homesick today. i'm not sure why. i just want to be in delaware, with my family and friends. maybe i'm just lonely.
i know that i can't wait to come home.
i know that i can't wait to come home.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)