eReader or Hardcopy?

In exactly one month, I will be all done jumping through university hoops.  This means that I will be getting heavy into the research and upping the amount of papers/articles/literature (whatever you want to call it) I will be reading.  And here is where I run into my Great Conundrum: should I print out all the papers I want to read or read them electronically?

In the past, I've printed them all out.  This allows me to shuffle them around, write on them, bring them with me places, etc.  It's also much easier for me to read a physical paper than an electronic one.  However recently, I've gotten a lot better at reading papers on the computer, and organizing the files into folders as I see fit. 

But the thought of printing out all the papers I'm going to be reading makes me just sick!  I just can't justify to myself "wasting" all those trees! Not to mention potentially putting printer toner ink particles into the air for me and my coworkers to breathe (I think the toxicity is currently under debate, but I don't want to breathe printer ink either way). 

So I thought about getting an eReader.  Something bigger than my cellphone (which has the ability to display .pdf's, if I wanted to read it 2 inches at a time).  I could keep lots of pdf's on it at a time, take it with me to the gym* or on the subway, and I wouldn't have to destroy the environment and stretch the office budget with all my printing!  Not to mention my office won't look like so many other profs and grad students with haphazard piles of papers everywhere.  Sure, it's organized to them...but it just looks like chaos to anyone else.

But even an eReader or other similar electronic device is toxic in it's own right!  The production of electronic devices is toxic, as is what happens to them afterward.  Even as I'm writing this, Terry Gross on NPR is talking about how corrupt and dangerous electronics recycling is.

And this is where I stand; stuck between 2 horrible options for not being tethered to my computer.

1. Print out all the papers I want to read, which consumes paper, ink, and all the petroleum that goes into the shipping and various products associated with paper and ink
2. Buy an eReader, the construction of which created toxic waste, and when I "recycle" it will create more toxic waste.

Even if I decide to stay tethered, I'm not conducting waste free research. I'm damned if I do, and damned if I don't.  And thus I put it out to the internet to make my decision for me!  Do I buy an eReader? Do I continue as I always have?  How do you prefer to read papers?  Why does this have to be such a difficult decision!



*I have this academic fantasy, where I take all my papers and other reading to the gym and walk on the treadmill while I read so that I'm getting smart and skinny at the same time.  It's so embarrassing being a fat ecologist....

I Fail at Funding....

Well, I got the email that I didn't get one of the PSA awards.  There were nice enough to send along some stats and comments though, which makes me feel not quite as bad. 

Apparently there were a total of 29 applications and only 7 got funding.  Reviewers felt my application was a “Solid study with high chance of impact” and “Proposal well written, organized, with predicted outcome.”  So, they like it, just not enough to give me money.  


Oh, and on the NSF scale, my proposal was "very good" with "excellent" being the highest.  Cest la vive. Maybe next year. I might even have some results to give them next time!

Holy Crap! I got money! $$$

And just when I was feeling down in the dumps!  There I was, sitting at my computer pouring through Facebook (avoiding studying for my one final tomorrow), and up pops an email.  It's the graduate school informing me the approved my Research Support Grant!....kinda.  I requested retroactive funding for a diatom course I took up in Maine at the Humboldt Field Research Institute (great place, go if you can!).  They only gave me about half the amount that I requested, but it's still something!  It's a start! Ball rolling...that sort of thing. 

Anyhoo, I should get back to attempting to study.  I do have lots of bloggy-type thoughts to share with you.  And I will! After this final and after I put the apartment back together.  When everyone has been in finals mode for 3+ weeks, the order of life tends to fall apart.