Some big exciting news!

UPDATE: Apparently the RSS feed at the new blog is not working yet. Hopefully it will be fixed soon (I have no control over it, sadly.) I'll put another announcement up over here when it's fixed, and in the meantime, I'll post links here to my new posts. Sorry about the confusion! It's fixed now! Head on over and join the party!

I have some exciting news.

As of today, I will be blogging over at ScienceBlogs! I am so excited and thrilled to be joining the ScienceBlogs community, with such luminaries as Zuska and ScienceWoman and Alice and the rest.

The new blog URL is http://scienceblogs.com/seejanecompute

I'll still be writing about the same things I did in this space, so I hope you'll come join me in my new digs. I've enjoyed getting to know all of you in this space and look forward to continuing our conversations in the new space as well!

End of the year meme

I've been tagged by ecogeofemme! And just in time, since I was looking for a way to procrastinate...

1. Will you be looking for a new job?
To be honest, it all depends on how things go this coming semester/term. I think I will have a clearer picture by the end of the school year as to whether or not I have a good shot of getting tenure at my current institution (and/or whether I want to stick around long enough for that). So the next few months will be interesting, to say the least.

2. Will you be looking for a new relationship?
I'd like to meet some new moms near me. I feel like I'm the only mom on the planet who's not a part of a moms' group.

3. New house?
Thankfully, no.

4. What will you do differently in 08?
Try not to sweat the small stuff.

5. New Years resolution?
I like the idea of the New Years Theme (a la profgrrrrl---can't seem to find the exact post, unfortunately) rather than resolutions. I am still deciding on a theme, but I'm pretty sure my theme this year is going to be Fearless. More on that later.

6. What will you not be doing in 08?
Sleeping, apparently, given how hectic my life is becoming lately with going back to work full-time.

7. Any trips planned?
Yes. I'll be taking my first trip without Baby Jane (yikes!), coming up soon. We're also tentatively planning a camping trip for the summer with Baby Jane, an anniversary trip to celebrate our upcoming anniversary, and a few trips to visit various friends and relatives.

8. Wedding plans?
Not for me. :)


9. Major thing on your calendar?
Well, there's the start of the semester/term, which puts me back in the classroom after a year away. And our anniversary. And the official start of my tenure review in the fall (eek!).

10. What can’t you wait for?
I can't wait to see how Baby Jane grows and changes this year. It seems like every day brings something new with her, and it's really a treat to be a part of that.


11. What would you like to see happen differently?
My tenure review (in comparison to my third year review).

12. What about yourself will you be changing?
I'd like to be more true to myself, less worried about what other people think of me, and less concerned about fitting into some arbitrary mold. I'd like to be a bit more uninhibited in the classroom, and trust my instincts more when it comes to both teaching and research. I want to stop standing in my own way when it comes to pursuing my goals, like applying for funding or submitting journal articles or finding new ways to mentor our women students. Should be easy, right? ;)

13. What happened in 07 that you didn’t think would ever happen?
I had a baby.

14. Will you be nicer to the people you care about?
Yes. When I'm stressed out, I can be a real pain in the a$$. I'd like to stop being that way.

15. Will you dress differently this year than you did in 07?
Yes. For one thing, I won't be wearing maternity clothes. Since I'm now more or less back to my old size, but with a changed body, I'm reevaluating my look and recommitting myself to only wear things that make me look and feel fabulous. Which reminds me, I think I need to go shopping for some new work-appropriate clothes (that I can also pump in)....

16. Will you start or quit drinking?
I will continue to enjoy the occasional adult beverage, as long as it's not too near nursing time.

17. Will you better your relationship with your family?
See #14.

18. Will you do charity work?
Yes. I have a cool project that I'll potentially be working on, that I'm so very excited about.

19. Will you go to bars?
Maybe. Mr. Jane and I are trying to institute a regular Date Night, so perhaps bars will play some role in that.

20. Will you be nice to people you don’t know?
I usually am, unless they give me a reason not to be.

21. Do you expect 08 to be a good year for you?
Yes! I am optimistic and excited about the upcoming year.

22. How much did you change from this time last year till now?
Oh man, 1000%. It sounds trite, but it's true: having a kid really does change everything.

23. Do you plan on having a child?
I hope to have another one, yes, but not next year.

24. Will you still be friends with the same people you are friends with now?
I hope so.

25. Major lifestyle changes?
Juggling the whole working mother thing is, and will continue to be, a work in progress.

26. Will you be moving?
Hopefully not!

27. What will you make sure doesn’t happen in 08 that happened in 07?
I'm stealing this one from ecogeofemme: failure to submit any of the journal articles I'm working on. Bad, bad Jane!

