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Thursday, July 9th, 2009
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10:25 pm
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Update - Redzils 2009 Resolutions:
- Get a Ph.D. (mind) - check. I did this over the spring semester and have the diploma to prove it.
- Run a half-marathon (body) - check. I did this June 20th, and will do it again August 16th. And then, I will (probably, God willing and the creek don't rise) run a whole marathon in September.
- Savor the joy (soul) - some days, yes. This one is a work in progress. Hanging out with one of the world's nicest dogs and my small, sticky cousins makes it easier, as do sea kayaking and running at the edge of Cook Inlet.
- Donate at least $10 a month to an organization that does good (world) - also progressing. So far I have made (tiny) donations to Doctor's Without Borders, National Public Radio & American Public Media, the local (to school) YMCA, the local (to my post-graduation job) homeless shelter, the March of Dimes, and The Gorilla Foundation. It feels good to give, since I am lucky enough that I can.
I have also given up soda, again. It wasn't one of this year's New Year's Resolutions, but it has been a recurring one, so seems appropriate to note it here.
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(comment on this)
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| Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009
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8:34 am
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I'm back in Alaska.
If you are here, I should warn you that June is full. I'd love to see you, in July. Do be in touch.
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(comment on this)
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| Thursday, April 16th, 2009
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6:16 am
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Two years ago today, 33 people in my university community died. I like to pretend anniversaries for things like this don't count, but it is probably not a coincidence that last night, going to bed, I cried so hard I couldn't lie down and breathe at the same time. I finally got to sleep, sometime after two, and have been awake again since 5:35.
I wrote a lot about that week as it unfolded, and spent an hour this morning reading through my journal. I see the shock and horror and overwhelming sadness of our community that day, and how those emotions linger. It is also clear that a lot has changed for me in two years, and I am sad to know that 33 lives stopped unfolding that day. Reema and Rachel and the others killed April 16, 2007 are very much missed.
At the time, I hoped that, "we [could] be strong and generous with each other, as we grapple with this reality." And I hope that still.
We Remember.
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Thursday, April 9th, 2009
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7:36 am
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This will be the third year that I am keeping a list of books I have read. I only list books I read in their entirety, so my frequent dips back into my "comfort books" don't appear on this list, and none of my work stuff makes it in. For the last two years, I have read about 50,000 pages per year. I am not likely to hit that this year, what with the defending-a-dissertation, training-for-a-half-marathon, job-search, starting-a-new-job stuff eating my time, but - as of this morning - I have finished my first 10,000 pages.
To see what I have been reading, go here.
I love books.
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(comment on this)
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| Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
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4:47 pm
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Laurie R. King, who many of you know is a favorite of mine, is out on a "Blog Book Tour." To read the latest event, and maybe win one of ten new copies of The Language of Bees, visit her at: http://bittenbybooks.com/?p=5870
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(comment on this)
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| Saturday, April 4th, 2009
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5:56 pm
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| Friday, March 13th, 2009
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2:56 pm
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Quarterly-ish Update on Redzils 2009 Resolutions:
- Get a Ph.D. - hey, I did this! I defended my dissertation January 26th, which was awesome, completed my minor revisions and submitted the document for archiving on February 8th, and received notice yesterday (March 12th) that it was accepted and I have met all the requirements for graduation.
- Run a half-marathon - still working on this. I had some trouble finding shoes that worked, which slowed me down, but I am back on schedule now. I ran 2.5 miles this morning, and expect to be ready for a half marathon the weekend of summer solstice.
- Savor the joy - some days I remember this. Some days I dont, but I continue to make the effort.
- Donate at least $10 a month to an organization that does good (world). In January I donated to American Public Media and NPR in support of podcasts I love. In February I donated to March of Dimes, in honor of a friend's lost child and her walk to commemorate him. I just sent March's payment to Doctors Without Borders (Medecines sans Frontiers), and it feels good to share my (limited) resources with the world.
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Saturday, February 21st, 2009
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9:55 pm
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BBC Book List Apparently the BBC reckons most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here.
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(5 comments | comment on this)
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| Sunday, February 8th, 2009
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10:23 pm
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You all know I am a big geek, right? Well, now I am a big geek with a World of Warcraft pet addiction. So far I have 22, and I am desperately jealous of another friend who has two more than me... My collection is visible here, if you want to see their animatronic cuteness.
(I play mostly gnomes with funny colored hair in pigtails. Most of my characters are on Silver Hand, with a couple each on Sentinels and Sisters of Elune).
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Thursday, February 5th, 2009
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4:20 pm
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Oh yeah, I think I forgot to tell you, innernet: I passed my dissertation defense last Monday, and am now Dr. Red Zils, Ph.D. (The only person who calls me Dr. Anything is my mother, and she likes "Dr. Red" instead of "Dr. Zils").
Well, I didn't actually forget to tell you, but it felt so big that I didn't know how to box it into words that day. Then a day passed, and another, and I have been busy doing the Snoopy dance (accompanied by the mantra 'I did it! I did it! I did it!'), touring OurNation'sCapitol with my mother, eating great food with people I love, working on the minor revisions my committee asked for, jumping through paperwork hoops, interviewing for jobs via telephone, planning an on campus interview for a job in OrangeGrowingState, trying not to freeze to death in the garret, and generally living my same life.
Having a Ph.D. doesn't make me smarter, or faster, or richer (ha!). It doesn't make me a better person, or a more interesting one. And I am gleeful about it anyway - I wanted this so badly; I worked really hard to make it happen; and I accomplished my goal. That right there makes me happy and proud. I am glad I did it, even if this economy means I go home to work in the family business, instead of ever using my degree.
