Thinking ahead - in tens

I really liked how Sciencewoman was thinking ahead a few weeks ago; I just did not have time to respond then. So here is what I'm thinking.

• In 10 minutes - I'll be brushing my teeth and going to bed too late as usual.

• In 10 hours - I'll be struggling to solve the problems that causes SAS to produce error messages and refuse to do what I want (shit in shit out I assume)

• In 10 days - I'll be sleeping in a hotel in Nantes (F) for a workshop

• In 10 weeks - I'll be closer to 40 than 30 (arrrgh!) and cleaning out of my flat in France (yay!)

• In 10 months - I'll be busy writing grants - hopefully in Scotland if various negotiations succeed

• In 10 years - I'll have a permanent job (dream on!), two more kids (not very likely, huh?) and live mostly in one place (yeah, right!)

Belated shuffle meme

ScienceGirl tagged me for the shuffle meme a couple of weks ago, but not too much time to get it done before now. Since everyone already did it, you're probably all tired of guessing, but I'll try it anyway. #14 is for the Swedes out there, otherwise I skipped all the non-English ones.

Rules revisited

Step 1: Put your MP3 player (or whatever) on random.
Step 2: Post the first line from the first 25 songs that play.
Step 3: Post and let everyone guess the song and artist.
Step 4: Bold (or whatever) when someone gets them right.
Step 5: Googling is for whimps.

1. It's like a flag at half mast as frames click fast
2. May I have your attention please? (Real Slim Shady -Eminem; CAE)
3. I take a couple uppers
4. Brother, brother, brother, Lucien, you're like no other
5. Train, train gonna take him on out of this town
6. It was Christmas Eve, babe, in the drunk tank (Fairytale of NY - Pogues & Kirsty McColl; CAE)
7. Question, what is it that everybody has and some pirates and theives try to take?
8. Things just ain't the same for gangsters
9. Genius to fall asleep to your tape last night (Headphones - Björk; Stepwise Girl )
10. How ya doin, honey, baby?
11. Bubblin' from the left
12. Here comes Johnny Yen again (Lust for Life by Iggy Pop; CAE)
13. On either side the river lie
14. När jag var nyfödd slog morsan maken, för han var skyldig till saken
15. Zephyr in the sky at night I wonder
16. See them walking hand in hand across the bridge at midnight
17. In the distance she saw me comin' 'round
18. I came to bring the pain hardcore from the brain
19. From the hands it came down
20. You cut me down a tree
21. Another summer day has come and gone away
22. See it coming at my head I'm not running I'm not scared
23. It's so relieving to know that you're leaving as soon as you get paid
24. Once again the powers of the herb open up the mind
25. We used to be number 10

I don't know who has already done this (my meme memory lasts maybe max seven minutes), except I think maybe Transient Reporter hasn't (sorry if I'm wrong and too lazy to check)? And everyone else who hasn't done it yet; I'm not tired of guessing so go ahead! Shuffle!

Book meme

As seen at Joolya's (she seems to be back after a few months of absence?). I found it a good excuse to start posting again.

What we have here is the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded.

Bold the ones you've read,
put in blue the ones you read for school,
italicize the ones you started but didn't finish.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno (and Purgatory and Paradise)
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

I see I have some catching up to do. Now I know what to purchase in order to make my already good-looking bookshelf even better.

Ninety eight has arrived

Just need to form an opinion first

#97: Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness - Smashing Pumpkins (1995)

OK, now you're pobably thinking this stupid cunt* can't count; #99 last week now #97, hellooo? Damn, that Kochno guy was right.

I'll just say relaaaax; #98 will have to wait till I get it from Amazon - probably when I return from my next trip about a month from now - I just couldn't get it from iTunes. Not the Swedish store, not the French store. How bizarre is that? A top 100 album not on iTunes?