28. What are your New Years Eve plans?
Mr. Jane and I were kind of lazy about finding a babysitter, so we'll be hanging out with friends early in the day, then hanging out at home at night. And I'll probably work in the morning, too, since I'm going to have to hit the ground running right after the holidays.


29. Will you have someone to kiss at midnight?
Mr. Jane, assuming I can stay up that late!


30. One wish for 08?
A woman in the White House!

And now my least favorite part: tagging people. I'll tag Chaser, Katie (it's ok if you don't get to it right away!), Addy N (once you return from your holiday traveling), Rebecca, and Skookumchick. And anyone else who wants to!

Year-in-review meme

As seen over at Adventures in Ethics and Science.

The rule: post the first sentence of the first post for each month. (Note: I'm cheating a little bit, here, because halfway through doing this post, I realized that the majority of my first-of-the-month posts were those announcing that the new Scientiae carnival had been posted. So instead, when that's the case, I'm including the first sentence of the first non-Scientiae post.)

January: I don't remember where I first saw this, but I last saw it at Dr. Crazy's. [New Year's meme]

February: Greetings from Top Secret Location!

March: As a way of getting past the journal article block I mentioned a few posts ago, I'm revisiting some of the papers that I've cited in most of my own papers, sort of as a way of reminding myself what differentiates my current work from others' work in the same space.

April: It's Monday.

May: In my last post in this series, I set out a series of three questions that I've identified as central to deciding whether I should stick things out until tenure or go look for greener pastures.

June: Back in the day, when parenthood was still an abstract concept, I looked forward to the arrival of Hypothetical Future Child as a time where I could take a nice little hiatus from my professional life.

July: So the first big post-baby conference trip/trip with Baby Jane went very well.

August: Subtitle: If you've seen my brain, could you please return it to me?

September: I spent a blissful long weekend sans computer access, hanging with family and friends. [This was actually the third sentence; the first two had to do with the latest Scientiae carnival.]

October: I am at an exciting phase in my work right now. [See note for September.]

November: Sometimes I really need someone to give me a good swift kick in the seat of my pants. [This post was about the importance of mentoring.]

December: OK, so, today was the big day: my first day back at work, and Baby Jane's first day at daycare. [See note for September.]

Strangely, I think this sampling of posts is actually quite representative of what's been on my mind this year. Since I was out of the classroom for the entire year (first on sabbatical, then on maternity leave), I was much more focused on research, and much more introspective about my research work. (The latter is a luxury I often can't afford while I'm teaching!) And of course, having Baby Jane made me much more keenly aware of work-life balance issues, and I think I probably blogged about those more than any other topic in the second half of the year.

It was definitely a full and exciting year, that's for sure.

Scientiae Carnival #3 is up!

Head on over to Lab Cat's for the goods. As always, lots of thought-provoking and interesting posts to fuel your Monday procrastination!

The next Scientiae will be....here! On April 15. Get your taxes done early (those of you in the US) so that you can get those thoughtful posts on women and science written and submitted on or before April 13.

Here are the instructions for submitting entries to the carnival. (Note that you need to tag your post AND email the link, too!) And, if you need a reminder as to what this is all about or if you've never submitted before, here is a quick synopsis of what the carnival is all about.

Beyond incomprehensible

I saw a link to this over at Geeky Mom's blog, and even though it is quite horrible, I feel like it *should* be publicized, precisely because it is so horrible.

Kathy Sierra, who blogs at Creating Passionate Users (which I occasionally read), has written some kick-ass books, and is a usability goddess, recently cancelled her appearance and workshop at the ETech conference. Why? Because of death threats she received, on her blog and on various other blogs.

That's right. Death threats.

She blogs about the incidents in this post. (Warning: content not suitable for children or the faint of heart.) Disturbing doesn't even begin to describe the whole thing.

I have a ton of respect for Kathy Sierra. It breaks my heart that she, or any other woman in tech (high-profile or otherwise), should ever have to go through this. This whole incident shows *exactly* how f***ed up our whole tech culture is. And why we need to start being serious about changing it. Right. Now. Because this is totally, TOTALLY, wrong and unacceptable.

Kathy, I hope you come out of this OK, and I hope that you continue to blog and continue to be the fabulous techie that you are.

The first Scientiae Carnival is up!

Go check it out over at Rants of a Feminist Engineer. Lots of great reading for a winter's day. (skookumchick, you rock!)

And don't forget: the next one's just around the corner, so make sure you get your posts in to the next host, PropterDoc, by March 12.

Shameless self-promotion

John over at Confessions of a Science Librarian has posted an interview with...me! It's the inaugural post in a series of interviews with "scitech bloggers (including librarians) and people in the publishing industry".

If you haven't been reading John's blog, I highly encourage you to check it out! He has lots of very interesting stuff to say about science, scientific publishing, and the present and future of information.