Dr. Shellie

Today I taught a lecture for my postdoc advisor, who is out of town. It reminded me how much I love teaching. I really like communicating with people in general (even in foreign languages that I speak quite poorly). I also like playing with concepts to distill them into presentable form.

I didn’t do any formal teaching in grad school or postdoc, since the implicit message was that we should focus on research instead, so we could get faculty jobs. This is somewhat ironic, since a big part of the job of a research professor is, in fact, to teach.

Now I am looking forward to my fall class, which will be a seminar class on current research topics in my field. I am a little afraid it will take up all my time, but I think it will be enjoyable.

Suppose you are forced to choose between the following two options: 1) Work as a tigerkeeper, in the zoo, until retirement, or 2) Eat only burned food for the rest of your life.

Which do you choose?

Lucky me, I got Rat Guy again the other day as my cab driver. These days he is not bringing the rat along in the cab. However, he is training the rat to do tricks in hopes of getting her on David Letterman. As I was comfortably settled in the back seat of the cab, he explained the rat’s achievements to date: she will jump up from the sidewalk into the cab on command. As in, on to the seat. Where I was sitting as he was telling me this. Hrrrmmmph. Not a nice thought.

To answer all the emails in my inbox, and see it completely empty.

I have the best two students in the world. Smart, motivated, focussed, positive, cheerful, helpful, and happy to come work with me in the fall.

Now off to finish that postdoc…!