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Tuesday isn’t so bad…

Posted on April 10, 2013
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Tuesday isn’t so bad…It’s a sign that I’ve somehow survived Monday.

Actually my Tuesday wasn’t bad at all, just super busy. Like every day. Except that today I didn’t have time to work out but I train for Ironman races 6-7 days a week, sometimes twice a day, an occasional rest day might even be a good thing. Some of my blogger friends have been recently telling about their day in pictures, and I figured, I could snap a pic here, another there throughout my day, and see what comes out of it. So here we go….

You may remember from yesterday that it has been snowing here in Friday night. So it was great to wake up for more snow shoveling… Sigh! Luckily the military had a delayed start for their day: hubby was home and took care of the snow while I started my work day around 6am.

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Some time ago I got into yoga. Addicted. Big time. And ever since I have not had any kind of craving for coffee. Tea is my choice of beverage nowadays, black tea in the mornings, and caffeine free herbal in the evening. And lots of all kinds of teas in between. I have a bad habit of carrying tea mugs with me all the time, and leaving them all over the house. This morning one of the tea mugs was forgotten in the bathroom when I started to curl my hair. Hair got curly, and I burned myself with that iron – again.

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I was lucky to have time for lunch today. Lunch meaning something else than eating carrots at my desk. The only tasty and trustworthy healthy food restaurant in Anchorage is always packed at lunch time. So I spent quite some time waiting for my tacos…. but they were worth it.

Work was crazy busy, I have been glued to the email and phone a good part of the day. Even when driving. But the sun came out in the afternoon, and no more snowing. Maybe there is a slight hope for spring, and eventually summer?

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In the afternoon after work stuff I ran to the Commissary to get a couple of things. German noodles, Spaetzle were supposed to be side for our self-caught halibut. However, with all the stuff tonight, we ended up to munching leftovers from yesterday. Maybe halibut filets and Spaetzle tomorrow then.

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And it was time to wear my professor hat again…. and then work on my own research. Yes, that is a little hamster in the picture, and she is participating in a Conditioned Place Preference experiment.

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In the evening I had a few minutes to sit down and stay still, grab a quick bite and head out again – this time to the piano lesson. And our beagle, Tassu, cracked me up by wearing my tank top. He had dug it out of our bed, under the blankets. Crazy dog. Maybe I should think about some psychoanalysis sessions for him…??

Piano lesson wasn’t too bad. I am not going to be Chopin anytime soon but that probably can’t really be even expected with the amount of work and traveling I do (i.e., with the very limited time I have for practicing). But nevertheless, it is fun and relaxing.

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The last duty of the day is the medication for the dog. Ears are bugging our little guy again, and he is on antibiotics – tablets & ointment – for another 5 days, 9 down already and ears are remarkably better. In fact I did check the ear swaps in the lab the other day, and bacteria seems to be gone. While the dog doesn’t really enjoy the ointment piece of the ordeal, he absolutely loves all the extra roast beef he gets with the tablets.

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MilSpouse (First) Friday Fill-In #79

Posted on February 1, 2013
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MilSpouse Friday Fill-In is here again! And another month down ….. spring is hopefully on its way to Alaska in very near future. Cold is getting too cold for me. But let’s get to the questions. If you want to join the fun, check out Wife of A Sailor‘s Friday page!

1. What’s one thing in the past month you would have changed? Like next month, there are not really too many things I would like to stay in January. But I would have been happy to skip the sickness, or two of them. First I got sick as a dog with the flu (nope, I don’t believe flu shots). And then about a week ago I got food poisoning from fresh berries that I didn’t rinse. That was miserable. I don’t usually have any kind of stomach problems and I manage to avoid the stomach bugs so it was extremely miserable. In fact that was my second food poisoning ever, after eating at street kitchens all over the world from China to Venezuela, go figure I get sick from berries at home, and after eating at a fancy restaurant in Paris a few years ago.

2. What was your favorite thing that happened in January? I had some pretty good trips to California and Seattle. Jason and I had a wonderful weekend in Seward. Overall, it was another great month! And right at the end of the month I got a message about one of my research papers – it got accepted to a large convention in Hawaii as a presentation.

3. What are you looking forward to in February? We don’t have any big plans for this month, some travels – as always. I am teaching at the university, which is always a blast. And of course there is Valentine’s Day – there will be more love in the air than normally.

4. What are your plans for Valentine’s Day? No plans as of today – it’s hubby’s task to come up with something romantic, cute and creative. So I will sit back, wait and see. Even once.

5. What is your best advice for a MilSpouse whose spouse is deployed for Valentine’s Day? Obviously, send Valentine’s Day care package to your spouse, then do something fun by yourself, get pampered! Remember that there is Valentine’s Days to come, and you can always celebrate together  a bit later when your other half comes back.

