Link Love

#realacademicbios   Also :(

I thought the comments on this one were especially clever (disclaimer:  half of them are mine…)

Birth of a Nation

Disney princesses and talking (I also wonder what it would look like if they took out the villains!)

glad to see I’m not the only one who thought Love Actually was really creepy

Also creepy

What has Obama ever done for us (with apologies to John Cleese)

This comment from quixote

Also this comment from Delia Harrington

Moosesplainer

Sheldon gets into the konmari thing

A good explanation of how the lead in pipes thing works with ph and stuff.  Water filters (note:  we do not get $ from this– I’m not exactly sure why #2 sent it?) (Because we should think about water sometimes, is why.)

A windy city gal needs your help for a reading thing

Stacking pennies discusses her minimum spend to be comfortable and breaks it out.

dear debt: what you don’t understand is that my husband and I are a TEAM. We tackle things together, both of us against you. You’re outnumbered. You can’t win. Scram.

When keeping chickens was patriotic

self driving cars and the future

Reading the people’s stories here is heartbreaking.

#defeathepantsiarchy

EPIC

Google questions: When you suck at answering ask the grumpies

Q:  should i roll my 401k plan at tiaa cref over to edward d jones

A:  No!  NO!  A thousand times no!!!  OMG that is a horrible terrible idea.  Don’t do it!  You will lose so much money.  AIEEEEE!

Q:  when is a second job not worth it

A:  When the marginal cost outweighs the marginal benefit?  Or maybe when the present discounted value of the job is not worth your next choice option?

Q:  do they give phd for accounting

A:  Yes

Q:  do smart toddlers sleep less

A:  On average, yes, according to survey evidence.

Q:  what happens if house is condemned still owe money it

A:  You still owe money on it.  (Consult your local regulations and lawyer.)

Q:  do nursing faculty usually get summers off?

A:  Depends on the school.  The ones I know teach year round, but that may just be school specific.

Q:  why is it superstitious not to sleep with any body parts hanging off the bed

A:  Because that’s not a real thing to worry about unless you keep your bed over like crocodiles or piranha or something.

Q:  can a tired gifted child do badly in iq test

A:  Yes.

Q:  who is mados

A:  maybe a cousin of Manos?

Q:  why are dentists weird

A:  Nobody knows, but damn are there some odd ducks.

February is Challenge Month

So I’ve been feeling awfully tired and out of shape recently.  That means this year’s February challenge should either be exercise or food related.  (Since I have PCOS, eating sugary/refined carb foods can have an especially detrimental effect on my health and moods.)

Last year I tried the 7 min workout and I hated it so very much.  I got stronger but I dreaded that part of each day.  So that didn’t last past February.

I’ve been debating two different things.

First, I could do a healthy-eating challenge to reset my diet.  Basically this means I eliminate sugar and refined carbs entirely for the month.  No pastries, no white bread, no white pasta, no white rice, no more TJ’s orange chicken.  I know this works out pretty well for me and I tend to feel more energetic and healthier and so on and so forth.  But it removes a lot of the minor joys in my life which seems especially hard when we’re temporarily living someplace with good bakeries.  So I’m trying to cut back on the lower quality stuff, but I don’t think I want to go straight-up cold turkey.  I at least want to be able to partake at work functions, even though I know we can do better at home.

Second, and what I’m going to go with, is an exercise challenge.  After some conversation with DH, I’ve decided I should do a step challenge, as in, walk at least X steps per day.  Now, the standard step challenge is to do 10,000 steps/day.  (Or to average that per week.)  There’s not really anything scientific about that number based on my quick internet search (if anything, the “scientific” number is 7-8K, but more doesn’t hurt).  I’m not sure how realistic 10K would be for me, so what I’m doing this week is actually carrying my phone around with me and using the iPhone health app to see what my regular step usage is according to the phone.  After doing that, I’ll see what a reasonable number to up it to would be.  (It’s not as good as a fit-bit, but if I use it as a baseline against itself hopefully that will be reasonable.)  I don’t normally carry around my phone, so it says silly things like I’ve done 20 steps/day on the weekends.  The most recent time that I was carrying around my phone was at a conference where all the hotels were far away from each other, and on those days I did average more than 10K, but I did what seems like a lot of walking on those days.

