I went home to visit my parents in Columbia, SC from 12/24/11 until 1/2/12. I originally booked a flight from Albuquerque, NM to Columbia, SC from 12/23 until 1/2 with the flights on 12/23 & 1/2. But it snowed in Socorro, NM some 9 inches on 12/22 and 12/23. My original flight was at 1:30 pm on 12/23 and the snow sort of was dying down on 12/23 so all day 12/23 starting at 6 am, I watched the news and checked the state weather advisory. All day long I-25 which is the only way that I know of to go from Socorro to Albuquerque was completely shut down. Even if there was another little road to bypass I-25, I would not have taken it because if they close an interstate, then the little roads would have been even worse. I-25 opened at around 7 pm on 12/23. I think they closed I-25 because about a week before 12/23, some woman died while driving to Socorro by being trapped in snow during the last blizzard and some family almost died of suffocation in a car encased in snow in NM.
I wasn't all that sure I would even be able to drive on I-25 without getting into an accident on 12/24 but since I do know how to drive in snow, I booked a flight out of Albuquerque on 12/24. The next flight was also late on Christmas day so I would have gotten home at around 9 pm Christmas day which seemed too late. Because the flight was not canceled because it hardly snowed at all in Albuquerque, I had to pay for the difference in price between my original and new flight ~ $300 extra, almost double the original flight cost. I almost considered not going home at all. I went to get gas at around 9 pm on 12/23 after I decided that I was going to leave on 12/24. All the good times were also gone because of the late booking & I wasn't even sure if the roads were drivable so I had to leave home at 5 am to get to the airport in time.
The morning of 12/24, Socorro was horribly undrivable with unplowed streets with bumpy frozen 3 inch tall snow on the main roads. I went by my office to post a "to be contacted in case of emergency while I am away note" for my office door and then drove to the airport. I-25 was absolutely clear except for a little occasional ice. There were no other travel problems.
I gained 2 pounds from eating all my favorite foods that my mom made and did almost nothing but eat for an entire 10 days. I helped my Mom with the cooking and I think I can even make a few of her very complicated dishes with no help from her now. I have always been sort of spoiled by my parents and I think the spoiling is getting worse as both my parents and I keep getting older. I got some really really big presents. Today I am sort of jet lagged from the 2 hour time difference from EST so I keep getting hungry at 3 or 4 pm and I keep falling asleep at 9 or 10 pm and I keep getting up at 3:30 am.
posted by Dr. Hahn at 5:20 pm on 1/3/11 from her Neel Ave. rented home
"documentation of trip" (as in what students in my class should supply for missed exams & quizzes) pictures of me & parents at home in SC
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Someone keeps removing the name plate on my office door. 2 name plates (black and white plastic ones) were removed sometime between 5 pm and around 7:30 am in the last few weeks. Then I posted my name on a sheet of paper on my office door and that also kept disappearing. It almost looks as if someone is trying to convince people that my office has been taken away from me by removing my name plate. Perhaps trying to convince people that I no longer work here. Nope, it is still my office and nope I have not quit. Anyone with a knife can come and remove my name off my door. Someone is very determined to remove my name off my office door because I used a hammer & thumb tacks & lots of tape to attach my paper written name on my office door but that keeps getting removed.. I have a contract for at least a year so no there is no rehiring me for the Spring semester. I am not getting removed from teaching because of anything. I am not going back to China because I have never been to China because I am an American citizen and not even ethnically Chinese. I am not trying to get a job as a graduate students because I already have a Ph.D. and I also already am scheduled to teach 2 General Chemistry classes and a graduate class in the Spring semester and I am already going sleepless (pulling all nighters) every week just grading, making up exams etc with the 200 students this semester so I would not want to do anything more than my actual job. Nope I am not quitting because I am pregnant.
I pay $825 to the Environmetal Engineering secretary to rent my 3 BR house which is in a nice safe neighborhood. No I am not getting paid to take care of the house and my job is not to take care of the yard. The landlord did offer to come take care of the yard and the weatherizing of the swamp cooler. However it was less nuisance to pay someone to do that rather than arrange for the landlord ( the landlord is a professor & his wife, a secretary in another department) to do it so I paid for it out of my own pocket - so far something like $300. No I am not renting out any of the rooms because if I was going to rent out my rooms, it would have been better to get a one BR house in a bad neighborhood rather than sharing my house with some person that I do not know. I am certainly not renting out any of my rooms to some man. I get paid $44,000 / 9 months which is less than what some administrative assistants get paid however it is certainly enough money so that I can afford to live by myself in a safe house.
