I got off the plane last night in snow boots and a wool, turtle-neck sweater. Unfortunately, I was very inappropriately dressed - despite it being below freezing here when I left last Friday, it is now 70+ degrees again. Ah, Houston.

Today I am judging an elementary school science fair. I find this so funny, since my science fair projects used to be lazy, last-minute things! But I guess as a rocket scientist, this makes me qualified. Tonight, volleyball.

Feminist rant of the day

I had a conversation that really annoyed me. It started as a conversation about all-girls schools (which I philosophically disagree with the need for, but in reality, I think they do a really good job). That boy told me it was a "proven fact" (because he read it in his psychology book) that girls, as a whole, didn't have the aptitude that boys did for math and science because our brains work differently. He concluded, then, that there will never be as many women engineers than men, because there are far fewer women with a natural aptitude for math and science. He was completely unwilling to accept that the reason there were fewer women in science-related fields because they are discouraged from pursuing this type of career from a very early age, leading to a massive inferiority complex. Personally, I think such attitudes should be criminal, because they just serve to prevent more and more girls from going into lucrative and growing fields that really need their talents.

I don't know what's worse, the idiotic psychology book that is perpetuating the stereotype that leads society to discourage girls from pursuing math and science (thus becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy) or the boy disappointing me in his complete inability (despite knowing women engineers, scientists and mathematicians) to accept that girls' minds are equally capable of doing this work as boys are.