A problem I’m not sure what to do about is the weather.  It has been unpredictable.  On days like today it’s easy to say, oh yeah, if I didn’t get enough walking in during the day I will totally go on a long walk after work.  But that’s a bit harder to commit to when it’s pouring rain.  Maybe I’ll have to look into youtube aerobics or something.  (Yech.)

The end goal is to feel more energetic.  If walking more doesn’t work, then I probably will have to do more than just vaguely try to eat healthier.

The plan going forward is to check how much I’ve been walking per day during a regular week, like this one, and then to set a goal for walking that is bigger than that number.  If it is embarrassingly low, I will put in an increase to a less embarrassing number each week goes on in February.

(What happened to biking or taking public transportation, you ask?  Winter + DH being willing to drive me! And deeply enjoying spending that time talking with DH instead of being on the bus by myself.  And one of the bus drivers being kind of a jerk.) (Thank goodness we’ve passed the solstice and it’s started to stay light after work.  Still probably gonna stay with the car.)

For those who haven’t been following us forever, why February?  Because February is the best month for challenges!  January may have that post-holiday guilt and new year optimism, but February has the bigger benefit of being shorter.

How do you exercise/stay healthy?

Life with a smartphone

So I’ve had the smart phone for a little over two months at this point.   Has it changed my life for the better?  Um, yes.  Has it taken over my life?  Well, not yet, but it probably will eventually.

Our first two bills have been less than our dumbphone sprint bills.  The most recent was just under $50.

I still need to get google maps because the map program that came pre-installed both sucks and doesn’t seem to work on my phone.  DH has googlemaps on his and it’s a dream.  Maybe I should do that now.  I always think of it when I’m lost in a city and am having to use the cell for data (which is why our bill was higher this past month), which is not a good time to download it.

I’m *mostly* good about just using the wireless for data stuff, though when I’m traveling I’m not as good, and worse than that I have forgotten to turn the cell data off twice so it eats money in the background.

It is wonderful having yelp on hand, even if I don’t like the smartphone yelp app.  It’s still more wonderful than nothing.  (We knew this was going to happen– so many times I had wanted yelp when out and about and did not have it!)

I’ve used it to take a few pictures.  I now understand why my students are always using theirs to take pictures of the board or their homework or whatever.  Sometimes it is easier to just take a picture than to try to explain something.  My sister sent me a bunch of pictures she took with the kids, which was pretty awesome.

One thing I didn’t anticipate– I LOVE facetime.  I had always thought of video chat like Skype… which is just not fun to use.  Facetime is so much better.  So clean and fast, even when we’re both using wireless.  It’s like DH is in the room with me except I can’t touch him (which sucks).  And we’ve been using it for family rather than for work stuff– I still prefer just the phone for work stuff.  I don’t like having to worry about how I look or moderating my facial expressions and so on if I don’t have to (wearing pants is a big part of this).  The kids love facetiming with my sister and with DH or me when one of us is traveling for work.  And it’s so much easier to understand what they’re saying than when they’re using the phone as a phone.

DH has used his for a lot more stuff.  I’m trying to keep it slow because I easily get addicted to things.  But I do see there’s a lot of potential for life improvements.  (DH has also started using Uber for the airport, which my bleeding socialist heart isn’t crazy about, at least until Uber has more safety/worker regulations attached to it, but I do also really appreciate not having to get the kids bundled into the car late at night or in the wee hours of the morning.)

Google hangout is also pretty awesome since that’s how I keep contact with my RAs while I’m out of state.  Now I don’t have to be chained to the computer if they have a question.  (Also:  when chatting with DH, I only need to make 3 clicks to say “I love you”– it just knows!)

I do think, though, that I’m getting a bit more ADHD about checking the internet now that I have the phone and *can* check it.  Like Scalzi, I’ve been feeling pretty distracted recently and wonder if I should, like him, make some sort of productivity goal before I’m allowed to check the internet.  I don’t know.

