Monday, February 29, 2016

Toojoh

So, its been a while again, but I have a perfectly valid excuse: it has been an incredibly busy, hectic, and emotional couple of weeks. In the last couple of weeks we have had a meet and greet with VOMD's and my parents in North Bay, and house sat for my mother in Magnetawan; on top of that I've written about 20 pages of my thesis and edited like crazy, we've chosen wedding bands, we've visited VOMD's parents to talk about wedding decorations and other wedding related plans, and most importantly we've decided to adopt a dog who needs regular medical care.

Toojoh is a 10 year old dog who is probably, and I do not exaggerate, the sweetest dog every born! He's been dealing with food allergies, a skin condition and lots of other nagging issues for about 2 years, and this past weekend he was diagnosed with renal failure. He is my mother's dog and she loves him very much and has given him all the care she can, but now he has to see a specialist and so VOMD and I are taking him home with us to Hamilton so he can see a specialist at the University of Guelph's veterinary college.

We've set up a Go Fund Me campaign to raise funds for his care. His first vet visit cost $600 and his specialist is going to cost at least that much. With the medicine he will need, his specially formulated diet, and his future regular vet visits, getting him healthy, and keeping him happy and comfortable for the next couple years is going to cost us. It is worth it, obviously, but we are hoping that some generous, dog-loving folks will send some generosity our way to help with his medical fees.

If you would like to help out you can visit his campaign page at https://www.gofundme.com/Toojoh

Happy Monday, everyone!

-J


Monday, February 22, 2016

Update: I'm not sick anymore

For the better part of last few weeks I was battling a very brutal cold, and then playing catch up on everything I missed during said cold, so my decision to be fully back into blogging really didn't play out the way that I'd intended. Some how I still have a dry cough, three weeks after the first sniffle.

On the other hand, thanks to the insomnia that came with my cold I managed to get a lot of thesis writing done! Only about 50 pages to go, folks!

That sounds like an unbearably large number, but I think the goal should be to complete it in the next few weeks. But, I am very lucky to have won an award that pays my tuition for the Spring and Summer Semester, so if I do not defend on time, I do not have to worry about it impacting our wedding plans (thank goodness!).

I've not got anything to say today, except that it is Monday and I am happy. VOMD and I will be headed to play pool this evening with a couple friends, and then I am back to teaching tomorrow (after the February reading break last week, which was a much needed break while I made up for what was pushed aside while I was sick for two weeks).


After my cold, and the snow we got a couple weeks ago, I am now ready for summer. I can't wait to go outside and play!

Happy Monday!

-J



Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Why we should stop telling people we're stupid

There is this thing that many of us young academics do early in our careers. I find it most common among the most committed and passionate students (and I know this because I am one). We like to point out that we are stupid. I think that is comes as a knee-jerk response to the stereotype that says academics are all know-it-all butt-hats. Believe me, I know enough of those as well.

We really need to stop calling ourselves stupid, though. It is one thing to say that we learn every day how little we know. It is entirely another to say that we know nothing. Unless you are some sort of Socratic, there really is no excise to walk around talking about how little you know. For one thing, it comes off as incredibly disingenuous - there is something awful about hearing someone you respect and admire talk about how they don't deserve to be respected and admired. Stop acting Christ-like and admit that your education has equipped you with a certain set of skills that make you a benefit to society.

We're not stupid because we may not be adept at science or mathematics (or if we are scientists, we are not stupid if we can't write an essay without twenty editors).

I guess I should get to the point of this rant. There is a "meme" going around the internet with a simple math problem that anyone who took elementary mathematics should know how to complete. Granted, there are certainly valid reasons to not be able to process numbers, but I find it shocking that one source says that 87% of respondents get the answer wrong. The question is: 3+3*3-3+3

I have always told myself and many others that I just plain suck at math. I say it casually. Someone tells me their phone number and I say "I've got to write that down, numbers just go in one ear and out the other". Someone asks me how much their paycheck is after tax and I say the answer but then finish by adding "but don't quote me on it; I'm shit at math".

But it took me two seconds to answer this question. 12 I thought. But then almost everyone on the Facebook page I was visiting said either 6 or 18 and I started to doubt myself. I said it in my head. B-E-DM-AS...that made the answer 12. Didn't it? Right? But I suck at math. So I am probably wrong.

I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that we really should stop doubting ourselves. We should stop putting ourselves down. Being a good academic means taking ownership of your natural and practiced abilities so that you can put them to work to make the world a better place, or our lives and the lives of others a little easier. The fact that I am better at writing essays than I am at doing complex mathematical equations does not mean that I am stupid. And in fact, if you can't do math or write essays, there are certainly other things that you are good at that far make up for your shortcomings in these areas. I've personally never been very good at hitting a ball with a bat, but I can carry a tune, and while I can't paint a still-life to save my life, give me a portrait and I'm all over it.

So, stop saying you're stupid. I'll stop saying I'm stupid. This probably isn't going to change the world, but you'll probably feel a lot better about yourself.

Happy Tuesday!

J


Monday, February 1, 2016

Getting Engaged and writing a Thesis

Around Christmas I made the decision to restart my thesis. I was not motivated to keep working on the project. I had gradually strayed from my original intent of doing a work of theory toward something more policy driven. It made me miserable to sit down at my desk to write.

My project is now well under way and is much more oriented toward what I see as a more important and interesting way of approaching the problem of the gender binary. The only problem is, I have to finish by the end of April, and that leaves me with three more months to write a solid 120 pages. I know it is completely doable, but boy did I back myself into a corner.


On December 30th, after VOMD and I had returned home from our Christmas holiday with our families we decided to have our own little Christmas together here. We had no tree, but we hung baubles and bead garlands over doors and hung our wreath and Christmas lights on the banister leading up the stairs to our apartment and around our windows. And we gave one another stockings. As I got to the bottom of mine and pulled out the last wrapped little package, VOMD sat down on his knees in front of where I sat on the couch, and as I opened the box he held out a ring and asked me to marry him.

We've decided to get married in August at my father's house in my home town.

And now I am struggling to focus on those 120 pages.

When I first decided to go to graduate school one of my favourite professors told me that I should wait until I finished my PhD to settle down and start a family. He wasn't trying to discourage me from living  a happy life with someone I love. He was warning me that in academics a woman will struggle more than a man when it comes to balancing home life and education. It is not because we are less capable. It is because people expect certain things of women culturally. I have not told any colleagues or even my adviser about my engagement. I have refrained from doing so because I have heard so many first hand accounts from friends and colleagues who shared this type of information and faced discrimination. If you are slow to get an assignment done, or you neglect certain aspects of university life they claim it is because you are too distracted by your wedding/marriage/pregnancy/kids etc. Men do not face this sort of discrimination in the academy. When my adviser had his child earlier this year he came to work the next day. Nobody hassled him about having a child in his first year of full time teaching at a new university. When some of my female colleagues have had children they are bombarded by questions about who was taking care of their child when they had seminars or had to teach. They were asked whether they planned to take time off. They were asked if they PUMPED!

I know I am not expecting, but I am planning a wedding, and I fear that if I share that with my colleagues I will be less respected. I am heartbroken that I can't share this exciting, beautiful thing with my work mates. The moment VOMD asked me to marry him was one of the happiest of my life.

But I am a woman. And I am an academic. And unfortunately those things sometimes have to be kept separate.

Happy Monday folks!

-J