Pavlovian Responses

Workplace construction seems to be a staple of my professional career. My eight years at ICPSR were marked by non-stop moving, construction, and environmental issues (radon, flooding, diesel fumes, etc.). There have also been some small-scale construction projects in my new workplace, most notably the renovation of our offices over winter break. I have now been physically conditioned to respond to certain noises and sounds associated with construction. For example, even the slightest hint of diesel fumes makes me nauseous. Also the beeping sound coming from large construction vehicles sets off an automatic pulsing in my temples.

This Pavlonian conditioning is going to be a problem for me this summer. They are starting a major renovation project of the building adjacent to mine. On Friday I had to take breaks from a student conference held on our campus because diesel fumes from the construction vehicles were wafting through the open windows and making me ill. Today there has been almost non-stop beeping from the same vehicles, making it very difficult for me to concentrate. This does not bode well for my work plans for the summer. Any suggestions for changing my responses to these smells and sounds would be greatly appreciated.*

(*I've already tried headphones and the beeping noise pierces through them. Of course, for my ICPSR friends, these would be headphones of the usual variety, not the RR uber-headphones.)

Quick Updates

I have several things on my "to-blog-about" list, but I haven't been able to pull my thoughts together, so in the meantime here's a quick update on what's going on here.

• The sparklines software is kind of cool, but kind of buggy. This is a problem since I need it to prepare a conference paper in two weeks.
• I was annoyed by the schmaltzy American Idol "charity" event this week. I've been debating about blogging on this topic because it feels wrong to criticize any attempt to alleviate poverty. Yet, at the same time, American Idol doesn't exactly fit the definition of charity very well.
• I missed the first Democratic debate, but I hope to catch it on the web.
• I went to an interesting lecture yesterday on the "Gendering of Academia." There will definitely be a post about this topic forthcoming.
• Weekend plans -- grading.

Field Notes

The "currently reading" section of my blog hasn't changed much over the last couple of months. I've simply been too busy to keep up with all of my readings -- academic and otherwise. As the semester is winding down, I treated myself with some reading time today. I finally finished Field Notes from a Catastrophe. This book was selected for the UAlbany Reading Project this year. It's a really compelling look at the scientific evidence supporting the argument that we are experiencing human-made global warming that will have serious geological and social consequences. It's a less entertaining, but more rigorous, take on the issues than Gore's Inconvenient Truth (the movie, at least, since I haven't read the book).

As part of the Reading Project the author is invited to campus for a lecture and Q&A with students. Unfortunately, I missed Elizabeth Kolbert's first appearance on campus, but I hope to hear her speak at graduation. One of the students at the Q&A described her book as "a downer," and I have to concur. The breadth of evidence that Kolbert collected is quite impressive, but the message is ultimately quite bleak. One of the reasons why it took me so long to read this book was that I had to do it in small doses.

One piece of the book stuck with me more than the others. After the U.S. failed to sign the Kyoto Protocol, in support of mandatory emissions regulations, Kolbert interviewed the Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs, Paula Dobriansky, who has the unfortunate job of explaining President Bush's global warming policy, or lack thereof. She summarized the current administration's policy as "we act, we learn, and we act again." This statement was repeated numerous times during the 15-minute interview. In my mind it so clearly summarizes the problem with the current position on this issue -- learning comes after acting, rather than before. The U.S. seems to be content to ignore, and sometimes unrealistically challenge, the evidence supporting global warming. However, Kolbert very eloquently shows how the evidence is overwhelming. If we were willing to learn first, and then act, our course of action might be more effective.

Random Thoughts

Things are hectic. I'm also in a bit of a personal and professional funk so I've been avoiding the blog recently. Here are a few things on my mind:

1. Like many others, I am distraught over the Virginia Tech incident and I just don't know what to say about it.
2. Three weeks left to the end of the semester!
3. Little things go a long way in making a relationship work. My husband is awesome and I haven't said that in a while.
4. Humility is underrated.
5. So is kindness.
6. I just got some new software to create sparklines and I can't wait to start using it!
7. I miss blogging.

Music Meme

Hollilama has asked for a meme of seven songs that I'm currently listening to. It's a tough act to follow because her music collection is enviable, but here it is:

1. Not Ready to Make Nice (Dixie Chicks) -- I like this song for a number of reasons, the political message being the obvious one. The Chicks are one of the few country groups that I generally like.


2. Dear Mr. President (P!nk & the Indigo Girls) -- I'm a huge P!nk fan. The girl's got attitude. What's not to love? (I've also been listening to Stupid Girls and U + Ur Hand quite a bit.)