Anyhoo, now to the pumpkins. Didn't really figure them out back in the 90s, don't really know why. Maybe because I tended to oppose to any music my lovers liked. No, not true, the dude who liked the pumkins introduced me to PJ Harvey who I didn't use to like, but I changed my mind. Maybe because the smashing tunes that was mostly played on the radio ("Tonight" and "1969") didn't - I realize now after hearing the whole album - really appeal to me. And I wasn't curious enough to investigate further.

NOW I TOTALLY LOVE IT. Well, most of it. Some of the ballads aren't really my thing, except maybe "Stumbleine", but the simple guitar-based noisy ones like "Jellybelly", "Zero", "Where the boys fear to tread" and "X.Y.U" are just brilliant. I just wish I had this double album as vinyl and my turntable close by. Mp3s on an iPod or laptop are fine for travelling or at work, but there's nothing like the feeling and sound of a vinyl record. Five songs, turn it and then another five. If double repeat the procedure with the second part. Another reason I look forward to move back to my flat in Sweden.

*yes, I'm reclaiming the c-word

Not very interesting, really

We had the first proper thunderstorm this evening. I took the normal round in my flat unplugging the electric equipment that means most to me; modem, computer, washing machine. Moved from my computer table closer to the window so I could watch the spectacle. It wasn't as spectacular as I had hoped - I love thunderstorms with a silly enthusiasm mixed with a good dose of respect for the forces involved.

My parents house has an amazing view over the sea and we've watched some spectacular thunderstorms there over the years. The house is pretty vulnerable - on top of a hill and one of the tallest houses around - but has never been struck by lightning. It was close once, but then the neighbours' house was struck instead. No fire, but ALL electric equipment was knocked out and left completely useless. Thus I'm a bit paranoid about certain important things. Oh, now it starts again; I'd better unplug!

Planning for four

I was asked to give the details about the new job. And I will - as soon as everything is settled and the contract is signed. It takes an awful lot of time, that's for sure.

There is also some negotiations coming up about the Goose. Is she going to stay with her dad and her little sister when they move to Norway or settle with me when I move from France back to Sweden? I don't expect a battle. As I've indicated earlier, the Trønder and I communicate well, but we've never really had to make any difficult decisions. When I got the opportunity for a postdoc three and a half years ago I volunteered to leave the Goose with him knowing it would be temporary, lots of hard work and lots of travelling. Little did I know at the time that I would get another postdoc in a remote place, hook up with a new guy native of another continent and that this guy would get a job in the UK to further complificate and messify things.

My new job will still be a temporary one - and there will be lots of hard work obviously - but I will be more settled than I've been for many years. And I would very much like to spend some everyday time with my kid, not just the holidays. But I would be a single caretaker on a daily basis and will I then have time for all the large-scale experiments I plan to do? And the Goose will miss her little sister. I don't see that as a brilliant solution either, the whole situation is just a "best of a bad job" scenario. What is worse, missing mom (she's used to that) or missing dad & sister? She will of course not have to decide that, but I hate being one of those who have to make that decision for her. And after my four years in Sweden, who knows what happens then? I should obviously have thought of these possible scenarios a little earlier - like before letting myself get knocked up - but I've never been very good at planning far ahead.

And that reminds me of this months Scientiae carnival theme. Which makes this contribution about as unplanned as my career. I ended up as an evolutionary biologist by responding to opportunities along the way, not because I wanted it ever since I was a child. And to be honest, even when finishing my PhD at 31 I didn't really know what I wanted to do with my life. Now at almost 36 I think I want to be a scientist, but it's not an easy task to co-ordinate the careers of four people with PhD's in biology. We're not a two-body problem; we're four-body. Planning is more difficult than ever.

scientiae-carnival

Pigs!

