Meta tags:
Headings (most frequently used words):
update, end, of, year, sure, recent, labmonkey2, long, time, no, see, 110, and, so, this, is, five, wrap, up, personal, professional, funniest, thing, all, week, overdue, kid, rolling, progress, cottage, clock, post, navigation, posts, archives, comments, categories, meta,
Text of the page (most frequently used words):
and (304), the (233), you (118), with (91), for (90), was (88), this (81), but (72), that (67), have (59), year (50), are (43), had (39), your (38), she (38), not (38), week (35), time (33), out (33), more (32), spud (32), her (32), all (31), which (30), sprout (27), days (24), kids (23), has (23), his (23), day (23), when (22), some (21), about (21), home (21), pea (21), our (20), from (20), were (20), school (19), very (19), been (19), new (19), him (19), then (19), 2021 (18), things (18), them (18), one (18), two (17), because (17), there (17), like (17), they (17), other (17), can (16), read (16), september (15), daycare (15), work (15), life (15), well (15), now (14), both (14), next (14), 2020 (13), five (13), get (13), three (13), really (13), long (12), see (12), 2014 (12), february (12), march (12), 2015 (12), 2016 (12), 2017 (12), 2018 (12), 2019 (12), need (12), last (12), few (12), will (12), good (12), first (12), where (12), much (12), just (12), lot (12), sure (12), started (12), uncategorized (11), october (11), december (11), into (11), even (11), still (11), months (11), january (10), entry (10), posted (10), labmonkeyftw (10), made (10), didn (10), way (10), cottage (10), who (10), over (10), make (10), after (10), off (10), house (10), what (10), big (10), than (10), any (10), august (9), having (9), summer (9), think (9), love (9), isn (9), great (9), every (9), starting (9), only (9), did (9), would (9), keep (9), november (8), april (8), may (8), june (8), july (8), 2022 (8), take (8), many (8), weeks (8), says (8), yet (8), ways (8), being (8), family (8), back (8), also (8), bit (8), doing (8), grant (8), those (8), here (8), chair (8), old (8), water (8), month (7), end (7), update (7), important (7), too (7), kid (7), less (7), something (7), times (7), people (7), each (7), quite (7), lunch (7), mama (7), little (7), before (7), going (7), sick (7), website (6), wordpress (6), pandemic (6), their (6), find (6), want (6), sister (6), how (6), though (6), got (6), progress (6), years (6), ago (6), while (6), don (6), know (6), once (6), better (6), isolation (6), coming (6), four (6), doesn (6), filled (6), beavers (6), found (6), committee (6), spent (6), start (5), create (5), own (5), com (5), labmonkey2 (5), 110 (5), personal (5), post (5), list (5), done (5), travel (5), means (5), does (5), nothing (5), various (5), saw (5), again (5), could (5), almost (5), hours (5), reply (5), entirely (5), thought (5), often (5), everything (5), replies (5), quiet (5), far (5), feels (5), same (5), asked (5), came (5), stories (5), always (5), working (5), set (5), challenge (5), addiction (5), most (5), world (5), funny (5), thing (5), online (5), until (5), different (5), around (5), help (5), free (4), required (4), write (4), sign (4), manage (4), blog (4), feelings (4), these (4), crib (4), another (4), cannot (4), tired (4), today (4), loved (4), should (4), deeply (4), care (4), leave (4), quickly (4), told (4), book (4), together (4), along (4), actually (4), moment (4), massive (4), might (4), non (4), form (4), past (4), worked (4), hard (4), easy (4), pretty (4), toys (4), notes (4), explained (4), change (4), six (4), reading (4), tough (4), managed (4), behind (4), tasks (4), close (4), relationship (4), firm (4), lab (4), seen (4), frustrating (4), kindergarten (4), aside (4), teacher (4), getting (4), pants (4), fun (4), points (4), ran (4), build (4), larger (4), balance (4), went (4), wrote (4), process (4), edi (4), small (4), birthday (4), space (4), sense (4), toddler (4), self (4), twice (4), viruses (4), built (4), photos (4), baby (4), comments (3), log (3), view (3), recent (3), 2013 (3), professional (3), older (3), visiting (3), head (3), sleep (3), perhaps (3), intense (3), since (3), swim (3), bag (3), either (3), vacation (3), spend (3), excellent (3), allowed (3), stay (3), winter (3), wanted (3), tiny (3), beach (3), paddle (3), ice (3), cream (3), happy (3), fried (3), able (3), students (3), application (3), due (3), urgent (3), anything (3), page (3), comfortable (3), part (3), plans (3), happen (3), moving (3), entire (3), full (3), crying (3), room (3), bad (3), delighted (3), nanny (3), friday (3), aren (3), why (3), story (3), sent (3), eventually (3), father (3), region (3), early (3), tornados (3), ten (3), feel (3), wasn (3), words (3), fish (3), ask (3), bright (3), transitions (3), fall (3), dedicated (3), late (3), positive (3), bullet (3), naps (3), evenings (3), never (3), worries (3), mother (3), trust (3), fit (3), talks (3), trying (3), continued (3), weather (3), company (3), probably (3), based (3), enough (3), actions (3), true (3), except (3), drawing (3), someone (3), chosen (3), shirt (3), vocabulary (3), using (3), sad (3), food (3), through (3), night (3), nice (3), mostly (3), dumps (3), nights (3), turns (3), pump (3), option (3), try (3), game (3), kept (3), plus (3), research (3), teaching (3), let (3), rather (3), person (3), christmas (3), timelines (3), without (3), eight (3), deep (3), makes (3), took (3), remains (3), ones (3), finding (3), soul (3), whole (3), restrictions (3), games (3), age (3), amazing (3), putting (3), down (3), real (3), phone (3), email (2), bar (2), content (2), site (2), account (2), feed (2), nicoleandmaggie (2), rose (2), archives (2), wrap (2), posts (2), seriously (2), complicated (2), ongoing (2), rest (2), discovery (2), against (2), absolutely (2), bed (2), trouble (2), bedtime (2), delight (2), opposite (2), surprised (2), swimming (2), soothing (2), panacea (2), haven (2), specific (2), requirements (2), needing (2), yeti (2), honestly (2), wonderful (2), weren (2), yesterday (2), extreme (2), nowhere (2), interest (2), call (2), knew (2), shallow (2), wade (2), confidence (2), sunny (2), droughts (2), rare (2), spot (2), away (2), lake (2), playground (2), town (2), goals (2), semester (2), job (2), brief (2), papers (2), otherwise (2), brought (2), near (2), total (2), tutorial (2), workshop (2), plate (2), nearly (2), colleague (2), mentioned (2), survived (2), planning (2), emotional (2), spends (2), baseline (2), personally (2), whenever (2), exactly (2), picks (2), resigned (2), monday (2), tuesday (2), picked (2), pleased (2), say (2), classic (2), mug (2), during (2), bird (2), won (2), lunchbox (2), sight (2), pictures (2), spelt (2), specifically (2), moved (2), onto (2), stable (2), tornado (2), warnings (2), fully (2), mute (2), possible (2), bought (2), realized (2), talk (2), possibly (2), parents (2), catches (2), available (2), nerve (2), mean (2), thank (2), goodness (2), top (2), thinking (2), check (2), boxes (2), interesting (2), silly (2), songs (2), clearly (2), stick (2), extroversion (2), needed (2), golden (2), consider (2), move (2), others (2), projects (2), allow (2), previously (2), odd (2), least (2), alcohol (2), million (2), feeling (2), habit (2), said (2), liking (2), learning (2), dance (2), particularly (2), evaporated (2), smaller (2), longer (2), express (2), emotions (2), yelling (2), thanks (2), endless (2), theme (2), show (2), between (2), completely (2), ridiculous (2), minor (2), sit (2), table (2), none (2), decided (2), fair (2), gets (2), swish (2), making (2), beaver (2), seems (2), low (2), efficiency (2), dump (2), upgrading (2), detail (2), crew (2), suddenly (2), die (2), frustrated (2), building (2), sporadically (2), cold (2), everyone (2), drag (2), renewals (2), grit (2), definitely (2), completed (2), sat (2), ultimately (2), staff (2), several (2), mentor (2), lots (2), sufficient (2), loop (2), offer (2), supports (2), course (2), including (2), learned (2), visit (2), grandparents (2), published (2), within (2), nor (2), pass (2), pages (2), informed (2), hear (2), gave (2), mix (2), local (2), meet (2), give (2), right (2), undergrad (2), whom (2), review (2), relief (2), endeavour (2), perfectly (2), tests (2), holiday (2), counsellor (2), expectations (2), myself (2), lasted (2), indoor (2), failing (2), navigated (2), stress (2), changing (2), maybe (2), weight (2), missed (2), healthy (2), size (2), caught (2), seven (2), break (2), friends (2), raised (2), stubborn (2), standing (2), slow (2), connection (2), parent (2), brother (2), reality (2), goofy (2), events (2), upset (2), wise (2), connect (2), virus (2), dose (2), covid (2), trial (2), serious (2), complaints (2), household (2), children (2), stepped (2), discovered (2), communication (2), smile (2), jokes (2), given (2), shirts (2), backwards (2), insist (2), face (2), giggle (2), capable (2), interested (2), readers (2), letters (2), seemed (2), hint (2), chirp (2), forward (2), boomerang (2), remain (2), growing (2), giggling (2), spring (2), sitting (2), surprise (2), station (2), couch (2), cushions (2), listening (2), lego (2), vehicles (2), kits (2), sized (2), mornings (2), weekend (2), visits (2), lockdown (2), blue (2), colour (2), train (2), bike (2), monthly (2), milestones (2), deal (2), floor (2), independent (2), poop (2), potty (2), diapers (2), toilet (2), omicron (2), woke (2), vomiting (2), mid (2), name, comment, loading, collapse, report, subscriptions, reader, privacy, subscribed, subscribe, entries, meta, categories, countingpinklines, select, search, navigation, marker, gear, organized, packed, glad, second, hates, problematic, trip, planned, bubbly, sides, mesh, mash, firmly, rails, unsupervised, solution, rejected, nap, unexpected, prioritize, meaningful, fashion, sensory, deprivation, coupled, cardio, lastingly, anxiety, swum, regularly, phd, staple, decade, universities, hassle, showers, locker, figure, chance, relax, scenery, exploring, neither, gravitate, cottages, choice, via, conservation, area, hot, hike, picnic, renting, sport, backyard, ontarians, flooded, rental, market, lucky, savvy, helped, decent, shot, booking, owner, chatted, especially, ages, lovely, cool, intensely, rainy, threatening, crops, west, string, row, luck, walks, rail, trail, jaunts, boating, shore, wading, private, perfect, clock, hopeful, accomplished, ruefully, laughing, prospect, punished, alone, figured, plausible, side, editing, desk, column, deadline, driven, wait, til, administrivia, harder, prevent, paid, appropriately, burnout, completing, formality, style, amidst, meetings, conference, problem, delay, overflows, weekly, goal, sits, largely, unchanged, finished, laughingly, becoming, rolling, meals, case, shoe, drops, smooth, sailing, smiles, threw, injured, specifications, terrible, horrible, stated, calmly, contentedly, grandmother, wednesdays, plussed, thursday, spending, trading, thursdays, note, plain, chips, onna, coffee, tea, starbuck, evening, cactus, wren, hmmmm, gilded, flicker, flips, glossary, finds, squints, anyone, watching, resorted, sending, drawings, insisting, couldn, earshot, funnier, wrong, fallen, corrected, purposefully, park, meaning, north, inland, geologically, land, mass, abundant, freshwater, hopes, mitigating, experience, climate, taking, uptick, affront, actual, wide, aggrieved, basically, spoke, direct, questions, happening, shy, educators, excitedly, later, aggressively, chanted, entirety, anna, dewdney, excavator, wondering, tested, therapy, introverted, struggles, empathetic, situation, charming, engaged, changes, exceedingly, foray, rotating, door, collectively, guessed, guard, perilously, coping, applying, mat, tactics, laser, focus, occasional, noise, admin, subsume, worse, contact, stint, exposure, test, reported, negative, dodged, exhausting, wracking, modus, operandi, precious, procrastinated, split, hour, tiktok, woman, saying, wife, whether, state, husband, strengthen, bond, myriad, achieving, motherhood, accomplishment, mired, checkboxes, shoes, lunches, balanced, outside, reminder, busiest, season, deeper, moments, dedicatedly, cherish, boundaries, bits, goes, waves, ins, inner, circle, overdid, trough, weekends, relaxed, adjust, busier, writing, extra, luckily, inclement, scuttled, number, reschedule, spread, critically, monkey, team, reassigned, recruiter, emails, companies, straight, gearing, project, fizzle, assigned, office, forcibly, teams, performing, promotion, round, constantly, risen, eat, dairy, nuts, nut, substitutes, adapting, walnut, sourdough, seedy, filling, pantry, seeds, spreads, enriched, flours, bake, tahini, coconut, bliss, balls, date, baked, granola, bars, mainly, afternoon, snack, carbohydrates, contain, semblance, complex, nutrition, smells, offerings, suspicion, eating, happily, introspecting, examining, pieces, memoire, rehab, recovery, depictions, resonate, strongly, rooted, remove, requirement, caution, vigilance, agrees, information, claims, chicken, excrement, tables, reluctantly, false, counts, eats, runs, vegetables, suspiciously, allotted, tiger, elaborate, concurrent, violent, phase, results, relieved, punching, goalie, preventing, lobbed, objects, hitting, ceilings, vastly, preferable, enjoyable, thunderstorm, draw, hurricanes, dinosaur, sweatshirt, backpack, teachers, hurricanisaurus, tornadactyl, collaboration, selectively, neat, enjoying, interacting, stammer, continues, gotten, touch, vast, majority, telling, however, happened, contrary, unner, dinner, snuggle, tells, daily, pressed, likes, cot, particular, beautiful, dada, periodically, server, installations, dead, aggravatedly, pushing, buttons, anymore, platform, creaky, updating, look, removing, components, enjoyed, use, bet, slang, apiece, record, overdue, harmed, shaped, pixels, uncharacteristic, gaffe, absurdist, example, piling, decision, marshal, increase, activity, rigorously, staffing, hale, hearty, misread, bigger, wandered, downstairs, alive, mechanic, missing, hadn, losing, wouldn, drought, upon, examination, lack, prioritizing, keeping, manned, pumps, running, playing, charge, yes, dams, engineer, flow, farm, stores, periodic, key, resource, death, chuckle, loud, sixth, lovingly, bestowed, funniest, brings, foundational, funding, load, submitting, tenure, ugly, plan, shall, bean, counting, flexibility, empathy, fatigue, survive, usual, service, safety, inspections, seminar, series, video, calls, voted, matters, hiring, large, ball, drop, position, leadership, resulted, dissolution, best, counselled, burn, doom, scrolling, therapist, helpful, outlet, fire, taken, advice, struggling, anticipate, boss, motivate, productivity, feedback, slack, harm, clear, constant, reminders, left, grants, define, directions, offered, scope, such, unpredictable, backdrop, federal, government, unfortunate, debuting, programs, lead, unstable, portals, shifting, formats, precisely, zero, triage, internal, renewal, fancy, simple, phew, nine, international, locations, folks, spots, overall, share, easier, hoc, terms, departmental, innovation, performative, its, difficulties, vocal, opposition, place, recruited, grad, convinced, msc, fantastic, fourth, promise, type, struggle, reasonably, permanent, stably, afford, graduate, flight, phds, articles, represent, original, finally, newer, collaborations, efficiently, advent, hopefully, annual, recaps, busy, productive, lull, chronicling, honest, hell, growth, pain, endurance, envision, equally, difficult, quailing, idea, muster, gumption, reserves, financial, resources, buy, problems, pile, rapid, counter, procured, expense, safely, dearly, followed, lightened, burden, across, board, fingers, crossed, stabilized, managing, hold, fears, brain, exclusively, invested, validate, thoughts, valuable, leaving, enjoy, oriented, rely, allowing, integrity, inform, assumptions, accepting, variations, graciously, openly, nursing, stretches, third, lose, schools, pivoting, virtual, announced, else, invited, mom, younger, hangouts, travelling, seeing, renovations, stock, aspects, discovering, authors, shout, turia, jemisin, recommendation, balancing, mine, strategic, health, system, seizures, kicking, petit, mal, occasionally, seizure, breath, holding, barrage, explicitly, concerning, generally, advanced, development, monitoring, added, complications, hospitals, desperately, dealing, diagnosis, gained, scale, batteries, died, holidays, resurrect, weaning, meant, attempting, incorporate, twenty, cheese, spoiler, colds, snacking, sort, gain, absolute, loathing, clothes, shopping, keeps, convenience, category, hilarious, gains, losses, pregnancies, fell, fitness, wagon, shoulder, injury, speed, lunge, tractioned, brachial, plexus, ended, pins, needles, permanently, dominant, hand, physio, normal, yay, visited, hospital, brutally, unfair, sets, grandkids, tow, extended, windows, established, regular, hang, leaned, network, usually, confidante, supporter, friendships, sisters, bedrocks, opinionated, essentially, massively, expanded, higher, jump, reason, impetus, weaned, mourn, loss, thoroughly, dietary, slooooowly, grow, nature, cuddly, physical, remained, beliefs, attempts, reconcile, tussles, countenance, logic, sunshiney, bear, hug, kind, mercurial, mischievous, gregarious, brave, handful, choose, hands, moody, imaginative, focused, allllmost, fewer, taught, himself, landmarks, knowing, destructive, default, approach, favourite, parenting, appreciate, resilience, general, keeled, personality, tumultuous, punny, concepts, bath, infect, pure, biology, brilliance, answer, human, kinda, sorta, bacterial, safe, under, conditions, become, expert, navigating, vaccine, appointment, systems, hunger, esque, satisfaction, scoring, appointments, hunting, thus, vaccination, sunday, eligible, boosters, booked, tomorrow, pfizer, group, recover, extending, amid, wave, bleak, revelations, overhauls, strife, reconciliation, doozy, external, pressures, main, inequitable, distribution, surface, admitting, seated, abandonment, resentment, dynamic, unpleasant, ensued, broken, alienation, parts, antagonistic, redistribution, 