Wolfmother - Woman

Oh those funny feminists

I sometimes have difficulty explaining my reaction to what I perceive as stupidly sexist things to my husband, but we did agree that the move in the United States to basically ban access by employees (or even employee dependents) to birth control pills by certain religious schools, universities and hospitals is ridiculous. According to these institutions, doing so would go against their religious freedoms.

In the comments of some of the articles, there are stories about students who attend religiously-affiliated universities having to drive to the next town over to purchase full-priced birth control pills, and a female dependent unable to secure birth control because she is still covered by her father's insurance plan and he works as a principal at a private school with church ties. I think this is profoundly messed up in a country that claims to separate church and state.

This is the first video to mock the Congressional Republicans "experts":

and another one from Funny or Die:

Women's Health Experts Speak Out from Judd Nelson

Snow day

We're chipping away at the rooms that are left for plaster board, admittedly I had a less-than-productive weekend on account of a few parties. Ah well. I woke up with a scratchy throat this morning, potentially a cold coming on. Rose Cousins will help me feel better (her album dropped today - I put my Christmas gift certificate to good use). I've been trying to eat well lately too:

Organic mesclun greens with local goat cheese/bacon/beets and imported walnuts candied with local maple syrup. Green smoothie, kitchen drawings and The Scientist during my lunch break.

We visited a kitchen cabinet place on the weekend, who offered to draw up some plans for our space. I'm curious to see whether they look anything like what we have already done up in our heads. I'm sending the drawings of the space to her this afternoon, hopefully the turnaround is short.

A window I pass by at work on occasion. You wouldn't guess there's a foot of new snow on campus by the bright blue skies.

Weekend Warriors (my hands are blistered and sore)

With generous help from friends and family, we managed to put up 2/3 of the 12 foot boards of sheetrock this weekend - finishing the entry, front parlour, back parlour and most of the current kitchen. These are some of the photos of the work (for my brother-in-law, who is apparently sick of the number of fashion posts), there are LOTS of them.

Prior to the boards going up, I ran around like a squirrel taking pictures of exposed wiring. I figured with the spray foam insulation, any wiring done after the walls are closed will be much harder so we should have an idea of where things are running:

The front entry & stairwell, with newly framed closets for coat and cleaning supplies storage:

Curvy alcove under the stairs will eventually highlight art, and provide additional drawer storage:

A peak into the front parlour, currently housing our dining table/tool repository. Eventually destined for library status:

A peak into the back parlour from the front parlour, with the functioning washing machine (very timely repair, given all the plaster dust stuck to our clothing lately):

A little mood lighting:

And finally the new kitchen extension, with the beautiful exposed beams. If I can figure out a way to keep them like this, I will because I LOVE THEM. It might involve custom cabinetry, but if hubby is willing then so am I:

Decorated with antique butter churning bowl from in-laws:

Hidden treasure:

Finally the undone parts: alcove, pantry, closets and the back extension room that still needs extensive structural work (floors are sagging since they are under-framed):

(very excited)

Sucker for Punishment Playlist

AKA The "I'm-still-heating-samples-at-6:30-Friday-Night" playlist:



AKA The American/Canadian-female-artists-punctuated-by-the-occasional-dude-with-an-accent playlist.

It's actually happening

After a year+ of exposed spray foam insulation walls, this weekend we are actually going to put up drywall in preparation for plaster finish. Progress we can SEE. I'm so excited to be over the expensive stage of ventilation/plumbing/electrical.





Onto finishes, floors, cabinets and beyond!And today my washing machine got fixed!

hardly at all

Rose Cousins. If I'm lucky, I'll get to see her in concert for the tenth time in April.

art substitute

The art gallery on campus has a fundraiser every year on Feb.14th, where donated pieces of art are auctioned off while everyone dresses in their pink/red/purple best. Families are welcome to attend, there is a cash bar, and lovely MCs. There is also a cake walk, which is basically musical chairs but using numbered hearts around the perimeter of the room. You buy into the conga line, which snakes around the room while music plays. When it stops, a number is pulled from a basket and if you are standing on the number - you win! Meander over to a giant table full of cakes, and claim your prize.

