Category: Uncategorized
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[Career Break] Taking in all the BIG changes
![[Career Break] Taking in all the BIG changes](https://jessisonbreak.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/pxl_20240131_075501054-edited.jpg?w=1024)
How does it feel four months into a career break? I’m turning 40 soon while taking time for myself after decades in academia. Here are some highlights of what’s been going on the past few months since starting my break.
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Blogging from Home Quarantine: My 2023 Year-end Report
A year-end report of my progress as a scientist on the year I left academia. Writing my progress at the end of each year became a habit, to remind me of how far I’ve actually come.
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A week in the Japanese countryside
As part of my career break after leaving academia, I spent a week in the Japanese countryside to experience the slow life. I was hosted by Bitsii in Inaka, who also pivoted from the hustle and bustle of corporate America to intentional living in countryside Japan with her husband Mr. Nakamura.
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A reflection on professional conferences for women (in STEM) that I’ve attended
This weekend, I’ve had the pleasure of attending Women Who Code: CONNECT Asia 2023 with the conference fee waived. I am an absolute beginner with barely a foot into the tech door, so I was grateful for the opportunity to peek behind the curtain and meet the community. To date, I have attended three professional…
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Last Day at University
My faculty room was almost empty, save for my desktop computer which needed reformatting. I checked my work inbox on that computer for the last time. I logged out my Google and Apple ID accounts, and erased all contents. I knocked on my tenure-track mentor’s door to say goodbye. Six months ago, he and I…
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[Career Break] The First 30 Days
![[Career Break] The First 30 Days](https://jessisonbreak.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/pxl_20230825_035549772.mp_.jpg?w=1024)
I’ve now taken 30 days off work. It’s the first time in my adult life that I’ve ever taken a vacation that lasted more than 10 days. Most of my time off have been for the year-end holidays, usually still hectic, and all the time never enough. Some trauma and burnout The past few years…
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A salute to the classroom
On the day I wrote this, I submitted the grades for my last class in the university. Of the many, many things an academic does, I have to say, teaching has been the most fulfilling for me. I have no idea how many are like me, but it definitely brought me joy when students took…
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[Learning Data Science] WQU Applied Data Science Lab Project 3
About Project 3: Air Quality in Nairobi Using data from openAfrica, we looked at air quality data (sensor readings of PM 2.5) in Nairobi, Lagos and Dar es Salaam. We learn how to access data from a MongoDB database, and how to deal with time series data. These are the key learnings for Project 3,…
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an unattached academic’s household of 1
I spent my postdoc years with a colleague who turned into a really good friend, let’s call her V. She, like me, and many other postdocs and young faculty, was living solo. I don’t have hard numbers, but this is roughly the norm within my broader circle. In 2016, she attended a conference in Denmark…
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[Learning Data Science] WQU Applied Data Science Lab Project 2
I want to document the skills that I am learning from my WQU Applied Data Science Lab course. The course features 8 projects for instruction and experience in working with real data. This is how Project 2 went: About Project 2 Housing in Buenos Aires In Project 1, we learned how to analyze data and…
Jess is on Break 