100, responsibility, laundry, works, methods, error, sleepless, angry, addressed, toxic, patterns, reestablish, benefit, doubt, counsellors, warm, continually, improve, ton, moon, puns, quirky, snuggly, calm, cherished, earned, loving, generous, overly, rough, adores, beings, coexist, meantime, restore, stolen, direction, quell, madcap, chasing, starts, successfully, character, wear, inside, underwear, purpose, pajama, hat, worried, flushed, morph, dups, versions, ourselves, amam, absurdity, independently, gentle, highly, reliable, nudges, teach, yourself, companion, library, dad, sound, rules, lost, refused, guess, books, memorized, staring, laugh, pun, drive, looking, contents, bother, turned, card, aloud, crackers, leap, come, handing, joke, hesitation, amazed, instill, bored, alphabet, unexpectedly, erratically, classroom, screaming, initially, felt, tucked, perched, warmed, engaging, activities, class, girl, lives, street, developing, understanding, sounds, tip, iceberg, creative, pursuits, steal, camera, roll, scenic, tours, featuring, throw, floors, areas, knees, favorite, playlists, quietly, poking, seconds, song, recently, wanting, laptop, asking, spelling, maniac, involve, cows, caps, videos, coaster, chief, dear, boy, obsessed, builder, magnatiles, cardboard, rocks, grew, oddly, constructed, creating, study, symmetrically, decorated, rebuilt, medium, owns, grandfather, ridiculously, rollercoaster, rented, dock, screw, courage, boated, shop, houses, reconnect, exception, car, ride, causes, fever, likely, classes, sources, stands, jay, feeders, played, hunt, adults, pull, sled, snow, rounds, pulling, outposts, deck, watch, arrive, binoclears, forts, gorilla, cages, pillows, cribs, bug, hunted, assiduously, pill, bugs, slugs, blessed, abundance, conquered, neighbourhood, scooter, learn, peddle, ready, admit, hikes, playgrounds, open, rolled, punches, admirably, stretching, limbs, lean, body, holds, chubby, cheeks, hair, unmanageable, mop, numerous, salon, curls, disappeared, eyes, shifted, closer, green, amber, starbursts, middle, depending, wearing, eyed, expressive, energy, vim, believe, detailed, hood, seem, distinguished, ends, aged, newsletters, received, chapter, dearest, proud, sometimes, weepy, stressful, mildly, messy, reduction, garbage, produced, satisfying, accidents, unprompted, unnerving
Text of the page (random words):
s starting to try to connect big concepts today in the bath he asked me if there were viruses who infect viruses and if you had a virus that was sick if it would make you more sick pure biology brilliance answer not for human viruses and only kinda sorta for bacterial viruses raised a silly stubborn opinionated 1 5 year old into essentially the same 2 5 year old just with a massively expanded vocabulary and higher standing jump sprout came into life with a firm sense of self and has not seen reason or impetus to change yet i weaned her this year which was a slow but easy process i didn t mourn the loss of connection like i did with spud i was thoroughly sick of the dietary restrictions which she did slooooowly grow out of over the rest of the year and sprout is by nature a cuddly kid so that physical connection remained she is a very different challenge to parent than her brother as she is so very firm in her toddler beliefs of what should happen and attempts to reconcile her toddler reality with well reality are ongoing tussles in our days she does not countenance logic nor restrictions she is funny in a sunshiney goofy dance bear hug kind of way and mercurial and mischievous and gregarious and brave she s a handful and would choose to take up both hands if we let her leaned on my network more than i usually do i am more often the counsellor confidante supporter in my friendships i needed those things this year and found the people who could be that for me my sisters as bedrocks for everything and some really excellent friends as well visited my father three times including with the kids twice which was better than last