3. Lose Yourself (Eminem) -- I have mixed feelings about Eminem in general, but I do like some of his music. I dug this one up about a week ago and have been listening to it a lot since then. It's from the 8 Mile soundtrack so it brings up lots of memories of Detroit. I also listened to this song a lot when I was writing my dissertation and I tend to pull it out when I'm looking for motivation.


4. It's Been A While (Staind) -- One of my favorite groups. I love Aaron Lewis' voice.


5. Irreplaceable (Beyonce) -- I can't get this one out of my head.


6. It's Not Over (Daughtry) -- Although I watch American Idol religiously, I'm not necessarily a fan of the music that the show produces. Daughtry is an exception. The whole album is pretty good.


7. Black Hole Sun (Soundgarden) -- I recently downloaded a bunch of 90s music that I still had on cassette tapes. This is one of my favorites from that era.

Weighty Decisions

Abby, my four-year-old niece, is visiting for the weekend. While I normally post the funny things that she says, yesterday we had a serious conversation about her future.

Abby: I don't know what I want to be yet.
Auntie: For what? For Halloween?
Abby: Nooooooo. I don't know what I want to be when I grow up.
Auntie: Do you have any ideas yet?
Abby: Not really. I'm gonna have to work on that.
Auntie: Well, there's no need to rush.

Today I'll do my part to help her think about such weighty issues. I plan to take her to campus with me.

Update: The conversation continued later in the afternoon at my office:

Abby: I'm gonna have to decide soon what I want to be.
Auntie: You don't have to decide right away. You can take your time.
Abby: No. I have to hurry up and decide so I can grow up faster.

This Doesn't Bode Well

I got to the office today at 8:15 a.m., which is early considering that it's Spring Break, as I was hoping for an incredibly productive day. My family is coming to visit for the weekend, so I need to get a lot done before they arrive. At 8:25 a.m. the unbelievably loud fire alarm went off, so I spent the next 15 minutes standing in the cold wishing I had grabbed my can of Diet Coke on the way out. I then returned to my computer and checked into Bloglines to read this blog, in which a young academic declares that she was denied her third-year contract renewal. Now I don't know this person, so I don't know the circumstances surrounding her case, but let's just say it left me a little unsettled. I really hope the rest of the day doesn't continue along this track.

Presentation of Self

The last week and a half has been devoted primarily to putting together an application for my contract renewal. I'm employed at UAlbany through next year and then I have to get renewed for the next three-year period. The renewal process takes place during your second year at the University so that you have time to look for a new job if you need one. I'm not too worried about losing my job, but I have had to put a lot of work into my renewal application. In our School we use this opportunity to start building our tenure profiles. It's a little strange to do this in only my fourth semester here since I feel like I'm just getting into the swing of things, but it has also been an interesting opportunity to step back and think about the bigger picture of what I'm trying to accomplish. The tenure packet consists of a C.V., statements of teaching, research, and service, and a teaching portfolio. Unlike annual performance reviews at most jobs, this is more than just restating what you've done for the past year or two. Instead you have to link your past work to your future plans and describe not only how you will qualify for tenure, but how you will become a national expert in your area of study over the next four years. It's a somewhat daunting task.

I've just about finished writing all of my statements and I'll have a colleague review them before they get submitted to the faculty, where there will have a meeting to discuss whether or not my contract will be renewed. Although this process was a little stressful, I'm satisfied with the end result and I think I've presented my work well. As part of this process, I have also changed my professional web site and even added a blog. I was going to do this anyhow since I wanted to find an easier software/server package to handle the site and it just made sense to do it at the same time as the other stuff.

Oswego, NY

I spent the first few days of Spring Break still working, as I was scheduled to attend a conference at SUNY Oswego. I was actually excited about seeing Oswego, not only because of my desire to explore the state of New York, but because of the massive snow storm that dumped over 10 feet of snow there last month. Well, the snow melted by the time I arrived and the rest of Oswego was underwhelming. The SUNY campus is right on Lake Ontario, which was quite pretty, but also very cold and windy. It must be brutal to deal with that during the winter, although I'm sure it's really beautiful in the summer.

The conference was called A Conversation between Art and Science on Information Visualization. I was interested in the "information visualization" aspect of it, but I found myself lost between the art and the science. The conference seemed really geared toward artists. While there is nothing wrong with that per se, as a social scientist I felt very out of place. There were certainly some ideas and names thrown about that made some sense to me (e.g., Edward Tufte and Jakob Nielsen), but most of the time I was lost. I like to think about new things and feel challenged by new ideas, but I need to at least be able to grasp some of the basic concepts and I was really struggling in that respect. I don't think it helped that I was burned out and desperate to start Spring Break.