One nice thing about paradise is that our internet cable company has this deal that if you use their internet, then when you’re out and about you can steal other people’s internet if they have the same company.  It doesn’t work when a lot of people are trying to steal the same internet, but it has been really nice when we’re out and about when there aren’t too many other people around, especially in residential neighborhoods.  When we get back home, we’re no longer going to have that option so either we’ll stop using the phones so much when we’re away from home (which might be good for say, conversation etc.) or we’ll have higher Ting bills from data usage (and me then forgetting to turn off cell).

So, do I recommend it*?  Well, if you can afford the hardware, having a smart phone is pretty awesome.  Given the hardware purchase, our break even point is a long time from now.  I do kind of wish we’d bought one earlier, but sunk cost, yo.  Ting is working out pretty well for us (though it does not process the friends discount unless you badger them about it, which I find to be kind of obnoxious).  I’m not sure it will work as well when we don’t have as much access to free wireless when we’re out.

Do you have any technological improvements you’ve been enjoying?  How has owning a smart phone changed your life, if at all?  Is there anyone left without a smart phone?

*not that anybody in the world is still sans smartphone (other than #2).

Selfish reasons white men should be interested in equal pay

So I was reading an economic history book by Claudia Goldin (again), and in her chapter on Political Economy of Gender, she talks about why unions have traditionally endorsed equal pay for women (and minorities).

Essentially, the idea is that if employers are allowed to offer women and minorities lower wages, then that is what they will do.  The wages will drop and white men will be unable to find employment or will have to accept the lower wage.  The underlying assumption is that women and minorities are doing the same work as the white men, but are willing to accept lower wages for it.

If men’s rights activists really believe that the world is a meritocracy, and white men are actually the best, then insisting that women be paid the same as men makes perfect sense.  If wages are the same for all workers doing the same work, then, under those assumptions, employers will only hire white men and their wages will stay high.  Women will work at less productive jobs at lower wages.  (Of course, there’s a bunch of new experimental research out that shows that low wages decrease productivity in spot markets– folks are rediscovering the efficiency wage argument!)

These arguments are a bit simplistic and mostly ignore general equilibrium effects, but it is very interesting how the rhetoric around equal pay for equal work has changed.  And how blue-collar white men supported equal pay for their own selfish interests, but now they no longer seem to.

Who benefits from paying women less?  Not the men married to them who would benefit from higher incomes (except, maybe, in terms of balance of power in the household).  Not the men working along-side them.  Employers benefit.

Link Love

As I write this, I have massive hiccups.  I keep trying to muffle them, but occasionally one will sneak out.  mhic mhic mhic HICCUP! mhic

Oh my God, I just can’t even with the Flint water crisis.  This is a 19th century problem that WE SOLVED.  And the effects are so terrible.  Werner Troesken wrote an excellent but horrifying book about it.  I can’t believe this could be happening in the 21st century.  We need a revolution.  Public safety, infrastructure… a new war on poverty a war for public health, public safety.

Also awful from true stories  backward.

This article illustrates exactly the problem with Macklemore.  Eminem doesn’t have this problem because he’s actually GOOD.  (Though Thrift Shop is truly catchy.  But it’s good like All about that base is good, as a one-hit pop wonder.)  So his heart is in the right place, but man, can the Grammies be awarded on merit for a change, instead of to the not as good white guy?

DeRay McKesson is awesome.  I wish this interview could have gone on longer!

The horrible consequences of reporting sexual harassment.  Burn, patriarchy, burn.

So even though isidewith has me 95% with Bernie and 92% with Hillary, I’m going with Hillary (#2 is going with Bernie), assuming I can get my damned voter registration thing figured out for the absentee ballot (my registration is “in suspense” because the post office here sucks and only occasionally delivers mail to us instead of returning it).  This is basically how I feel.  And extra especially this comment from megpie71.

This is a really interesting interview with Sia about crafting pop music.

Go climb that cupboard!

If someone gives you a whole lot of persimmons, this is a good recipe.

How to slice a pizza.  (The answer may surprise you)

This is pretty cool, also exsanguinate is a pretty cool word.

h/t historian for this post whose comments you should definitely read

With the stock market down, now is a good time to do Traditional IRA rollovers/conversions, in case you’re ever thinking of doing a backdoor roth. Why? Because you pay taxes on the earnings and when the stock market is down, you have smaller earnings (possibly even losses)

Policy wonks might be interested in this economics lecture on household finances, wealth, and mistakes.  Related:  why bond prices go down when interest rates go up.