I also do not go home early in the afternoon to take care of children because I am single and have no children. So in fact I am on campus every day that school is open from at least 9 am to at least 5 pm. (MWF I get to campus at around 7:30 am, I go shopping and leave a little early on Friday)
posted at 10:50 am on 12/7/11 from her NMTech office JA 205 with my printer paper name tag on my door
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Why is the assumption that a job for a woman equals getting married? I guess that means if you want a woman to work for you without pay, without a job, with no more rights than a literal slave, then all you have to do is marry her (take her as your girlfriend). I think marrying (being someone's girlfriend) as a job equals prostitution. Why is it that in 2011, a woman who is highly educated, who can run circles around some man in the job is forced to take a job as a "wife" or "girlfriend" and is then expected to work for no pay ? All anyone has to do is run around and tell everyone that yes indeed woman X is indeed my fiancee (girlfriend) and then everyone decides that woman X will work for no pay as a literal slave with no rights and no job. Apparently "liar" is running around and telling people that he is eating lunch every day with a woman. Apparently "liar" is running around telling people that he is visiting her at her house all the time. Nope, "Liar" is not eating lunch with the woman at her office (come by and see if "liar" is making up lies - apparently woman sits in her office when on campus with her door wide open all the time) and nope, "liar" has never visited the woman at her house ever. [Woman apparently keeps all her windows wide open and lives close to campus so has anyone has ever seen anyone at her rented house other than the woman herself? That would be a definite and resounding no. The only people who have visited the woman are (a) people fixing the lawn, (b) weatherizing the swamp cooler and (c) turning on the gas heater and only between 8:30 am and 4 pm ] Then all anyone has to do is make sure that the "liar" has a job, is happy, etc. because woman X will function as "liar's" slave for no pay, no job, no rights. "Liar" had better stop making up lies. If anyone listens to "liar" and makes assumptions about how things are going to go, they are going to shoot themselves in the foot or maybe the head - right between the eyes.
posted by Dr. Hahn at 1 pm on 11/29/11
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Yes indeed, I was seen rolling around chemical equipment wearing a dirty old lab coat sweating like a pig. No one gets a Ph.D. in experimental chemistry without being willing to roll up ones sleeves and getting messy. Yes indeed, I did ask people out in the hallway to help me lift heavy stuff. Have I been hired to work in someone's lab for extra money? Nope. Am I trying to get extra money by working in someone's lab? Nope. Have I developed a collaboration - nope. I am just borrowing equipment that I need to complete some research from my former faculty position. This is for my own professional development to further my career. I do appreciate being able to borrow equipment because in chemistry you can't really do research if you don't have needed equipment. No matter how smart you are, no matter how good an idea you have, no matter how hard you work, no equipment - no results possible in experimental chemistry. posted by Dr. Hahn at 3:40 pm 11/8/11 from her NMT office
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Another peculiar thing: I always post on my door when I come onto campus and when I leave campus on a "logsheet". Lately the hours have mostly been around 7:30 or 8 am in the morning and leaving around 5 pm M to F. This actually does not mean that I only work those hours but preparation for class, making up exams and grading can all be done at home so I usually go home and then work pretty much all evening except when I eat and sleep. 200 exams do not grade themselves ! Just alphabetizing, inputting grades and putting the correct answer key with the correct exam takes about 2 to 3 solid hours when there are 200 exams. The idea of the log sheet is so that students know when I am on campus and when I am not on campus and if a student comes to see me, I always listen to them. Whenever I am on campus, I sit in my office with the door wide open so anyone can walk up and talk to me.
So last week someone removed my logsheet off my office door wall sometime in the evening so I came in and found the logsheet missing on the morning of - 11/1 T, 11/2W, 11/4 F and graffitied on 11/7M. (I kept copy and kept reposting the logsheet.)Now why would someone object to me writing down when I come to campus and when I leave campus? I have heard from the grapevine that I leave every day at around 3 pm (I do not.). I have also heard that I do not come to campus on Fridays, Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. (I come in every day of the week and stay from 7:30 am to 5 pm at least.) I have also heard that I must be stupid because I am too attractive to be smart. [This sort of goes along with I (the actual Dr. Hahn) cannot possibly be teaching college chemistry - Dr. Hahn must be that other woman that we have seen around - secretary, janitor, graduate student, etc...] I cannot understand what anyone could possibly object to so strongly about me posting when I am on campus. The only thing I can think is that maybe someone is somehow very concerned that people think that either I am never on campus or that people think that I am on campus at night when I am not on campus. Don't quite understand why that should matter to anyone but me and students who may be looking for me.
posted by Dr. Hahn at 2:40 pm on 11/8/11 addendum: Around 7:40 am on 11/9/11, I found my logsheet with about 15 thumbtacks removed and tape removed by cutting with a knife. The log sheet was then taped back onto the wall upside down. A note stating that my hypothesis (someone wants people to not know when I am on campus) was erroneous was taped on my office door. The note said that they were ripping off my logsheet for no reason. Hum - a lot of effort to be for no reason.
