It was even mid-day... and there was sun!
Location: Santa Barbara, California, USA
Date: September 24, 2011
Sunday, October 02, 2011
Saturday, October 01, 2011
Weekend Reading: The (Mostly Old) Tech News Edition
This will have to be short today- Petunia turns two tomorrow, and I have lots to do!
But I couldn't leave you without random links to read this weekend, could I?
First, an interesting post that postulates on possible involvement of Iran in the recent attack on DigiNotar, the Dutch certificate authority company.
Then, a post from Female Computer Scientist on the impact of face-recognition software.
Also, I pre-ordered a Kindle Fire this week- I've been wanting a tablet, and the low price tag was too much to resist. Also, I like the smaller size, since I intend to carry it in my purse sometimes.
So I found two articles in the Harvard Business Review on the potential impact of the Kindle Fire interesting. Also, this article in Tech Crunch on the new Kindle gives a good overview.
Finally, this has nothing to do with technology, but come on- talking birds! (As an aside, there is a flock of parrots in Brooklyn that have learned to mimic car alarms. That sounds cool until you hear them in the middle of the night....)
And if you haven't posted your tips and tricks for traveling with little kids yet- go over to my last post and do so!
But I couldn't leave you without random links to read this weekend, could I?
First, an interesting post that postulates on possible involvement of Iran in the recent attack on DigiNotar, the Dutch certificate authority company.
Then, a post from Female Computer Scientist on the impact of face-recognition software.
Also, I pre-ordered a Kindle Fire this week- I've been wanting a tablet, and the low price tag was too much to resist. Also, I like the smaller size, since I intend to carry it in my purse sometimes.
So I found two articles in the Harvard Business Review on the potential impact of the Kindle Fire interesting. Also, this article in Tech Crunch on the new Kindle gives a good overview.
Finally, this has nothing to do with technology, but come on- talking birds! (As an aside, there is a flock of parrots in Brooklyn that have learned to mimic car alarms. That sounds cool until you hear them in the middle of the night....)
And if you haven't posted your tips and tricks for traveling with little kids yet- go over to my last post and do so!
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Traveling with A Preschooler and a Toddler... and Liking It
One of the amusing things about telling people about our recent California Road Trip is their reaction when I tell them that we did the trip with a 4.5 year old and an almost 2 year old. They mostly look at me like I am crazy.
And maybe I am crazy, but I have to say- it was really a great trip. We had a lot of fun.
Which is not to say that there weren't meltdowns and moments when I wondered why on earth I had decided that we should take a road trip this year (answer: I didn't feel like messing with the airport/airplane hassle with my almost two year old).
But for the most part, the trip was really fun for the grown ups as well as the kids. Really, all of our trips with our kids have turned out pretty well, although there were some dicey moments in the Wichita trip, before we realized that we needed to back off on the potty training for the duration of the trip.
Now, a lot of this is just luck. In fact most of it is probably luck- we happen to have two good little travelers on our hands. Honestly, Pumpkin may be a more patient traveler than I am.
Perhaps a little of our traveling success might be due to things we do, though, so I thought I'd share some tips, in no particular order:
1. Plan like crazy.
Seriously. Plan the trip, then plan some more. And then some more. Know where at least one decent playground is in each city you are visiting. Google maps and Google Earth are big helps in this regard- you can even zoom in and check for swings if you happen to have a little swing addict (like we do). Have several family-friendly restaurant options identified ahead of time- you don't have to use them if you have time to stroll around and look for whatever restaurant looks best. But sometimes you just need to get to an acceptable restaurant fast, before your kids go from looking forward to lunch time to melting down due to hunger.
And speaking of restaurants....
2. Brew pubs are excellent places to take kids for meals.
I explained why we love to go to brew pubs in my last post. In short: they are generally noisy enough that my kids are not the loudest people in the restaurant, the beer mellows everyone out- us and the people around us, and they almost always have kids menus. Oh, and we like beer.