The Trönder & Miss J have bought two piglets and - despite them being female - they're named after two of the Trönder's male friends (names of course withheld). Miss J won't eat meat from animals not treated well; these piglets will be fairly treated and put in the freezer some time in the autumn. They've made a little space for them in their garden and the Goose was about to go and feed them when I called her today. I wondered what she thought about them and the conversation went something like this

hgg: So, do you think they're cute?

goose: Oh yes, very cute. We have one pink and one spotty

hgg: Don't you think it will be difficult to eat them since they are so cute?

goose: Meh! We'll eat them in the autumn when they're big, fat and ugly.

Good thing this is not applicable to humans. I'd be in trouble.

Stay away from computers when feeling drunk and misogynous. At least disconnect from the Internet!

Some dude in Illinois woke up from a hangover today and realized he had punched the wrong mail bag during a bender the night before. He sent some drunk mispunctuated hate mail to Feministing from a non-anonymous school email account.

The content of the email? Here it goes, it is way too good to leave out the full content


Men are better than women look at the comparison in IQ men are scientifically proven to have a higher IQ by roughly 5 points, or 5% you cannot dispute science sorry and if you want a much better website than your shitty one you might want to go to [redacted]. I think you would gain a lot more knowledge from that website and you might learn about the truth that way you would not be so stupid and ignorant you stupid cunts.

He surely proved his point, didn't he? Too bad the IQ scale is not really 0-100. And where had we been if science were indisputable?

Luckily the women over at Feministing aint nuthin to fuck with. They posted it on the web, including his full name and links to his MySpace and Facebook profiles. That dude has got his own male bag metaphorically punched through the internetz today. And the the comments to the post adds additional knowledge about the guy who apparently is (or I now believe "was" is the right description) public relations officer for College Republicans at his university.

He's in - I hope - for a rough couple of weeks; someone suggested sending him to a class in gender studies. Should be a good educational punishment for a sexist assclown.

Pretty damn good day

I had an unusually productive day today, I can't remember the last time I actually focused on one task for most of the day without doing all kinds of other things in between.

The task at hand was a manuscript from my previous postdoc that has been sent to three different journals; bounced twice, reviewed and rejected from the third. Looks like my co-author/advisor aimed a bit too high... I wasn't very happy with the ms in it's previous state but haven't really had the energy to sit down and really do something about it. Mainly because it is not my main area of interest but also because my current project is challenging enough. So it's been on my desk for too long, it's time to get it off my hands.

I feel like re-doing the analyses my own way and produce some kick-ass figures but I'm honestly not sure if it's worth the time. I think I'll just finish the discussion and send it off to my co-authors.

Even had time to go running AND revise the introduction of another co-authored paper after getting home. How did I all of a sudden become so effective? I usually procrastinate my life away. Probably back to normal tomorrow.

#99: X & Y - Coldplay (2005)

OK, so none of you give a shit about The Band. Fair enough. I wouldn't either if it hadn't been for this top 100 idea I got. Moving on.

Embarrassingly enough, what I know about Coldplay is that Gwyneth moved to England and got two kids with one of them. Good for her - I like Gwyneth - and as far as my Scandinavian ears could tell she pulls of the Brit accent pretty well in "Shakespeare in love" and "Sliding doors". Which reminds me that co-starring John Hannah from "Sliding..." did the best funeral speech ever in "Four weddings...". And did you by the way know that Kristin Scott Thomas lives in Paris and does a lot movies for the French film industry?

Hmm? Oh yes, the X & Y album.

ZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZzZ.

Incredibly boring until the very last song - the one that was written with Johnny Cash in mind - "Till kingdom come". A beautifully simple little thing about waiting, with only acoustic guitar, vocal and a bit of keyboard. I'll just ignore the spiritual part. And I guess "Swallowed in the sea was pleasant enough". But I don't think I'll go to Glastonbury to see them. But maybe to see Jay-Z

Any Coldplay fans out there? Do I miss the point?

Finally some culture up in the savage North!

Norway got an opera house, grand opening this weekend. As you all probably know we have a long and well-known opera tradition; many opera masterpeices have been composed by my fellow Norwegians.

See pictures from the opening here. Much ado about Angela Merkel's cleavage . She got more attention then the royalties, apparently. Good on her I say.

