Dear Randall

You are, truly, the reason why Computer Scientists* make fantastic comic writers. Thanks for making me laugh today.

♥,
FCS

(*) I guess technically you're a physicist, but really, what's a few bits and atoms between friends?

http://xkcd.com/859/

My Gluten-Free January

I've been avoiding most gluten, particularly wheat, for over a year now. I never had obvious symptoms that I could clearly link to eating wheat, although I had my suspicions. I've made many changes to my diet over the last decade, and I feel much better than I did ten years ago, but it's hard to disentangle all the factors. I don't think I ever went an entire month without eating any gluten at all before this January. After posting Matt Lentzner's challenge to go gluten-free this January, I felt obligated to do it myself, so I signed up!

I succeeded in avoiding all gluten for the month of January, even though it was a pain at times. I felt good before January, and didn't start with any health or body weight problems, so there wasn't much to improve. I also felt good while strictly avoiding gluten this January, perhaps a little better than usual but it's hard to say.

At the end of the month, I did a blinded wheat challenge using the method I described in a previous post, which uses gluten-free bread as the placebo (1). I recorded my blood sugar at 30 minute intervals after eating the bread, and recorded how I felt physically and emotionally for three days after each challenge.

The result? I think the bread gave me gas, but that's about it. I'm not even positive that was due to the wheat. My energy level was good, and I didn't experience any digestive pain or changes in transit time. There was no significant difference in my blood glucose response between the bread and the gluten-free bread.

I decided that I didn't have any symptoms, so I celebrated by having a porter (1) with friends a few nights later. I slept poorly and woke up with mild digestive discomfort and gas. Then I ate wheat later in the week and slept poorly and got gas again. Hmmm...

Some people might say that the body adapts to any food, and wheat is no different. Go without it for a while, and the body has a tough time digesting it. But I can go for weeks without eating a potato, a chicken thigh or broccoli, and all will digest just fine when I eat them again.

I'm pretty sure I don't have a severe reaction to gluten. I think I'm going to stick with my mostly gluten-free habits, and eat it occasionally when I'm offered food in social situations.

Did anyone else do a blinded wheat challenge? Describe it in the comments!

The Role of CS Postdocs

The Computing Research Association (CRA), the major professional organization for Computer Science in the US, has a new white paper on the role of postdocs in CS Research. It's excellent, very thorough, and has several interesting graphs. (Including who's hired in what areas over the past few years.) The white paper is up for people to leave comments if they are so inclined, until March 15th.

I haven't had time to read the report in depth, but a few things jumped out at me as interesting:

• 42% of all CS PhD graduates are hired into industry immediately after completing their PhDs. (I affectionately refer to this as the Google Slurp). However, there is a large category of "other", which sadly includes the unemployed. So maybe that old statistic that less than 1% of PhDs in Computer Science are unemployed is no longer true, eh? 

• Here's the graph of who got hired in what. Everybody is going downhill, but it looks like Architecture and Theory people are hurting the most in hiring. Which correlates with my anecdotal information. 

(Why aren't Security, CS Education, or Ubicomp listed as fields? I would not consider any of them to be subfields of any of these really. They are their own fields).

• This table is really interesting. Compared to other fields those of us in CS/Math hardly postdoc at all:

Anyway, interesting stuff - check it out and leave comments if you have them. CRA is a well-run organization, if you comment I strongly suspect your opinions will be taken into account - not just for future white paper drafts, but also for recommendations they make to Congress and various funding agencies. (I know CRA and NSF in particular are usually fairly kissy kissy. CI Fellows anyone?)

Phew!!

it's taken me long enough but i think my kitchen is finally okay to show y'all. when we moved in the previous owners had a lot of green accents throughout the house so the kitchen color made sense with their design scheme (real estate listing pic).

when our stuff moved in, the color stuck out a little (and a bomb went off obviously)...

i debated and debated on what direction I wanted to go with the paint colors. i posted lots of pictures.  ultimately, i decided to go w/ my gut, even though it scared me, and go greige on the cabinets and a darker greige on the walls.  here is the picture that inspired my kitchen:

and now, here is my kitchen....and i can officially say i love her!

thanks so much for all of your help- for convincing me to take a leap and not stick w/ white.  i am one happy camper.  next on my list is to find a good, faded oushak rug to plop in front of the sink :)

Gluten-Free January Raffle!

Hi, Gluten-Free January participants. Matt, Janine and I have collected about 200 survey responses at this point. So far, the results are very interesting! But we want to get as many responses as possible, because the more responses we get, the more informative the data will be for all of us. So please fill out the survey Matt sent you by e-mail, no matter what your results were, and no matter whether you stuck with the diet or not! The survey is strictly about your GFJ experience, not investment opportunities, timeshares, ShamWows or anything else. It will take you less than 5 minutes, and it's totally anonymous. The deadline is Feb 15th. Big thanks to everyone who has taken it so far.

To encourage participants to complete the survey, we're organizing a raffle. Matt and I have five Gluten-Free January T-shirts we're ready to give out for free. These shirts were designed by Matt and they're really cool. I have one myself, and the print and fabric quality are top notch. Here's what the logo looks like:
If you've completed the survey and want to be included in the raffle, please e-mail Matt to let him know you've completed it. Anyone who has already e-mailed Matt to let him know they completed the survey will automatically be entered, so no need for a second e-mail. So far, very few people have written Matt, so your probability of winning a shirt is high!