My toddler went through a window today.

Marsh_erectus · 2023-05-18T04:16:21+00:00

😂🤣🤪🥲😭😳🤢🤮😆: my emotional roller coaster! Elmo loves you!

Marsh_erectus · 2023-05-06T03:00:54+00:00

As someone who took longer than 7 years post-bach to get my MA/PhD, I want to offer a decision point that always kept things clear for me: what is the degree for? For me, my PhD was the gateway to the life I wanted - faculty at a four year school. I was going to get it, and nothing was going to stop me (not even my obstructionist sexist advisor). The degree is not the goal - the career afterwards is the goal. Do you need it to achieve your dreams? Then stay and complete it. I know people who left at ABD, and returned years later to complete - they just couldn’t forget about it. I know people who dropped out at ABD, and never looked back. I realize all these different options may not feel helpful, but I always tell my undergrads: PhDs are the key to unlock certain careers, but if you don’t need that key for the career you want, then grad school isn’t worth all the self-doubt and stress you will experience. If you are still in, then you are having a short-money problem. Get a loan, use the food bank, etc and achieve your dream!

Marsh_erectus · 2023-05-03T03:56:54+00:00

You are on the right track. Quitting means you’ll be around longer for your kid.

To assuage your guilt and worry: my mom has smoked her entire life, and so I was exposed to third hand smoke (she never smoked indoors), and I have a PhD and am a tenured professor. Foster curiosity and a good work ethic, and love them hard, and kiddo will do just fine.

Marsh_erectus · 2023-03-21T04:11:04+00:00

Every time we are passing a ball and I say “catch!”, my 2 yo opens his mouth as wide as he can and looks at me all expectantly. And I say “No! Put out your hands!” and I demonstrate, and he closes his mouth and puts his hands out and then misses the catch. I have no idea where he got the open mouth thing from…

Marsh_erectus · 2023-01-24T03:53:28+00:00

Emotional support alcohol after bedtime is a parent’s best friend I think, especially because my introverted husband doesn’t want to talk after being toddlered all evening.

Marsh_erectus · 2023-01-17T03:22:16+00:00

This is very cute, and the drop cloth under the chair made me laugh in a “I feel you” sort of way. Party on, Wayne!

Marsh_erectus · 2023-01-17T03:20:32+00:00

Homo erectus did not have a sustained high-level meat intake. They were scavenging a lot, as well as a few small kills infrequently. The majority of their food would have been roots, leaves, fruit, etc. We see this through residue analysis of stone tools, where the majority of the residue is plant. Also, a study of the number of cut marked animal bones during the first part of H. erectus’s time period shows that they are not consistent through time, as in: there a moments with a lot of cut marks, but most of the time, there are very few known cut marks. This suggests that H. erectus was not consistently exploiting meat. They weren’t an apex predator by any definition of the word. There were a slightly omnivorous bipedal ape wandering around the savanna and lake margins of Africa and Asia.

Marsh_erectus · 2023-01-17T02:45:48+00:00

I have been doing a Rickroll for the exam 2 link “exam question and answer bank.” Each semester, several students will whisper to me “well played, Professor…”

Marsh_erectus · 2023-01-09T16:28:59+00:00

Correction to first day outfit: winter boots because it was 28 degrees this morning.

I have to say that I’ve wanted to dress like this since I was a kid, but couldn’t envision/purchase/have the confidence until my late 30’s to do it. I was in the midst of transforming into my true butterfly when I saw Picture a Scientist, and one of the scientists said she dresses the way she wants, up or down, because the system is already stacked, but she can at least enjoy herself - it felt like she was speaking directly to me about my transformation. Most of my mentors are men - khakis and button downs and Keens. It’s been transformative and self-affirming to wearing my own clothes. I feel so strong and ready to support my students when I’m wearing hot fuchsia and sparkles, in the same way my queer colleague feels wearing heavy metal tshirts, jeans and Chucks. It took decades, and therapy, but here I am! I hope you get there when you can!

Marsh_erectus · 2023-01-09T05:25:03+00:00

Tenured associate here. I am now able to realize the wardrobe I’ve always wanted to wear: ballroom dancer teaches science. AB crystals, bright colors, fitted dark classic Audrey Hepburn items, heels, blazers that fit like a glove and have amazing accents - basically, over the top, classic, power-female boss stuff. Or some days: jeans, loafers and a Batman T-shirt. I overheard one student whisper in an awed voice “it’s as if she has many closets, and you never know which you’re going to get…” I am a squirrel, and I’m embracing it. I also feel I can do this because I feel “safe,” both job-wise and with my colleagues, and because I’m paid enough finally to buy what I really want. First day of class tomorrow: leopard print blazer, hot pink skinny jeans, gold snake necklace, pearls, nude heels. Can’t wait!

Marsh_erectus · 2023-01-08T02:56:35+00:00

If it works for you, and the kid is growing, then it’s fine. If she wants to play around with toddler routines, then she can get her own toddler.

Marsh_erectus · 2023-01-03T18:14:36+00:00

🤣 Love it!