Another happy scientist (at least temporarily)

Got a grant! Not very big , but at least 6-digit in Swedish currency. It all adds up in the end. Already wondering which badass Macintosh to buy...

I did it!

As announced last week, I went by bike to work today. 45 - 50 minutes each way. My bike still works, and the new backpack was excellent! And the weather forecast from now till Thursday afternoon says




But since today was the first bike ride in many, many weeks, a couple of days off may be required. The ride home was - quite litterally - a pain in the ass.

#100: The Band - The Band (1969)

This was totally new to me. I had obviously heard the name before but never heard any of the songs. The first impression was not too good; music for men who like Neil Young and similar (nice guitars, annoying voices - prejudiced me? not a chance!). It didn't work as background music, but when I really sat down focusing it grew on me.

It's a fun mix of rock'n'roll, a bit of ragtime, blues, country and a good dose of Hammond organ. I have some difficulties relating to the lyrics - a lot about American men in various kinds and levels of trouble and life stages, but intersting nontheless. There seem to be some interest out there on the internet for analysing the lyrics, at this site for instance, but that's beyond my interest and time limits at the moment.

High ponts include King harvest (has surely come), Rockin' chair and Jawbone (if you can handle all the different beats - must be at least three). A few will always be annoying to my ears, mainly because of the voices, but all in all a positive surprise. I will certainly not delete the downloaded mp3 files and maybe play them once in a while.

So what about you? Do you like The Band?

Trying something new

A Norwegian radio program, called something that roughly translates to "The Gentlemen's Department" has put together a list of what they think is the 100 best albums ever. Obviously they are not the first to do so, but they claim they've done the ultimate one because they've combined several other lists; BBC, Rolling Stone, New Musical Express, Melody Maker, , Mojo Magazine, Q Magazine 2003, Q Magazine 2006, Rock'n'roll Hall of Fame and Albumvote.

I've been thinking about this for a while and now the inspiration is here to do something bout it; getting the albums one by one, climbing to the top. While I won't compare these lists or in any way question their authorities about which other albums may be better (or maybe I will do that actually; we'll see) I will now dive into the music taste of middle-aged men and see how much of it overlaps with mine. Of the 100 I maybe own 14-15, listened to all of 18-19 and parts of a few more. A large part of it is in other words relatively unknown territory. I hope to hear from you which of these coming albums you have; when and how you got them, what you think of them and in which format; vinyl, CD, mp3?

I hope I will discover something new that I like, but I anticipate a bit of eye rolling. And needless to say - but I'll say it anyway - the list is awfully full of dudes. Now it's past midnight, so I guess I'll start with #100 tomorrow - or at least a little later today. And yes, as you may notice it's Saturday night and I'm on the Internet. I have no life. Or at least a pathetic one :-)

Never really content

I found a new gorgeous place to run today. I've lived here for two years - well, I reckon I've spend more than half of my time away from here - and today was the first time I went West on the cliffs to run. And I found an beautiful stretch of narrow road that ended up in a little valley leading down to the sea.

I again regretted that I don't have a slightly lighter and smaller camera that I can bring with me all the time. It's small enough for a purse, but not really for running. So I'll have to go back at some point.

What also struck me, as it always does when I'm here, the lack of someone to share the beauty of Normandie with. I enjoy exploring a little bit alone but at some point I just go what's the point of not sharing it with anyone? I'm a bit ashamed about how little I've seen of the region. Partly it's because I normally spend 1-4 weeks at a time here and have too much to do or is too tired of travelling to have any energy to get out there. I tend to forget how lucky I am to have had the chance to live here when I work long hours or spend endless lonely hours in my flat. But as soon as I get my ass to the coast and look out over the channel and the magnificent coastline I'm very sad that I'll be leaving in six months. I've spent the last two years trying to get away from here, but now I'd like to spend as much of my remaining time here as possible.

