Monday, February 27, 2017

Word of the day: bow window

The word of the day is bow window:

  1. a rounded bay window.
(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bow+window)


"Selecting from the few queer houses upon Mill Pond Bank a house with a wooden front and three stories of bow-window (not bay-window, which is another thing), I looked at the plate upon the door, and read there, Mrs. Whimple."

 - Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Word of the day: superannuated

The word of the day is superannuated:

  1. retired because of age or infirmity.
  2. too old for use, work, service, or a position.
  3. antiquated or obsolete
"retired on account of old age," 1633, "obsolete, out of date," from M.L. superannuatus "more than a year old" (of cattle), from L. super "beyond, over" (see super-) + annus "year" (see annual).

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/superannuated)


"It was a fresh kind of place, all circumstances considered, where the wind from the river had room to turn itself round; and there were two or three trees in it, and there was the stump of a ruined windmill, and there was the Old Green Copper Ropewalk,—whose long and narrow vista I could trace in the moonlight, along a series of wooden frames set in the ground, that looked like superannuated haymaking-rakes which had grown old and lost most of their teeth."

 - Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Today I'm thankful for: the MARC train

Today (and every day) I'm thankful for the MARC train.

I live in Baltimore and commute to College Park.  This would be a soul-crushing commute, were it not for the MARC train.  My house is a short walk from the Camden stop, and my office is a short walk from the College Park stop.  It's not a short commute, but it is very convenient.  I can spend the time on the train reading, or hanging out with other MARC commuters, like April, and I am thankful.

Thursday, February 23, 2017

Today I'm thankful for: credit hours

Today (and every day) I'm thankful for credit hours.

Word of the day: moot

The word of the day is moot:

verb (used with object)

  1. to present or introduce (any point, subject, project, etc.) for discussion.
1154, from O.E. gemot "meeting" (especially of freemen, to discuss community affairs or mete justice), from P.Gmc. *ga-motan (cf. Old Low Frankish muot "encounter," M.Du. moet, M.H.G. muoz), from collective prefix *ga- + *motan (see meet (v.)).

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/moot)


"The largest of these disease outbreaks were known as cocoliztli (from the word for ‘pestilence’ in Nahuatl, the Aztec language)...

"There has been little consensus on the cause of cocoliztli — although measles, smallpox and typhus have all been mooted."

 - Ewen Callaway, "Collapse of Aztec society linked to catastrophic salmonella outbreak", 16 February 2017 Nature News (http://www.nature.com/news/collapse-of-aztec-society-linked-to-catastrophic-salmonella-outbreak-1.21485)

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Today I'm thankful for: the day care's Facebook page

Today (and every day) I'm thankful for the day care's Facebook page.  It's nice to see pictures of the babies throughout the day, and nice to know they made it safely to day care, and I am thankful.

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Word of the day: testator

The word of the day is testator:

  1. a person who makes a will.
  2. a person who has died leaving a valid will.

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/testator)

"He forged wills, this blade did, if he didn't also put the supposed testators to sleep too."

 - Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Today I'm thankful for: Allegiance

Today (and every day) I'm thankful for the opportunity to see Allegiance.

Allegiance is a musical about the Japanese internment camps during World War II.  I heard about it because I was following George Takei on social media.  Allegiance premiered in San Diego in 2012, then ran for five months on Broadway 2015-2016.  I didn't get a chance to see it during its lamentably short run.

But last Sunday, a recording of the show was broadcast in movie theaters, and I had a chance to see it when Alice and Katherine's great-aunt Robin and great-grandmother volunteered to watch the babies.  The songs were catchy, the performances were excellent, and the themes are as relevant as ever.  

The storytelling is complex: there's no shortage of conflict, but no villains.  Mike Masaoka, a historical figure, could have been an easy target, but instead was portrayed in a nuanced and sympathetic way.  Even the prison wardens come across as victims of tragic circumstances.  

We all have allegiance to our country, our family, and our own integrity, but how does that inform the choices we make?  Sammy and Frankie make different choices, and they're both patriots.  Neither one is wrong, but their inability to reconcile their different choices is what destroys them.  Allegiance is a cautionary tale not just for how we treat immigrants and their families, but also for how we treat those with whom we disagree.

The first movie theater I tried had sold out, and I secured the last two tickets to the second theater I tried.  I hope that means that they will broadcast this excellent play again, so more people will have the opportunity to see it.

This play is extremely important at this moment, and I am thankful.

