Tonight's 11 o'clock news on Channel 7:
1. body found in backyard
2. oil shortage may lead to drilling in arctic wildlife reserve
3. officer shot and brain-dead; leaves behind 7-month pregnant wife
4. exchange student beaten
5. mother of six shot & killed
6. 73 killed in Japan train crash
Better news:
According to the SF Chronicle reporter I spoke to today, we're doing a good job with publicity for our higher education budget efforts. That makes me happy.
25 April 2005
21 April 2005
death of a dream
In another life, I would never be an actress.
Not that I haven't had my fantasies of the Broadway life, but doomed as I am with a breathy singing voice, a poor memory, and a tendency to blush at random, I haven't got a snowball's chance in hell.
I get my little shots at the big time through my advocacy work for the university. Yesterday, scores of students walked out of classes or held demonstrations to protest fee increases and budget cuts to higher education. In Sacramento, on the lawn of the Capitol, about 120 students held a mock funeral for the untimely death of the California Dream (in the Governator sense), and yours truly was (what do you call the emcee of a funeral service?) the one who set the tone for the event. Previous ideas had been, um, a bit more violent -- I asserted that tombstones marking the death of Californians' dreams would be morbid, yes, but perhaps more effective than a bloodbath. All in all, I think the press conference/event came off remarkably well; the coffin barely made it, and CSU San Marcos brought their Cougar mascot (where was Oski, you ask?), but the point was made. And as you'll see below, the AP picked up the story (Michelle calls to say, "Gimme a quote, Jen -- and, hey, are you going to be Student Regent next year?!?") and it went national (it's surreal to think that someone in London or Oaklahoma City heard my quote).
Silly? Yes. How silly did I feel when I saw the UC Provost walk past as we set up the tombstones? Quite, but it didn't stop me from running to her for a quick chat. But you never know what good a silly act might do. At least I got to stretch my acting wings.
And I didn't blush.
Students march, hold mock funeral to protest funding cuts
By MICHELLE LOCKE, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
(04-20) 16:19 PDT Berkeley, Calif. (AP) --
College students marched and rallied at campuses across the state and held a mock funeral Wednesday on the steps of the state Capitol to protest cuts in higher education funding. The event, organized by leaders in all three of California's public higher education systems, was timed to coincide with a legislative hearing on education finances.
"Years and years of successive budget cuts have made it harder and harder for Californians to achieve the educational opportunity that they deserve and that made California strong in the first place," said Jennifer Lilla, a student at UC San Francisco and president of UC's student association.
The protest drew students from the 10-campus University of California as well as the 23-campus California State University system and the community college system, which serves 2.5 million students. Among other events, students marched in Berkeley, rallied in San Jose and paraded a student in a coffin in Sacramento to demonstrate their contention that the state is forsaking its long tradition of ensuring access to college. At the Sacramento protest, about 100 student "mourners" dressed in black bemoaned what they called the death of the California dream; some set out tombstones reading "R.I.P. Student Access."
UC student fees have increased about 60 percent over the past decade. They rose from about $5,200 (including miscellaneous campus fees) in 2002-03, to the present total of about $6,700 for a student with a full-time class load. CSU, which has 400,000 students and is the nation's largest four-year public university system, also saw a 60 percent fee increase over the last decade. As at UC, fees are going up again this year, to about $3,100 including miscellaneous campus fees. Meanwhile, community college, once free, has gone from $11 a unit two years ago to $26.
The fee hikes are part of a six-year pact worked out last year between the CSU and UC systems and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Universities agreed to make cuts and raise fees in exchange for increases in funding starting this year. Critics say school officials should have fought for more funding. But administrators say the pact was a realistic path out of financial chaos that will help them repair the damage of several years of cuts. California's college officials say their prices are still a bargain compared to similar institutions in other states. But students say that doesn't account for the high cost of living in California.
Jason Spencer, a Cal State Sonoma student, who helped organize the protests Wednesday said money invested in higher education reaps a multiple-fold return to state finances by way of higher-wage earning college graduates and economic growth. "Higher education is an investment in our future," he said.
Not that I haven't had my fantasies of the Broadway life, but doomed as I am with a breathy singing voice, a poor memory, and a tendency to blush at random, I haven't got a snowball's chance in hell.