year but not much of a panacea for his seven months of total isolation in a hospital room this pandemic has been brutally unfair to him saw pea s two sets of parents twice each in person and with grandkids in tow saw my mother for some extended windows and established a more regular hang out for her and spud we missed her dedicated days this holiday break as spud had a cold but we will make them up in the new year got pretty fit for a while and then a bit less fit and then fell off the fitness wagon entirely with a shoulder nerve injury caught spud in a full speed lunge off a bed tractioned my brachial plexus ended up with pins and needles permanently in my dominant hand went to physio for eight weeks and am back to mostly normal yay self care maybe gained a bit of weight my scale s batteries have died and i decided that the holidays were not the time to resurrect it weaning sprout meant finding a new balance with food and attempting to incorporate twenty months of missed cheese in a healthy way spoiler it was not healthy but it was very soul soothing with the kids home for almost the whole fall with various colds i found myself stress snacking i know this is something i can sort out quickly and weight gain isn t bad but my absolute loathing of clothes shopping keeps me more or less the same size for convenience this category made more sense when i could post hilarious massive gains or losses because of pregnancies navigated our health care system in a pandemic with a toddler who suddenly started having seizures kicking it off with a set of petit mal ones that lasted much too long sprout is still very occasionally having a minor seizure after a breath holding pass out a barrage of tests show nothing explicitly concerning and her generally advanced development means we re just monitoring for now added stress and complications of timelines and time in hospitals where we really desperately do not want to be was not great all around but so far we are not dealing with a life changing diagnosis read a lot more after discovering a few new authors shout out to turia for the n k jemisin recommendation balancing a new book and sufficient sleep remains a failing of mine so i still have to be strategic about when i can start one spent a week at a cottage and invited my mom and younger sister for a few days the first indoor family hangouts we d had for over a year no other travelling aside from seeing family and no house renovations either really a quiet year while we took stock of other aspects of life plus the pandemic found a better work life balance with no more nursing and then with kids actually out of the house for stretches of the last third of the year i am sure to lose it with schools pivoting virtual not yet announced but nothing else makes any sense at all right now it was nice while it lasted continued to see my counsellor even once things had stabilized with pea and made some progress in managing the expectations i hold myself to and the fears i allow to take up space in my brain having someone who is exclusively invested in my positive progress validate or challenge my thoughts or actions has been an interesting and valuable process i m working on leaving space to enjoy life within the detail oriented planning that i rely on allowing my personal sense of integrity to inform my actions rather than my assumptions of others expectations and on accepting variations to my plans more graciously and openly it was to be perfectly honest a hell of a year it required a lot of personal growth pain grit and endurance i m very tired i m still a work in progress i envision a different but possibly equally difficult year next year and am quailing at the idea of having to muster gumption for it i know i have reserves and supports and if need be the financial resources to buy my way out of problems e g the pile of rapid tests on my counter procured at ridiculous expense that allowed us to see family more safely this holiday i d so dearly love for a tough winter to be followed by a lightened burden across the board fingers crossed this entry was posted in uncategorized on december 30 2021 by labmonkeyftw end of year update professional leave a reply it s been a busy few months at work and a productive few months which often means a lull in my blog i do still want to keep this blog going as a space for chronicling our days so will endeavour to write here more often before spud s birthday