Let me show you the ways in which I qualify.
The "talking science" badge. I love to talk about math and I would do it all day if I thought people would listen. As it is, I sometimes can't help myself and the math spills out onto this blog. But there are actually regular readers who come here for the math, and I've noticed that my top google hits are for the math entries, especially the one about Math and Pregnancy.
The "I blog about science" badge. The requirement is 25% science content, and lately I admit I've been a little low on the science content what with my obsessions about Vinny, atheism, and lately, marriage equality, but I promise to get back on track. I have a little entry on applied physics in the works.
The "arts and crafts" badge. My unique contribution to this badge is that I do a lot of algorithmic development on trees (no not the outdoors kind!) and in so doing, I have to draw a lot of pictures. (I'd go into more detail but we're trying to write a paper on the new algorithm.) My boss has praised my beautiful, multi-colored drawings. Unfortunately, it's something I have to do with my left hand, so I can't do too much of it in one day.
The "I'm pretty confident around an open flame" badge. I am not too intimidated by an open flame. I am respectful of it, and I keep my hair out of it, but otherwise I'm not too worried about it.
The "destroyer of quackery" badge. To be completely honest, pseudoscience pisses me off. So I try to convince people to think about things scientifically. I try to be as diplomatic as possible.
The "I may look like a scientist but I'm actually a ninja" badge. I have a brown belt in karate. Also, I'm the leader of the "League of Distinguished Mathematics Professionals," a group of crime-fighting numerical analysts.
The "I'm a freaking rock star who sings about science" badge. When I was but a wee graduate student, studying for my 90-minute oral qualifying exam in numerical analysis, I wrote a half-dozen songs covering key numerical concepts. Basically I took existing tunes and wrote numerical lyrics. My masterpiece was "The Conjugate Gradient Song," to the tune of "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean." I think you can probably google and find these songs. It is probably not too hard to figure out who I am because I blog using my real first name and there aren't too many women out there, but I don't want to link directly to the songs because they are on my work website.
The "my degree inadvertantly makes me competent in fixing household appliances" badge. Maybe it's not the degree; it's probably due to experience, but I am pretty handy when it comes to appliances and electrical related stuff. One thing I don't touch is natural gas, because I don't want to be responsible for the whole house blowing up.
The "I can be a prick when it comes to science" badge. This goes with the "destroyer of quackery" badge. I can get a little over-invested at times.
The "will gladly kick sexual harasser's ass" badge. Combined with my ninja skills and numerical superpowers, I am an ass-kicking MACHINE!
The "I bet I know more computer languages than you, and I'm not afraid to talk about it" badge. What kind of computer scientist would I be without this?
The "I will crush you with my math prowess" badge. Yes, I will.
The "I know what a tadpole is" badge. Because I do.
The "experienced with electrical shock" badge, level 3. There's nothing like a good shock from an outlet to remind you to switch off the breaker.
2 comments:
Hee! Math is good. I tried to write a blog post about how I feel 10% worse every subsequent day of this pregnancy and eventually gave up because my husband (whose PhD committee kind of gave up on reading his whole dissertation because they couldn't keep up with the math he was using) kept trying to clarify what I meant by 10%. He totally confused me, so I gave up. Sigh. I'm going to be in big trouble when Tommy starts in on advanced math classes.
OMG, they're based out of UBC. And we know the second guy on the list -- Robin Coope. He's a very funny guy, and his son is in preschool with Byron.
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