But of course, I have another journey coming up in two weeks...

Accept the realities?

I was told earlier this week that we should just accept the realities, the "realities" being that there are few women among the "really big guys" in our field of science, and thus stop trying to deviate from a 0:100 sex ratio on our list of potential invited speakers to a conference symposium.

I get so tired of these attitudes (can't just people grow up?), thank goodness for Zuska, and I just have one reply right now; hell no.

And yeah, funny how the attitude changed as the third (male) organiser agreed with me. DrugMonkey is right; we need the guys to stand up for something to change. Nothing happens if a hysterical female is the only one who points out the obvious. I'm so not glass half full at the moment. I'll just curl up in a fucking corner and accept the realities for a while.

A bit lost in translation

Inspired by Ardous to travel more eco-friendly to work I decided to bike to work next week. I have done it before a few times during the summer months. I don't like biking when it's dark here, I don't trust the French drivers to see me in time. Problem is that my two small backpacks are elsewhere; one in my Sweden flat (or at my parents house in Norway - I have forgotten the minor details - in Scandinavia somewhere) and one chez 'ypoglycemiadude in Scotland. And I need to have a backpack for my laptop (I'm so not going to leave it at work spend the evening sans intenet).

So after work today I went to my local SuperSport to see if I could find something. And I did. The Millet Hiker II 38 "Functional and well compartmentalized bag for Trekking" looked good and voilà, I'm 99 € poorer.

Millet is a French brand, and the fun started when I got home and sat down to read the specifications. The version in the local language looks fine to me, and then the flip side actually has an English version. Ish. Here is what it said (I guess it makes more sense if you know a bit of French)

Uses
Trekking, hiking, travel. Several pockets and accessories for additional carrying when travelling or day bag.

Pockets camera, pocket girdles and frontal pocket
Pockets in volume for the arrangement of the small equipment, easily accessible since outside

Access melts of bag doubles removable compartment
For an easy access to all the container. Allows to separate high volume from bottom

Rain cover
Installed in a small pocket on the side of the bag, the cover of rain is spread over the bag and allows an effective protection. Removable to be washed separately.

Aren't they cute? Most of it I get, but the "access melts" - what the hell is that?

Exciting!

The Goose & my parents are on French soil and I'll see them in just a few hours. Too excited to work!

How did this happen?

I'm fucking disappointed. Must be something wrong with the code they're using


Created by OnePlusYou

Job ad: Post doc position in Gender and Science

From an email list I'm member of, in case you're interested and/or need a job

Post doc position in Gender and Science
at the Centre for Gender Research, Uppsala University

Centre for Gender Research is currently engaged upon expanding its
resources for research within the programme of gender excellence,
/Nature/culture Boundaries and Transgressive Encounters. /Uppsala Centre
for Gender Research has quickly developed into a unique place of meeting
for scientists and students with a range of disciplinary backgrounds.
From the beginning concrete and focused efforts have rendered
organisational and scientific boundary transgressions possible. These
interdisciplinary research and teaching efforts has rendered quick
results and produced networks between the cultural and natural sciences
that we now will explore further. The objectives for the five-year
programme is thus to uphold a research environment that boosts empirical
investigations and theoretical reflections on how gender and gendered
knowledge is produced in the borderland between the cultural and the
natural sciences in empirical research, theory development and teaching.

The Centre for Gender Research is a research intense unit, consisting of
more than 30 researchers from different disciplines. We are now
recruiting a post-doc for a full-time, one-year position. The successful
applicant has some kind of interesting competence and proposed project
in the intersection of gender research, science studies and animal
studies. Animals have traditionally, with some very important
exceptions, been viewed as “outside” of gender and feminist concerns.
Applicants in this area are welcomed to focus on issues concerning the
gendering of animals, and the /animaling/ of gender, in biological and
other research.

The person we are looking for may come from, for example, pedagogy,
history of science, sociology, biology or ethology. The anticipated
starting date is 15 August 2008.