November lessons? from table for one

Very cool money post from a Natural Scientist.

Ask the grumpies: Questions about living in paradise

Mid A asks:

[W]ould [you] want to live in paradise permanently, now that you have experienced it as a family? What income would you ideally generate to live a comfortable life (fancy cheese, travel to relatives, satisficing for keyboards, etc.)? Is the school environment more competitive and if so, what is your take on it?

Would we want to live here permanently?  Well… if I could move my job here, sure.  But I can’t.  Or if we were idle rich and not Mr. Money Moustache definitions of rich– like actually rich and could afford to buy a reasonably nice (for paradise) house someplace reasonably nice with cash and pay taxes and so on.  We knew we liked it here before living here as a family, though there are other paradises that we like more for some things and less for others.  So, given that I can’t move my entire department here, we’re going to stay in our small town.  If DH loses his telecommuting job, we will reconsider.  But up until that point, we’re staying put.  I honestly don’t know what I would do out here.  There are some SLACs, but they’re small, so there’s no guarantee they’d even have openings in my field.  Prestigious schools might have soft money openings.  Non-prestigious schools sound like high teaching loads and low salaries.  There’s not a ton of government or industry in my field of interest around here.  So who knows.

5 years ago when rents weren’t so high (3k/mo instead of 5k/mo — we’re currently paying 4k/mo because we got a deal on this place), I sat down and made that calculation including the increased tax burden and came up with 120k/year as a renter. That includes high quality full-time daycare for one kid for a year but only one car. And it is possible to get deals on housing if you keep your eye out for lazy landlords, so there are still places if you move quickly and are attractive to lazy landlords where you can get even 2K/mo for a 1200 sq ft 2-bedroom, but you have to be fast and seem like you’re going to stay for a long time.  We also have friends who bought at a good point and are paying less than 3K/mo on their mortgage.  In addition to rent increases, inflation has also happened since then.  So the answer would be something more than 120K/year if we’re renting and aren’t going to make a whole lot of sacrifices.  I don’t know what the answer would be exactly, though I will probably do that calculation at some point after we’re done, maybe without dealing with the additional tax burden though because that’s a pain to figure out if you don’t have to.

The school environment we’re in isn’t very competitive.  However, there are a lot of communities around here that have different levels of competition and different types of competition.  We were limited in where we ended up by DC1 wanting to stay grade-skipped (which knocked out one reputationally very competitive district and several not at all competitive districts), our inability to afford an extremely expensive place, and most landlords at the top of our price range not wanting us as tenants (cats, kids, the one year thing).  On top of that, within our district, many of the competitive parents send their kids to a lottery school that you can only get into by lotterying in the spring before kindergarten.  So my answer to that:  if you’re worried about too much competition, there’s a lot of heterogeneity across districts and within districts.  The same is true of preschools.  Here and in other paradises.  (And if you *want* the competition you may have difficulty being allowed to compete since the most competitive places tend to require waitlists or lotteries.)

Have any of you done the “What income would I need to live comfortably in paradise” calculation (for your paradise)?  Are you living in your paradise, why or why not? 

Live-blogging my cyber security awareness training

an IM chat with my partner.

ME: and now, for sauce, an hour-long video training on ‘cyber security awareness’.
WHY WHY WHY are there so many videos I HATE VIDEO TRAININGS
just write down the things that everyone under 50 knows, and it’ll take 5 minutes to read.

[#2 notes that Grumpy Rumblings does not endorse tired age stereotypes about technology knowledge or lack thereof.  Workers over 50 ALSO know this stuff.]

PARTNER: not all employees are under 50 :)

ME: “Don’t answer phishing emails” DURRRRR
durrrrrrrrrrrr
don’t share passwords durrrrrrrrrrr
Partner, did u know that phishing emails are common?
This ‘cyber attacker’ is wearing google glasses

PARTNER: they do that!
ME: do they???
PARTNER: no

ME: hey if a stranger calls u on the phone and tells u that ur computer is infected and u need to go buy this software to fix it… durrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
“Simply hang up the phone or ignore the email.” This is some quality sh*t.

