More grown up
It was my birthday! I got a whole day off from babies and was clueless about what one does with a whole day off. We all went to breakfast, I sat on my couch and sewed for a while, I went to a yoga class at the place (literally) a block away that I've never been to, I played video games, I went on a walk. It was only 4pm, and I didn't know what else to do. I did rescue Trouble from the babies twice in the day as he was about ready to rip his own head off, but not anything like having to be in charge. It was very nice.
Classes continue to go well, though I am really enjoying all guest lecturers a lot. Papers continue to go slow as they are back in co-author limbo. New federal rules about depositing papers into PubMed after publication may factor into where I can send them. I entirely agree with the rules because federally funded projects should be available, but the journals are not going to like it. Sigh. One more thing to think about. I like the idea of open access journals which are free online and totally open, but I really would like to have the impact factor of the more established ones on my CV as I start out. Wah.
Of course, I'm going through some project brainstorming where I just keep making up more complicated projects instead of keeping it simple and completable. I only have myself to blame when I can't get whatever I start done.
The babies continue to be awesome. I'll be back in med school in three months and never see them again and that is rather sad. Meh. But they are also more grown up. Huxley is sleeping without swaddling. He still doesn't like to cuddle and he needs to get really mad before falling asleep. Like getting mad is relaxing. He's all about finger foods, but does not yet have pincer grip. Also, only two teeth.
Turing is talking up a storm and has some conversational habits that just kill me every time. Everything is "probably" - "probably go to the store" "probably drink some milk" "probably watch email." Everything is also "nice and" - "fire truck nice and red" "train nice and big" "banana nice and yellow." And he's started saying thank you, but only with an "oh" in front of it. And he has a little sing song "oh, thank you" every time you hand him a toy. Awesome.
He's also decided the green tanker train car is a pickle truck, just like the Richard Scary books. Which he likes and everytime there is a food-based vehicle he'll add, "that's silly" - "a pickle truck, that's silly." "an apple car, that's silly"
We're moving towards potty training, too. I think everything is around that we need (a potty seat, some stickers, underwear). Mom just needs to decide that we're going to do it. He is at least sitting on the potty seat occasionally. But not like he'll need to if he's going to really figure it out. But it seems like it will happen soon, which is its own sort of progress.
posted by Janel @ 4:05 PM
4 Comments:
Fuck yeah, my first post to Janel's journal! Fuck yeah!
Happy Birthday!
Uh, that is my announcement that I am going to read your blog now. I read other blogs, so why not yours? I am not going to try to catch up on 14 years of posts, however.
I got that email you sent, sorry I have not responded. Maybe I will do that later today. In short: all's well. Mags has a job at Augie. We are staying in Rock Island. We are looking at houses and at cars and thinking about babies. My job future is less clear.
But for now: open access. In the future, everyone will read PLoS. This shit is for real.
The journals deserve this - the privatization of journals and the willing complicity of spineless income-crazed societies to play a part in the skyrocketing costs of journal subscriptions for libraries is the culprit here. They have turned journals into gated communities. IT has changed this world, and for the better. Note the two stages of PLoS review -- blind peer review and open discussion forums. Awesome.
I do not envy your position, though. It is sad how important impact factor and publication record is. The current way of tenure review is not the way it always has been, but now it is as if rather than using publications as one input into a process for evaluating quality, it has become a measure in itself, a quota, the academicians version of standardized testing. Teach to the test. Publish or perish. Same fucking difference.
The NIH policy is not quite gov't wide yet (those bills are still floating around) but I don't think it will be long before Congress acts. Elsevier and Blackwell aren't powerful enough for this fight. I hope that foundations such as RWJF, Pew, Gates, and others follow a similar model of requirement. USDA is going to start enforcing its policy for internal researchers (ARS) -- the National Ag Library is starting AgSpace to post PDFs of all ARS researcher publications. Right on. The public pays for it, the public has a right to read it.
In a new report on the incredibly indelibly boring concept of the food safety information infrastructure, I recommend moving towards open access for publicly funded food safety research. I have to come to believe that this is important. Of course, all it will really do is make me feel like a douche the next time I submit to Risk Analysis.
I do not keep a blog like yours, but my waste of time can be found at wad city. Maybe one day I'll put some original content there. For now, it's just notorious miscellany.
No worries, I got hacked and all sorts of old stuff disapeared. By which I mean, is on my machine waiting for me to clean up and repost . . . right about after I get around to cleaning my basement. So, never.
I agree that the journal prices/process is getting ridiculous. Especially with ever more complex projects which really require more than 5 tables and figures to explain in any real way.
Some places seem to be taking this well - Medical Care will automatically submit manuscripts on behalf of the authors to PubMed. Good for them. Quality of Life Research wants $3000 from the authors to do so. Bullshit.
wow. so basically they are hoping that folks can write this "fee" into their proposals, to basically get NIH to pay for what they're demanding. interesting. i wonder how it will shake out; something tells me that journal positions like this will be unsustainable in the long run. $3000 is like a post-doc for a whole year!
One post-doc or two graduate students!
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