Applicants should have a doctorate or equivalent, a strong record of
research achievement at an international level in the study of gender
and science, and the demonstrated capacity to publish in top-rated
journals and to present at international conferences. The successful
candidate is expected to besides working on his or her own project also
contribute imaginatively to the design and delivery of the excellence
programme.

The Centre is striving to achieve a more equal gender balance and male
candidates are particularly invited to apply.

*Further information* can be found on our website www.genna.gender.uu.se
. Questions may be posed to Professor
Margaretha Fahlgren, margaretha.fahlgren@gender.uu.se
or PhD Tora Holmberg,
tora.holmberg@gender.uu.se . Union
representatives are Anders Grundström, SACO-rådet, phone: +46 18 471
5380, Carin Söderhäll, TCO/ST , phone: +46 18 471 1996, and Stefan
Djurström, SEKO, phone: +46 18 471 3315.

*The application* should consist of a short project outline (2-3 pages),
a full CV, and a selection of two publications. Send your application
to: Registrator, UFV-PA 2008/649, Uppsala universitet, Box 256, 751 05
Uppsala, Sweden, e-mail: registrator@uu.se or
fax +46 18-471 2000 *no later than **30 April 2008*. An application sent
by fax or e-mail must be followed by a letter containing any original
documents, at the latest a week after application deadline.

On antihistamines

To follow up some comments on my previous post; the antihistamines seem to help me from the worst part of MY hangovers; the "morning sickness"... Something about the body not tolerating the breakdown products of alcohol very well. Especially when there's a lot of them. I have no clue really. Placebo maybe?

And yeah, I didn't even manage to put a title on my previous post. Well, well. It was fun. And my neck is awfully sore and increasingly so. Just as it's supposed to be after a night out. Awesome.

It's 0547 in the morning, we just got back from a night out clubbing. And yeah, I'm still pretty dizzy. Hypoglycemiagirl finally got the chance to shake some postdoc booty again. Birds are singing outside my open window and the next session starts in about three hours. I need to get some sleep. The antihistamine I took against hangover will hopefully still work when I get up.

Have an awesome Friday everyone. I'll be pretty tired but probably happy.

You know it's going to be a good workshop...

...when the conference venue provides big bowls of goodies.

You know that you've lived alone too long...

...when you get over-exited about a residual plot.

Maybe rugby is worth watching after all?

Although I doubt there will be anything of this kind in today's match between Scotland and England (played at a rainy arena in Edinburgh). I'm usually half a year late picking up fun stuff, this photo was all over the blogosphere last summer (if you haven't seen it before, I recommend enlarging to get the details; "complete with reacharound" as hypoglycemiadude said).



Pretty sexy, isn't it? OK, I'll have to go down to watch some more rugby... as was said by ardous a couple of days ago "bow chicka bow bow". Rrrr.

And StyleyGeek, I'll try to keep this post up until you've read it (but how will I know if/when she has?).

I want this to end. Right now.

Checked the HM online shop just recently and I stumbled over these. Why do the fashion industry keep on torturing us with skinny trousers? They look awful unless you're at a dangerously low BMI and even then they look bad. So that leads me to a related question; why do fat chicks insist on wearing them AND stuff them into knee high boots (blæ!)? I'm not exactly model thin myself but at least I have the decency to not force my flab into these monstrosities.

The colour is nice though.

The A

Thanks to a recent post at vwxynot I've added the A to my site, but unlike cae, I don't feel the need to explain my "out of the closet" history. Maybe because I was never really in there, despite being in the Bible belt. At least the door was wide open.

Renewal? Not sure...

I would like to say something of general interest, something that is not already said about science, the future of women in science and whatever else is important. But as usual I don't manage to take it any further than my own little world.

