Boston was my home for a long, long time. I came to the city in the summer of 1998, wanting to get a few months of getting used to the city and working as a research assistant before starting a graduate program at MIT. After I graduated many years later, I stayed in the city working in the patent department at a law firm. I did not leave the city until the end of 2010, when I followed the love of my life out of the country.
People come and go in Boston, so during my 12 and half years in Boston, I made friends with different "waves" of people and become a part of so many different families - the biology graduate community, the political activist community at MIT, the MIT Sport Taekwondo community, and the patent law community at my former law firm. "Friend" was not an adequate word to describe many of the relationships I forged. Some "friends" were so close, I felt like they were my family.
When I first heard news of the bombing at the Boston marathon, my heart stopped. I knew it would be some time before information would come out about the victims. Then I felt relief when I found out that my close friends were okay. But it was an uncomfortable kind of relief. Whether I knew them or not, the victims and their families were suffering an unimagineable grief. An eight-year old child lay dead while his mother and sister were seriously injured, while his grieving father was hounded by reporters at his home.
Then came the events later in the week at MIT and Watertown. My friends were holed up in their homes while police sought the second suspect.
These events shocked me because they hit somewhere I had called home for a long time. That said, I couldn't help but cringe when someone I followed on Twitter bristled at the notion that we should be reminded that much greater* scale violence is an almost every day occurrence in Iraq. That this week's events touch us Bostonians (and former Bostonians) more than other events makes sense. That we are the only ones entitled to sympathy, or grief, does not make sense to me.
It is not my intention to say that we ought to remind ourselves of the violence that others in the world face (some, nearly every day) in order to belittle the tragedy that happened in Boston. It's the belittling of other people's tragedies elsewhere in the world that really bothers me. It's the "how dare you" response to even *mentioning* the violence others regularly face.
*While I mention here a "greater" scale of violence, I do not mean to say that you can measure grief and say that a father's grief in Boston is less or more than a father's grief in, say, war-torn Syria (from which at least one picture and message of sympathy for Bostonians has been circulated). In fact, I am mostly having a problem with the notion some have that the grief experienced by others in the world some
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Sunday, April 07, 2013
Book-nerding it with the Da Vinci Code
I (finally) read Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code"and then re-watched the movie. Unsurprisingly, I turned into the annoying book nerd who paused the movie every now and then to say, "That's not how it happened in the book!" While I don't expect movies to be entirely true to the book, several of the changes from the book to the movie fit a familiar, annoying theme: make the lead male character look smarter and make the lead female character lead look stupider.
**MOVIE SPOILER AHEAD***
For example, there was a scene where the trio (Robert Langdon, Sophie Neveu, and Leigh Teabing) uncover a text written in a strange-looking script. In the movie, before Teabing or Neveu begin to make head or tail of the text, Langdon instantly recognizes the trick one needs in order to read it.
In the book, neither Langdon nor Teabing can figure out what language the script is written in. They rack their brains talking about possible ancient languages. Neveu, on the other hand, instantly recognizes the script as simply being the mirror image of a cursive English text.
Similar changes were made in other scenes throughout the movie. The movie version of Langdon is given much more credit for solving puzzles or providing background knowledge than he'd been given in the book, while Neveu's role shifted more toward the dumbfounded female who just looks pretty standing next to the bright guy.
Now one might say: this was a Hollywood movie; such adaptations are standard to make the lead character more interesting or awe-inspiring. But those adaptations didn't even make sense in the story. Neveu is a trained cryptologist who had grown up all her life being groomed by her grandfather in solving of puzzles and cryptic messages. Her adeptness at solving codes is a main part of the plot. It makes much less sense for Langdon to be the one to figure out puzzles most of the time.
Ironically, one of the themes of the book is how the history of a very important woman (Mary Magdalene) was "re-written" by men so that her true role was hidden under the cloak of "prostitute."
It seems that the scriptwriters of the "Da Vinci Code" movie missed the point of the book.
**MOVIE SPOILER AHEAD***
For example, there was a scene where the trio (Robert Langdon, Sophie Neveu, and Leigh Teabing) uncover a text written in a strange-looking script. In the movie, before Teabing or Neveu begin to make head or tail of the text, Langdon instantly recognizes the trick one needs in order to read it.
In the book, neither Langdon nor Teabing can figure out what language the script is written in. They rack their brains talking about possible ancient languages. Neveu, on the other hand, instantly recognizes the script as simply being the mirror image of a cursive English text.