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Today I'm thankful for: Lilly Ledbetter

Today (and every day) I'm thankful to Lilly Ledbetter.

She never did receive restitution from Goodyear, but the fight was never about that.  It was about making the path easier for those who came after her, and I am thankful.

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Today I'm thankful for: dishwasher inserts

Today (and every day) I'm thankful for dishwashers and dishwasher inserts.

Every day, Alice and Katherine come home from day care with three or four used bottles apiece, each of which needs washing.  Each of Alice's Medela brand bottles has three parts, and each of Katherine's Dr. Brown's brand bottles has five parts.  The bottles fit nicely in the top rack of the dishwasher, and the other bottle parts (nipples, rings, valves, etc.) fit nicely in the dishwasher insert, as do the pacifiers.

My quality of life has vastly improved since I had the insight that I do not, in fact, need to wash the bottles individually by hand, and I am thankful.

Monday, February 13, 2017

Today I'm thankful for: the WCC/Eli Lilly Travel Award

Today (and every day) I'm thankful for that time I attended the 2013 Fall American Chemical Society (ACS) meeting in Indianapolis as a WCC / Eli Lilly Travel Award winner.
 
When I won the travel award, I was very excited, but I also felt like an impostor.  I had never expected to win the award when I applied for it: I applied more out of a sense that I should start taking advantage of every opportunity that I could out of principle, and at least I would get some experience applying for travel awards.
 
At the awardee breakfast, I felt like even more of an impostor.  All of the other students seemed to be in their third or fourth year (a perfectly appropriate time to be giving their first presentation at a national meeting), and well on their way toward wrapping up their projects and graduating.  Here I was, in my eighth year, and only now presenting my work at a national meeting, and my project was still woefully incomplete.  I felt like that I had fooled everyone, had cheated some more deserving student out of the travel award, and that at any moment one of the friendly, talented, and successful WCC members at the table might suddenly realize I didn’t belong and snatch my WCC pin away from me and go look for that more deserving student to give it to.
 
When Judy Cohen joyfully told us, “This award will change your life!” I thought, "Maybe for these other students.  But not for me.  I’m just an impostor."
 
When I attended the “24th Anniversary of the WCC/Eli Lilly Travel Award” symposium later that morning, I couldn’t really see myself being as successful as any of the travel award alums, and that I certainly wouldn’t be invited back to talk in another 24 years about what I’d be doing, probably because I would still be working on the same unsuccessful PhD project at that point.  But as the talks went on, the speakers started making comments that suggested that maybe they weren’t so different from me after all.  Margaret Chu-Moyer talked about how the first time she tried a total synthesis, it worked, but after that the yield gradually dropped to zero.  Malika Jefferies-El said that “the fourth year is a dark period of one’s career,” and that during her travel award experience at ACS she found herself “smiling for perhaps the first time in five years.”  And I had never heard anyone speak as candidly and specifically about what it’s like to live as a scientist as Mindy Levine did.
 
That afternoon, as I attended talks and visited the Expo, strangers started coming up to me and asking about the travel award ribbon on my badge.  Distinguished scientists asked me about my work, and they were actually interested.  Some offered useful practical advice, and many asked me for my card and gave me theirs, and really did want me to report back on how my project turned out.
 
The next day, at the travel award poster session, the very same amazingly talented and successful travel award alums I had seen the previous day came to visit my poster and ask about my work.  They listened with great interest, even those with chemistry expertise well outside biochemistry.  My new hero, Mindy Levine, told me, “That project sounds really hard,” and for the first time I entertained the possibility that perhaps my project’s lack of “success” wasn’t simply due to insufficient effort or talent on my part.
 
After the WCC luncheon, Amber Charlebois came up to me and asked me what I planned to do after graduation, whether I was interested in research or teaching or what.  I started to stammer out my usual answer about feeling like I wasn’t very good at doing research and that I might be happier doing something I was better at.
 
And then the most amazing thing happened.  She said, “Come and visit me at Fairleigh Dickinson.  You’ll give the chemistry seminar, and you can put that on your CV.  You’ll follow me around for the day, and you’ll see what it’s like to be a professor at a primarily undergraduate institution, and whether you think that’s for you.  The department can’t reimburse your travel, and can’t put you up in a hotel, but you can stay at my house.  That way you’ll get the whole experience of what it’s like to be a professor, at school and at home.”
 
I had just become an invited speaker for a seminar series at a university.
 
