OK, I know it's not true, but between Windows servers, Claire Tomalin's biography of Samuel Pepys, and C18-L, it feels true. I'm working on a lot of things where I have no context at all, so I'm frantically trying to shove in as much data as possible in the hopes of building up enough background so that I can function. I don't quite know where the stable ground is, so I'm having trouble finding places to put my feet.

What's irritating is that I read a good chunk of Pepys about fifteen years ago, while avoiding prelims in grad school, and I have no idea where it all went. I suspect, to paraphrase a character in Amanda Cross's The Question of Max, that I took in all of the ideas and personalities and none of the facts. I never knew anything about Windows servers, so the fact that I still know nothing about Windows servers is less of a shock.

I am also reading a lot of stuff by and about women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), but I know a bit more about that, by dint of being one. Links well worth looking at for those of you who are interested in such things:

She's Such a Geek: women writing about science, technology, and other nerdy stuff
Scientiae Carnival: collections of blog postings by women in STEM
Absinthe: a woman physicist who is suing Fermilab for gender discrimination

Because I have been dealing with a coworker who is a sexist bastard as well as a general-purpose asshole, a lot of this hits close to home. Particularly the parts about how being isolated for whatever reason--gender, sexual orientation, age, politics, or plain bad fit--can bring on attacks of craziness and self-doubt. Tenured Radical has a very good post about this very subject.