I'll be in Footballsburg one week out of every month from now until May, and probably wherever TDaC is the rest of the time (OurNation'sCapitol at the moment, OrangeGrowingState, probably, after that). I'm telecommuting for the job that pays me, working on three or four manuscripts with my advisor, and taking advantage of the flexibility to do so from places that make me happy. Please let me know if you are here or there or anywhere we might meet - I'd love to see you.
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(5 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, January 22nd, 2009
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9:00 pm
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Honestly, if you do not put ONE TABLE with means, standard deviations, and intercorrelations in ANY quantitative paper you deign to publish, I think the American Psychological Association ought to a) withdraw your membership OR b) (preferred) assign a hitman. Aargh.
This part - comparing my data to other people's, collected using the same instruments - should be easy. Instead its making me want to thump people (authors, reviewers, and JOURNAL EDITORS) with an umbrella. A hard, black, pointy umbrella.
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(comment on this)
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6:41 pm
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I think I have solved the outstanding nagging question for my dissertation defense prep: one of the people on my committee looked at my results section before Christmas, and wanted to know if changing my mediation-religion, essentially (Baron and Kenney, 1984 to McKinnon and colleagues, 2002) would have had me doing different analyses. The answer is, well, maybe: my high holy mathemeticians spell out the conditions under which it is appropriate to test mediation (which were not met, so I found another analysis), while hers' does not. There is no defensible version where I say, "oh your guy totally supports my assumptions" - he Just Never Says, Either Way.
So, I've been wondering for the last, oh, six weeks, on and off how I could prepare to get through that gracefully, and without doing Structural Equation Modeling (which is very time consuming and wouldn't have given me much). Tonight I looked at her guy's website again and realized there was just no way out. But, instead of giving in and spending the next four days doing SEM, I tackled the three paths we are quarreling about one at a time, via Sobel test. None of them were signficant, so my decision to not test the complete model was supported, regardless of the assumptions you are prepared to make.
Essentially: I win.
I still need to figure out distribution data for the measures I used when administered in other samples and compare it to what I found inmy sample, but this is not hard, just annoying. And then I will be as prepared as I can be, until I meet with my advisor tomorrow morning. I expect her to ask for a few changes and new thoughts, but am still really, really hoping to pretty much wrap my prep up by close of business tomorrow, so I can spend my weekend merely reviewing the paper and my notes, not frantically flailing.
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Wednesday, January 21st, 2009
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8:17 pm
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There has been another death on the Virginia Tech Campus. This time they are calling it murder, and it seems to be only one. I am fine.
I spent about two hours in that selfsame building today, but was walking downtown in the dark with a friend when the police cars screamed by.
I can't believe this is happening again...
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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9:58 am
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| Saturday, January 10th, 2009
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11:03 am
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Dear Braintrust -
Can you set either IE or Firefox to open with multiple tabs, each defaulting to a different "home" page? If so, how would I do that?
Love,
me
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(8 comments | comment on this)
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| Friday, January 9th, 2009
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1:48 pm - Vegan Peanut Butter Balls
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Peanut Butter Balls (Vegan Style)
v. 1 -
1 c. oatmeal (chopped in blender or food processor)
1 c. unsweetened coconut (finely chopped)
1/3 c. agave nectar
3/4 c. peanut butter
Combine, mix smooth. Roll into balls. Leave them bare, or roll them in flax seed / melted chocolate / coconut / the material of your choice.
If you managed to break your blender and cannot chop the oatmeal, try:
v. 2 -
1 c. unsweetened coconut (finely chopped)
3/4 c. wheat flour
1/3 c. agave nectar
3/4 c. peanut butter
Combine, mix smooth. Roll into balls. Leave them bare, or roll them in flax seed / melted chocolate / coconut / the material of your choice.
Both these versions are derivations of this.
I cannot remember if I have told you this, darling internet, but my parents are going 'seagen' - as in vegan + seafood. It's a health choice, inspired by the sudden wave of cancer diagnoses among the people they (we) love. The reading they have been doing has them ready to stop participating in the commercial meat and milk industry, to weed the chemicals that go into the animals out of their diet, and we are all making some changes. I don't know how much of this I will take with me, but it has been remarkably painless so far. I like eating low on the food chain, and knowing my food's story.
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(comment on this)
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| Thursday, January 1st, 2009
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1:25 pm
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Redzils 2009 Resolutions:
- Get a Ph.D. (mind)
- Run a half-marathon (body)
- Savor the joy (soul).
- Donate at least $10 a month to an organization that does good (world)
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(comment on this)
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| Wednesday, December 31st, 2008
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11:59 am
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In 2007, I read 136 books for 46,295 pages. The 2007 list is HERE.
As of July 24, at 7:30 am, I have read 90 books for a total of 29,572 pages. The 2008 list is HERE.
UPDATE: As of September 9th, I am at 125 books and 40,861 pages. I expect I will surpass the 2007 totals by the year's end. The current list is HERE.
UPDATED UPDATE: As of December 30, I am at 149 books for 47,941 pages. The complete list is HERE.
(thanks to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) joyce for helping me figure out how to post this)
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Saturday, December 27th, 2008
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10:09 am
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I sent the completed dissertation document to my committee last night. The defense is a month from yesterday (January 26th), and if all goes well, I will be Dr. Redzils, Ph.D. then.
The best thing about getting it sent is that now I am free, free, free to go shopping with my mom and sister today, focus on my upcoming job interview, and just enjoy having my brain back.
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(5 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, December 9th, 2008
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8:53 am
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I think I might run a half marathon in June. I am certainly not ready for it, but I thing I could be in six months.
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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