I am not a huge foodie, so we eat at chains, too. Sometimes, something familiar is what your kid needs. Chains can also usually be relied upon to have the mechanics of serving kids down- bringing the kids' food as soon as possible, for instance. The really good ones even know to let it cool in the kitchen for a bit before bringing it to the table.
3. Know which parts of your kids' routines can be messed with, and which can't.
For us, breakfast is sacrosanct. It needs to happen as soon after Petunia wakes up as possible. Almost everything else has some wiggle room, but not breakfast.
4. Try to stay in suites, if you can afford it.
The extra space is nice. And a door to close on your sleeping kids, allowing some grown up time on the vacation- even if you just use it to plan the details of the next day without a 4 year old asking "Why, Mommy?" every 20 seconds- is priceless.
5. Pack distractions for the travel time.
The magna-doodle has served us well here, as have the felt boards my Mom made for the kids for a return trip from Arizona. It is also handy to have something completely new for the trip. The night before our trip, I had to run to the drug store for some things, and on a whim, I bought a little princess coloring book on a plastic frame for Pumpkin. She loved that thing, and colored in it during most of our drives on this trip. Some of that was pure luck- but some of that was me knowing that she loves to color, loves princesses, and is always interested in something new, so there was a good chance she'd like that toy.
6. Be realistic in your expectations.
We don't try to take the kids to art museums yet, because Petunia is too little to understand how to behave in one and I am too sensitive to take her anyway, and just ignore the glares from other people. (Typing that sentence made me think that perhaps it is time I found the time for a trip to an art museum with Pumpkin, though- she is old enough to perhaps behave, and I'm curious what she'd think of it.)
We have also skipped many things we'd like to do just because the timing didn't work out. For instance, we drove through downtown San Luis Obispo on this trip and both thought it looked like a great little downtown that we would have liked to explore. Unfortunately, we were there at nap time and Petunia was snoozing happily in the back seat. We could have woken Petunia up, strapped her in her stroller, and hoped for the best- but chances are we would have gotten a meltdown, so we just made a mental note that we'd like to go back someday.
However, we know that meltdowns will sometimes happen, and we try not to let them get to us. It is unrealistic to expect the kids to behave perfectly for ten days straight. They certainly don't do that at home, so why would they do it on vacation? That is actually so important that it deserves its own list entry!
7. Remember that they meltdown at home, too.
Pumpkin threw a couple of impressive fits on this vacation around clothing. She wanted to wear shorts but it was too cold. She wanted to wear a certain shirt, but it was already filthy. Etc. But she throws fits about her outfits at home, too.
Petunia has been known to ruin a dinner time by crying loudly for a show while the rest of us try to finish our food (we have a rule: no TV while eating). So, while I would have preferred not to have to resort to tag team eating so much on the trip (one adult eats while the other walks around outside with Petunia, then we switch), I can't really say that dinner time disruptions are a unique feature of travel. They are a feature of having a two year old.
8. Plan in lots of park visits
As I said above, we always do some research and know where the local playgrounds are. We visit a playground almost every day when we're traveling, often for afternoon snack. I suspect that the play time helps the kids behave better during other times, and we've actually really enjoyed seeing the different parks in various places. I'll be writing more about the Dennis the Menace playground in Monterey. There were also some really good parks in Portland and Kaua'i (I didn't write about the Kamalani playground there, but it was pretty cool). Even better, hanging out at a playground with your kids is a great way to meet some locals, who might give you some good tips- we found both the Jamison Water Park mentioned in my blog post and the Portland brew pub run by the Deschuttes brewery (which was so great we went there twice) thanks to some advice from a friendly dad in a local playground, who struck up a conversation with Hubby while Pumpkin and his son played, and I shopped at Powell's.
Those are my tips and tricks, but I know we don't have it all figured out... so please, chime in via the comments. What are your tips and tricks for traveling with little kids, and enjoying it?