My confidence continued to grow as the meeting went on.  I felt more comfortable asking questions at seminars, and going up and introducing myself to interesting people.  I started to feel like I really did belong there, that I wasn’t an impostor after all.  By the last day of the meeting, I found myself walking around the convention center with a giant, ear-to-ear smile the entire day, I loved chemistry so much.
 
When I was told over breakfast that winning this travel award would change my life, I was skeptical, but the fact is that I left the meeting feeling more confident, excited about chemistry, and energized about my work than ever before.  In the weeks and months following the ACS meeting, when I saw opportunities, such as a job posting, writing opportunity, or other awards, my first thought was still, "Those opportunities are for other people, not impostors like me," but now I had the confidence to catch myself and say, "No, I am a WCC / Eli Lilly Travel Award winner: I’m smart, I work hard, and I deserve to give that opportunity a chance."

And winning the WCC / Eli Lilly Travel Award changed my life in one more important way: it was at that ACS meeting that I interviewed for a job with FDA, my dream employer.  If it weren't for the award, I wouldn't have been in Indianapolis, and I wouldn't have interviewed, and I wouldn't have my job today.

The WCC / Eli Lilly Award really did change my life, and I am thankful.

Friday, February 10, 2017

Today I'm thankful for: the Baltimore science cafe series

Today (and every day) I'm thankful for Project Bridge (http://www.projbridge.com)'s Baltimore science café series.

A science café is an opportunity for a scientist to talk about their work with the community in an informal setting.  We scientists frequently bemoan the sorry state of scientific literacy in this country, yet at the same time, too many of us think it's beneath us to talk to non-scientists, so we really are a not insignificant part of the problem.

Science cafés aim to change that.  They bring the scientist out of the lab and into the community.  They provide an opportunity for people to learn about the science going on in their own cities.  They help bridge gaps between scientists and non-scientists.  Everyone is better off when neighbors talk to each other.

Baltimore has its own science café series, and I am thankful.

Thursday, February 09, 2017

Today I'm thankful for: that article Yen sent me about how you may not have to burp your baby

Today (and every day) I'm thankful for that article Yen sent me about how you may not have to burp your baby.

I don't remember much from September 2016, but I do remember, after feeding babies in the middle of the night, trying to burp them.  At that age, they didn't like being up on my shoulder (plus, I was terrified of not adequately supporting their little heads), so I usually used the method of sitting them up on my lap, supporting their chin on my hand, and thumping them on the back.

I had to thump them pretty hard to get the burps to come out.  The babies didn't seem to mind getting thumped, but I didn't like doing it.  Even if I was willing to thump the babies pretty hard, burping still had a low rate of success.  So there I was, in the middle of the night, frequently faced with the choice of whether to stay up longer to continue to try to burp (with a baby happily snoozing with her chin in my hand) or to put the baby back in her crib, worried that she would then spit up because she was inadequately burped.  My rational, well-read self knew that babies who spit up while lying on their backs in their cribs are not going to drown (the spit-up just flows down the side of the baby's face), but in the middle of the night, sleep-deprived, and still recovering from major abdominal surgery plus the previous nine months' illness, it was very hard to be rational.  So I did, in fact, spend many hours in the middle of the night trying and failing to burp babies, feeling demoralized that I was unable to do something that is supposedly so natural.

Then, Yen sent me this article: https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/growth-curve/maybe-you-dont-need-burp-your-baby.  The study has its limitations, certainly (and the article does a good job describing them), but it reminded me of what should have been obvious: burping your baby is not, in fact, necessary for her survival.  She'll be fine if she doesn't burp.  You all can go back to sleep.  If she does spit up all over herself, you can wash her off.

This article at this moment was an important perspective check for me.  I am lucky to have friends who are looking out for my well-being, and I am thankful.

Wednesday, February 08, 2017

Word of the day: chump

The word of the day is chump:

  1. Informal. a stupid person; dolt
  2. a short, thick piece of wood.
  3. the thick, blunt end of anything.
  4. Slang. the head.
1703, "short, thick lump of wood," akin to O.N. kumba "block of wood." Meaning "blockhead" is first attested 1883.

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/chump)

"This mental exercise lasted until Biddy made a rush at them and distributed three defaced Bibles (shaped as if they had been unskillfully cut off the chump end of something), more illegibly printed at the best than any curiosities of literature I have since met with, speckled all over with ironmould, and having various specimens of the insect world smashed between their leaves."

 - Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Word of the day: iron mold

The word of the day is iron mold:

  1. a stain on cloth or the like made by rusty iron or by ink pigmented with an iron derivative.
(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/iron+mold)


"This mental exercise lasted until Biddy made a rush at them and distributed three defaced Bibles (shaped as if they had been unskillfully cut off the chump end of something), more illegibly printed at the best than any curiosities of literature I have since met with, speckled all over with ironmould, and having various specimens of the insect world smashed between their leaves."

 - Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Word of the day: courser

The word of the day is courser:

  1. a swift horse.

large, powerful horse," c.1300, from O.Fr. corsier, from V.L. *cursarius, from L. cursus (see course).

(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/courser)

"'Where was the coach, in the name of gracious?' asked my sister.
"'In Miss Havisham's room.'  They stared again.  'But there weren't any horses to it.'  I added this saving clause, in the moment of rejecting four richly caparisoned coursers which I had had wild thoughts of harnessing."

 - Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Word of the day: caparison

The word of the day is caparison:

  1. a decorative covering for a horse or for the tack or harness of a horse; trappings.
  2. rich and sumptuous clothing or equipment.
1598, "cloth spread over a saddle," also "personal dress and ornaments," from Fr. caparasson (Mod.Fr. caparaçon, from Sp. caparazon, from augmentative of M.L. caparo, the name of a type of cape worn by women, lit. "chaperon" (see chaperon). Pp. adj. caparisoned is attested from 1600, from a verb caparison (1594).

"'Where was the coach, in the name of gracious?' asked my sister.
"'In Miss Havisham's room.'  They stared again.  'But there weren't any horses to it.'  I added this saving clause, in the moment of rejecting four richly caparisoned coursers which I had had wild thoughts of harnessing."

 - Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Word of the day: beggar

The word of the day is beggar:

  1. to reduce to utter poverty; impoverish:
  2. to cause one's resources of or ability for (description, comparison, etc.) to seem poor or inadequate
early 13c., from O.Fr. begart, originally a member of the Beghards, lay brothers of mendicants in the Low Countries, from M.Du. beggaert "mendicant," of uncertain origin, with pejorative suffix (see -ard). Cf. Beguine. Early folk etymology connected the English word with bag. The feminine form beggestere is attested as a surname from c.1300. The verb meaning "to reduce to poverty" is from 1520s. Beggar's velvet was an old name for "dust bunnies."

"I played the game to an end with Estella, and she beggared me.  She threw the cards down on the table when she had won them all, as if she despised them for having been won of me."

 - Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Today I'm thankful for: The Baltimore Sun

Today (and every day) I'm thankful for the Baltimore Sun.

An independent free press is crucial for any democracy.  All politics is local, so a local newspaper is even more important.  The Baltimore Sun is still here, and I am thankful.

Tuesday, February 07, 2017

Today I'm thankful for: the Sigma Xi SmartBrief newsletter

Today (and every day) I'm thankful for the Sigma Xi SmartBrief newsletter.

My New Years resolution last year was to read less clickbait and more curated news from trustworthy sources.  This is a resolution I'm still working on.  It still takes effort to remind myself that instead of reading whatever trash I'm reading on the internet, I could instead go read something from one of my trusted sources.  To mix metaphors, someone has already waded through the chaff and picked up a few gems for me: I just need to accept them.  I'll read higher quality journalism by going with curated news.  And if I'm concerned about confirmation bias, these trusted curated sources are undoubtedly better at providing me with balanced news than the algorithms of social media are.

One of my trusted news sources is the Sigma Xi SmartBrief newsletter.  Every day, I get brief summaries of about ten science news stories, with links to their coverage in the popular press.  If it's a big science news story, the newsletter won't miss it, so it's not like I need to keep my finger on the pulse of social media to know what's going on.  The newsletter does a good job of covering a variety of disciplines, so I get reliable news that I probably wouldn't have heard about otherwise.  It's great to hear about the products of scientists' hard work and to get a break from the outrage on social media, and I am thankful.

Monday, February 06, 2017

Word of the day: recrudescence

The word of the day is recrudescence:

  1. breaking out afresh or into renewed activity; revival or reappearance in active existence.
1721, from L. recrudescere "re-open" (of wounds), lit. "become raw again," from re- "again" + crudescere, from crudus "raw" (see crude) + inchoative suffix -escere.

"Baldwin could not have known about Ferguson and Black Lives Matter, about the presidency of Barack Obama and the recrudescence of white nationalism in its wake, but in a sense he explained it all in advance."