PARTNER: well, taunting them wouldn’t be very professional

ME: hey another unit about email
DO NOT OPEN THE ATTACHMENT
also the ‘cyber attacker’ is a man of course
o wait, this one’s a woman– also wearing google glass

here’s a hint: your bank’s not going to ‘deactivate’ your account.

This envelope is vibrating. I wouldn’t open that.
“Browsers are one of the primary ways we interact with the internet.”

PARTNER: good to know
ME: right?

“Should you heed security warnings?” gee what a hard quiz

“social networking websites are one of the most exciting technologies on the internet!”
this is definitely written BY 60-year-olds, FOR 60-year-olds.
oh no that guy got a fishing hook through his FACE

[#2:  See above disclaimer.  60 year olds who work have gone through more of these security trainings than #1 has.  They are aware of social networking.]

PARTNER: ow
ME: your friend doesn’t actually need you to wire money to him in Romania
PARTNER: I dunno, sometimes my friend is in Romania
ME: and they can only contact you via facebook?
PARTNER: well, probably not.

ME: also this video has bad grammar.
ooooh kidnapping your child, that’s definitely the item choice I’m picking.
I thought we were going to learn about encryption there for a minute, but no. That would be much harder than “don’t click that link, yo”
“Not only can you call anyone IN THE WORLD” using your cell phone… go figure.

PARTNER: well, usually I can’t call you, actually.  [This is because #1 is the only person left in the US without a cell phone.]
ME: in the WORLD, Partner.
hahahaha “never jailbreak your own phone”

PARTNER: then teh haXX0Rz will pwnz you!
ME: don’t go to http://www.EvilAntiVirus.com — I bet you shouldn’t click on that link
PARTNER: Firefox can’t establish a connection to the server at http://www.evilantivirus.com
ME: sad
the section on passwords promises hilarity
oooh passphrases. Use numbers in place of letters. Are you listening, 60-year-olds? [#2:  60 year olds probably have as many passwords as the rest of us non 60-year olds]
PARTNER:  31337!
the password ‘p4$$w0rd’ is totally uncrackable!
ME: hey don’t use your banking password for youtube
PARTNER: but then how will I remember my youtube password?
ME:  o noes
never share your password, Partner. It is a SECRET.

PARTNER: Keep it secret. Keep it safe.
ME: Enable “Hobbit-level” security.
Don’t send important secret work information to your personal email

PARTNER: but how will I get it home?
ME: Don’t log in as root unless you need to…
this guy seems to have an RFID chip embedded in his clavicle
that seems… not-ideal
PARTNER: ow

ME: don’t install software that has the Jolly Roger on it.

PARTNER: but I really liked Assassin’s Creed 4
ME: me too!
“These steps should be applied in a way that is consistent with our policies.” no, really?
argh, grammar.
hey that loud-ass bird is back, the one that likes to sit outside our window and look at us. What’s up, loud bird?

PARTNER: tweet
ME:  “Which of the following is a typical step that an attacker will take after compromising a system?

A. Installing Microsoft Office on your system.”
ha!

“If you believe your system has been compromised, you should: A. Continue using the system so the attacker does not become suspicious” — YES, YES, pick that one

WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY

This data management policy is laid out like a football play. Am I the running back or the tight end?

“We hope you enjoyed your security awareness training.”  NOPE.

PARTNER: thaT DOES NOT CHANGE THEIR HOPE THOUGH

ME: hahahaha
“Remember, our goal is not to scare you from using the internet.”
“Technology is a tremendous tool that enables you to accomplish amazing things.”  Ok, Grandma.  [#2:  Most grandmas are well aware of facebook and skype etc.]

[end.]

Later, my co-worker started the same online training and spontaneously burst into giggles.  “Welcome to the 21st Century?” she asked.  “It gets worse,”  I told her.

#2 notes that her IT training just switched to slow and stupid.  No skipping to the quiz anymore.  No just reading the slides and fast forwarding them.  Nope, you cannot move ahead until they’re done talking.   And it’s an hour and a half with a huge amount of useless prologue.  UGH.  So, of course, instead of actually paying attention, I’m just letting it run on my secondary monitor, clicking next whenever I notice a slide has finished (there are ~150 slides).  If they want me to learn something, this is not the way to go about it.

What’s the dumbest training you’ve been to?  How can we all be less ageist?

