Links I'm Loving this Week-01

There's an earthquake on the west coast and a hurricane on the east coast, maybe the Mayans were right? (panic time?) In the mean time, here's some links from around the interweb that I think are worth reading.

29 Things that make 20-Somethings Happy - Open bars, people who pick you up from the airport, not being the drunkest one at the party. This list made me laugh the whole way through, and all of it is true.

Speaking of things that made me laugh, here's something for the art history enthusiast. Some strange and inappropriate things hidden in ancient works of art. You should see what kind of fruit was growing on the trees back then.


On a much sweeter note, and because I was feeling very cuddly when I stumbled on to this link via twitter, here are 27 adorable old couples. "will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm sixty four?"

And last but not least, here's an article from the globe and mail: Why the sedentary life is killing us; sitting is the new smoking. So get up off your feet people, as the world health ad at the bus stop on 16th ave reminds me in the mornings, "everything that gets worse with age, gets better with exercise."

Happy Tuesday ladies and gents!

I Heart My Body

A little bit belated, but I found my way to this link up via Fat Mum Slim (love your blog lady!) and thought what a great idea, I have to spread it around.

Link up over at We Heart Life, and check out some of the other lovely ladies participating.

The challenge, its simple, post a picture of your self and tell the world why you love your body. Share via Twitter or whatever other social network floats your boat, spread some love to other linkees, and leave a comment finishing the sentence "True Beauty is...."

Here's me:

I ran a spartan race this summer (read about it here) and despite getting heat stroke, it was one of my proudest accomplishments. A hour in the sun spent pushing body to do things I never knew it could.

I heart my body because:

• It surprises me with it's growing strength and resilience.
• Its kind to me (genetics/health/metabolism) and so I treat it kindly (diet/exercise/fun/love).
• Its the only one I've got, and the only one I want.

So why do you heart your body? link it up!

Photobooth Fun

At my cousin's wedding last weekend, they had an awesome photobooth for the guests to enjoy! photos printed immediately in strips of 4 with the wedding info, you got one copy to keep, and one to put in the photo-guestbook; and the digital copies are available for download from their website (here). They also had a whole pile of fun costumes and props. Here's a set I made for my bf, who was stuck here in Calgary studying all weekend.

Appropriate considering movember is just around the corner?

Anyways the wedding was a blast, my first time as a bridesmaid was great, and I promise to post more about it soon. In the mean time I'm trying to recover from Wednesday night food poisoning in time to still enjoy Halloween shenanigans this weekend.

What Halloween plans do you have?

Do I need a business card for my blog?

A stack a business cards collected while Fadra (all things fadra) attended BlogHer11.

If you follow my twitter (@Turner_SR) you might know that last night I attended a Young Women of Influence Evening Series, featuring  Evelyn Ackah, a Calgary based Immigration Lawyer and one of Avenue Magazine's Top 40 under 40. She gave a great talk on Negotiating Your Career, so I've got two posts in my head right now to share that with you.

But my question right now, is "Do I need a business card for my blog?" Last night quite a few of the ladies in attendance asked if I had one, and I didn't. What a let down, especially since I had thought maybe I should get some made, but just haven't had a spare minute to do it.

Do you have a card for your blog/twitter/internet persona?

Do you routinely find yourself asked for one?

Is it a good way to gain new followers?

I guess what holds me back is that for me, my blog is something I do on the side....I only recently owned up to the people in the real world (fam/friends) that I even keep a blog. I still doesn't feel legit sometimes.

What makes me want to move forward on it is that opportunities like blogging for Women of Influence, or attending blogger meet ups means more scenarios where I'd like to have something to leave people I meet with.

Finally, as I have steadily seen my page views increase, comments increase and followers increase, my blog is becoming more 'real' and less my ramblings posted on the internet for the fun of it.

I'd love to hear other peoples opinions on this. And I'll be sure to let you know if I have cards made!

The thing about groupwork...

I do apparently play well with rocks.....I was making an inukshuk, ok, it's not like rocks are my only friends.


