pssst....I'm still here.  ;)

Spent some of last night and most of today so far in front of the computer.  I'm about on track for the goals I set for the weekend.  Now all I've got to do is keep the momentum going. I've one assignment (due tomorrow) a little less than half done, another (due next week) almost completely done and a third that I spent a good hour on, though it hasn't even gotten out of the gate yet.  Clearly I need to rethink my strategy on that one.  Also refined my list of places to look for internships, but I wanna give that another hour or two this weekend as well.


Not that you needed to know all that.  I just needed to type it.  You know how it is. Keeping my tenuous grasp on reality and all that jazz.

In other "news", I'm still dreadful at identifying bony landmarks.  And also at keeping my sink clear of scuzzy dishes. But today, unlike last week (sorry about that again, btw), I am ok with that.

Mom and Mar and the whole gang at home are doing ok...power in and out, no gas and so on just like everyone else but no major catastrophes that I know of.  Hope you all are hangin' in there as well.

Whining...feel free to ignore

I'm exhausted.  It's not even two in the afternoon, and I could absolutely fall asleep right here at my desk if I let myself.  The ridiculous part, though, is how much stuff I'm not managing to get done despite the fact that I feel like I'm spending all of my time trying really hard to be a useful member of society.  I have a midterm do in just over 24 hours that's maybe halfway done, there's an Osteology quiz on Monday that could easily mop the floor with me, and when I look at my inbox and the pile of papers on my desk I kinda wanna cry. .

Help.

Is this how it's supposed to be?  Going and going and getting nowhere?  I need to figure out what I can do to mitigate this hamster-wheel situation.  I don't know what's me and what's grad school life. I just know that I'm friggin' tired.

Cleaned the apartment for the first time since I moved in.  It feels quite nice to live like a human being. Coffee's on the stove and I'm about to settle in for a bit with Randi's copy of Guns, Germs and Steel, which it actually assigned reading for my Molecular Anthro Class.  Yet another reminder that I belong here.  ;)

After that, I'm heading to a great little mystical shop to see about spending part of the generous gift certificate Mark and Claire gave me when I moved, then to drop off some books to the Salvation Army.  I've decided to give books away as soon as I finish reading them, so that maybe someday I won't be moving around the country with two suitcases of clothes and a cabin stacked with books.  I hear you can get a lot of info off the interwebs nowadays anyway.


Happy Saturday, lovely readers (Allegedly, there are TWO of you now!!).  Enjoy your weekend.  It's a new season- let's make it awesome.

I can't even believe how much stuff I let happen since the last post without writing it down.  At first I was too frazzled- I literally had to check my planner to make sure I knew what day it was. Then I was grumpy because my original local living arrangement imploded in a rather impressive way, which still might or might not end in some sort of legal whatnot. I don't wanna talk about it 'cause it still stresses me out. Now I'm just regular old busy, for the most part.

The important thing is that I'm still here. I'm in a really nice little apartment now, keeping up (mostly) on my assignments and slowly-but-surely getting over my fear that I'm going to be fired from my GA-ship ANY MINUTE NOW. I don't always feel completely on top of everything, but I'm keeping my shit together way better than I might have a few years ago.

More thoughts on Evo Psych

Ok, lots of stuff.  This one's not ready for the public, but I'm putting it out there anyway.  Thoughts and comments would be very much appreciated here.  I'm thinking about how EP is FUNDAMENTALLY not the same as other evolutionary sciences.  We are not talking about discrete variable or even things that can be tracked on a simple linear continuum (pigmentation or whatever).  Personality and behavior are SO intrinsically multifaceted that it's hard enough just to pin down what you are even looking at.  Should a discipline be penalized for trying to study something that is simply really, really hard to fully grasp?  Everything I said last time still stands- I'm not saying there's not a long way to go and that proponents of EP don't need to step up their game, maybe, but the field is really just starting out. Statistically significant results are usually worth looking at in a larger context.  They might not always (or even often...who knows) meant precisely what EP authors suggest that that mean, but I think it's worth finding out 1. What they DO really and truly suggest from a scientific standpoint and 2. what we can do to further contextualize those findings and build something more convincing from them.

Taking a Step Back from Evolutionary Psychology

I keep wanting to read when I know I should be writing. I think it's because something I'm poking at in my brain that's going to take effort and honesty and might make me look stupid to some, so I'm trying to avoid it. This morning I came to a conclusion that I have been fighting for a long time- I am not 100% on board with Evolutionary Psychology.  (I know...this is huge...try to contain your shock, everyone.) The other day I read this over at Denim and Tweed and although my first response was one of of righteous indignation (something at which I naturally excel), I've been nagged ever since by the supremely annoying thought that he might be right. More importantly, he might be right in a way that matters to the framework I'm trying to build for myself within science. So I'm thinking I have to restructure my beliefs a bit, and that is something at which I'm not very good at all.

Here's where I was-  Evolutionary Psychology is groundbreaking and wonderful! It explains everything and people who don't see it are afraid of the truth underlying human nature. Idiots.  I want to marry Evolutionary Psychology!

Now before you start thinking that I felt this way because I'm naive or willfully ignorant and content to skate by with a superficial understanding of both evolution and the scientific method, I feel the need to tell you that... that is only a little bit true.  My attachment to Evo Psych comes from a number of sources, not the least of which is the fact that it was the topic that finally drove me headlong into a love affair with Anthropology and human evolution. I will always value it, also, for the unapologetic way that it allows for such a range of interdisciplinary lines of inquiry.  I will never fall head over heels for a field that is hell bent on setting knowledge-limiting boundaries for the sake of clarity.  It strikes me as a cop-out. It also strikes me as no fun at all.  But here's where I am now-  I'm coming to realize now that while it's true that science can and should be about pushing the limits of what we can learn, that should never come at the expense of responsible, well-executed, high quality research. And it is undeniable that a lot of Evolutionary Psychology studies fall short in this area.

I would love to find evidence that my weakness for musicians comes from the  impressive reproductive fitness signals "hidden" in their songs, or explain away my myriad neuroses by their formerly adaptive qualities*, but if I'm honest with myself I have to admit that I'm not sold.  Any claim of the evolutionary heritage of a given trait should be backed up by some kind of genetic data- or at the very least, people should be LOOKING for some kind of genetic data.  Otherwise it's really just a lot of speculation.  Visionary speculation.  Intriguing and convincing speculation, but still speculation.  That's not to say that we should stop looking at these things, just that we need to look for actual empirical evidence rather than making leaps and assumptions all over the place to fill in the blanks, however logical those leaps might seem.

It is precisely because I respect the discipline of Evolutionary Psychology that I want its practitioners to try harder to play on the same field as the other biological sciences. When someone comes along with some snarky commentary like Jeremy did (and countless others have), I want to be able to hang on to my righteous indignation without feeling like a fraud.


*Quick and dirty examples. I'm sorry.  I don't have original articles with me here at work, and I'm probably screwing up something somewhere in there...regardless, my point remains the same.