Self-Promotion: Shameless and Otherwise

There have been some interesting articles and blog posts recently about how academics, and others, promote their work, themselves, etc. Here is another worthy read in this area. I hope that women, in particular, will read this and think about the impacts of how we promote (or don't promote more often than not) ourselves and our work.

http://speculative-diction.blogspot.com/2011/08/shameful-self-promotion-vs-meritocracy.html

Thoughts on this topic?

1st Day of Kindergarten!

Today was Callen's first day of kindergarten. We had to wake her up much earlier than she normally gets up as her school starts at 7:45 (ouch!). She woke up in a great mood, which is amazing given she isn't a morning child. She got ready in her new school outfit and shoes, brushed her hair, ate a little breakfast, and even brushed her teeth. We were in the car by 7:15.

On the way to school she said: "I'm so excited!" I'm so happy for her. I hope she continues to love school as I did when I was growing up.

Here are a couple of first day kindergarten pix taken before we left home.

Preschool Graduation Day

Callen was excited but a little apprehensive about leaving her friends behind at her preschool. However, the graduation was a lot of fun. And, the teachers gave each child a wonderful scrapbook with pictures of them from throughout the school year. A very nice surprise for all of us! Below are a few pix from graduation day.

Callen with Ms. Tammy, the lead teacher in her class.

Callen with one of her best buddies, Brandt. Unfortunately her other best friend was at the beach during graduation, so no picture of Callen and Brooke.

Callen's other teacher, Ms. LaKisha, and one of Callen's friends.

They gave them all blue t-shirts and caps to wear on graduation.

Meet the Teacher Day

A few pictures from our meet the teacher day yesterday for Callen's kindergarten. She was excited and last night said that she loved her new school!

Her teacher, Ms. Morgan.

Today's Activities

As I've noted in other blog posts, I usually feel way behind and like I'm constantly juggling way too many things. I had my annual gyn appointment recently and mentioned it to my doctor. She noted, 'well, you can control that can't you?' Well, yes and no...Several projects are ongoing and funded externally so it would be hard to just stop work on them. Some, sure I could control. Learning to say 'no' better would help some certainly.

I was telling my postdoc that today seemed rather frenetic as I had been jumping back and forth between a slew of different activities today. Yesterday, a friend told me that my Facebook updates made him tired just seeing mine. I laughed but realized he has a point. I've been feeling rather burned out this summer, as this summer has been very busy (like most summers are for me it seems).

We had a faculty meeting yesterday and our chair at the end of it told us to all go home and not come back till Monday. I looked at him like he was losing his mind. Obviously he doesn't realize that my syllabus still isn't finished for my class that starts Tuesday AM, I haven't even started creating my Blackboard Learn site (which is new this semester since they change BB about every year it seems and everyone is complaining about how bad the change is this time), my desk is so messy I can't even see the top of it, I need to get quotes and order incentives for 1400 kids and teachers, I need to hire a new person for a project, I won't even mention the papers that I'm behind on (sorry colleagues!) or the new grant proposal I'm supposed to be writing now either.

Even with constantly feeling behind and overwhelmed, I feel very lucky to have a job that I love and to work with such great students, postdoc, and colleagues. We're now in week 8 of Bo's being laid off. This adds to the stress of everything for sure! We're hopeful that something will come along soon. He's working every network he has right now to try to find something. If anyone has any contacts in the planning/zoning or wireless industries or knows of any related job openings, please let me know.

To cap off this long blog post, here are just a FEW of the disparate things I've done already today:

• bought donuts for RAs on one project who are in an all day training
• got gas in my car
• got to the office before 8 AM
• responded to 50+ or so emails today
• met with a potential employee about joining one of my projects
• reviewed draft of a survey
• worked on my syllabus on and off all day
• reviewed some info on the new BB Learn site
• emailed 2 companies for quotes on flashdrives, talked to one on the phone, exchanged other emails back and forth with them
• ate lunch
• talked to an RA about project updates
• emailed another RA about a chapter I wanted her to get for me
• skimmed the texts for my class
• reviewed a ppt file for a student who is defending her thesis proposal in the AM
• emailed staff about materials that were supposed to have been moved
• returned phone calls to several people
• reviewed another ppt for ASA presentation next week
• and numerous other things that I can't recall right now...

Hopefully tomorrow will be less frenetic, though I have 2 students defending their thesis proposals in the AM and then Callen's meet the teacher in the afternoon. Should be a good day!

Could you take an email sabbatical?

I like danah's advice on how to actually take an email sabbatical. See: How To Take An Email Sabbatical - by danah boyd. However, I've never been able to do it completely. Even when I'm on vacation, I still check in for my email on a daily (usually more than once a day) basis.

And, having email on my mobile phone makes it so much easier to check email now! And, it makes it easier to get rid of junk email very quickly.

I suspect that my various projects would go on even if I didn't check in and respond to email queries, issues, etc. However, I don't know if they would proceed as smoothly if I didn't do this.

I hope to one day be able to do what danah suggests and take an email sabbatical. What about those of you who are tethered to your technological devices, could you take an email sabbatical? Or, for younger generations, a texting sabbatical?

2 Month Gap?

I didn't realize it had been almost 2 months since I did a blog posting.Wow, the time flies by so fast it seems. A few things that have occurred during the past 2 months:

• I had a large NIH grant proposal due the end of May that CONSUMED a huge portion of my time preparing it. I was pushing really, really hard the whole month of May on it. In fact, I was working so hard that I wasn't resting enough, nor taking good care of myself. I ended up with 2 bouts of strep throat in May! Thankfully the grant made the submission date, thanks to great help from wonderful grad students and others invovled in the project.
• For my NSF ICAC project, we were out surveying students everyday for over a week. It was gruelling but worth the effort.
• We went to Atlantic Beach for a week in May. Our dear friends from Maryland the McElroys joined us for part of it. Di and I had a day at the spa, which was glorious, and some girl time to hang out and talk! Callen loved playing with their dog Star. My friend Marieke and her family joined me and Callen for the last couple of days there, after Bo had flown home. Callen had a blast learning to ride the waves with Sabina. She was fearless! Although I had to work on various things while we were there, it was still nice to get away and feel the ocean!
• June started out hectic too. I had a large annual report due for my NSF ICAC project towards the end of the month. All the survey data had to be entered, cleaned, and analyzed so we could include part of it in the annual report. The annual report takes so much time! It was finally submitted the Friday before I flew to DC for a grant panel at NSF.
• The grant panel at NSF was another thing that made June even more frenetic. Remind me to never agree to be on a panel that occurs around the same time I have a grant annual report due!
• Callen continues to enjoy the last few weeks at her preschool. She's excited about starting kindergarten in the fall and at times wishes it would start sooner (but recognizes she will miss her preschool friends next year as they will go to various other schools).
• Callen started taking gymnastics in June at a local gymnastics academy. She enjoys it a lot but it is hard work.
• One of the most discouraging things that happened in June is that Jefferson County laid off over 500 people, including Bo. The county commissioners are not effective leaders and have no vision at all. The one in charge of his dept. eliminated 2/3 of the employees; you don't need a deputy director when you have so few employees remaining. Bo has been making calls and applying for various things, but there are not a lot of openings in his areas at this time. And, I'm sure none will pay even close to what he was making.
• The last item has led us to really start thinking about ways to not spend money. We hope that Bo will find another position soon.

This was a few of the main things that have happened in our lives the past 2 months. Hopefully it won't be so long before another posting.
Happy 4th of July!