And maybe I am crazy, but I have to say- it was really a great trip. We had a lot of fun.
Which is not to say that there weren't meltdowns and moments when I wondered why on earth I had decided that we should take a road trip this year (answer: I didn't feel like messing with the airport/airplane hassle with my almost two year old).
But for the most part, the trip was really fun for the grown ups as well as the kids. Really, all of our trips with our kids have turned out pretty well, although there were some dicey moments in the Wichita trip, before we realized that we needed to back off on the potty training for the duration of the trip.
Now, a lot of this is just luck. In fact most of it is probably luck- we happen to have two good little travelers on our hands. Honestly, Pumpkin may be a more patient traveler than I am.
Perhaps a little of our traveling success might be due to things we do, though, so I thought I'd share some tips, in no particular order:
1. Plan like crazy.
Seriously. Plan the trip, then plan some more. And then some more. Know where at least one decent playground is in each city you are visiting. Google maps and Google Earth are big helps in this regard- you can even zoom in and check for swings if you happen to have a little swing addict (like we do). Have several family-friendly restaurant options identified ahead of time- you don't have to use them if you have time to stroll around and look for whatever restaurant looks best. But sometimes you just need to get to an acceptable restaurant fast, before your kids go from looking forward to lunch time to melting down due to hunger.
And speaking of restaurants....
2. Brew pubs are excellent places to take kids for meals.
I explained why we love to go to brew pubs in my last post. In short: they are generally noisy enough that my kids are not the loudest people in the restaurant, the beer mellows everyone out- us and the people around us, and they almost always have kids menus. Oh, and we like beer.
I am not a huge foodie, so we eat at chains, too. Sometimes, something familiar is what your kid needs. Chains can also usually be relied upon to have the mechanics of serving kids down- bringing the kids' food as soon as possible, for instance. The really good ones even know to let it cool in the kitchen for a bit before bringing it to the table.
3. Know which parts of your kids' routines can be messed with, and which can't.
For us, breakfast is sacrosanct. It needs to happen as soon after Petunia wakes up as possible. Almost everything else has some wiggle room, but not breakfast.
4. Try to stay in suites, if you can afford it.
The extra space is nice. And a door to close on your sleeping kids, allowing some grown up time on the vacation- even if you just use it to plan the details of the next day without a 4 year old asking "Why, Mommy?" every 20 seconds- is priceless.
5. Pack distractions for the travel time.
The magna-doodle has served us well here, as have the felt boards my Mom made for the kids for a return trip from Arizona. It is also handy to have something completely new for the trip. The night before our trip, I had to run to the drug store for some things, and on a whim, I bought a little princess coloring book on a plastic frame for Pumpkin. She loved that thing, and colored in it during most of our drives on this trip. Some of that was pure luck- but some of that was me knowing that she loves to color, loves princesses, and is always interested in something new, so there was a good chance she'd like that toy.
6. Be realistic in your expectations.
We don't try to take the kids to art museums yet, because Petunia is too little to understand how to behave in one and I am too sensitive to take her anyway, and just ignore the glares from other people. (Typing that sentence made me think that perhaps it is time I found the time for a trip to an art museum with Pumpkin, though- she is old enough to perhaps behave, and I'm curious what she'd think of it.)
We have also skipped many things we'd like to do just because the timing didn't work out. For instance, we drove through downtown San Luis Obispo on this trip and both thought it looked like a great little downtown that we would have liked to explore. Unfortunately, we were there at nap time and Petunia was snoozing happily in the back seat. We could have woken Petunia up, strapped her in her stroller, and hoped for the best- but chances are we would have gotten a meltdown, so we just made a mental note that we'd like to go back someday.
However, we know that meltdowns will sometimes happen, and we try not to let them get to us. It is unrealistic to expect the kids to behave perfectly for ten days straight. They certainly don't do that at home, so why would they do it on vacation? That is actually so important that it deserves its own list entry!