Similar changes were made in other scenes throughout the movie. The movie version of Langdon is given much more credit for solving puzzles or providing background knowledge than he'd been given in the book, while Neveu's role shifted more toward the dumbfounded female who just looks pretty standing next to the bright guy.
Now one might say: this was a Hollywood movie; such adaptations are standard to make the lead character more interesting or awe-inspiring. But those adaptations didn't even make sense in the story. Neveu is a trained cryptologist who had grown up all her life being groomed by her grandfather in solving of puzzles and cryptic messages. Her adeptness at solving codes is a main part of the plot. It makes much less sense for Langdon to be the one to figure out puzzles most of the time.
Ironically, one of the themes of the book is how the history of a very important woman (Mary Magdalene) was "re-written" by men so that her true role was hidden under the cloak of "prostitute."
It seems that the scriptwriters of the "Da Vinci Code" movie missed the point of the book.
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Then and Now
Then:
On-campus male:female ratio was 3:1.
Now:
Household male:female ratio is 2:1.
Then:
Late-night nerding is interrupted by period shrieking from 17-18 year olds up to no good.
Now:
Late-night nerding is interrupted by period shrieking from 9 month old who is up way past his bedtime.
Then:
I didn't need an alarm clock during Finals Week because The Ride of the Valkyries was cruelly blasted every morning at 7 a.m..
Now:
I don't need an alarm clock, like ever, because The Cry of the Infant is blasted every morning at 6:30 am.
Then:
I sometimes spent free time thinking about the one cute guy on campus.
Now:
I spend a lot of time looking at or thinking about the one cutie pie in my life.
Then:
I totally knew Maxwell's Equations by heart.
Now:
I totally know the entire text of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by heart.
Then:
Constant sleep deprivation led me to do things like bike home for a 5-minute nap in between classes and fall asleep standing while listening to the TA in chem lab.
Now:
Constant sleep deprivation leads me to do things like... just always be tired as I balance work, home, and personal nerding activities.
On-campus male:female ratio was 3:1.
Now:
Household male:female ratio is 2:1.
Then:
Late-night nerding is interrupted by period shrieking from 17-18 year olds up to no good.
Now:
Late-night nerding is interrupted by period shrieking from 9 month old who is up way past his bedtime.
Then:
I didn't need an alarm clock during Finals Week because The Ride of the Valkyries was cruelly blasted every morning at 7 a.m..
Now:
I don't need an alarm clock, like ever, because The Cry of the Infant is blasted every morning at 6:30 am.
Then:
I sometimes spent free time thinking about the one cute guy on campus.
Now:
I spend a lot of time looking at or thinking about the one cutie pie in my life.
Then:
I totally knew Maxwell's Equations by heart.
Now:
I totally know the entire text of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by heart.
Then:
Constant sleep deprivation led me to do things like bike home for a 5-minute nap in between classes and fall asleep standing while listening to the TA in chem lab.
Now:
Constant sleep deprivation leads me to do things like... just always be tired as I balance work, home, and personal nerding activities.
Thursday, March 07, 2013
How to Piss Off a Nine Month Old Baby
A Guide for Complete Strangers
1. Ignore the parents when they explain that the baby needs time to get used to strangers, and that as a stranger, one should not be all in his face right away.
2. Laugh when the baby cries at your loud, in-his-face, manner.
3. Quickly and uninvitedly grab the baby out his mother's arms and swing the baby back and forth violently, saying "whee!" as the baby cries even more loudly.
4. Reluctantly return the pissed off baby to his mother.
5. Not notice that the baby continues to cry and cast angry looks in your direction.
6. Talk about how all kids love you because you're such a "charmer" around kids.
1. Ignore the parents when they explain that the baby needs time to get used to strangers, and that as a stranger, one should not be all in his face right away.
2. Laugh when the baby cries at your loud, in-his-face, manner.
3. Quickly and uninvitedly grab the baby out his mother's arms and swing the baby back and forth violently, saying "whee!" as the baby cries even more loudly.
4. Reluctantly return the pissed off baby to his mother.
5. Not notice that the baby continues to cry and cast angry looks in your direction.
6. Talk about how all kids love you because you're such a "charmer" around kids.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Common Decency Aptitude Test
1. When the bus/tram/subway is somewhat crowded, but there is more space in the middle of the bus/car, you should:
a. plant yourself defiantly close to the door, thereby blocking the way so that people can't get to where there is space and forcing them to squeeze themselves in an unsafe and uncomfortable space near the door.
b. move your ass out of the way.