RBOC

• I should always get someone else to come up with a title for my papers.   The papers I name myself have the lamest names.  Back in high school I feel like I came up with better titles.  (One memorable history title:  “Iran around the plateau”… though I forget what came after the colon.  I think I also had one called, “Pope on a rope.”  That one was about different European countries attempting to control the power of the papacy back in the day.)  Today mine are more like, “Using X to Y” or “The effect of X on Y”.  When other people come up with the titles they’re a lot sexier.
• “[Complaining about unreasonable deadlines.] Since my boss doesn’t live in reality, he is bound to be disappointed.”  — Overheard on the subway.
• Whenever DH travels for work, I miss him and my sanity.
• I don’t like it when people at work tell folks to clean up after themselves “because your mother isn’t here.”  As if somehow it is a mother’s responsibility to clean up after people’s messes.  Grr.  Stupid patriarchy.  Even my 3 year old can clean up after hirself so long as there’s no broken glass, and when there is broken glass, well, isn’t that facilities’/daddies’ responsibility?  (I’m sure they don’t want to be paying me workers comp because I sliced open my typing hand, given that facilities generally has things like gloves and dustpans and little brooms and stuff).
• I’ve temporarily taken to calling both of our children, “George”.  It makes it easier.  Especially when they call me, “Daddy.”  (I will love them and cuddle them…)
• Our dishwasher is broken. Oh man, I hope either DH can fix it when he gets back (it’s an electrical problem according to the error codes and DH is pretty good with those so long as zie is careful about wire color) or the landlord (partner of our former landlord) actually sends somebody to fix it because I don’t want to buy a new dishwasher that we’re only going to use for a handful of months. DC1 is learning how to wash dishes!  Efficiently!  Update:  I found another site that mentioned a first step is unplugging and replugging (just like a computer) and DH suggested it might be plugged in under the sink (it was), so I tried that.  It no longer has an error code, but I will have to wait for dishes before testing it.  It would be lovely if rebooting it just worked without having to replace any circuit boards.  It’s amazing how much can be solved by just starting all over from scratch with a reboot.  Update 2:  Now it’s giving a different error code, one that I can’t find on the internet.  This can wait for DH.
• DC1 has just discovered grown-up They Might Be Giants.  I am enjoying conversations in which zie puzzles out the meaning behind Birdhouse in your soul (possibly the only TMBG grown-up song that makes sense…).  Zie still hasn’t figured it out, but we’ve had much discussion.

Where Chacha’s donation went and why you should donate too

Chacha won our “most commenting of 2015″ contest (even though she wasn’t aware she’d entered, she had, oh, she had).  That means she got to pick where we donated our last month’s blog earnings to.  How much did we donate?  Well, we topped it up so that we could give $100.  That seems like a nice number.

Where did she pick?  Planned Parenthood.

Planned Parenthood is a non-profit that provides women’s health care and reproductive information world-wide.  They do cancer screenings and reproductive health for men and women, as well as pre-natal care and access to family planning.  They are a force for good in this world, allowing women control over their own bodies, helping families (including low income families who don’t have other options) plan the family size that is best for them, and providing health care to those who would not otherwise be able to afford it.

Unfortunately they are under attack in the US.  The only reason that we can think of is that the Patriarchy wants to keep women down.  They want poor people to remain poor.  They want women to remain permanently pregnant.  The want rich white men in control always and forever.  It sounds like a conspiracy theory, but is there any other explanation about why there’s so much push to cut government funding for non-abortion services?  (Abortion services already do not receive government funding.)

Because of this lack of government funding, Planned Parenthood has had to scale back considerably.  In much of the country, women now have to drive hours, possibly across states, to use their services.  That means that a lot of women are no longer able to get access to safe, affordable birth control, cancer screenings, or, yes, abortions.  That means more unwanted babies being born in bad circumstances.  More women dying of preventable diseases.  More back-alley abortions.  Real people are being hurt.

What can you do?  Well, your donations won’t make up for the government cut-backs, but every dollar still helps.  Donate.

And write your government officials.  Tell them you want funding restored.  Healthcare for women is important for everyone.  It’s important for this country.

Join ChaCha in helping this important organization.  And thank you.