A question for the masses: how much vacation is too much?

Semi-recently (man, am I behind!) FemaleScienceProfessor gave her interpretation of a anonymous commenter's assertion that "if the average scientist took three months off nobody would know."

Some commenters agreed, and some disagreed.

With only one brief exception, if I (back in my grad school days) had disappeared for three months (hell, even three hours!!), no one would have known because The Boss would have tracked me down, yelled at me, made me write a grant or four, kicked me out of the group, and erased all traces of me from LargeU.

Of course, I never, ever thought about taking off without telling The Boss. The longest vacation I ever took was nine days...and that was only because the flight was 10 hours. I couldn't even take a weekend off without letting the group know.


If I disappear for three hours, weeks, or even months now, no one would care. Or perhaps notice. But we can come back to that in another post.


So how about it, grad students? Does your advisor care or notice if you aren't around? PIs, what is an appropriate amount of vacation time for your students? How about yourself?

Moving never sounded so good

My apartment complex is having a pool party right now, and someone decided that it would be a good idea to have a sound system.

With a microphone.

And turn it over to preteens.


For the last hour, I have been treated to (through the rather thick walls of my apartment building) "shout outs" to their BFFs. I have also been asked, rhetorically I think, "Wad up?" They each also find it necessary to perform sound checks every time the mic is passed off.


Need.

More.

Beer.

A question for the masses: time to prep?

Well, folks, less than a month to go. No, not until Rachel Zoe starts up again. Until classes start.


I feel like I should be further along; after all, I am technically unemployed right now. What the hell else am I doing? Shouldn't I have at least a few weeks worth of lectures written for at least one of my classes? (Okay, so I'm actually done with my syllabi, just so you don't think I'm totally worthless.)


Meh. Have you started prep for the fall yet? What does that entail? Nothing, since you are done with classes? Buying chocolate, in order to fend off the sense of thesis doom? Beer, since you are a student/lab rat/professor/human? Reading the textbook, since... nah, none of us actually do that.

Happy housewife?

This post over at it's probably me got me thinking about cleaning.

I am pretty much the worst faux housewife ever. (faux because 1. I am not yet married and 2. I don't yet live in a house)

Don't believe me? Consider the following:

1. If left to my own devices (i.e., living alone), I typically ignore the dishes as long as possible. I rinse them off, of course, because although I might be a bad faux housewife, I am not disgusting.

2. I never vacuum. I am really, really allergic/sensitive to dust, so vacuuming, even with our "awesome for allergy sufferers, promise!" vacuum is borderline torture, post-sucking. And yeah, the "never" is a bit of an exaggeration. I typically use the dustbuster every few days under our kitchen table, since it is on carpet, the horror. I also actually vacuum about every two weeks. (So yes, for those of you keeping track at home, I am not only a bad faux housewife, but I am also a liar.)

3. I never dust. See above. Okay, so I dust when people are coming over, but otherwise, let the dust bunnies/tumbleweeds/monsters take over!!

4. I don't cook. I will leave the title of Delicious Dessert Diva to Julie.

And just to prove I am, like, the suckiest faux housewife ever: I can't even think of any more of my terrible housewife traits! I guess I should get back to doing what I do best: reading the Internets while eating bon-bons, while I let the dust monsters accumulate and the dishes stack up.

Naps: Nice or Nefarious?

Today N.A. and I came home from work, laid down in bed to talk, and then promptly fell asleep. I woke up two hours later with a sniff neck, angry red indentation on my face from my watchband, and groggier than when I got home.


Yup, folks, I've confirmed it: naps suck.


A long nap always seems like a really good idea when I'm riding the bus home from work or sitting in the second of three hours of a faculty meeting.

A nap seems like an obvious choice to wake me up before a weekend evening event.

Yet each time I succumb, the result is the same. I'm never rested, and I'm usually crankier than when I started.


At the risk of sounding like a teenager, I've got to ask, "am I doing it wrong?"

More work = more success?

ScienceWoman (over at ScienceWomen) has a very interesting post regarding work and the relationship between work hours and success. There are a few polls in the post directed at those in faculty positions, and the results will surely lead to some lively discussion. (so faculty, get over there and vote! And everyone else: get over there and comment...once scienceblogs comments are back up)

Here's a sample: "How do you feel about people who work fewer hours than you but acheive equal or greater levels of success?"