2. When the bus/tram/subway is crowded and there is an empty seat next to you, you should:
a. leave your bag on the empty seat while others are struggling to find standing space.
b. block the way from the aisle to the empty seat so that no one can actually access the empty seat.
c. move your stuff off of the seat so someone can sit down.
3. When you see someone fall down badly on the snow and ice and struggle to get up, you should:
a. point, laugh, and move on.
b. say "Oy yoy yoy yoy yoy" with a heavy Swedish accent and then keep walking.
c. help the person up.
4. If you really don't like someone at work, you should:
a. pretend that you two are best friends at coffee and lunch breaks, but bad-mouth her behind her back to everyone else.
b. pretend that you two are best friends at coffee and lunch breaks, but then be rude in work meetings.
c. both a and b
d. be polite, but not fake, when interacting with her.
5. When there's a queue, you should:
a. cut in line in front of other people, rationalizing that you are more important than everyone else.
b. cut in line in front of immigrants only, rationalizing that you have more worth as a human being than immigrants in your native country do.
b. respect the queue.
6. If you don't want someone to come to a work meeting, you should:
a. invite her to the meeting on Outlook, not say anything when she accepts the meeting, stare at her when she actually comes to the meeting, and continue to not say anything to her, but do your best to make her feel unwelcome and hope she leaves on their own.
b. not say anything to her even though it's clear that she was expecting to attend the meeting, wait until just before the meeting, and then instruct her colleague to inform her that she is not welcome at the meeting.
c. do not invite her in the first place, or tell her directly but politely in advance.
a. plant yourself defiantly close to the door, thereby blocking the way so that people can't get to where there is space and forcing them to squeeze themselves in an unsafe and uncomfortable space near the door.
b. move your ass out of the way.
2. When the bus/tram/subway is crowded and there is an empty seat next to you, you should:
a. leave your bag on the empty seat while others are struggling to find standing space.
b. block the way from the aisle to the empty seat so that no one can actually access the empty seat.
c. move your stuff off of the seat so someone can sit down.
3. When you see someone fall down badly on the snow and ice and struggle to get up, you should:
a. point, laugh, and move on.
b. say "Oy yoy yoy yoy yoy" with a heavy Swedish accent and then keep walking.
c. help the person up.
4. If you really don't like someone at work, you should:
a. pretend that you two are best friends at coffee and lunch breaks, but bad-mouth her behind her back to everyone else.
b. pretend that you two are best friends at coffee and lunch breaks, but then be rude in work meetings.
c. both a and b
d. be polite, but not fake, when interacting with her.
5. When there's a queue, you should:
a. cut in line in front of other people, rationalizing that you are more important than everyone else.
b. cut in line in front of immigrants only, rationalizing that you have more worth as a human being than immigrants in your native country do.
b. respect the queue.
6. If you don't want someone to come to a work meeting, you should:
a. invite her to the meeting on Outlook, not say anything when she accepts the meeting, stare at her when she actually comes to the meeting, and continue to not say anything to her, but do your best to make her feel unwelcome and hope she leaves on their own.
b. not say anything to her even though it's clear that she was expecting to attend the meeting, wait until just before the meeting, and then instruct her colleague to inform her that she is not welcome at the meeting.
c. do not invite her in the first place, or tell her directly but politely in advance.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
5:30 am moment of surreality
All quiet on the domestic front. I am pumping milk while the rest of the household is still
sleeping. It is a rare moment of
peace. I know that sometime
between 12:30 am and now, I had gotten up once in the night to tend to my
son. Yet strangely I feel rested.
I think of the times I have heard the saying “why buy the
cow when you can get the milk for free.”
I think of how I pointed out that I, and my sisters, are not in fact
cows. Somehow that really blunt point was still lost on some people and was
met with empty, confused looks.
The fact that women are human beings just does not compute with some
people. I think I’m still Facebook
friends with some of those people.
Should I unfriend them or leave them on so that I can occasionally
remind myself of how glad I should be that they are no longer part of my real,
analog life?
I think about the time that my husband and I visited a cow
farm on the countryside in Sweden.
The cows were herded into a carousel, where they were hooked up to a
milking machine. Our guide
unhooked the apparatus on one cow to let me hand-milk the cow. I felt like an intruder as my fingers
grasped the cow’s nipples and squeezed.
The cow didn’t seem to notice, and milk came readily. Now I squeeze milk out of myself.