I can't do art, but I can bake. My mother gave me the BEST chocolate cake recipe a few weeks ago (she made it for my birthday - yum!) and I used it to create this steampunk monstrosity:

It took forever because I didn't know what I was doing. Everything save for the hot ballon mesh and the various structural toothpicks is edible. It might even taste good (although miles from being healthy) since I used a marshmallow fondant recipe.

Bringing geekiness to the artists since 1984.

All these years...

...I coveted the smooth locks of others, wondering in amazement how they could tame their hair. Not even with a flat iron could I achieve the same results, so I just stopped trying and embraced my wild mane.

But lo! I know now the secret to smooth shiny hair now: a new hair dryer (I bought the Revlon RV544 mentioned here in Consumer Report review website) to replace the tiny, inefficient travel dryer I was using before. And then this amazing stuff Pequi Oil which I picked up in San Francisco last month. I had used a bunch of other similar products from other brands (Fructis, Dove, Organix) but none were as light on my fine hair.

Now I know this guy's trick.

Since we bought a new-to-use Ford Focus wagon (OMG no more piles of dog hair in the backseat, thank Chewbacca), I'm left with just a broken washing machine. Since doing laundry on campus is humiliating but possible, I decided to tackle that one last (karate chops the air).

Clearly all this sexy ride needs is some undercarriage neon lights.

season to taste

(Swearing & Orwellian themes, may not be everyone's cuppa tea)

Aikido on the East Coast

Way before the new year, I was at a concert in town when I got chatting with an acquaintance I knew through the crossfit gym. He was asking if I still went (no) and why not (big long explanation about being strong but clumsy). He was the one who suggested I look into Aikido martial arts classes, a martial art he suggested would be the best suited to addressing my desire for increased co-ordination and efficiency in movement.

I googled local Aikido instructors, and tried to convince one of them to come to my tiny village. I tried to round up some interested friends, but it was clear I was the most enthusiastic. Then over Xmas break I was chatting with a friend who mentioned that there were a few people from the university who were studying with a fantastic teacher in a community about 1 hour 20 minutes away. He said a van goes twice a week, and if you can swing the drive, that the instruction was VERY worth it. And lo, the dojo was offering a women's self-defense course three weeks into January I could attend as a introductory course.

So I rounded up some ladies - my boss' eldest daughter and a friend from my hometown. As a trio we hit the snowy roads to learn about self-dense with about 9 other women. The three hour course was divided into three sections - first hour was discussing the strength in intent, projection of self-confidence what it means to be aware & present. The second hour we practiced the one handed take down (with variations), the same skill used by law enforcement when someone approaches with arms outstretched. Then the third hour we did deflection moves with variations, which help smaller sized women throw off front-forward attackers without losing balance. There was the senior instructor and three helpers/attackers - all younger men of various builds and intensities. Reminiscent of goldilocks - you could chose your helper to get increasingly difficult-to-handle men (S, M, L). It was a worthwhile 3 hours, and I was surprisingly sore the next day. Despite this particular spot being so far away, I still find myself thinking about it often.

Airbnb inspiration

An apartment in Austin Texas with a full size mammoth skeleton. I might steal this idea.

Classy Stripper Music

AKA Perfect Friday Morning Music...?



FFFFFFFyeah!

Press Released

Our lab did something that warranted a press release from the university media relations team. This meant that the relatively grueling six hour training period for a new fancy piece of equipment got interrupted halfway through so that newspaper reporters could take our pictures and do some interviews. The tech guy from the States was clearly 50% amused and 50% weirded out by the media intrusion - I slyly asked him whether he had ever been interviewed while on the job and when he stated emphatically NO! I had to reply back "Welcome to rural Canada. You'll be in the local newspaper tomorrow." Since it didn't snow much while he was here, he got one amusing anecdote to carry back to his home state.

I forgot to tell me mom I was going to be in her daily newspaper, so I got a call later about it :) She even cut out the article so I could read it - the reporter did a decent job communicating our science. Hopefully the other papers did an equally good job (the reporters for the smaller paper was very young looking).

