The adjunct investment - you get out what you put in

  I'm adjuncting again this semester. It's at the same institution where I adjuncted in 2012, for the same course, with no big changes in the labs. I'm only teaching one day a week and I know I'm not putting nearly as much time and effort into teaching as I did last time around. Part of that is a change in my attitude.

Design your own postdoc

  As anticipated, it's been a busy summer. Good, in many ways - the intern I work with is great, and I have no trouble trusting them with lots of lab work and readings. My trips so far for research have been lovely, with visits with friends and swims in beautiful lakes interspersed between work. The next couple weeks, though, look to be even more hectic, as the last-minute scramble for data before a conference catches me despite my best-laid plans, and as grant deadlines start looming.

The busy summer season

  Ah, summer. The time of year when we all relax and rejoice at end of the academic year. Riiiight. More like, the time of year when everyone scrambles to get data ready for conferences, organize and execute field work, work with summer interns, and try to get papers in before the fall hiring cycle starts.

Advisee to colleague

Each time I think I'm done applying to positions for the year and ready to plan for fall, another position opens up. So I've started hearing back from my second round of applications, including a rejection from a position at my old Ph.D. department. Of course I was disappointed, but then I thought about the issues I've had with my advisor and a few other members of the department.

It's all relative

  I just finished reading “Bossypants” by Tina Fey. I do realize I'm coming a bit late to it! I enjoyed it, laughed aloud more than a few times, and wished I had an audio version of the author reading it. But I was a bit…unsatisfied.