I promise a real post, eventually.  But in the mean time, a quote that I love about bad science (bad statistics, really):

-  Rosenthal, 1994 in Science and Ethics in Conducting, Analyzing, and Reporting Psychological Research

My thoughts exactly.  We spend so much time pretending like statistics are black and white, i.e, if you have this data, then you run this test, and you get this result, and you make this conclusion.  But that’s not the way it should work.  I get so irritated when people deify statistics as if they hold all of this magical power.  I mean, I love stats as much (probably much more, actually) as the next person, but I love them because they are a tool that could potentially lead to practical results, not because they are the practical results themselves (which they’re not).  I mean, seriously, is a p-value of .05 really that different from .06?  What is it that makes you celebrate your results if you have 95% confidence in them, as opposed to 94%?

I have come up with a new motto . . . it actually came to me a month or 2 when I was taking a spin class with a lackluster instructor, and I had this thought about her, “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”  Now everybody knows that I am the kind of person that has my hand in pretty much every sort of hobby/leisure time activity, and that I volunteer to do pretty much anything that needs volunteering for, and that I say “no” to almost no one.  This approach has made me well-rounded, but at times, quite stressed.  So, although it seems to be against my very constitution, I am going to try to adopt

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

Just because you can go to the faculty only (plus me) workshop on improving academic program webpages doesn’t mean you should.

Just because you can overhaul your church’s approach to young adult programs by incorporating a significant “new media” component doesn’t mean you should.

Just because you can make it through an entire stats course without missing a single point on a single assignment or test (I have actually done this) doesn’t mean you should.

So those are the things I’m currently trying to prevent myself from doing . . . now it’s off to make a powerpoint for a presentation that doesn’t require powerpoints, to read articles for a class you can get away with not reading in. and to hand stitch letter appliques on six baby blankets that probably don’t require hand stitching (at least I’m getting paid for those) . . . baby steps, people, baby steps . . .

I alluded to this a few posts ago, and those of you who know me in person have already heard this . .  but I know that some of you are reading from afar, so I need to update you guys on a little something . . . I’ve decided to stay an extra year in grad school.  I can hear the collective groans now.  What?  ANOTHER year in grad school?  Haven’t you already spent more time in grad school than most people?  Yes and yes.  It’s true–I got a 2-year Master’s degree and then went into a PhD program that incorporates a Master’s degree, so technically, I should have been able to shave at least a year off of the 5 year PhD program.  Well, I’ve decided to make it a 6 year PhD program, which makes 8 years of graduate education and 12 years of higher education.  Yes, that is a really long time, but you can’t say you’re surprised, because if I’m anything, I”m a student.

The reasons for this extra year are multiple, but the simplest explanation is that I realized that if I went ahead with my original plan, by the time I was on the job market, I would have a very confusing resume.  Specifically, I have spent the last few years working on my advisor’s research, which was great for getting extra publications (and I’m actually still waiting on those to actually get published, but that’s another story), but not so great for getting to study anything I am remotely interested in.  Now that I have finally moved into my own research area, I have been re-energized by the idea of academia (although I am still more gung-ho about the teaching than the research), and I realized that I need to have publications on my resume in my area (academic engagement/motivation) if I went to get hired as an expert in that area.  So, the extra year will allow for that.

The extra year has additional perks, too.  It gives us more time to accrue equity on our home, as well as for us to continue to make additions like the deck and landscaping that make our house more valuable than the surrounding houses.  We also love Athens and have just started to feel settled into the social network, so we’re in no hurry to move.  And then there’s the bonus that we will definitely be in-state for the year leading up to Abby and Sydney’s wedding, which will make it easier for us to get things done that need doing leading up to October 2009, so yay for that, too!

On Saturday, I went to a workshop in Atlanta on food photography and food styling.  The idea was to get tips on how to improve my food blog pics.  I mean, I’m not planning on making a living on that or anything (but if it happens, I wouldn’t complain!), but after getting favorable comments on my pics from an editor at CookingLight, as well as a food stylist, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try to hone my skills.  And apparently, I was being labeled as the “up and coming food blogger” by some of the other participants (right . . .) 

So, I was in way over my head, as I got out my D40 with absolutely no extra components in tow.  Lots of the other photographers at the workshop were also shooting on D40s, only they had a bazillion lenses and diffusers and other things I’ve never even heard of.  (To give you an idea of my cluelessness, Abby had to give me a crash course in aperture and the like after the workshop.)  Fortunately, just watching them gave me ideas, and interestingly, my pictures actually did improve over the course of the session, even though I can’t pinpoint why.  Another encouraging thing was that the food stylist says she shoots all of her pics for her food blog the same way I do– natural light, and sometimes out on the patio when there’s not enough light on the dinner table.  So, I shouldn’t have to do too much more than I’m already doing to produce great pics.  I did get good ideas on composition and background, and although not necessarily relevant to my “shoot and eat it” mentality, I did learn a lot of the behind the scenes tricks on how to get grill marks perfect (no grill required!) and how to get beverages to sweat just right (they don’t even have to be cold!)  Anyways, these pics are some of the results, and more can be seen on my Flickr page.

