Foolishness

Some inspiration, for a change. 

And the way to get to the top of the heap in terms of developing original research is to be a fool, because only fools keep trying. You have idea number 1, you get excited, and it flops. Then you have idea number 2, you get excited, and it flops. Then you have idea number 99, you get excited, and it flops. Only a fool would be excited by the 100th idea, but it might take 100 ideas before one really pays off. Unless you're foolish enough to be continually excited, you won't have the motivation, you won't have the energy to carry it through. God rewards fools.
-- Martin Hellman, a discoverer of public key encryption

So, true scientists, Happy April 1st, wherever you are! :)

scientiae-carnival

More ideas for the list

1. buy a small but good camera that I can realistically expect to be able to carry always with me
2. get a small and cheap sewing machine, if there is such a thing
3. sell/donate two old laptops we have at home
4. re-learn parallel parking
5. drive long distance at least once (picking up somebody at the airport would qualify)
6. join a fitness group/club/activity every summer 
7. Go regularly to the swimming pool with my son and teach him to swim
8. start again something I have interrupted a long time ago 
9. do one project on something completely different from what I have done in the past
10. seriously consider (meaning do some research, ask people, etc.) non-academic career choices
11. do a photographic project

Today's list update

1. make a personal webpage
2. upgrade to a king size futon bed
3. scan the best old family pictures
4. sew something
5. publish something on lulu
6. rescue and learn to use grandmother's abandoned sewing machine
7. buy and use a diva cup (when needed: not yet! :) )
8. organize my photos
9. sit for DELF certificate
10. apply for visiting job in husband's city
11. obtain legally valid translation of wedding certificate
12. take a trip by sea with husband and son
13. learn how to give myself a pedicure
14. select carefully and buy a few good skin care products 
15. learn to give a basic haircut

More ideas for the list

1. start a collaboration with people I haven't worked with before
2. go one week without drinking coca-cola 
3. go one week without assuming any artificial sweeteners including the "hidden" ones
4. educate myself about potentially hazardous materials and eliminate them from daily use (especially kitchen utensils, food containers, baby items)
5. collect family stories and biographies and write them down for my child(ren)
6. spend one full day doing something with both my parents 
7. having guests (family and closest friends don't count) for dinner at our home at least five times - this includes practicing appropriate menus
8. apply for and obtain magic card to enter husband's country without visa
9. renew personal documents in country of origin: driver's license, id card, health card
10. buy a house/flat - continent still to be determined
11. start keeping an account of family finances 

A few preliminary ideas for my list

1. take a safe driving course and convince my husband to do the same
   
2. take a CPR class - including infant CPR as well
   
3. get pregnant again
   
4. do at least 10 crafts with/for my son
   
5. learn my husband's language (and his "other language" as  well)
   
6. take my tripod out of the box and use it
   
7. go one month without online shopping
   
8. go one week without eating any packaged food (excluding ingredients like pasta or rice)
9. go on a day hike with husband ad son
10. write a single author scientific paper
11. get involved in at least 2 activities that qualify as teaching experiences
12. decluttering: sell/donate at least 10 books I no longer want, sell/donate at least 5 baby items I don't need, sell/donate at least 5 household items I don't need
13. give blood
14. find a dentist for myself and eventually my son
15. get back in decent shape (I will qualify this as being able to do a complete forward bend, being able to run for thirty minutes without agony, having naturally a god posture throughout the day and being able to do a moderate pilates workout)

1001 days

April 1st 2008 + 1001 days = December 28th 2010

That's a long time... What will I be doing then? One thing that is almost sure is that I will not be where I am now because my postdoc will end sooner than that. Will I be in another postdoc? Will I have a job?!?!? Right... 

The healing power of the list

Today was tough for me in many ways. I realized with more strength than usual that I don't like the idea of training my  child to stay at daycare. At the same time, I had a few conversations with faculty members in my department that left me panicky about my lack of productivity at the moment. Of course as a result I wasn't able to work for the rest of the day. 

On top of this - and I don't want to go into details about this now - I was asked to make some important choices  about my future in the next few days. 

It is all quite sudden and overwhelming, the kind of day that leaves you feeling you don't know where to start trying to make things better. But then, my favorite blog comes to my rescue.  Among various nice links (the one about plastic comes at the right moment for me), Sciencewoman  mentions the 1001 days project.

That's just what I need: a huge to-do-list! I love lists, short term, long terms, it doesn't matter. The fact that I don't necessarily keep up with them doesn't seem to bother me too much either. It's the planning part that counts, the feeling that it is possible to create order and things will look good and doable.

Since I am not a complete fool and I realize that more than ever now I need to focus on work, I am going to do this slowly. For the moment I am only going to set the timeframe and I declare that my 1001 day challenge will start on April 1st 2008.