I get my little shots at the big time through my advocacy work for the university. Yesterday, scores of students walked out of classes or held demonstrations to protest fee increases and budget cuts to higher education. In Sacramento, on the lawn of the Capitol, about 120 students held a mock funeral for the untimely death of the California Dream (in the Governator sense), and yours truly was (what do you call the emcee of a funeral service?) the one who set the tone for the event. Previous ideas had been, um, a bit more violent -- I asserted that tombstones marking the death of Californians' dreams would be morbid, yes, but perhaps more effective than a bloodbath. All in all, I think the press conference/event came off remarkably well; the coffin barely made it, and CSU San Marcos brought their Cougar mascot (where was Oski, you ask?), but the point was made. And as you'll see below, the AP picked up the story (Michelle calls to say, "Gimme a quote, Jen -- and, hey, are you going to be Student Regent next year?!?") and it went national (it's surreal to think that someone in London or Oaklahoma City heard my quote).
Silly? Yes. How silly did I feel when I saw the UC Provost walk past as we set up the tombstones? Quite, but it didn't stop me from running to her for a quick chat. But you never know what good a silly act might do. At least I got to stretch my acting wings.
And I didn't blush.
Students march, hold mock funeral to protest funding cuts
By MICHELLE LOCKE, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
(04-20) 16:19 PDT Berkeley, Calif. (AP) --
College students marched and rallied at campuses across the state and held a mock funeral Wednesday on the steps of the state Capitol to protest cuts in higher education funding. The event, organized by leaders in all three of California's public higher education systems, was timed to coincide with a legislative hearing on education finances.
"Years and years of successive budget cuts have made it harder and harder for Californians to achieve the educational opportunity that they deserve and that made California strong in the first place," said Jennifer Lilla, a student at UC San Francisco and president of UC's student association.
The protest drew students from the 10-campus University of California as well as the 23-campus California State University system and the community college system, which serves 2.5 million students. Among other events, students marched in Berkeley, rallied in San Jose and paraded a student in a coffin in Sacramento to demonstrate their contention that the state is forsaking its long tradition of ensuring access to college. At the Sacramento protest, about 100 student "mourners" dressed in black bemoaned what they called the death of the California dream; some set out tombstones reading "R.I.P. Student Access."
UC student fees have increased about 60 percent over the past decade. They rose from about $5,200 (including miscellaneous campus fees) in 2002-03, to the present total of about $6,700 for a student with a full-time class load. CSU, which has 400,000 students and is the nation's largest four-year public university system, also saw a 60 percent fee increase over the last decade. As at UC, fees are going up again this year, to about $3,100 including miscellaneous campus fees. Meanwhile, community college, once free, has gone from $11 a unit two years ago to $26.
The fee hikes are part of a six-year pact worked out last year between the CSU and UC systems and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Universities agreed to make cuts and raise fees in exchange for increases in funding starting this year. Critics say school officials should have fought for more funding. But administrators say the pact was a realistic path out of financial chaos that will help them repair the damage of several years of cuts. California's college officials say their prices are still a bargain compared to similar institutions in other states. But students say that doesn't account for the high cost of living in California.
Jason Spencer, a Cal State Sonoma student, who helped organize the protests Wednesday said money invested in higher education reaps a multiple-fold return to state finances by way of higher-wage earning college graduates and economic growth. "Higher education is an investment in our future," he said.
16 April 2005
if you don't know how to google...
I've been asked for this, a lot. I don't know how much longer KQED will keep this online; does Krasny's show have groupies that listen to rerun programs on the internet?
Jen on KQED's Forum:
http://www.kqed.org/epArchive/R409290900
Jen on KQED's Forum:
http://www.kqed.org/epArchive/R409290900
14 April 2005
life coaching
I occasionally have days when I am reminded of the many directions my life has threatened to turn but, a choice was made, a path set, and I'm left to wonder about the "what-ifs". Many people dwell on the "what-ifs" years later, and some prohibit themselves from ever making choices out of fear of the "what-ifs"; I am thankful that I've come to a point in my life where I'm not pestered, only very rarely, by the "what-ifs". Today has been such a day.