The thing about group work is that it inherently takes a task that you could have accomplished in a short amount of time on your own and triples it, along with bombarding your inbox with millions of emails when/where/how should we meet.

I almost always prefer to work on my own. Having reached grad school I thought I had finally left the world of partners and group projects behind (I mean of my 3 classes, the largest one had 15 people... so they really don't need to pair you up to reduce marking ok). But alas, I still have to suffer through it, every other week.

Once in undergrad, my partner, who were were supposed to be paired with for the whole year got bit by a rabid dog and later dropped the course (unrelated reasons) and so I got to be a group of one! It was bliss! (she was fine, don't worry)

I know that working well in groups is an important skill to develop, and that some groups can be very effective... but for the most part its a huge pain!

Is it really so bad that I don't play well with others?

Do you have any group project train wreck stories... or times when everything went perfectly smoothly?

3 websites every PhD student should have bookmarked

Sometimes you have 15 minutes to kill during an incubation, time point, or exposure.

Here's 3 pages I recommend you click on while you wait.

1: PhD comics: Piled higher and deeper.

This comic strip follows the life of a nameless, bespectacled, engineering grad student as he and his friends struggle with procrastination, the endless quest to find free food, ridiculous supervisors and trying to have a life outside of the lab. Always good for a laugh, and so easy to relate to.

2: What should we call grad school.

"When someone brags about how late he stays to work."

One of those great giffy tumblrs, constantly being updated, always accurate, often at summer student's expense. If only there was a way to print these out and post them on the lab bulletin board.



3: Stuff by Matt Might, particularly the Illustrated Guide to a PhD

I came across Matthew Might (@mattmight ) 's stuff just the other day. Someone had share a FB link to his illustrated guide to a PhD, and well for me it was inspiring rather than just sad and funny. Then I spent another hour or so reading other articles like his 'How to get into grad school' his recomended books and papers every PhD student  should read and his team fortress related guide to the 9 types of students. Anyways, this is a great place to procrastinate and still feel like you a developing yourself into a better scientist.

Wordless Wednesday: Hopewell Rocks

These photos date back to a 2005 trip to Prince Edward Island, and were taken at Hopewell Rocks in New Brunswick, at low tide.

October Already

Me in Banff about this time last year, Tunnel Mountain.

Another "I can't believe it's October already!" post for you to read, and one day late too, I know my feed was full of them yesterday.

Last night as I walked across campus after a somewhat productive 45 min in the gym, I thought to myself what a beautiful night. The air was crisp, it was chilly but not cold really, and the full moon was out just as clouds rolled in from the west to cover it up while I walked. I took the chance on that 10 minute or so walk to just breath and clear my head, because yesterday was the start of an incredibly busy week, and an even busier month for me.

School wise I have a class this semester, which so far has me reading between 4-6 papers a week, with a presentation every other week, and a paper to write soon. I have my research proposal to finish up the final draft by the end of October so I can have a committee meeting again mid November. Fall is the season of applying for funding in academia, and I subsequently have an application due on the 15th. I have a whole side project of experiments that I'd like to finish out before the end of november, alongside the rest of my lab work. On top of that I'm the president of our department grad association, I volunteer with the committee which organizes the faculty symposium each year, and I am responsible for a news article for a student run health sciences journal out of UofT. Add to that our lab tech being on holiday for the next two months and I've somehow become the default replacement and you can see my head is spinning.

Life wise I'm standing up in my cousin's wedding this month, and will be travelling back to Ontario for that. I am doing two dance classes a week, (add it to the night class and tuesday and friday are my only nights off). I am trying to get into the gym two nights a week, and run outside at least once. I have my first half Marathon coming up Nov 11. And I still want to try to get 2-3 blog posts  (minimum) up a week.

Yeesh... I may just collapse in a heap come Halloween! Oh halloween... I have a costume to sew for that!

So this month will be the ultimate test of my time management skills, but consider this post a disclaimer up front....if I disappear off the face of the internet this month, it's not because I don't love it here, it's only because I'm passed out under a pile of journal articles.

Cheers, and happy fall!

Sara