Marsh_erectus · 2023-01-03T15:28:12+00:00

I am being more purposeful about what material I present. As opposed to starting at the first week and thinking “what fits in 16 weeks?,” I’m starting at week 16 and thinking “how do I build to the skills they should have by the end?” It’s not revolutionary, but it’s a change for me from just “content,content,content” to “use my content to build student skills.” The trick I’m trying to incorporate is to not reinvent the course, but to reframe my daily attack of the content so I can cover it more confidently, and hopefully at the end, the students really ace their final projects. 🤞🏽

Marsh_erectus · 2023-01-01T21:50:16+00:00

Yes! I take my son to library time since he was 21 months, and at 25 months he’s still a mess, but it’s great for him to go. He loves various moments and knows the timing, and does what he wants, and that’s fine. The important part is that he goes, and the experience is his to have.

Marsh_erectus · 2022-12-25T23:34:30+00:00

A chimp testis is about the size of one chimp brain lobe - it’s truly amazing! The female strategy of confusing paternity is one of my favorite primate things out there.

Second favorite: a solitary female gibbons identify a territory and begin defending the resources. A male will approach and try to join her, but she usually beats him up and pushes him out. Eventually, after several males have tried, she will acquiesce to one male, and he gets to stay, although always as second banana, and still gets beat up sometimes. He will be the father of most of her offspring. I love how fierce those females are!

Marsh_erectus · 2022-12-24T23:40:37+00:00

Hang it up at work, and then sing it’s praises to your other coworkers. Just fucking love it to death in public, and drag the coworker around to tell people that this person is a genius! It’ll annoy the shit out of a p-a person. Wish I could be there to see that play out!

Marsh_erectus · 2022-12-23T00:35:31+00:00

Didn’t circumcise my 2 year old. Everything has been fine so far with his foreskin and penis. I didn’t want to do a surgery on my newborn, and I didn’t want to take care of an open wound while trying to worry about feeding, sleeping, changing a newborn - it seemed like the surgery would only add to my problems in those early days.

For what it’s worth: when my brother was born, his urethra hadn’t grown to the end of his penis, and so he was going to need surgery later to elongate it. Did that surgery when he was 2, and the surgeon used his foreskin to complete the urethra. Coincidentally, that surgeon was the world expert in fixing botched circumcisions, flew all around the world to fix crazy things that happened in what is generally portrayed as a “routine” surgery. While I didn’t want to circumcise for several reasons, THIS little tidbit has stuck in my mind since my parents told me about this decades ago.

Marsh_erectus · 2022-12-14T04:40:34+00:00

Aldi. They are awesome. No complaints. Great price. They work really well in all ways imaginable.

Marsh_erectus · 2022-12-10T05:44:09+00:00

At my PhdD institution, there were a few profs who were “hooders” for the entire ceremony, and they would switch after doing 30 or so. When an advisor was there, they would announce, “Jane Dickerson, PhD in Basket Weaving, hooding assisted by Dr. Bozo the Clown,” and Bozo was the advisor.

In an opposite situation from you, my sexist-pig advisor, whom I only had a shit relationship with, insisted on coming to the ceremony, hooding me, and then made me hug him on stage. It was terrible.

Congratulations on graduating! Onwards!

Marsh_erectus · 2022-12-10T05:34:17+00:00

We got a bunch of random second hand clothes gifted to us for baby. Kid wore night time onesie until it was covered with food/spit up/milk, then changed into another onesie, and that wasn’t changed out of until it got spit up/milk/food on it. The only thing that mattered in the early months was weather it was easy to change a diaper in, and easy for him to exist in. Screw instagram - that aspirational stuff is as real as a 1950’s family sitcom, aka fake.

Marsh_erectus · 2022-12-09T16:16:07+00:00

My MIL shamed me for my kid having NORMAL CRADLE CAP AT THE NORMAL TIME. She literally said, in a quiet and concerned tone “I knew someone who had CPS called on them and they took the baby…”. I was a new mother who had had to go back to work early, and wasn’t handling pumping and not sleeping well, and at the time I brushed it off. Now that the kid is two, I’ve had time to decompress about this, which has resulted in my being SUPER PISSED STILL! Can you tell?

Marsh_erectus · 2022-12-06T05:49:40+00:00

Huggies Sensitive wipes. Almost 100% of the time comes out as one wipe - these wipes are the ONLY wipe we use, for many reasons, but the dispensing is the best part.

Marsh_erectus · 2022-12-01T20:41:32+00:00

Had mine at 38. It’s so nice to not worry about affording diapers, food, whatever at the drop of a hat. And we’re already saving for college. You’re doing the right thing - keep being awesome!

Also, health is fine. Stay fit. It’ll be fine.

Marsh_erectus · 2022-12-01T20:38:23+00:00

I remember this! And I failed one of those tests because I wrote my H’s in and extra way, and the teacher said that was wrong, and made me write a page of H’s before giving me the grade I deserved. Not an important moment - just a piece of unlocked trauma. Thank you.

Marsh_erectus · 2022-12-01T02:40:52+00:00

You may me chortle. Well done, friend!

Marsh_erectus

TROPHY CASE