 - A. O. Scott, "Review: ‘I Am Not Your Negro’ Will Make You Rethink Race", 2 February 2017 New York Times (https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/02/02/movies/review-i-am-not-your-negro-review-james-baldwin.html)

Today I'm thankful for: EPA's regulation of tap water

Today (and every day) I'm thankful for the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s regulation of tap water.

My ancestors would be amazed: everywhere I go in this country, potable water springs from a tap.  I don't need to haul it back home, and I don't need to filter or boil it before drinking it.  Most of the time, I can even control the temperature.

Maintaining a safe supply of running water is a huge investment, and EPA oversees the process to make sure the water is safe to drink.  There have, of course, been a few spectacular failures, such as the Cryptosporidium outbreak in Milwaukee County when I was a kid and the lead contamination in Flint, MI.  To use the cliche, these exceptions prove the rule: these failures are so shocking, horrifying, and unacceptable precisely because we have come to expect safe, clean drinking water to spring from the tap.

As with so many public health initiatives, EPA's regulation of tap water has become a victim of its own success: EPA has done such a good job that we have forgotten what it was like to not be able to depend on clean, running drinking water at every turn, even in our own homes, so cheap that it's practically free.  I know I've been privileged enough that the only times I have been unable to depend on safe tap water were times I've traveled out of the country.  We've made an investment in safe, running drinking water, and the people at EPA work hard to maintain it, and I am thankful.

Thursday, February 02, 2017

Today I'm thankful for: the way Ed Machuga gave positive feedback

Today (and every day) I'm thankful for the way Ed Machuga gave positive feedback.

I am someone who responds well to positive feedback.  If someone tells me I did a good job doing something, I want to do that thing over and over and over again.  I think this aspect of my personality explains my Toastmasters career: whenever I did something for Toastmasters, people (as good Toastmasters do) would tell me how great my work was and how much they appreciated me, in a way that the world of research never did, so I wanted to spend more and more time and energy on Toastmasters, and less and less on research.

When I started at FDA two and a half years ago, my supervisor was Ed Machuga.  Before ever sending anything (such as an email) to the outside world, I would send it to him first to make sure it was ok.  It was never just ok.  He usually wrote back to say "Looks good!" or "Great!"  This is not to say he rubber-stamped: if I made a mistake, he caught it, and told me (in a kind and encouraging way) how to fix it.  I would fix it and send it back to him again for his review, and then he would say, "PERFECT!!!"

I've only been an acting supervisor a couple of times, and no one has yet consulted me in a supervisory capacity, but when they do, I plan to implement enthusiastic positive feedback, the way Ed did.  Maybe not everyone responds to it to the same extent I do, but it doesn't cost anything.

I felt Ed brought out my best work and enabled me to do a good job, and doing a good job is extremely important to me.  Ed's positive feedback empowered me to do good work, and I am thankful.

Wednesday, February 01, 2017

Today I'm thankful for: hand-me-downs

Today (and every day) I'm thankful for how generous everyone has been with hand-me-downs.

Infants go through a lot of clothing, as it turns out.  I don't want to be gross, but they're still learning how their bodies work, so various bodily fluids leak through assorted orifices.  Alice and Katherine are starting to eat baby food, which ends up smeared all over them, despite everyone's best efforts.  Twins need twice as much of everything: onesies, pants, pajamas, bibs, and more.  But despite the sheer volume of clothing these kids go through, we have not had to buy anything ourselves.  (Not that we haven't bought anything: some baby clothes are too adorable to pass up, even if we don't absolutely need them.)  That is because everyone had been extremely generous with their hand-me-downs.  We are not that conscientious about doing laundry frequently, but because of everyone's generosity, Alice and Katherine have never wanted for clean, adorable clothing.

And not just clothing: we have hand-me-down bouncy chairs, baby carriers, bath tubs, and feeding chairs, all of which have proven to be extremely useful.  Having two newborns is hard enough without having to run out and buy stuff for them, and I've never had to because of everyone's generosity, and I am thankful.

Word of the day: thrutch

The word of the day is thrutch:

Push, press, or squeeze into a space when climbing

(https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/thrutch)

"I kicked to make toe hooks and heel hooks, felt for pockets where I could jam my fingers, and knobs to pinch and slopers to cling to, breathing snoutfuls of dust and sediment, thrutching ever upward."

 - Lori Lansens, The Mountain Story