After three years commuting CH-SE-NO, F-SE-CH-NO and F-SE-UK-NO (as in my workplace/flat - Goose/otherflat - hypoglycemiadude - parents/otherfamily) I had finally hoped to reduce my geographic spread by at least one. In December I interviewed for a job in Sweden, at a uni 10 minutes walk from my flat. Wouldn't that be fabulous? Only SE-UK-NO!

After two months and still no response I thought fine, it's not going to happen. Then the Trønder called saying that his missus, Dr J, had got a postdoc with possibility for permanent position in Norway (not close to my parents). OK, fine. I'll uproot from Sweden after ten years, sell the flat and try to get a job in Scotland closer to hypoglycemiadude or in Norway close to the Goose (although the town they will move to is a place I prefer not to live in again). UK-NO-NO sounds better than the current situation.

A week ago while I was on holiday my phone rang during dinner. I was offered the job. In Sweden. I have been repeating Alanis Morissette's greatest hit a few times since then. So if I accept, and I probably will, it will be SE-NO-UK-NO. Same life but different letters. Anyone complaining about two-body life?

scientiae-carnival

Please, someone tell me this is a hoax.

Men presidents only

I think that having a woman president would be a bad idea for our country. Women are not meant to rule countries and be in charge. They are meant to make decisions but not confirm them.

Our president deals with some countries that don't respect or allow women in leadership positions. I wonder if the United States would have more terrorist attacks because we would be seen as weak with a woman leader. I agree that women can do many things, but leave the ruling of the countries to the men.

BRITTANY BAYLES, 13, Kennewick

via Feministing

Whisky inventory, Calvados

More quality than quantity I'll have to say to this somewhat thin selection

• The Balvenie Founder's Reserve 10 yo (bought locally at one of the hypermarkets)
• Glenlivet 12 yo (present from colleagues visiting in May last year; recently turned into an after-work-while-making-dinner (i.e. soup)-favourite
  
• Glenmorangie 10 yo (bought locally at one of the hypermarkets)
• Lagavulin 1990 double matured 16 yo (present from my man; he knows what a woman wants!)
  

Tired of baby food

Since I woke up in Copenhagen Wednesday morning the week before last week, I haven't been able to chew anything harder than yoghurt. For some %ù*µ&ing reason the right side of my jaw is out of place, shape or something and it @è#µ*ing hurts every time I chew, yawn, brush teeth or when someone punches me in the ear. I thought it was ear infection at first, but I never have ear infections. I thought I was grinding my teeth too much at night because of stress but it wasn't any worse in the morning than during the day when I could potentially control my facial muscles. And, no, I haven't, as some assclown suggested, given too many bjs lately. I did fall when snowboarding a few days before but not that bad as far as I can remember.

No time to see a doctor in CPH, no doctor's office open during weekends (I assumed) and too busy the first few days at work. Until I had enough Thursday last week, googled some French anatomical vocabulary and got myself an appointment for Friday. She couldn't do more for me than to confirm what I already knew; no ear infection, no new wisdom teeth and probably something to do with the joint. I was also generously offered a prescription for some "homeopathy". I was about to yell and swear at her before I realized that I think the French calls all kinds of alternative medicine homeopathy. I said whatever in the polite French way and she gave me a phone number to an osteopath who I will see tomorrow.

I haven't got my prescribed drugs yet and I never probably will. Still my jaw has improved a bit over the weekend. I can now eat bananas without having to use a spoon to get small mouthfulls. I can yawn without too much pain. And I can't even credit Dr. Placebo.

New journal

The inaugural issue of Evolutionary Applications is online. Promises all sorts of excting papers. Check it out folks!

Whisky inventory, Sweden

Since I don't really know what to blog about (too much, don't know where to start; it's about the same re: work), I continue with the single malt theme. Here's what I got in my cupboard in Sweden (I have a few bottles in France as well, will update you on that when I get there in a couple of weeks)

Bowmore 12, 15 & 17 yo
Cragganmore 12 yo
Glengoyne 17 yo
Glenmorangie 15 yo Sauternes Wood Finish
Glenury Royal 23 yo (rare malts selection)
Highland Park 12 yo
Laphroaig vintage 1989 17 yo (cask strength & f...ing awesome!)
Macallan 10 yo, 12 yo (Elegancia) & (10 yo cask strength)

Too bad I spend so little time here.