and the advent of 2022 hopefully not 2020 too my annual recaps starting with professional this year i published eight articles six of which represent work from my lab five of which are original research and one review this is a deep relief to have some of our older projects finally out in the world and to have newer collaborations coming online quickly and efficiently recruited three grad students and one undergrad and then convinced that undergrad to stay for an msc starting next year so far three of the four are completely fantastic and the fourth has promise but is a work type that i struggle to mentor my lab is now 12 and as big as i can reasonably manage without more permanent staff whom i cannot stably afford yet three are set to graduate in 2022 my first flight of phds as part of an ad hoc committee wrote the terms for a departmental edi committee am now the chair of said edi committee this is probably good i care about edi done right and a lot of innovation u s edi work is performative but has its difficulties as there was some small but vocal opposition to the committee in the first place gave nine talks all online and a nice mix of local and international locations fun to meet with some folks at other spots probably too many talks overall but we had fun stories to share with all the papers coming out and not having to travel for 1 4 days to give a talk means it s much much easier to do wrote a massive grant which i should hear about any day now wrote in 24 hours the internal renewal form 10 pages for my fancy chair i thought it was a simple one page form only to be informed i don t have to start that process until february of this coming year phew wrote no other grants aside from two renewals as i just did not have it in me to define new research directions within the timelines offered nor to scope out work with such an unpredictable backdrop the federal government has an unfortunate new habit of debuting grant programs with three week lead times unstable portals and shifting application formats and requirements these pass precisely zero of my triage points for should i write this grant so i have sat them out ran my course entirely online including an at home lab for the first time it went really well which is good because i learned it would be going back to online for next semester 24 hours before we left to visit grandparents for a week at christmas and 14 days before i have to have the course website set and published counselled all of my students and staff at various points about burn out and doom scrolling and how having a therapist can be a helpful outlet even when the world isn t on fire several have mentioned they have taken this advice my crew is struggling and i anticipate another hard year as their boss and mentor lots of ways to motivate sufficient productivity to get into the positive feedback loop of getting things done and feeling good about getting things done lots of slack to offer when trying to find that loop is doing more harm than good firm fair and clear and constant reminders of the supports available completed all the usual service tasks safety committee inspections ran the seminar series online for the year sat on video calls and voted on various matters plus was on a hiring committee for a new colleague i let one rather large ball drop and so did every other person in a position of leadership and it resulted in the dissolution of a big thing which i also ultimately think was for the best survived it will be on balance an excellent year for bean counting it was a tough one though and asked a lot of me in flexibility and grit and empathy and fatigue my bar was to survive and i ve definitely managed that next year brings two massive renewals my research chair and my foundational funding grant as well as teaching my full load and submitting my tenure brief it s going to be ugly but i see it coming and have a plan we shall see this entry was posted in uncategorized on december 27 2021 by labmonkeyftw funniest thing all week 4 replies today was the sixth day of the last ten working days where at least one kid was home sick or in isolation sprout has lovingly bestowed her cold on me as well so everyone is starting to drag a bit so here is the thing that has been making me chuckle out loud sporadically for the last week pea is playing a new world building game where he is in charge of a family of beavers yes really they have to build dams and