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Professor K

Posted on January 11, 2013
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Professor…. yes, I am being called Professor next week. The spring semester is starting and I am excited beyond excitement. I used to teach Cryptography, Computer Security and Software Project Management at University of Tampere and Tampere University of Applied Sciences in Finland years ago. Now I am stepping up on the podium again, and teaching computer science in Alaska.

I am grateful this opportunity since getting back to university teaching has been one of my long-term goals, and at the same time I truly love to work with university students. Furthermore, I believe I can bring them some valuable lessons learned from the real life, professional environment after working in the HiTech industry since 1998. I have done quite a few things during my career, anything from publications to patents. Hopefully I can close the gap between the real world and university at least on one class, and help my students to see that all theories and practices actually do pay back when in the workforce and big, bad world.

I am doing my best to be a fair, attentive professor who is available and dedicated for her students. I hope I can share my enthusiasm with them. I hope they will see my passion for technology and sciences.

What do you think, what makes a good professor?

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MilSpouse (First) Friday Fill-In #73

Posted on July 7, 2012
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The first week of July is pretty much behind us…. time is definitely moving fast.  And it’s time for another MilSpouse Friday Fill-In. So far the summer days have been few and far between: few warm, sunny days here and there, and more gray, overcasted days. But at least it is not raining nonstop like last year. I have been lucky to keep my running and biking miles up (read: Ironman training is progressing), as well as have been playing golf quite a bit. Earlier in the spring I made a decision to get my golf handicap down to where it used to be before moving to Alaska, around 2. Right now I am closer to 20 than 10 but direction looks good.

But let’s check out this month’s questions! Thank you to Wife of A Sailor  for hosting this lovely tradition of getting to know fellow MilSpouses.

1. What’s one thing in the past month you would have changed? Nothing. Not a single thing. June was a great month, even though work was crazy busy, and I was running behind on my research stuff, including the IRB paperwork.

2. What was your favorite thing that happened in June? Super awesome bear photography excursion on McNeil River. We were incredibly lucky to get a spot to go there, and furthermore the weather truly cooperated. Even a little bit too much based on my sunburns. Photos turned out great, and my photo agencies’ editors have been praising them. I also started two new blogs. While Adventures of The K Family is not going away or anything, I wanted to have a separate blog for my professional writing in the field of behavioral sciences: Action Potentials, and From Rough To Green, covering my golf adventures.

3. What did you do to celebrate Independence Day? Not a whole lot. We went to see the parade in downtown Anchorage, as well as saw the flag ceremony and reading of the Declaration of Independence. After that we were just hanging out at home, cooked steaks with steamed vegetables. And of course had corn on the cob! Jason had Thursday off but I was working, and since the Independence Day was (awkwardly) in the middle of the week, it was hard to get into any longer adventures. But nevertheless, we had a great 4th of July!

4. When you PCS, what items do you take with you and not let the movers pack, and if you do a DITY, what do you take with you and not box up (thanks to Sespi at And You Never Did Think for inspiring this question)? Important papers, some clothes, all the external hard disks and data storage system, laptops, iPads…. Everything else I can usually find along the way or at the destination if the HHG are taking for a while.

5. What are you looking forward to in July? Getting the IRB approved for my research, keeping on track with Ironman training, ….. and we have our Anniversary on Monday, July 9, as well as my birthday is coming up in about 20 days, followed by my husband’s birthday a few days later (in August though). So lots of celebrations in this month. I will also head out to California for a business trip, which is always a blast!

And I am also coaching kids’ soccer on post this summer. I can’t wait to get the practices started – that should be fun!

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More Keynotes, videos …

Posted on April 19, 2012
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No matter what I do, my life just stays busy… Keynote presentations. Spreadsheets. Video editings. In addition to reading for a bunch of finals, I have been busy as a beaver with writing my thesis and preparing presentations for Behavioral Science Conference of North (BCSCN) at UAA this Saturday.

I have been working on a couple of research projects this year, one concentrating on parents’ preparedness to talk about traumatic events to children, and the other one studying social rewards  associated to alcohol consumption using hamster models. While all the writing means tons of work, and sometimes I’m running out of creativity when building the presentations, I still love the research. It truly is my passion.

Almost as much as speaking in public occasions.

I am already dying from the excitement and enthusiasm although the conference is a couple of days away. I love sharing my findings with colleagues, as well as hear their feedback. Standing at the podium simply makes me feel alive.

Lastly, here is one of the videos that will be part of my presentation. In the first part of the video hamsters are intoxicated, and wobbling around. They have been injected with alcohol for one of the experiments. In the latter part of the video a hamster is in the conditioned place preference chamber, and we are measuring the preference whether hamster likes the dark or mesh side better. Enjoy the hamster backflips!

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