Lucky me

After two weeks with the Goose chez mes parents it's soon time to get her back to her Dad. She starts school on Wednesday and the Trønder has expressed a wish to have her back for at least two nights before, which is tomorrow. A very wise idea since she's now on a 11 pm to 11 am sleeping schedule and needs to get up at 0630 for school.

It can be difficult though. The original plan was to borrow one of my parents cars (yeah, the two of them have three cars so they can spare one for a week), drive to Sweden, spend a couple of nights in our flat, hand over the Goose, work for a couple of days, drive the car back to my parents (only 750 km; no big deal), see my grand-parents again and then fly off to Central Europe for work.

This plan crashed since the car needed fixing and the garage couldn't do it till next week. Yesterday I booked flights for us for Sunday (tomorrow) sort of knowing the bad weather forecast but hoping it would be fine. Today 9 out of 10 flights have been cancelled at our local airport due to heavy snow & wind. The main problem seems to be landing and if no planes land, there are no planes there to take off (very small airport). We've got about half a meter of snow in 12 hours, but now it's raining so we should be fine.

Good thing the Trønder is a very sensible man with a laid-back attitude towards custody issues. It makes my life much easier than if everything Goose-related should be counted by the hour (or Swedish crowns for that matter). I guess as long as I don't take too much drugs I'll be fine. Thus, my main goal for 2008 is to keep an appearance of sane drugfreeness.

Smoking ban

Looking forward to go back to France. Not that I spend very much time in restaurants, but a smoking ban is always good for us who sensibly don't smoke.

Project 366

I have decided to post a photo a day in 2008. Follow it here

My favourite and why

My first proper encounter with a proper single malt (a guided tour to the Glenfiddich distillery with my family when I was 15 doesn't count) was in 1995. Strenuous field work in Norwegian mountain valley starting early May ending mid-June. The road and the car (or bus passing once a day) about three hours skiing away (shorter trip when lake-ice melted, then we used a boat most of the way). No fresh bread unless we had visitors. Not much space in our backpacks for unnecessary stuff like booze. Out of bed at 0300 in the morning, working till 09 or 10, then some sleep before afternoon work. Water only from the creek outside (awesome taste but pretty cold), no electricity except in a primitive lab (by a noisy diesel-fuelled power unit), eight to ten people sharing a two-bedroom cottage. Outhouse or simply the great outdoors (both alternatives had about the same temperature).

The joy was always enormous when someone pulled out a surprise bottle of something after dinner. Once this someone was a then PhD student, now established in the UK. A person whose company I miss very much, but that's another story. The bottle was a Laphroaig 10 yo. Just the smell of it hit my nose like a fist, reminded me of sheep, rotten seaweed and tar-impregnated wood. More than enough to disguise the smell of a handful of field biologists who hadn't seen a shower for a few weeks. The attack on my taste buds was fierce. The salty iodic peatiness was something I had longed for without knowing it. A kick to the tongue and gums I'd never had before. I remember thinking "Where have you been all my life?" It was love at first encounter and it hasn't faded since.

Blocks of eight - books I recently read

This will be difficult since I haven't read too many books recently. Here are five I can remember...

Culloden by John Prebble. About dark events in British history. I bought it on my first trip to Scotland 20 year ago but have never managed to finish it even though I have tried several times. Failed again but got a bit further than previous times.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. For the nth time

Getting Things Done by David Allen. Not sure if it helped me more than getting my inbox to empty nearly every day.

A Biologist's Guide to Mathematical Modeling in Ecology and Evolution by Sarah P. Otto and Troy Day. Great book even for mathematically challenged people like yours truly. Not really finished it yet.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday. Allready reviewed that one for you.