Saturday, April 9, 2011

Interview for Seven Billion

Little back story: So my awesome wonderful friend from high school also blogs, and she asked if she could interview me for her blog post. Actually, her blog is one of the reason I decided to start my own, so of course I said yes. Here's the original link to the interview. I hope you guys enjoy!

xx-N


1. Where did you grow up?
Japan & United States. Yes, in World Cup Soccer, I do support both Team Japan and Team USA.  Did you know that both teams have the same team color? ...ok different shades of blue, but it's still blue!

2. Name a role model (can be male or female, famous or not....)
Coco Chanel. I love and respect how she lived. When women were still trapped in the notion of "get married and have kids; you don't need to work, leave that to your hubby" and corsets, she single-handedly tore down both of them. She started from a small hat boutique and went on to build the first designer label made for women, made by women. I love her because she never settled for something mediocre; instead, she always worked to achieve the best. Of course, she was the first designer to design black dresses, marine style, shoulder bags, and rhinestones (before, everyone wore real jewelry...gasp). She also taught me that it's rather a wonderful thing to never fit in through this quote:


"In order to be irreplacable, you must always be different" -Coco Chanel


3. What first drew you to science?
Hmm...I really can't remember :D It's something I was (and am) always interested in.

4. How (if) has your gender effected your academic choices (i.e. major)?
I really don't think my gender had anything to do with my choosing Aerospace Engineering. Once a space-nerd, always a space-nerd. :p

5. Do you think your gender plays a role in how people in your academic field view you?
Let's just say that if I'm getting some letter from someone I never met and all they got is my name, there's an 100% chance that the said letter has a salutation of "Mr." haha. No offense taken on my part, though. Pretty used to it. :)


Other than that, I'm never conscious of my gender in my field.  

6. Do you think women have certain advantages when it comes to science, or is research truly gender-neutral?
There were small incidents where I was more experienced with using certain equipments, such as metal file and heat gun, even though I had never used them before. The only reason is that metal file and heat guns are oversized and overpowered versions of nail file and blow dryer, respectively. I guess in general, men don't really need to use those two on a daily basis, so that could be an advantage. In a more broader perspective, I would like to think that scientific researches are gender-neutral. As much as I disagree with the notion of men having advantages over women in academia, I also disagree with the contrary, that women have advantages over men in academia. I really think everyone should be equally judged for their intellectual abilities. 

7. If you could do any kind of job you want, what would it be? Why?
I want to live at 221B Baker Street and solve all those cool cases with Sherlock Holmes. I love solving mysteries and Sherlock is the best. Being Indiana Jones' sidekick may be cool as well, but something tells me that the survival rate is kinda sorta low if you're just a sidekick. You know, with mummies and rocks and Nazis and other random bad guy of the day on our tail...


Hey, you said any job....right? :p


In real life, I'm studying and working to get one. ;)

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