engineer water flow and farm food and build up stores for the periodic droughts water is a key resource and can be life or death for your beavers pea kept losing all his beavers they wouldn t even be in a drought and they would all suddenly die upon examination it was lack of water pea was frustrated as he had chosen to build the larger pump option and was prioritizing upgrading them and keeping them manned at all times and still no water plus the pumps were running at 5 14 efficiency which was frustrating pea explained this all to me in detail as he wandered downstairs to try once again to keep his beaver crew alive he was sure there was some game mechanic he was missing but hadn t found it yet he came back up that night with hale and hearty beavers it turns out he had misread something the bigger water pump option was not a pump it was a water dump every time his beavers ran low on water he would marshal them to the dumps and increase the dumps activity he was rigorously upgrading staffing through the nights the dumps were working at so low efficiency because there wasn t any more water to dump it is an uncharacteristic gaffe for pea but it s mostly funny to me as an absurdist example of the piling on behind a bad decision that always seems to happen no beavers were harmed in the making of this post only a few beaver shaped pixels this entry was posted in uncategorized on october 5 2021 by labmonkeyftw update update overdue 1 reply three bullet points apiece because life is moving quickly and it s nice to have a record except i cannot make bullet points anymore in wordpress this platform is starting to make me feel creaky and old because they keep updating it to look more swish but keep removing components i enjoyed and use i bet swish isn t even slang any more this update brought to you by late night server installations because there s a lot of dead time in between aggravatedly pushing buttons sprout 1 sprout s stammer has completely evaporated in the past three months so that s that she continues to have a ridiculous vocabulary 2 using that vocabulary sprout has gotten in touch with her emotions and spends the vast majority of her time telling us i m sad whenever anything however minor has happened that is contrary to her world view sprout i am going to get off my chair and sit unner a table me pea no sprout you have to stay on your chair at dinner sprout i m sad i need a snuggle from mama gets off chair 3 sprout tells us daily that she doesn t like daycare when pressed she says she likes the food playground people her little cot naps some of the toys and that there are other kids but none of the other kids in particular when asked what she doesn t like about daycare she says i have beautiful days there pea and i have decided what she means is that daycare is not as much fun as being at home with nanny c and with mama and dada there at lunch and periodically through the day which fair spud 1 spud is liking kindergarten we don t get any information from him aside from claims they are learning the chicken dance every day and that there is excrement on the lunch tables both of which we eventually reluctantly had to ask his teacher about false on both counts he is pleased to go he eats his entire lunch except when he runs out of time and then it is the vegetables he doesn t particularly like that suspiciously had no more time allotted he came home one day with a drawing of a tiger on top of someone s head which was the most elaborate drawing we ve seen from him 2 concurrent with spud liking kindergarten spud s intense violent phase of the past 2 months has evaporated big transitions are hard when you are four but you aren t allowed to take it out on your mother or your smaller sister when that isn t getting results i am much relieved to no longer be a punching bag or goalie preventing lobbed objects from hitting sprout we are working with him to find other ways to express emotions there s a lot of yelling at ceilings at the moment which is vastly preferable but still not particularly enjoyable 3 spud got quite into extreme weather this summer thanks to the endless thunderstorm and tornado warnings i draw him little notes in his lunch boxes on a theme each week last week was weather and after three notes on hurricanes and the like and on a day when he had chosen dinosaur pants t shirt sweatshirt lunchbox and backpack to have a theme day so i can show my teachers...
|