7. Remember that they meltdown at home, too.
Pumpkin threw a couple of impressive fits on this vacation around clothing. She wanted to wear shorts but it was too cold. She wanted to wear a certain shirt, but it was already filthy. Etc. But she throws fits about her outfits at home, too.
Petunia has been known to ruin a dinner time by crying loudly for a show while the rest of us try to finish our food (we have a rule: no TV while eating). So, while I would have preferred not to have to resort to tag team eating so much on the trip (one adult eats while the other walks around outside with Petunia, then we switch), I can't really say that dinner time disruptions are a unique feature of travel. They are a feature of having a two year old.
8. Plan in lots of park visits
As I said above, we always do some research and know where the local playgrounds are. We visit a playground almost every day when we're traveling, often for afternoon snack. I suspect that the play time helps the kids behave better during other times, and we've actually really enjoyed seeing the different parks in various places. I'll be writing more about the Dennis the Menace playground in Monterey. There were also some really good parks in Portland and Kaua'i (I didn't write about the Kamalani playground there, but it was pretty cool). Even better, hanging out at a playground with your kids is a great way to meet some locals, who might give you some good tips- we found both the Jamison Water Park mentioned in my blog post and the Portland brew pub run by the Deschuttes brewery (which was so great we went there twice) thanks to some advice from a friendly dad in a local playground, who struck up a conversation with Hubby while Pumpkin and his son played, and I shopped at Powell's.
Those are my tips and tricks, but I know we don't have it all figured out... so please, chime in via the comments. What are your tips and tricks for traveling with little kids, and enjoying it?
Monday, September 26, 2011
California Car Trip 2011 - The Award Show Version
As I mentioned in my last post, we just got back from vacation. We spent ten days driving around California. It was a taster tour- we only sampled what every stop had to offer. But the girls aren't old enough to make an in depth stay easy. Too many of the things we'd want to do would bore them. So we hit the (kid-friendly) highlights in several places, driving between them at nap time (mostly).
Our itinerary was: Pasadena, Three Rivers (Sequoia National Park), Merced (a necessary stop over that turned out to be nicer than we expected), Sacramento (because Hubby "collects" state capitols), Monterey, down the coast road to Morro Bay (that took longer than nap time), Santa Barbara, and then home.
I plan to write several detailed posts about the trip. You can skip them if they bore you, but one of the functions of this blog is to help me remember things, so I'll write them. However, tonight, I'm just going to give you the award show rundown of the trip:
Best hotel: The Embassy Suites in Sacramento. We paid the extra $20 and had a view of the river- which meant a view of the cool bridge we drove across to get there. Pumpkin thought both of these things were awesome. Petunia enjoyed watching the birds on the river and the fountains in the lobby. Hubby and I enjoyed closing the door on our sleeping kids and relaxing in the living room portion of our suite. (Note to hotels: This is what a suite is. At least two rooms. With a door between them. The door is important. Our otherwise lovely suite in Monterey lacked a door and Hubby and I had to hang out in the bathroom after our kids went to bed. Luckily, it was quite large.)
Best meal: The Brewhouse, in Santa Barbara. We continued our tradition of taking the kids to brew pubs for as many meals as possible, and mostly this worked well. Our logic is that these places are noisy enough to hide some incidental kid noise, busy enough to distract the kids, always have kids menus, and provide good beer to mellow out all the adults- including us. The Brewhouse was perhaps a bit too noisy, but the food and beer were both excellent. And it was a short walk from our hotel.
Best breakfast: Frankie and Lola's in Morro Bay. The pancakes were delicious. So was the homemade sausage. And the skillet potatoes. Just an all around yummy breakfast. Mostly we ate breakfast at the hotel, since our kids need to eat pretty soon after waking up. But the place we stayed in Morro Bay didn't offer breakfast- they gave vouchers for a few local restaurants, and this was one of them. So we fed the girls their breakfast in the hotel and tried taking them out for morning snack. That didn't go so well, but the awesomeness of the pancakes makes up for that.