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Funny thing. The person who teaches the General Chemistry II class this semester Dr. Kombarakkaran (MWF 10 to 11 am) canceled class on 11/2 W and told his students to study Chapter 5 (while he was covering Chapter 19). I had just finished grading a quiz for Chapter 5 and had just returned a quiz on Chapter 5 on 11/2 W in my 2 Gen Chem I classes from 8 to 9 am and from 9 to 10 am. I just don't want anyone to think that I was the person who canceled a class and who had students running around all over campus during class time. (I am guessing perhaps printing out my chapter 5 quiz answer keys.) I just don't want anyone confusing my teaching with his teaching. posted by Dr. Hahn at 3 pm on 11/7/11
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I got my license tranferred from NY to NM this past Friday, 10/21/11. Friday was a school holiday so I could do all the things that one can do during normal business hours. Funny but when I filled out the form the driver's license person had written 10/20 on the form so I asked is today 10/20 and also wrote 10/20 by my signature. I also got my haircut and then had to take my car to the car mechanics because I couldn't remove the plates because it was rusted in place. I had to wait for my haircut because I walked in without an appointment so I waited by shopping at Walmart and ate lunch at the Taco Bell. I went to use the bathroom at Taco Bell and 2 (not just one) but 2 different people opened the door to the one person bathroom that opens directly to the toilet. Fortunately I wasn't undressed but one time just trying to open the door to get out and one time just washing my hands. Odd. That has never happened to me before.
When I was networking last academic year, I ran into this person who had lost a faculty position (actually was part of a mass job cutting) and was no longer working in academia. He thought that some colleges had a strategy of hiring new faculty and letting go of new faculty just before the new faculty started to cost the university money in promotion to higher rank. Sort of makes sense in a way. If you hire really intelligent, excellent faculty and have them write and win grant funding and then let them go, it is a strategy in a manner of speaking. The university gets funding and if the remaining faculty is not able to actually carry out the research project because they know nothing about the research, well at least they got money out of the government and they can just repeat the process. It is kind of a waste of government money but I suppose some people do win in a manner of speaking. Only if some persons were smart enough to have really brilliant research ideas but stupid enough to hand over their ideas while getting nothing out of it except wasted time and working to the point of exhaustion. I don't know do you suppose smart people are also dumb? Oh I know perhaps we can get some stupid woman and offer to marry her or offer to be her boyfriend and maybe she will (as all women are) act like a stupid person and willingly turn over all her ideas. I actually don't think women are any dumber then men, however. People who are smart enough to have brilliant research ideas usually are also smart in general.
Funny some people around town seemed to think that I got to campus and started to work at around 1 pm and went home at 3 pm. [Somehow some people also seemed to think that my car did not come from NY (even though it still had a NY license plate on it). If my car and I did not come from NY, I wonder where they think my car and I came from ?] Nope. I teach from 8 am to 9 am and then from 9 am to 10 am and then teach again at 1 pm to 2 pm on MWF. I think if someone starts to work at 1 pm then I am guessing that they must also work pretty late into the night. So if someone comes to work at 1 pm then they must work until 9 or 10 pm to work a full day. I never work past 7:30 or 8 pm at the latest. I do go to teach at 1 pm in another building so I guess some people may think that I am coming to campus when I go to teach? I think that some people think that I am not a person teaching classes at all and thinks I am some uppity secretary or undergrad who goes around wearing suit jackets and carrying around a bag that says "Dr. Hahn". People always think I am someone else (and visa versa). So I guess maybe I am a secretary, graduate student, undergraduate researcher, someone's wife which of course would mean that a secretary, graduate student, undergraduate researcher, someone's wife would have to be me.
