Science and Religion

A wise man once said...

This has also led to a widespread belief that there is a conflict between science and religion. But this is not true. There may be a conflict between soft-minded religionists and tough-minded scientists, but not between science and religion. Their respective worlds are different and their methods are dissimilar. Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge that is power; religion gives man wisdom that is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals. They are complimentary. Science keeps religion from sinking into the valley of crippling irrationalism and paralyzing obscurantism. Religion prevents science from falling into the marsh of obsolete materialism and moral nihilism. - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

What would you do? A quiz/survey!

Please vote in the quiz! I am curious to know how many people read somewhat regularly! Your answer will not be graded...

So pretend you've been in this relationship for approximately 3.5 years. Approximately. And you live quite a distance from the person with whom you are in this relationship. It has been a rough year. You both have a lot of things to worry about with your careers. Travel is complicated because it's sorta close enough to drive, sorta easier to fly,but regardless of how you travel you lose most of a day. You have to worry about out when to see each other and also family or friends or your visa status or doing laundry or your cat or washing your hair.

After briefly conversing about holiday options, you send an email suggesting that your relationship partner gave you the "cold shoulder" about Thanksgiving and also write about some visa stuff. (As in the I'm-a-foreigner-Visa, not I-need-a-credit-card-visa. TOTALLY hypothetical, like I said.) In response, the other person tried to call on his/her way home later that night, then writes back about why they have not given input, but also makes a statement that, "I just got home and want to relax in front of the tv with some tea before going to bed, so if you feel like talking on the phone for a change tomorrow night, let me know."

What would you do?

If the end of an email you received said, "if you feel like talking on the phone for a change tomorrow night, let me know," would you:
	have another beer and forget you read the email.
	call right away and be apologetic and ready to talk.
	call the next night at an hour between dinner and, oh, A Charlie Brown Christmas.
	(Silence)
	email right back and suggest a time.
	wonder who this person is who seems so annoyed by your inability to communicate and delete the email
	send some other communication but don't let on that you saw that email.
pollcode.com free polls

There are a couple of options that are more (hypothetically) life-like than the others. Do you pick what you would actually do or what you think someone in this simply hypothetical situation would do? Either way, it's getting late and I can't wait up hoping you'll call...I mean vote...





[As an aside, it is fun to go back and look at tags I have not used in a while! I learned something about my younger self by reading posts from 4 years ago. Funny, that.]

Thanks

'Tis the weekend to be thankful, and I am doing my best. This weekend, I have been thankful for:

• Sleeping until 8 every day.
• A two hour conversation with one of my oldest friends. Neither of us realized how long we were on the phone. She called me back to point out that it felt just like 9th grade.
• The end to a sore throat that I was worried would turn into more.
• My coffee pot breaking so I could get a great deal on Black Friday for a new one.
• That my new coffee pot has a timer and you can pour a cup before it is done brewing.
• Time to do lots of cooking/baking.

Pumpkin oatmeal bars (that I have determined are healthy enough for breakfast)
Carrot macaroni and cheese with Cabot extra sharp cheddar
Roasted mushrooms with tarragon and balsamic vinegar (a repeat recipe that is easy and delicious)
Having a dozen home-made rolls all to myself
"Healthy" mozzerella sticks
A fresh batch of chicken stock made in the crockpot

• A turkey dinner from my neighbor. I even got the leg because no one else wanted it!
• A couple of runs. Have I mentioned I discovered I can run 3.3 miles and average less than 11 minute miles? I only fit a couple in a week because it gets dark so early, and I have realized what I have eaten in the past couple of hours TOTALLY determines how the run goes.
• Getting a Christmas tree cut and up all by myself.
• Finishing almost all my Christmas shopping.
• Almost finishing my Dad's 60th birthday present. (Poor guy has his birthday on Christmas Eve.)
• Getting some work done - a little lab work and some reading and writing and reviewing.

I think that about covers it...

Fake it?

I do not think there is anything special about feeling like you can't cut it. Apparently I allude to the whole Imposter Syndrome thing about once a year too. I am having to remind myself of this as I have done less prep for my interview than I thought I would. I gave a practice talk at lab meeting today. The first thing my boss said was that my slides were great. She mentioned it a couple of times. I have to stop psyching myself out! I came home and tried on outfits to bring, and they look fine. Despite my paper not yet being submitted, I have been contacted by two great schools that liked my job application.

On my drive home today, I was thinking about how I could probably think of a time when any given person I know has doubted themselves in some way. I am really bad at keeping in touch with people, so if I know this about them, my guess it that it was not a one-time deal. I decided, though, that feeling inadequate or doubting yourself is a result of caring. Seems ironic that if you care about something and are a good person you would worry about your performance on anything from your job to your home life to your relationships instead of trusting you are doing what you can.