When we exited the carousel area, there was a huge smear of
cow dung on the gate. Despite
seeing it, I somehow got it on my arm and then somehow (really, I didn’t mean
it) got it on my husband too.
Luckily we were both wearing extra “cow farm” clothes that the farmer
lent us. We rinsed off and changed
our clothes.
Somehow these memories – of the people who would say things like “why
buy the cow...” juxtaposed with the memory of the cow farm in Dalarna,
juxtaposed with the quietness of the house as my loved ones sleep, makes me
remember for the first time in a long time just how completely happy in my life
I am.
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Nerding for the new mom
I'm fortunate to enjoy a generous government-sponsored, work-is-totally-okay-with-it maternity leave here in Sweden (as will my husband when my gig is up). Before I became a mother, I planned on using the leave to brush up on or acquire new skills, for example, through classes and self-study. What I hadn't realized then, however, was the impracticality of taking classes (daycare for a few-months infant is non-existent in Sweden) and the relative lack of time I'd have where 1) both my hands would be free and 2) I'd be awake enough to think.
When I actually became a mother, I got lost in a blur of sleep deprivation and constant breastfeeding. I grudgingly realized it would be harder than I thought to use my actual time off in the way I'd planned.
Enter my discovery of free online courses offered through Coursera (a venture out of Stanford) and edX (an MIT/Harvard/UC Berkely partnership). Through Coursera, anyone with a computer and an internet connection can take however many classes they would like for free. A large number of universities (including, for example, Stanford, Caltech, UC Irvine, Georgia Tech, U Penn, Johns Hopkins, and U Toronto) are offering courses through Coursera. The course selection spans many disciplines. There are a lot of computer programming and data analysis courses (or maybe those are the ones I'm geared toward most right now).
Aside from viewing video lectures, students also submit homework problems and take exams online. For most courses, homework and exams are graded by computer online, and students with a passing grade will get a certificate or statement of completion. Although students won't be able to get university credit for these courses, the courses are taught at the same level of rigor as the real-life counterparts at the host universities.
Coursera and edX have taken online education to a whole new level. These online classes are highly interactive, and the way in which they engage students works especially well for my learning style. It's hard to explain how amazing the sites are. You just have to try out a course.
For edX, MIT students had voluntarily added features before the site launched. So edX has really cool features like a side box with a transcript of what the professor is saying in the video lecture. Videos on both Coursera and edX allow the option of speeding up or slowing down the pace of the lecture. In some video lectures on Coursera, short multiple choice questions are integrated in certain parts of the video lectures to test understanding before moving on to the next part of the lecture.
I love that I don't have to arrange for daycare to take these classes. I can watch the video lectures at my convenience, for example even while breastfeeding. Then after the little one goes to sleep, I can work on the homework problems.
When I actually became a mother, I got lost in a blur of sleep deprivation and constant breastfeeding. I grudgingly realized it would be harder than I thought to use my actual time off in the way I'd planned.
Enter my discovery of free online courses offered through Coursera (a venture out of Stanford) and edX (an MIT/Harvard/UC Berkely partnership). Through Coursera, anyone with a computer and an internet connection can take however many classes they would like for free. A large number of universities (including, for example, Stanford, Caltech, UC Irvine, Georgia Tech, U Penn, Johns Hopkins, and U Toronto) are offering courses through Coursera. The course selection spans many disciplines. There are a lot of computer programming and data analysis courses (or maybe those are the ones I'm geared toward most right now).
Aside from viewing video lectures, students also submit homework problems and take exams online. For most courses, homework and exams are graded by computer online, and students with a passing grade will get a certificate or statement of completion. Although students won't be able to get university credit for these courses, the courses are taught at the same level of rigor as the real-life counterparts at the host universities.
Coursera and edX have taken online education to a whole new level. These online classes are highly interactive, and the way in which they engage students works especially well for my learning style. It's hard to explain how amazing the sites are. You just have to try out a course.
For edX, MIT students had voluntarily added features before the site launched. So edX has really cool features like a side box with a transcript of what the professor is saying in the video lecture. Videos on both Coursera and edX allow the option of speeding up or slowing down the pace of the lecture. In some video lectures on Coursera, short multiple choice questions are integrated in certain parts of the video lectures to test understanding before moving on to the next part of the lecture.
I love that I don't have to arrange for daycare to take these classes. I can watch the video lectures at my convenience, for example even while breastfeeding. Then after the little one goes to sleep, I can work on the homework problems.
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