posted by Dr. Hahn at 12 noon from her NMT office on 10/27/11
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Strange Stuff: So a couple of strange stuff has happened to me recently. One thing is that someone used my credit card, under my name and did an online purchase for around $1,600 and had it delivered to someone else's name to somewhere in Pompono, Florida around the end of August of this year. I have never even been to Pompano Florida and I don't know anyone who lives in the state of Florida. When I moved to New Mexico from NY, I moved into a house with a mailbox that anyone walking down the street can open so I wanted to get a locking mail box before I did a mail forward. My locking mail box was on the moving truck which arrived almost a month after I did. I bought the locking mail box (on long island) because Socorro is a town of about 10,000 people and I was pretty sure that I would not be able to buy a locking mail box in Socorro. Since I drove nearly 2000 miles with my 15 + year old car, I wasn't even sure that my car would survive the trip so I did not plan on buying the mail box in Albuquerque (80 miles away). My car was packed pretty full so I did not have room for the mailbox in my car. Even on long island I had to go to 4 stores before I found a locking mail box. So my mail sat in NY for nearly a month and then got forwarded. I am not really sure exactly where in NY my mail sat waiting for me to forward. Anyway the credit card company representative said that I was not responsible for that charge. I had to report it to the police though because really a $1,600 theft even when done online is still a really big theft. Scary.
Second strange thing: Yesterday when I was trying to get out of my rented house to come to campus to teach my 8 am class, my garage door wouldn't open. I looked out my window and found that the garbage can was blocking my garage door. I had to open my living room door and move my garbage can before I could get my car out of the garage. I know I didn't move my garbage can to the garage door. However since I have seen people that I do not know walk up my garage and go somewhere that I cannot see from my window while I am actually looking right at them, I am not really all that surprised that someone moved my garbage can to block my garage door.
third strange thing: This is entirely my fault of course. I locked myself out of my car in front of my garage. I got out to open my locked garage and left my keys in the running car. I did this 2 times - once in the morning before I went to teach my class at 8 am and once last Friday after I came back from grocery shopping. posted by Dr. Hahn at 5 pm 10/13/11
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I am supposed to teach in Spring 2011: General Chemistry I MWF 9 - 9:50 am
General Chemistry II MWF 10 - 10:50 am
Organic Chemistry II MWF 11 - 11:50 am
(unless someone makes some changes at the last minute) There are other classes that I am capable of teaching but those would take more preparation time and I would not be able to do anything but teach and I am trying to do some research so that I can try to get a publication out so that I will increase the probability of getting a tenure track faculty position somewhere. Actually just these classes are pretty time consuming because it is about a 260 student teaching load with 3 different classes.
posted by Dr. Hahn at 5 pm 10/13/11 from her NM Tech office right after spending a couple of hours making up quizzes for the General Chemistry lectures. No I do not get my lecture notes from someone else. No I do not get the exams and quizzes from someone else.
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Do I wear a hat? Do I wear a hoodie with the hood covering my head? I do have a hoodie. I have several hoodies but I do not go around with the hood covering my head. Nope. I walk around with my head totally uncovered. I have seen other people walk around with a hoodie covering their entire heads. I think a person with a hoodie covering their head is (a) either really cold or (b) doing something criminal or improper and is trying to hide their identity. In the course of about 15 minutes, I am seeing multiple people walking around indoors in a warm building with hoodies covering their heads. Huh? Is there something I don't know about?
I walk around with my name on all my bags. I drive around in a car with my name on my car. Do I live in a house with windows totally covered up. Nope. All my windows are wide open. Do I get to campus by walking to campus or by bicycling to campus? Nope if my red Honda Civic Del Sol with my name on the windshield is not on campus, I am not on campus. I have a log in sheet by my office door which lists every time I am on campus even if it is only for 5 minutes. When I am at my office, I sit with my door wide open. If I am working in the lab, the lab door is wide open. The only time my office door would be closed is during normal business hours when I am calling someone like the insurance company when I am giving information like my social security number with private information which could be used for ID theft. Then I close my office door and post a note on my door that I am inside and that you should knock loudly. (I never sit in my office with the door closed during non normal business hours.) You can also see that I have logged in but have not logged out. I wish a camera would follow me around all the time. I wish a camera which broadcasts live had been following me around my entire life. Then everyone could see that I have never in my entire life done anything the least bit unethical or improper. If I was trying to do something improper, why would I actually make an effort to be so openly visible. So why do I walk around with my name on all my bags and even my car? I apparently have (had) imposters who claim to be me.
posted by Dr. Hahn at 11am 10/4/11 from her NMT office (with wide open door)
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I moved from Long Island, NY to Socorro, NM. The movers picked up my 25 boxes of books and papers, 3 full size file cabinets, 2 half size file cabinets, daybed, etc from my one BR apartment in Patchogue, NY on 7/18/11. I drove myself across the country (more than 2,000 miles) in my more than 15 year old car by myself with a broken air conditioner in 100 degree record heat. It took about a week. I would have been able to get here faster but I drove no faster than 60-65 MPH because I did not want to have my 15+ year old car die en route. I also kept falling asleep in the afternoons because I was really tired and it was really hot so I was not able to make much progress in the afternoons.