Then last week I did a TV interview too. They wanted my boss to speak of course - he's typically scientific looking (big words/bald head/boy bits) but unfortunately was he was held up teaching a bioinformatics lab for most of the morning. He deigned a ten minute visit at the very end to contribute his sound bites, but the rest he left to me and another (camera shy) worker. So I dutifully answered the dozen or so questions as clearly as I could, and looked on mortified the next day at the online clip as I realized I was guilty of the Valley girl lilt in my voice.

"...what linguists call a high rising terminal. That means ending your sentences with a rising intonation. It's as if you're asking a question with every statement you make."
(read more about it here)

I thought I had trained myself out of this behaviour but NO DICE. I had three sound bites during the piece, and the two first definitely suffered from the rising intonation problem. Luckily, the last statement sounded appropriately serious and definitive. I bitched about it to my boss the next morning when he congratulated me on my "successful science communication":

Me: "Goddamn, I did that thing that I've been telling undergrads for YEARS to stop doing: I spoke with a lilt in my voice that makes it seem like I am unsure of my statement"

Him: "I think we've lost that battle. Generationally speaking, most young women do speak like that now"

Me: "I knowwww....but I thought I was better than that" (stomps foot in frustration)

So NOTE TO SELF: When speaking to media outlets who are likely going to carve your cohesive sounding explanations into little lilting snippets, be sure to always.speak.with.a.downward.terminal.

The Rational Mind

I've been a wee bit obsessed with personality tests lately. In particular I did a shorter version of the Myers-Briggs test available here ("yes vs. no" style) and here (five point scale-style). I am an INTJ: borderline introvert, super intuitive, moderately "thinking" over "feeling" and borderline judging over perceiving. The MBTI tests results are ugly four letter acronyms, but each of the 16 combinations has an associated word that makes it easy to remember (examples: "crafter", "promoter" or "teacher"). I am a "mastermind", whose personality is characterized by efficient strategizing, not much respect for convention, and definitiveness (aka arrogance depending on who you ask). We make great scientists.

Yes, this is a typical Sunday night: Agricola board game and LOTR on the macbook pro.

I just thought it was so spot on I made everybody around me over the next few days fill out the questionnaires too. I came out with the same INTJ personality no matter what test I did (similar experience to an Architect friend as well) but my husband got various answers depending on the test. He is too borderline on a few of the options that the type of test, how the question is asked and how long he takes to answer the question all effect the ultimate outcome. For me though, the test was re-iterating some truths about my own personality I've only solidified in my own brain during the last year.

At the music concert a few weeks ago, every one was looking at the performer and I was mesmerized by the sound board. How does it work?!?!

Part of the enlightening process has come from continually interacting with a large group of girlfriends. One of the brilliant things about sharing stories over wine is that you become aware of how people react to situations in ways that would never occur to you. The types of situations we usually end up discussing are relationship related (romantic or otherwise). How do you deal with a friend going through a rough patch? A partner who won't listen? Online creeper? There are the other things too, the practical matters of living: How do you deal with finances? Career advancement? Replacing a car?

It is during these conversations that I have started to peg myself with certain characteristics. Distinctly, I am the least sentimental of the group of friends, and have a self-deprecating inside joke about my robot heart. I have no interest in contributing to (what appears to me to be) self-soothing platitudes that some of the more socially astute ladies insist on doling out whenever someone is in emotional distress ("Oh, I'm sure she just forgot she said she would be here" being a recent example...meanwhile I think "I talked to her earlier today, she definitely didn't forget"...but I keep my mouth shut). My disdain for convention manifests itself in my (usually ridiculous) outfits and hairstyles, among other things. Lastly, from the typelogic.com website:

Perhaps the most fundamental problem, however, is that INTJs really want people to make sense. This sometimes results in a peculiar naivete', paralleling that of many Feelers -- only instead of expecting inexhaustible affection and empathy from a romantic relationship, the INTJ will expect inexhaustible reasonability and directness.

This is me!! I want everything (and everyone) to work like a computer program! May logic always prevail!

I like getting older, and learning more about myself. My birthday just passed, and I've never felt like I wanted to return to age 23. The other side of the coin is feeling better in my own skin too, a super perk to getting older.

So far, twenty eight is really nice.