I'll take it

It is good that I have enough good to even out the car repairs that necessitated a rental car because they could not get the parts early enough in the day. For the record, my rented Chevy Sonics is tiny! Oh, and I need to submit my research paper somewhere. You can send science magazines a description of your paper and they will give you a perspective on whether they think it would be good for their journal. So far, several have suggested that my paper is not a good fit, but not to let that discourage me from submitting to their journal in the future. Okay.

On with the good! I have an on-campus interview next week, and will see turns out another phone interview at another school. I may have choices in this whole job search thing!

I remedied a failed Loft visit with a post-Sandy celebration of buying Loft clothes when their website went online. Best part? I now have dress pants that fit correctly for one of my interview days.

I tried on some of my dress pants at the end of the summer and they were a tad snug. Inappropriately tight. So, I decided more exercising is necessary. I have been jogging every once in a while when it is still light out because it is faster than walking. The time change makes this difficult. Yesterday I left work early and fit in a run. I realized that if I run a little slower, I can run further. Go figure. I did a 2.85 mile route without walking. I am quite proud...and still refuse to become a "runner". Pants are still tight, so the next step is to lay off the chocolate...or not buy more when it is gone...

I am heartened by the results and the numbers from the recent election. And that is all. Except for what I posted on Facebook that I have repeated to myself many times:

I promise to put myself in your shoes and recall the disappointment of my candidate losing if you promise to put yourself in my shoes and understand that this is what I think is best for our country.

My friend told me that he thinks I am ready to be a professor because I handled a small situation well and did not make a big deal out of it. He also told me that he still thinks I have become funnier, except that he feels there is something negative underneath. Like I will crack one day. He is not entirely wrong, as any of you regular readers may know. But at least I am funny.

I have done a couple of research things the past week, which is great. My friend (the grad student in the lab) and I have had some great science conversations. I am often the go-to person because our lab manager is splitting her time with another position on campus. This has been a great experience and just emphasizes to me that I am ready to move on.

I have a job talk that is almost ready to go. It has taken me over a week to get it to this point, but I think about it a lot so when I sit down to work on it, it is relatively quick. What I have NOT done is prepare for meeting with people at the college. It is going to be a stressful couple of days getting ready to go, but I have new clothes (see above point).

The whole point of this is that I'll take it. I am reminding myself of all the good to help let go of the bad and it seems to be working. Go me.

Inertia

It is only appropriate that I have been working on this post for several days - not sure how to put in to words what I am thinking and jumping between this, a job talk, job applications, getting organized for an interview, and then cleaning right after I make myself post this...


I came up with (or, maybe, Googled) a few quotes about inertia that felt particularly fitting to me right now, and I have been thinking about inertia in life for a while, and Danielle recently posted about something similar. I do not think that my points are well fleshed out though.

What I think we fear is rapid, pronounced, and uncontrollable changes to ourselves, and because of this we have a form of personality inertia - something that resists rapid change. - Simon Travaglia

I am trying to stay away from a blame game in my relationship with CF, and I think as a result start to wonder if I am crazy or if I am missing something. I can guess what any of you readers will say to this. ;-) CF suffers from the above type of inertia, I think. My sister rightly challenged my seemingly long list of complaints about my relationship with CF, particularly in regard to the fact that he has not finished his dissertation, to figure out why I get so worked up about the fact that he has not finished his dissertation, I explained that his dissertation has been an excuse for him not to do things, or to do them in a particular way, never with a compromise. This has been going on for two years. I still cannot figure out, nor has he shared, why he cannot just get it done. I have spent a lot of time trying to think about an instance in which he compromised or expressed his motivation for a particular decision with recognition of our relationship. Honestly, the only thing I can think of is when he pointed out that I am the only woman he has ever brought home to Germany with him. That was more than two years ago.

Human inertia makes the everyday environment, the furniture, as it were, appear to be a given. -Todd Gitlin

I am not sure what feels like a given right now. This makes me think about what might be 'safe' life decisions. Or riskier, depending on whose perspective it is. CF told me (via email) that he wishes nothing more than for me to find a job in his state and give that state a chance. I replied that I gave my current locale a chance three years ago, but that has not really gone anywhere, so why take the same chance again? I like the prospect of taking a chance back on the East Coast. Near friends and/or family.

Life leaps like a geyser for those who drill through the rock of inertia. -Alexis Carrel

I am trying to take this one to heart. I have been spending a lot of time at my desk and on my computer with the job search, and I feel completely unproductive in the lab. I try to convince myself it will pay off, but in reality, I need to keep being productive at the bench. People say that your research goes on hold when you are looking for a job. I do not think they meant because you have a hard time focusing and managing your time. If I can get a couple of big steps in my research done before the end of the year, that would be awesome.

And that's all I've got. On to the cleaning so that I don't have an excuse NOT to do work tomorrow...