Best outing: A family bike ride in a surrey in Santa Barbara. A surrey, if you don't know, is what you call those ridiculous looking bench seat bikes you see in tourist spots. (Click here for a picture.) They are actually fairly fun to ride- on flat ground and with a good bike path. The kids had fun, we had fun, and really my only complaint was that the bell was too easy for Petunia to reach. We have actually promised the kids that we'll do this again here in San Diego.
Runner up, for the grown ups: the "hike" we did in Sequoia, to see the General Sherman tree. This was really a stroll on a paved path (although there were 80 stairs- I know because Pumpkin and I counted on the way back up), but the trees were impressive.
Best wildlife moment: Seeing a bear on the hike in Sequoia. A real live bear! In the wild! From close enough to be cool but far enough away not to be scary.
Runner up: seeing seals up close in the water in Morro Bay. Pumpkin thought this was awesome. Clearly, we need to take her to our local seal sighting spots more often.
Best parenting moment (Mommy): Coming up with the idea to count stairs when Pumpkin started to whine that she was too tired to walk back to our car after seeing the General Sherman tree.
Best parenting moment (Daddy): Coming up with (and implementing) the three stage bedtime routine for Pumpkin for use in suites with a single king bed and a sleeper sofa in the living room. This involved getting her sleepy while I got Petunia down in the bed, moving her to the bed and getting her down, then moving her back to the sofa- without waking her up- when we were ready to go to bed. This gave us precious grown up time in the hotels we stayed in that had suites with doors, but only one bed.
Best museum: Kidspace, in Pasadena. The Monterey Aquarium is cool, but for pure kid happiness, I think the tricycles at Kidspace win.
Best unexpected cool thing: Petunia roaring at the bear statue outside the governor's office in the Capitol. Luckily, California capitol guards are allowed to laugh.
Runner up: Applegate Park, in Merced. Why did nothing I read about this mention the beautiful path by the river???? Also, Petunia enjoyed chasing squirrels.
Best unplanned stop: Lucia, on the coast road south from Monterey. We stopped because Pumpkin needed a potty. We stayed because it was snack time. And we had the best view for snack time ever- we sat on an outdoor deck looking straight out at the ocean.
Best playground: The Dennis the Menace playground in El Estero Park in Monterey. Don't miss this if you visit Monterey with kids. It is just a playground- but it is a great playground.
Best kid moment (Pumpkin): The reaction to seeing Cinderella's carriage at Fairytale Town, in Sacramento.
Best kid moment (Petunia): The reaction to the tricycles at Kidspace, in Pasadena.
Best chill out: Morro Bay.
Place we most want to go back and see properly: Hubby says Sacramento. I say San Luis Obispo (we just detoured through downtown on our way from Morro Bay to Santa Barbara, to prolong nap time).
Runner up: Big Sur. But only if I have time to do some hiking.
Best place to retire to: Carmel-by-the-Sea (after we win the lottery); Santa Barbara (only slightly more realistic).
Biggest bummer: For Hubby, it was missing the good sunset in Monterey- we saw it as we drove into town, but we didn't stop because we were running late and wanted to check into our hotel before dinner. For me, it was the fog that obscured a lot of the coastal drive. I've done the drive before and remember how spectacular it can be. It was still beautiful, but I was bummed that Hubby didn't get the full effect. And I don't really want to drive it again- I have to drive the whole time, and I still need a fizzy drink and a bag of salty snacks to make sure I don't get car sick.
Our itinerary was: Pasadena, Three Rivers (Sequoia National Park), Merced (a necessary stop over that turned out to be nicer than we expected), Sacramento (because Hubby "collects" state capitols), Monterey, down the coast road to Morro Bay (that took longer than nap time), Santa Barbara, and then home.