If you have not stumbled upon this website yet, you need to!  It’s http://wordle.net/ and what you do is give it the url of any blog or website, or you paste text directly in, and then it takes that text and turns it into something cool like this.  Bigger words mean they come up more frequently in the text.  You can also change the orientation of the words, font, color, etc.  The above image is from my “This I Believe” statement at church.  It kinda has the unintentional consequence of sounding prescriptive (as in, you, go believe!), but “believe” is so big because that’s what the statement was supposed to be about.  Anyways, it’s a fun thing to play with!!

I’ve been a bit absent because of, well, a lot of things.  Work on my dissertation has made me realize that I actually do like research, it just has to be my own research and not somebody else’s data that needs analyzing (and that doesn’t seem like a crime).  Additionally, I have realized that I currently don’t have enough of said research on my vita to be competitive when it comes to an academic job search . . . (and now I see exactly why my advisor said, “Are you sure you don’t want to take an extra year?  If you want to go into academia, you really should take an extra year.”)  So this realization has created a bit of an uproar involving rapid recalculations and re-thinkings of current plans and whether or not said advisor knows what she’s talking about and realizing that she probably does and really liking Athens and really hating the housing market and all sorts of things . . . but we can talk about that later.

The other reason I haven’t written much on this blog is because I have been trying to get another blog up and running.  I have been wanting to have a content-based blog for a while (as opposed to a life-events/ranting-based blog, as this one is), but I just didn’t know what to do.  After some great comments regarding my food photography from several food magazine/blog editors, I realized that I may have a previously unconsidered talent for food photography.  Additionally, my friends are always impressed at the meals we have at our house, so a natural combination of the two would be a food blog–duh! But because I want my blog to be helpful to people, it didn’t make sense to advertise it right out of the gate, because how helpful is a single recipe?  So, I wanted to wait until I had several appropriately-photographed recipes up there so that it would look at least semi-substantial once I advertised it.  And interestingly, despite the lack of advertising, people have been regularly finding themselves there after google searches, so I guess that’s a good sign.  (Who knew that Buffalo Chicken Salad and Homemade Tortilla Chips would be so hot right now?) Anyways, all of this is to say that I will now be maintaining a second blog,

playing {with food}

at www.implayingwithfood.wordpress.com

So go over and check it out!!  And don’t worry, I will still be using this blog for day-to-day updates and rants of the variety that my family, friends, and secret internet stalkers (hey, no shame) would be interested in.  But for right now, you should go play {with food}!

And now, my favorite part of the Parents’ Day Meal:  Cream Cakes with Macerated Strawberries and Fresh Whipped Cream!!!  This was inspired by this Sunset recipe.  To make it look more festive, I actually cooked the batter in muffin tins (it made 11 mini-cakes).  Had there been mint at the store, I probably would have added that to the strawberries as they were juicing in the fridge, but alas, that did not happen.  We also added homemade whipped cream, which Caleb made by whipping one cup of cream in the Kitchen Aid mixer and adding a little white sugar just as the peaks began to set up.  Slicing the mini-cakes in half gave the appearance of a traditional Strawberry Shortcake, but the cream cake recipe made it much richer (and much worse for you!)  I definitely recommend this one.

For the main course, we served Spice-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with Fresh Nectarine Salsa and Cilantro-Coconut Rice.  My husband was nice enough to take care of cooking these (I prepped them) so I could talk with the family.  The rub for the pork tenderloin was inspired by this recipe.  Mix the following spices, rub into a 1.5 lb pork loin, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.  Then, cook in oven to an internal temperature of 160 degrees.

• 2 teaspoons brown sugar 
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder 
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

The Fresh Nectarine Salsa was a food processing till chunky of the following ingredients:

• 4 peeled, pitted nectarines
• 1 de-seeded jalapeno
• 3 T cilantro
• 1/4 c red onion
• 1 garlic clove
• 2 T rice vinegar (more to taste)
• 1 t lemon juice
• salt to taste

The Cilantro Coconut Rice was based on this recipe.  It was supposed to have mint in it, but I think all of the mint was gone from the grocery stores for 4th of July mojitos (that’s the only explanation I could come up with for no mint at all in Athens).  Also, we followed the reviewer recommendations to add more coconut milk and broth than the recipe called for, but we added too much because the rice was really creamy.  I guess I would recommend following the recipe and then gradually adding extra coconut milk till you reach the desired consistency.

Next up is the Parents’ Day dessert course: Cream Cakes with Macerated Strawberried and Fresh Whipped Cream.

After our sangria and crostini, we moved on to the second course, which was chilled soup course.  We’ve done gazpachos in the past, but we wanted something a little different, so we did Tiered Tomato Soup from Sunset magazine.  I didn’t get a chance to get a really good pic of this one (trying to cook and style food simultaneously while entertaining guests is a but much), and our avocados weren’t as bright green as the ones the used for the magazine pic, but it still tasted good.  Only changes to the recipe were:

• added both lemon and lime juice (unintentionally)
• added more sour cream to avocado (to taste)
• put a dollop of sour cream on top for presentation purposes

Check back later for the main course: Spice-Rubbed Pork Loin with Fresh Nectarine Cilantro and Cilantro-Coconut Rice!

I just downloaded Picasa (free photo app from Google), and I am pleasantly surprised, as I did this to one of my pictures from our 3rd anniversary trip to Denver.  Pretty rad, if I do say so myself . . . .