Author Archives: Cath@VWXYNot?

About Cath@VWXYNot?

"one of the sillier science bloggers [...] I thought I should give a warning to the more staid members of the community." - Bob O'Hara, December 2010

Book review bundle

Posted on January 1, 2015 by Cath@VWXYNot?

I was inspired to start this post by Beth‘s 2014 book list, and to finish it by Stephen‘s – although my list spans 20 months rather than 12! Bad blogger. Beth also invited me to join a newly-formed book club a … Continue reading →

Posted in blog buddies, book review, movie review, personal, science | 9 Comments

Hogma-Nay.

Posted on December 31, 2014 by Cath@VWXYNot?

When I still lived in the UK, New Year’s Eve was always a really big deal for my friends and me. We usually went up to Edinburgh for the huge Hogmanay street party, which involved being out on Princes Street … Continue reading →

Posted in drunkenness, getting old, personal | 3 Comments

How to pass your PMP exam

Posted on December 22, 2014 by Cath@VWXYNot?

It’s been a while, eh? Today’s the first day since early September that I’ve woken up without a long list of specific things to accomplish, and it is blissful! I’m on my sister-in-law’s sofa with a big cup of tea, … Continue reading →

Posted in blog buddies, career, conferences, furry friends, personal, science, why I love the internet | 8 Comments

Street signs

Posted on August 31, 2014 by Cath@VWXYNot?

My sister and I had very active imaginations when we were kids. We acted out plays with our stuffed animals, pretended we were time travellers, and frequently visited Narnia – but what we really loved was solving mysteries. Fuelled by … Continue reading →

Posted in book review, family, photos, silliness, Vancouver | 3 Comments

Accelerate the progress of your research by using this one weird old tip!

Posted on August 11, 2014 by Cath@VWXYNot?

(Photo and title by Sonja Babovic; used with her permission) Other geeky things that made me laugh recently: Mad science looks pretty similar to normal science As does Lego science  

Posted in grant wrangling, photos, science, silliness | 2 Comments

Things I learned at a funding agency’s “community engagement” session this week

Posted on June 7, 2014 by Cath@VWXYNot?

“Your stupid new metrics are irrelevant to my field of research” “It’s not fair that chemists get bigger awards, even though I acknowledge that their research is much more expensive than that of the other fields that fall under your … Continue reading →

Posted in career, grant wrangling, science | 8 Comments

Ectopic scribblings

Posted on April 26, 2014 by Cath@VWXYNot?

It occurred to me this week that I’ve written various things in other venues that I’ve never linked to from this blog, and that it might be a good idea to compile some sort of list to try and mitigate … Continue reading →

Posted in blog buddies, career, communication, personal, publishing, writing | 13 Comments

Questions?

Posted on March 27, 2014 by Cath@VWXYNot?

A group of geeky colleagues assembled in the lobby after work last night and headed down to Vancouver’s Railway Club for Café Scientifique. This monthly science outreach event encompasses talks about everything from biodiversity to genomics to chemistry to particle … Continue reading →

Posted in communication, drunkenness, photos, science, Vancouver | 6 Comments

MOOCs: my other online compulsion

Posted on March 16, 2014 by Cath@VWXYNot?

I’ve heard a lot about massive open online courses (MOOCs) over the last couple of years, but hadn’t quite got around to trying one until Eva mentioned on Facebook recently that she’d signed up for a communication science course, and … Continue reading →

Posted in blog buddies, career, communication, education, personal, technology, why I love the internet | 7 Comments

Hating Skyler White: reflection on gender roles in pop culture (guest post by Jane O’Hara)

Posted on March 6, 2014 by Cath@VWXYNot?

There are some TV characters that people love to hate. What’s the harm, you might say, when you know that they aren’t real people? But can these attitudes provide us with a mirror for some of the ugly ideas still … Continue reading →

Posted in feminism, guest post, television | 7 Comments