I plan to write several detailed posts about the trip. You can skip them if they bore you, but one of the functions of this blog is to help me remember things, so I'll write them. However, tonight, I'm just going to give you the award show rundown of the trip:
Best hotel: The Embassy Suites in Sacramento. We paid the extra $20 and had a view of the river- which meant a view of the cool bridge we drove across to get there. Pumpkin thought both of these things were awesome. Petunia enjoyed watching the birds on the river and the fountains in the lobby. Hubby and I enjoyed closing the door on our sleeping kids and relaxing in the living room portion of our suite. (Note to hotels: This is what a suite is. At least two rooms. With a door between them. The door is important. Our otherwise lovely suite in Monterey lacked a door and Hubby and I had to hang out in the bathroom after our kids went to bed. Luckily, it was quite large.)
Best meal: The Brewhouse, in Santa Barbara. We continued our tradition of taking the kids to brew pubs for as many meals as possible, and mostly this worked well. Our logic is that these places are noisy enough to hide some incidental kid noise, busy enough to distract the kids, always have kids menus, and provide good beer to mellow out all the adults- including us. The Brewhouse was perhaps a bit too noisy, but the food and beer were both excellent. And it was a short walk from our hotel.
Best breakfast: Frankie and Lola's in Morro Bay. The pancakes were delicious. So was the homemade sausage. And the skillet potatoes. Just an all around yummy breakfast. Mostly we ate breakfast at the hotel, since our kids need to eat pretty soon after waking up. But the place we stayed in Morro Bay didn't offer breakfast- they gave vouchers for a few local restaurants, and this was one of them. So we fed the girls their breakfast in the hotel and tried taking them out for morning snack. That didn't go so well, but the awesomeness of the pancakes makes up for that.
Best outing: A family bike ride in a surrey in Santa Barbara. A surrey, if you don't know, is what you call those ridiculous looking bench seat bikes you see in tourist spots. (Click here for a picture.) They are actually fairly fun to ride- on flat ground and with a good bike path. The kids had fun, we had fun, and really my only complaint was that the bell was too easy for Petunia to reach. We have actually promised the kids that we'll do this again here in San Diego.
Runner up, for the grown ups: the "hike" we did in Sequoia, to see the General Sherman tree. This was really a stroll on a paved path (although there were 80 stairs- I know because Pumpkin and I counted on the way back up), but the trees were impressive.
Best wildlife moment: Seeing a bear on the hike in Sequoia. A real live bear! In the wild! From close enough to be cool but far enough away not to be scary.
Runner up: seeing seals up close in the water in Morro Bay. Pumpkin thought this was awesome. Clearly, we need to take her to our local seal sighting spots more often.
Best parenting moment (Mommy): Coming up with the idea to count stairs when Pumpkin started to whine that she was too tired to walk back to our car after seeing the General Sherman tree.
Best parenting moment (Daddy): Coming up with (and implementing) the three stage bedtime routine for Pumpkin for use in suites with a single king bed and a sleeper sofa in the living room. This involved getting her sleepy while I got Petunia down in the bed, moving her to the bed and getting her down, then moving her back to the sofa- without waking her up- when we were ready to go to bed. This gave us precious grown up time in the hotels we stayed in that had suites with doors, but only one bed.
Best museum: Kidspace, in Pasadena. The Monterey Aquarium is cool, but for pure kid happiness, I think the tricycles at Kidspace win.
Best unexpected cool thing: Petunia roaring at the bear statue outside the governor's office in the Capitol. Luckily, California capitol guards are allowed to laugh.
Runner up: Applegate Park, in Merced. Why did nothing I read about this mention the beautiful path by the river???? Also, Petunia enjoyed chasing squirrels.
Best unplanned stop: Lucia, on the coast road south from Monterey. We stopped because Pumpkin needed a potty. We stayed because it was snack time. And we had the best view for snack time ever- we sat on an outdoor deck looking straight out at the ocean.