They delivered my stuff on 8/6/11 in one of those 18 wheelers (my things only occupying 3 or 4 yards of the truck). The movers had given me a firm date for pickup on 7/18 Monday but then they called on 7/14 Thursday and told me they wanted to pick up my things on Friday. I wasn't finished packing so they picked up on 7/18 but my things sat in Smithtown, NY in the warehouse until 7/26 Tuesday when it started to make its way across the country. I slept on the floor of my new 3 BR rented house in a sleeping bag (town is apt availability challenged, costing almost half what my one BR LI apt cost) for almost 2 weeks. A bunch of my moving boxes were crushed - don't know yet what actually got broken en route. Movers broke my desk (assembled from a kit from Staples by myself) not quite to pieces but pretty badly. My desk is so heavy that it was almost impossible for me to throw it out and the shopping is a little limited in this town so I am fixing it using my drill, wood glue and some screws. It won't be pretty but it will be functional and easier than throwing out and rebuying. I am getting ready to teach, unpacking, doing all the hundreds (OK not quite a hundred) of things to accomplish the move. I am really tired but I think I lost some weight from eating at home without cookware : ) and sleeping on the floor for 2 weeks. Considering that I paid $ 3,500.00 (cashier's check from my personal checking account) for them to move my things, it was less than the best move I have had in my life.
posted 8/9/11 at 2:30 pm from my NM Tech office
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I was watching all those news reports of the attack in Pakistan of Bin Laden's million dollar compound. Knockout of electricity in the area, stealth helicopters and Navy Seals practicing on a replica compound. Burned out helicopter parts possibly being used as a prototype for a knockoff stealth helicopter. Almost sounds like "Mission Impossible/NCIS". (Although now that everyone has a cell phone, it is easy enough to signal people in real time. I would be willing to bet my life that one could set up something simple like a car accident by using cell phones. ) Makes me proud to be an American. Makes me feel safe as a US citizen. (It isn't as if I am going to have to enroll in a college knowing that it will make my CV look worse just so that I do not get deported from the US.) I have had a couple of people involved in hiring ask me questions along those lines. I guess it is necessary for security but I wish we could actually learn who the Navy Seals were and give them medals or something. Sounds like they put their lives on the line to achieve this goal because I think it could have ended very badly just as easily.
posted by Dr. Juliet Hahn at 9:30 am 5/5/11 from her Stony Brook office
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To the question - "How do you recruit students with no interest in the sciences into chemistry (& the sciences, medical school, engineering, etc...)? ", the answer is to make the most boring stuff sound exciting and fun. Science is science so I obviously can't change scientific content. I can talk about science in a different fun, interesting relatable way. I can make the studying of science or scientific research a "fun" social experience. Some students (studies have shown) even learn better when learning occurs with a social component (example: students are asked to talk to their neighboring students to answer a question). (If there was a way to channel student's social time and effort to studying science or doing science research, that would be phenomenal. Some people expend superhuman time and effort to their social lives. Nerdy scientists like myself do not. That's why I am a nerdy scientist.)
Science isn't inherently a fun social experience but you can make the studying of science a fun social experience. (Making being a nerdy scientist "cool". "Uber nerdy = super cool") My "recruitment" pictures from DSU & ASU follow. I did such a good recruitment job that most people think that I was just having fun with my students, not actively trying to recruit students. The other things is that the research grant that I had at DSU had a social engineering component. There really were (for some unknown reason) very few male science research students at DSU. Because I got extra points for recruiting male research students, I recruited male research students. I was not partying with my students instead of doing my work because I enjoyed partying with a bunch of 19 year olds. Why do I have nonscience majors in my research group? That would be because there were very few good chemistry majors interested in doing research so I worked with what I had. Interesting, huh.... Why might we want to train more scientists? The new jobs of the future will to all likelihood be for the highly educated & scientific or technically trained.
Do I want a job recruiting students? That would be a no. I recruited students because (a) I needed hands in the lab because I couldn't do everything myself [although if there were 10 of me, 10 of me would have gotten results iin the lab a lot faster than me with 10 undergraduate students] (b) usually research grants are partially for student pay (so if I needed equipment, I had to get students at the same time too). I do want (& believe with 90% certainty that I will get) a tenure track faculty position somewhere.
posted at 11:30 pm 10/27/10 (from my Patchogue apartment), modified at the laundromat at 1:30 pm 10/30/10