DR. KATHERINE S. CHO

  • Home
  • About
  • The Work
    • Research & Projects
    • Pedagogy & Teaching
    • Designs
  • Resources
    • "Me"-Sourced
    • "Out"-Sourced
    • Opportunities & Due Dates
    • Templates, Layouts
  • Reflections
  • Home
  • About
  • The Work
    • Research & Projects
    • Pedagogy & Teaching
    • Designs
  • Resources
    • "Me"-Sourced
    • "Out"-Sourced
    • Opportunities & Due Dates
    • Templates, Layouts
  • Reflections

PROCESSING

ENTRIES OF Things I am learning. Things I have learned.
Reflections. IdeaS. DREAMS.

Hobby Chronicles: Bombing It

9/15/2020

 
Picture
I tried making bath bombs the other day. The adventure is part of my longer exploration in trying new hobbies outside of academia. While these figurines (a penguin, an ice cream cone, a cloud bubble saying yay, a dolphin, and sphere), look pretty, don't let that fool you. After sitting out for two days, they have still not fully dried out (versus the directions which say five hours). Also, the scent of kiwi-strawberry (an ode to my youth) still lingers quite strongly in my home. And the whole process reminds me again, why I'm a terrible baker, chemist, and not-so-great cook. 

In Korean, there's a word called 손맛 (pronounced "sohn maht"). 손 translates to hand and 맛 translates to taste. Essentially, the word signifies the ability to measure without measuring— your hand can "taste" the measurements. After decades of honing the craft of cooking, we see elders wield this and be able to whip up dishes with a "pinch of this" and a "dash of that." Well... I have long desired 손맛 but have not invested the time nor acquired the skills to have it. Also, I don't have measuring cups or spoons. As a result, I "eyeballed" and "approximated" every measurement in the bath bomb process. Naturally, the end results are fizzling out. HA! (yes puns, no apologies).  


​

What Has changed (as Faculty)?

9/14/2020

 
I'm about a month into my faculty job. And with the transition, I've debated quite a bit about how to move with this blog (which in part, explains my absence in posting outside of the Random Roundup). With the new role, a new degree, a new place, and everything else that comes with these things, I feel like a lot of things have changed (and materially, of course they have). 

And yet, I also feel remarkably the same. One of my friends and I talked about the Ph.D. a while back and about its anti-climactic nature: one day you are a graduate student, the next day you are a doctor. Nothing has changed fundamentally in who we are, what we believe, what we can do, and yet to the world, everything seems to be different with those three letters. This anti-climactic-ness is similar to how I'm feeling in the present, and where I struggle with the purpose of my blog.

When I was a graduate student, writing about my experience was something I wanted to do as a form of reflection and as a way to normalize the struggles of graduate school. It felt low-stakes because who was actually reading these posts? But now as a faculty member, I think about if I should be writing with the same intentionality, although again, who is actually reading this? 
  • On one hand, I feel like being transparent about faculty life is just as necessary as talking through graduate school. And, at the end of the day, I write this blog for my own purpose and if I'm happy with it, that is good, right? 
  • On the other hand, I’ve wrestled with that purpose as I share my site with my own students. Will they feel uncomfortable with a too-close glimpse of their faculty member? About my own concerns and worries about the transition? Will this create a context where students don't want to “burden” me, or lose confidence in me as their advisor? And on the flip side, will I feel uncomfortable with them knowing and eventually start curbing what I write, knowing that they could come across this section of the site?
  • Or, would the same intention help humanize and challenge the antiquated notion of faculty as omnipotent? And create a different, arguably better dialogue of faculty and faculty life? 
Clearly, in writing and actually posting this, I’ve decided to go ahead with whatever this is going to be. In that sense, this site remains consistently the same: an ever-evolving in-progress, and I suppose that won't be changing for a while. 
Picture
    What's On My
    ​Bookshelf
    In a year, I read somewhere around 100-200 books. I don't have a TV and I use reading as a form of escape, and I especially like reading outside of academia. It also helps with improving my writing :)

    WHAT'S ON MY
    SPOTIFY
    When I'm trying to concentrate, I like having background music that's super dramatic. For some reason, instrumental music is instrumental (pun!) in helping me concentrate. Most of the songs are Korean-drama OSTs (original sound tracks), w/ a few classical music scores in the mix! 

    Categories

    All
    Random Round Up

    I don't categorize anything other than my "random round-ups" because it takes too much work (insert laughing emoji).

    Archives

    May 2025
    September 2024
    April 2023
    February 2023
    October 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    March 2017
    September 2016
    June 2014
    March 2012

Home

About

linktr.Ee

Photos from homegets.com, shixart1985, wuestenigel, wuestenigel, topten5, urbanbotanist, shixart1985, _dChris, John Beans, Rosmarie Voegtli, iloveroger3, Tony Webster, wuestenigel, 吳錦 (Kam), shixart1985, ttmarketing, wuestenigel, RG in TLV, nickstone333, Treefort Photo Dept, Valerie Everett, wuestenigel, Go-tea 郭天, homegets.com, wuestenigel, wuestenigel, anka.albrecht, homegets.com, coffee-rank, M McBey