Best playground: The Dennis the Menace playground in El Estero Park in Monterey. Don't miss this if you visit Monterey with kids. It is just a playground- but it is a great playground.
Best kid moment (Pumpkin): The reaction to seeing Cinderella's carriage at Fairytale Town, in Sacramento.
Best kid moment (Petunia): The reaction to the tricycles at Kidspace, in Pasadena.
Best chill out: Morro Bay.
Place we most want to go back and see properly: Hubby says Sacramento. I say San Luis Obispo (we just detoured through downtown on our way from Morro Bay to Santa Barbara, to prolong nap time).
Runner up: Big Sur. But only if I have time to do some hiking.
Best place to retire to: Carmel-by-the-Sea (after we win the lottery); Santa Barbara (only slightly more realistic).
Biggest bummer: For Hubby, it was missing the good sunset in Monterey- we saw it as we drove into town, but we didn't stop because we were running late and wanted to check into our hotel before dinner. For me, it was the fog that obscured a lot of the coastal drive. I've done the drive before and remember how spectacular it can be. It was still beautiful, but I was bummed that Hubby didn't get the full effect. And I don't really want to drive it again- I have to drive the whole time, and I still need a fizzy drink and a bag of salty snacks to make sure I don't get car sick.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
What I Do All Day
I'm just back from vacation, which is why posting has been light lately. I lined up a few posts to auto-post, and then didn't even check my email for days. It was nice. I have a lot of things I want to write about the vacation, but that will have to wait, because Geekmommyprof is hosting a blog carnival on theoretical/computational sciences, and I want to participate.
As my blog bio blurb says, I work as both a scientist and a techie. I can't go into a lot of detail about what I do, because I've spent my entire career in industry, and I've signed non-disclosure agreements for every job I've held. Also, I've done a lot of different things. Each job is different (I've worked for five companies), and even one job changes a lot with time. Incidentally, this is why I'm always puzzled by the hand-wringing I read on some blogs about the job market for people with PhDs in science. There are so many different things you can do with the PhD, that it is hard to think about it as a single market- or even a couple markets (academic and industrial). I've held jobs that absolutely required a PhD and jobs that didn't. I've held jobs that were heavy on the science and light on the tech, and vice versa. I do a lot of management, too, of both people and projects, and I've discovered that I like that, too.
But, back to the main topic: what do I do? Well, when I'm doing science, it is all on the computer. I haven't done wet lab work since graduate school. I'll have to be a bit vague, due to those non-disclosure agreements and the thin veil of anonymity I keep on this blog. Basically, my science work all boils down to trying to use the available data to help my company make better decisions. I analyze data sets with a variety of algorithms. I occasionally develop my own algorithms, but that is not common and is not my forte- I am better and stitching together other people's algorithms into sensible (and repeatable!) processes. I do write a little bit of code, but I don't consider myself a programmer- more of a scripter. I can get things done, but if I need some code that can be used by other people in a robust process, I hire a real programmer and tell him/her what I need.
My techie home is databases. I never expected to be a techie, but I realized in graduate school that I couldn't do some analyses I wanted to do because the data weren't organized in a reasonable way. This has gotten better over the years, but it is still a problem- if you want to do some computational work in the biosciences, chances are high that you will have to spend a fair amount of time assembling your data sets. In many cases, you have to manually (or, depending on your tolerance for errors, programmatically) pull data from published papers. This bugged me then, and still bugs me now. Also, I have always loved organizing information. So I suppose it is no surprise that I ended up doing a lot of work in this area. When I'm doing this sort of work, I design databases and other data structures (such as XML-based languages) to store scientific information. This requires that I really understand the data and also that I understand the theory behind databases.
I like the variety that comes with my work. I love the intellectual challenge of designing a robust database that will stand up to unexpected future requirements, and I love the thrill of forming a hypothesis based on an analysis I've done. It is particularly fun if my hypothesis is supported by subsequent lab work. When I'm wearing my project manager's hat, I like figuring out how to bring all the pieces together to get a project to complete successfully- it is like a big logic problem.