In my student government role, I've been working a lot lately on interpersonal and organizational dynamics. In the last month, most of my non-science time has been consumed by this stuff. This morning, in the midst of a heavy discussion about structure and communication and introspection and such, it struck me how, despite my choosing a career path that ought to have kept me on a loftily intellectual feelings-free plane, I've once again found myself in the thick of another angst-ridden, emotional situation to resolve. Is fate telling me something? Had I consciously sought to deny my true calling of "the psychiatrist is in" I might start to wonder; but I acknowledged long ago that this seems to be an inescapable part of my nature, and only the environs will change. Friends, family, co-workers, strangers on the MUNI -- it doesn't seem to make any difference. I'm a repository for psyches. Or psychoses, if you're the sort. A vôtre guise. I suppose I'm fortunate, then, to have a poor memory, or else I'd be great at blackmail.
So now, at the end of another failure-ridden day in the laboratory, I ponder the sly job offer I received earlier today. Deb: martial artist, life coach, organizational consultant, sees in me an intuition for the kind of work she does, to the point that she mentioned to her business partner that I'd be someone to recruit. Well, that's peachy, but it doesn't solve my cloning issues! I suppose there should be some comfort in knowing that I've got a useful skill set, to use the corporate phraseology, but how do I reconcile this with the part of me that loves/hates my science? Can one be both intuitive/sensing or judging/perceiving? I've taken the Myers-Briggs test at least three times in my life, and I swear to you each time I've typed differently. Ultimately, it was irreconcilabilities in my own nature that turned me off to psychology; how does one divorce their intellect from their intuition? In me they are fused, refusing categorization.
I digress. What makes me "the most grounded person" to so many people? Even as I write this, my thoughts flit from frustration with my lab work, an evaluation of today, planning tomorrow, a previous night's conversation with my parents (during which I alarmed them, I think, when I said I was writing a blog)...hardly a focused mind. Just so, today it became clear to me that I should be thankful I'm constructed the way I am, and I can trust my choices in life. The paths I've eschewed (editor/psychologist/anthropologist/medical doctor/sane non-scientist) thus far I don't regret; the paths ahead are many.
Hm. I wonder how much life coaches make in a year?
In my student government role, I've been working a lot lately on interpersonal and organizational dynamics. In the last month, most of my non-science time has been consumed by this stuff. This morning, in the midst of a heavy discussion about structure and communication and introspection and such, it struck me how, despite my choosing a career path that ought to have kept me on a loftily intellectual feelings-free plane, I've once again found myself in the thick of another angst-ridden, emotional situation to resolve. Is fate telling me something? Had I consciously sought to deny my true calling of "the psychiatrist is in" I might start to wonder; but I acknowledged long ago that this seems to be an inescapable part of my nature, and only the environs will change. Friends, family, co-workers, strangers on the MUNI -- it doesn't seem to make any difference. I'm a repository for psyches. Or psychoses, if you're the sort. A vôtre guise. I suppose I'm fortunate, then, to have a poor memory, or else I'd be great at blackmail.
So now, at the end of another failure-ridden day in the laboratory, I ponder the sly job offer I received earlier today. Deb: martial artist, life coach, organizational consultant, sees in me an intuition for the kind of work she does, to the point that she mentioned to her business partner that I'd be someone to recruit. Well, that's peachy, but it doesn't solve my cloning issues! I suppose there should be some comfort in knowing that I've got a useful skill set, to use the corporate phraseology, but how do I reconcile this with the part of me that loves/hates my science? Can one be both intuitive/sensing or judging/perceiving? I've taken the Myers-Briggs test at least three times in my life, and I swear to you each time I've typed differently. Ultimately, it was irreconcilabilities in my own nature that turned me off to psychology; how does one divorce their intellect from their intuition? In me they are fused, refusing categorization.
I digress. What makes me "the most grounded person" to so many people? Even as I write this, my thoughts flit from frustration with my lab work, an evaluation of today, planning tomorrow, a previous night's conversation with my parents (during which I alarmed them, I think, when I said I was writing a blog)...hardly a focused mind. Just so, today it became clear to me that I should be thankful I'm constructed the way I am, and I can trust my choices in life. The paths I've eschewed (editor/psychologist/anthropologist/medical doctor/sane non-scientist) thus far I don't regret; the paths ahead are many.
Hm. I wonder how much life coaches make in a year?
