"Alaska Girls Kick Ass"

That's a common bumper sticker around here. Even when you see one for the first time, it already sounds like a cliche, but it's still amusing and empowering in an era in which the downfalls of female celebrities are celebrated in supermarket checkout lines.

I blogged before about what it's like to be a girl in engineering, so now I'll talk about what it's like to be a girl in Fairbanks.

1. Chivalry isn't dead. If I pull off the road for any reason, be it to read a map or to take a photo of an interesting view, it won't take long for another car to pull up behind me and ask whether the car and I are okay. I find this very reassuring.

2. I am not a piece of meat. When I was growing up in San Francisco, I got hooted and hollered at almost every time I walked more than a few blocks on any mildly busy sidewalk (not just downtown!). The most disgusting one I can remember was when I was thirteen years old. I was a young thirteen, too; I probably didn't even have sexual feelings yet, I was thin, underdeveloped, and dressed plainly. Anyway, this day I was wearing shorts and a T-shirt, and this grizzly old man with a gruffy voice said to me as we passed each other, "You got pretty legs." I was SO grossed out. Here, people who notice me smile and wave, nothing more, nothing less. I like it that way. The closest I ever got to feeling like a piece of meat was when a guy who works at the supermarket said to me, "You sure are pretty. It's always nice to see you." That's not so disrespectful. That's actually rather nice. I can live with that.

3. I don't wear my nice things any more. There's no point. I would probably be treated worse going about town in nicer clothes, because people here have more respect for humility than they have for sophistication. We have a symphony and an opera, and nice restaurants, too, but no one dresses up for those, either. My silk dresses and Italian shoes sit in the closet. Do I miss them? Sure I do. I won't say I'm above vanity; I may be a geek, but I'm still a human.

4. Last night as I was washing my face before going to bed, I suddenly recalled how I had used to use a product called "astringent" after washing my face. This was basically alcohol that you'd put on a cotton ball and wipe off whatever soap wouldn't clean. My mom, bless her heart, on realizing that I used this stuff, took me to the Clinique counter at Macy's and bought me something from them. So I could now use a cotton ball to wipe very expensive alcohol on my face, instead of using a cotton ball to wipe cheap alcohol on my face. I am now of the belief that whatever soap won't clean belongs there. Life is simpler now. I like it.

The Tough Lives of Retirees

Spring to Summer Observations

1. Now that most of the ground is thawed (the parts that aren't permafrost), the ground is back to functionality. The city is resurfacing all of the dirt roads, so you no longer need a really good bra to drive around (ha, ha). Furthermore, when it rains, the rain can soak through to the earth again. No more puddles of standing water!

2. The world is bursting with green, green, green. The trees have exploded into green, the grass is green, the underbrush is green.

3. When you buy ice cream, you must go directly home. Go figure.

4. Dog crap stinks. Whoda thunk?

Another Interruption to your Silicon2tanana Reportage

I promise I won't make this a habit. I just think you need to see this rescue dog in training. When he grows up, he will be ready to rescue you should you fall victim to an avalanche on your pilgrimage to St. Bernard hospice at St. Bernard Pass, on the the border between Switzerland and Italy.



Have you ever seen such enthusiasm in job training? We should all be so lucky to have such joy in our lives!

Photos about town

Here are some miscellaneous photos.

A ladybug:


Dogs on a motorcycle:


Behbeh reindeer growing up and eating solid food:


Doofi at home:


Busy bee doing her job:


Clouds hanging over the Eastern edge of UAF. For some reason, they just fascinated me that day.


Wild roses I gathered for pressing. I paid dearly for them... they have nasty thorns!


Loot from the Farmer's Market today; basil and strawberry sproutlings:

An Interruption to your Silicon2tanana Reportage

I simply must post this very irrelevant, but very cute photo:



Compliments of the AP. A baby white rhino doing a happy dance at the Dublin Zoo. Now aren't you having a better day already? :)

Cultural Changes

Here is a blog topic I've had up my sleeve for a while now but hadn't gotten around to before now.

A few years ago, I was talking to my graduate adviser from SCU, and I told her that I really enjoyed most of my engineering colleagues. We had so many similar values, that had nothing to do with engineering. And wasn't it a remarkable coincidence? She pointed out, not quite! Actually, I fit a certain profile of people who go into engineering, and it's not just a profile of academic leanings or of personal enjoyment. Sure, most of us are tinkerers, and liked our math and science classes best in high school and college. But there is also a certain sociological profile that a lot of us fit, that sets us apart from other well-respected professions. It's that most of us are from lower to middle income families. A lot of us are from immigrant families. A lot of us are from single-parent households. A lot of us are the first generation of our families to attend college. Thinking it over, I find that this makes perfect sense to me. After all, what drew me into engineering? I loved physics, but didn't want to major in something that would require an advanced degree to make a good income. Of course, that exact same train of thought must have occurred to so many other engineers. A college student with family money probably wouldn't think twice before choosing to major in physics.

The physics community is somewhat different. Quite a few physics PhDs have one or both parents who also have physics PhDs. In fact, I've met more physics people following a family legacy than any other university major. They also tend to come from more financially comfortable families (although not all do!), and tend to innocently assume that their fellow physicists all come from similar circumstances.

I remember once I was chatting with a physics professor (who looks negative in this story but who is actually a very nice man whose company I enjoy immensely), and he said to me, "You are such a bright young lady. I bet your parents are so proud. Are they physicists too?" I was taken aback. For one thing, I feel that at my age, I should no longer be defined by my parents. But the relevant point is that I suddenly felt like I was in a different world! There were so many incorrect assumptions implicit in those three sentences--that my parents were still together, that they were highly educated, that they were proud of ME being highly educated. And he just said it so casually, he didn't mean at all to be insensitive or prying. He simply didn't realize how loaded a topic that could be. I think I stammered out pretty much the truth, while smiling and trying to maintain the levity of the conversation--my father was estranged, my mother actually wasn't proud of me. To say it aloud was shocking in the conversation, and I wished I had had the diplomatic skill to give a more tactful, but equally honest, answer.

No engineer had ever assumed that my parents were proud of me. None of them asked about my parents, knowing that there was equal possibility for my parents to be doctors or drug dealers, or anything in between. It wasn't considered a safe social topic to ask about one's family.

After this conversation, I considered my physics peers for the first time in this new light. Sure enough, they were different on the whole from my engineering peers. It made me pleased to realize that I'd spent nearly a whole year as a "fish out of water," and hadn't noticed until that conversation. It's nice to be able to blend in so genuinely that you don't even feel different yourself! You get to meet more wonderful people that way.

But as much as I like my physics peers, moving into the engineering building did have a feel of homecoming. :)