I dislike the corporate BS that I often have to deal with as a manager- but that comes with the territory. I don't love the volatility in my industry, but I've learned to deal with that, and even see the bright side of having a chance to reinvent myself every so often.
I sort of fell into this line of work based on the needs of my PhD research project, but I've usually been pretty happy with my career. It is ironic that I'm writing this post now, though, because I've been feeling a bit restless in my career lately. I've been doing this sort of work for more than a decade, and I find myself day dreaming a bit about different things I could do. That is a topic for another post, though... and anyway, most days I still really enjoy my work. So my daydreams may come to naught.
I know this post has probably been frustratingly vague. If you have questions, leave them in the comments. I'll answer them if I can!
As my blog bio blurb says, I work as both a scientist and a techie. I can't go into a lot of detail about what I do, because I've spent my entire career in industry, and I've signed non-disclosure agreements for every job I've held. Also, I've done a lot of different things. Each job is different (I've worked for five companies), and even one job changes a lot with time. Incidentally, this is why I'm always puzzled by the hand-wringing I read on some blogs about the job market for people with PhDs in science. There are so many different things you can do with the PhD, that it is hard to think about it as a single market- or even a couple markets (academic and industrial). I've held jobs that absolutely required a PhD and jobs that didn't. I've held jobs that were heavy on the science and light on the tech, and vice versa. I do a lot of management, too, of both people and projects, and I've discovered that I like that, too.
But, back to the main topic: what do I do? Well, when I'm doing science, it is all on the computer. I haven't done wet lab work since graduate school. I'll have to be a bit vague, due to those non-disclosure agreements and the thin veil of anonymity I keep on this blog. Basically, my science work all boils down to trying to use the available data to help my company make better decisions. I analyze data sets with a variety of algorithms. I occasionally develop my own algorithms, but that is not common and is not my forte- I am better and stitching together other people's algorithms into sensible (and repeatable!) processes. I do write a little bit of code, but I don't consider myself a programmer- more of a scripter. I can get things done, but if I need some code that can be used by other people in a robust process, I hire a real programmer and tell him/her what I need.
My techie home is databases. I never expected to be a techie, but I realized in graduate school that I couldn't do some analyses I wanted to do because the data weren't organized in a reasonable way. This has gotten better over the years, but it is still a problem- if you want to do some computational work in the biosciences, chances are high that you will have to spend a fair amount of time assembling your data sets. In many cases, you have to manually (or, depending on your tolerance for errors, programmatically) pull data from published papers. This bugged me then, and still bugs me now. Also, I have always loved organizing information. So I suppose it is no surprise that I ended up doing a lot of work in this area. When I'm doing this sort of work, I design databases and other data structures (such as XML-based languages) to store scientific information. This requires that I really understand the data and also that I understand the theory behind databases.
I like the variety that comes with my work. I love the intellectual challenge of designing a robust database that will stand up to unexpected future requirements, and I love the thrill of forming a hypothesis based on an analysis I've done. It is particularly fun if my hypothesis is supported by subsequent lab work. When I'm wearing my project manager's hat, I like figuring out how to bring all the pieces together to get a project to complete successfully- it is like a big logic problem.
I dislike the corporate BS that I often have to deal with as a manager- but that comes with the territory. I don't love the volatility in my industry, but I've learned to deal with that, and even see the bright side of having a chance to reinvent myself every so often.
I sort of fell into this line of work based on the needs of my PhD research project, but I've usually been pretty happy with my career. It is ironic that I'm writing this post now, though, because I've been feeling a bit restless in my career lately. I've been doing this sort of work for more than a decade, and I find myself day dreaming a bit about different things I could do. That is a topic for another post, though... and anyway, most days I still really enjoy my work. So my daydreams may come to naught.
I know this post has probably been frustratingly vague. If you have questions, leave them in the comments. I'll answer them if I can!
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