12 April 2005
cloning gods be praised
Thanks to anyone who sent a good thought; my latest cloning step worked. Now, just one more to go. Seriously, this molecular biology business is enough to make me find religion. These days, I find myself fervently sending wishes to anyone who might be listening, and it is starting to annoy my analytical self that knows, quite certainly, that solely diligence, with a dash of flexibility and creativity, will bring me my desired result. However, can it hurt to think that some cosmic force may have the ability to tinker with my benchwork, and thus my pious thoughts aren't so useless? Hm.
11 April 2005
dumb things you do in the laboratory
I think I've found a new use for this blog...it will be something to occupy my brain when I've done something dumb in the lab...like tonight's fatigue-induced error: using the wrong buffer for my electrophoresis.
Today I spent most of my day in a meeting at the UC Office of the President...another day like today and I might be convinced that I'm not cut out for administrative life. If I hear the words "restructure", "affairs", or "strategic planning" strung together so many times in a discussion again, I'll start speaking in tongues. I've not seen so many grown people nodding their heads in unison since the Annie Lennox/Sting concert I attended last year. Slow blinks, head nods, murmurs and grunts of comprehension or approval...it's mass hypnosis or some sort of business body language that I've yet to learn. So strange. Strangest of all, I suppose, was the "oohs" and "aahs" my pithy comments elicited...what does that mean? Is it insult or praise of my logic and thoughtfulness? Hm....
The gel's done...cross your fingers for my cloning....
Today I spent most of my day in a meeting at the UC Office of the President...another day like today and I might be convinced that I'm not cut out for administrative life. If I hear the words "restructure", "affairs", or "strategic planning" strung together so many times in a discussion again, I'll start speaking in tongues. I've not seen so many grown people nodding their heads in unison since the Annie Lennox/Sting concert I attended last year. Slow blinks, head nods, murmurs and grunts of comprehension or approval...it's mass hypnosis or some sort of business body language that I've yet to learn. So strange. Strangest of all, I suppose, was the "oohs" and "aahs" my pithy comments elicited...what does that mean? Is it insult or praise of my logic and thoughtfulness? Hm....
The gel's done...cross your fingers for my cloning....
10 April 2005
midnight musings
Multitasking as usual...I'm setting this up as I talk to my mother. No, we don't usual talk after midnight on a Saturday night, but maybe she's developing my insomnia.
I must emphasize, to both myself and to anyone who reads this, that this will not be dialogue-blog; rather, the title refers to something I either heard once or came up with myself (sometimes it's hard to tell): my definition of a loner. Most of my most profound (and ridiculous) thoughts come at night, when I am trying so very hard to turn off my brain that I might sleep, and the definition came very clearly to me in one of those rapid-fire thought states that comes, usually, around this hour: while most people have an inner monologue, the true loner has an inner dialogue.
Before I'm dismissed as quite cuckoo, this is not to say that my thoughts address my person (unless I have done something rather silly such as today, when I singed my knuckle hairs on two fingers when they came too close to the bunsen burner and my thoughts sternly reprimanded Jennifer for being a stupid clumsy idiot), but that the two to five threads of conscious thought that occupy my brain at any given moment, do, more often than not, cross and share paths and bounce off of one another in a semblance of a jumbled conversation. And, that most of the time, this is quite enough entertainment for me. I suppose, then, that this blog is somewhat of an experiment, to see if it's entertaining to anyone else.
I must emphasize, to both myself and to anyone who reads this, that this will not be dialogue-blog; rather, the title refers to something I either heard once or came up with myself (sometimes it's hard to tell): my definition of a loner. Most of my most profound (and ridiculous) thoughts come at night, when I am trying so very hard to turn off my brain that I might sleep, and the definition came very clearly to me in one of those rapid-fire thought states that comes, usually, around this hour: while most people have an inner monologue, the true loner has an inner dialogue.
Before I'm dismissed as quite cuckoo, this is not to say that my thoughts address my person (unless I have done something rather silly such as today, when I singed my knuckle hairs on two fingers when they came too close to the bunsen burner and my thoughts sternly reprimanded Jennifer for being a stupid clumsy idiot), but that the two to five threads of conscious thought that occupy my brain at any given moment, do, more often than not, cross and share paths and bounce off of one another in a semblance of a jumbled conversation. And, that most of the time, this is quite enough entertainment for me. I suppose, then, that this blog is somewhat of an experiment, to see if it's entertaining to anyone else.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)