So far, answers are split between:

"Altrusitically congratulatory with no implications for your own performance,"

"Inspired by their example,"

and

"Jealous of their time management skills"


What would you answer?

(And for the record, I did not answer "defeated." I was one of the "Jealous of their brains/talent" votes.

A question for the masses: toeing a line?

I've seen a lot of gross behavior on planes. Tobacco spitting. Nail clipping. Nose picking. Questionable under-the-blanket motions. Large..um.... "presents" in the toilet.

But lately I've observed some (in my opinion) even more repulsive behavior: bare feet. Bare, naked feet being wiggled under seats, stretched out into the aisles, and, most horrific of all, rested on the arm seat.

Seriously. Is it possible that there is more disgusting plane behavior than bare feet on display?

Visiting Ass. Professor: Advantages (Part III)

You can also check out Part I (teaching advantages) and Part II (research advantages), if you would like.


I'm going to continue my discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of doing a Visiting Ass. position before securing a tenure-track position. As a reminder, my goal was to ultimately end up in a tenure-track position at a small, primarily undergraduate, liberal arts institution.

Here are the advantages to a Visiting Ass. position that fall into the Service category:

Service

What's a committee? At least at primarily undergraduate institutions, first-year faculty rarely have to serve on committees. In fact, at TempCollege, no first-years-- TT or Visiting Ass.-- were put on committees. No monthly (or weekly...shudder) two-hour meetings sitting around a conference table contemplating how little my opinion matters? Score!

You can pick your contribution. Since you aren't required to do any service (since, you know, you aren't on the tenure track), you can control what you do or do not give time towards. I filled in as a faculty advisor for one of the pre-professional organizations. Some of my Visiting Ass. friends got involved in their field's national association.


Hmm... yeah. I can't really think of any more service advantages. Not having to do it is a pretty big one. Service stuff can be really rewarding, but it, as I am sure many of you can attest to, is a huge time suck. Huge!



Okay, now for the advantages to doing a Visiting Ass. position that fall into the LIfe category (so, yeah; pretty much all the left over crap)

Life

It's just a year. While this is perhaps beyond obvious due to the title of the position, I'm not sure it can be overemphasized. Living very far away from your significant other? (Check.) It's just a year. Living in a state or even time zone that you previously had not explored? (Check. Check.)

Along those lines...

You can be adventurous in location. Why not live somewhere completely impractical? (I'll leave that one up to interpretation.). Remember: it's just a year!

You can figure it all out. When I went on the job market, I had no idea what I was capable of. I applied to low tier PUIs and instructor positions; after only a few months at my Visiting Ass. I knew that I wouldn't be happy just as an instructor or at a school with zero research. My underestimation of myself was pretty surprising, in retrospect, because throughout my Ph.D. I was always very aware that I was good at research and teaching, so I wonder why I undershot job opportunities? If I had accepted one of my other offers rather than the VIsiting Ass., would I be as happy as I am now?

A conversation with N.A.

Today N.A. and I went through all of our financial obligations in order to get a more concrete idea of how much we can truly afford for a house payment.

We first listed the things that we currently HAVE to pay or risk financial ruin... or at least a feature on one of those repo shows. That list included student loans and car payments.

The other list included things that I would be very unhappy to stop by for, such as my cell phone, fast internets, and an expanded cable package with DVR. After I listed the DVR/cable charge, we had the following conversation:


Unbalanced Reaction: Okay, so our cable and internet should be the same price at the house, right?

N.A.: I don't know, Unie.

UR: Hmm... you think it will be more expensive?

N.A.: No, I mean I don't know if we can get cable out there. Probably we can get dial-up, but we might have to get Dish Network in order to get TV stations.

UR: Um, dial-up?

N.A.: Yeah, for the internet. That will still work, right?

UR: ....

N.A.: Unie?

UR: Yeah, no. That's not going to work for me.

N.A.: Hahahaha! I'm kidding.

UR: ....

N.A.: You aren't laughing!


After that, we agreed that jokes about potentially cutting me off from my cable internet are no longer allowed.

Weekend of firsts

Lots of firsts this weekend!

- first true three-day weekend in a loooong time

- first time since the 90s that I visited my parents without bringing work

- first 4th without checking on the lab


and my favorite:

- N.A. and I decided to get our first realtor