My world rocks!

Gearing up for school again!

This semester I'm teaching at the ACRT, tutoring via CSU's TASC, taking a super-awesome course on urban ecology (with two of my favorite teachers), AND I'm finishing up my field work and (hopefully) generating some data for my master's.  If all goes according to plan, I'll graduate in May 2011.  Yep, it's a great time to be me.

In just a few short weeks I've got a Symposium to go to!  I'm not presenting (soon, though) but the talks look like they're gonna be great! (A la Tony The Tiger) 

I thought it would be nice to post a few goals I've been thinking of -- a little reminder to myself that I'm doing all of this for a reason.

Goal 1:  Sort through and identify (to family) initial set of sweepnet collections.
Goal 2:  Examine data from initial set.  (Was it worth it?)
Goal 3:  Invite my family over for dinner.  Cook fancy rustic French food.
Goal 4: Teach Charlie the Cat to walk on a leash.
Goal 5:  Apply to Michigan State University for dual entomology/eeb doctoral program.  (And Ohio State as a backup plan)
Goal 6:  ID and pin pan trap collections.  Afterwards, reek of awesomeness (and ethanol.)
Goal 7:  Get accepted and offered assistantship/stipend at MSU.  (That would be AMAZING)

Well, hopefully I manage to get a few of these in the next year.

Farewell to Summertime

Well, summer is coming to an end.  Of course, field season doesn't end until the snow hits the ground.  I'm happy with this summer though- I've learned so much about insects, entomology, lab techniques and field techniques.  I've worked SO hard to get where I am now.  I've got two semesters to finish this project and if everything goes according to plan I'll graduate in May.  (yay! graduation!)

As far as work goes I've got several jobs right now, and I'm so busy with work and school and research and family that finding time to sleep is hard, but I'm figuring it out.  I've got so much to do and so much to look forward to-- and I'm a little impatient about it, I keep reminding myself "the journey is more important than the destination."    I'm not really sure why I feel so rushed about this--like I'm ready for the next phase of life--and sometimes I get so caught up in planning for the future that I forget to appreciate the present.

Yippee!

Well, I've decided that I need and want a PhD.  I love teaching.  I love my research.  I love spending my summers outside doing research.  Combine all those and you get me, ten years from now, leading a crew of undergraduates students through a forest (wetland/stream/grassland/ecosystem of your choice) while calmly conducting a biology lecture.  Yes indeed.

So now, while I'm not working on my master's project I'll have this question to ponder:  WHERE?

I know I want a degree in entomology with an ecology/evolutionary biology focus.

I've done some browsing.  *I'll keep a list running here with options

Right now, my top two choices are:

Michigan State University:  Dual doctoral program in entomology and ecology, evolutionary biology and behavior.  This program seems incredible-- and when I'm done I'll have two doctorates, which is a bit baffling.  (And super cool!!)

Ohio State University:  Entomology program seems pretty good, know a few people from there as well.  Closer to home than Michigan.

Busy Busy Busy!

ohmygoodness!

Research, working, and keeping up with friends and the family have me runnin!  :) I love it though.

The research is going really well.  I've added sweep nets to the collecting, so I've got a bunch of stuff to sort through!  It's gonna be a really busy winter!  Spent about an hour cleaning my corner of the messy lab-- looked like it hadn't been cleaned in a few years.  Some say a messy lab is just a consequence of genius, I say a messy lab makes it easier to lose things! 

Collecting is a lesson on patience, it's going pretty well-- I'm sorting through the sweepnet stuff when I can, but I'll probably do the majority of that starting in December.  The entire group does quite a bit, it's kind of funny cause we just pull up and descend on the sites, this giant crew that collects and measures and samples as fast as we can, then we jump in the cars and drive off.  In addition to my pan traps and sweep nets we've got pitfall traps, worms, isopods, birds, Mary's group from OSU that does pitfalls and sticky traps.  Collectively we're putting together vegetation height complexity survey--it's INCREDIBLY tedious, and with mowing being unpredictable it's bound to be interesting.  

And they're off!

Wednesday: painted 200 Styrofoam bowls yellow.  

Discovered that too much spray paint melts Styrofoam.  

Thursday: kicked my way up and down Haskel run.  Found many cool critters, including two ticks in my hair.  

Friday:  Thesis research is go!  Set 110 of 200 pan traps at 11 different sites!  

Saturday:  Day with the fam! Parade the Circle + adventure involving a policeman saying "Seriously, I'm not trying to be funny.  You just cross the street"

Tomorrow: Collecting from the sites.  

Pictures to follow!

mental conditioning

What a whirlwind it's been.  Between hiking, teaching and getting things together for my own research, the past two weeks have been kind of wild.  I've been hiking through various streams in Ohio and looking at the critters that live in and around those streams.  I'm using this partly to "condition" my mind, prepping it for the mass amount of thinking to come.  My thesis research starts this weekend, after much anticipation.

Brandywine Falls

Riparian Habitat beneath Brandywine Falls

Not the best but still ok photo of various critters we found in the stream

Haskel Run at Woodlake Field Station: First Hike of the Season!

First hike!  Got my feet wet!  Came home covered in mud!  Wooo!

I love field work.  For the stream ecology class we have four weeks of field work.  Four wonderful weeks surrounded by beauty and science and the most incredible creatures.  

Today I held various stream-critters in my hands.  Including crayfish, caddisfly larvae, two-line salamanders, dusky salamanders, dragonfly nymphs and many many more.  There will be pictures up in the next couple days.

To the moon and back . . .

I don’t quite know what I want to do with the rest of my life. 

Here’s what I know:

I like insects.  I like catching them: going out for a nice hike and setting traps or using a net to catch these incredible critters that have been around for more than 410 million years.   I like pickling them: filling up jars with little bodies with such beautiful structural complexity.  I like identifying them:  those that are exceptionally difficult to identify, with only minor structural differences between species are especially satisfying.  I like pinning them:  lined up neatly in nice boxes that will sit in a museum somewhere for the rest of eternity, there for all of history to look back on, giving a glimpse of the world we live in now. 

I like school.  Maybe more importantly, I like the concept of sharing ideas and spreading knowledge, especially when that knowledge can be used for good.  I like having classes and research.  I like to surround myself with interesting people. 

I like to teach.  I like to teach.  I LOVE it when I see one of my students become excited about the subject.   I’ll be happy if I influence just one student to make better choices for their future, to become active in their community and to start actively thinking about ways to better the world.  (Although, If all of them decided to do this, that’d be pretty awesome, too.)

I want a stable, steady and secure job, doing something that I love.  This is a tough one, really.  I’m scraping my way by, paying for school and building up my student loans.  A reliable income is important, but I would never be happy with myself if I settled for a job that I hate. 

The list of jobs I would love, from “most loved” to “eh, not perfect but I wouldn’t be miserable”: 

Government research scientist,
                    living on a remote park outpost. 

Museum scientist. 

Museum curator of invertebrate zoology (curators have to deal with all the bureaucratic headaches, which doesn’t really appeal to me.) 

University professor (at a school with a good entomology department, where I could spend my summers doing research.)  

High school biology teacher. 

Wow, the list is shorter than I thought it would be.  Huh. 

I want to travel. I’ve been to Australia.  That was pretty cool, I’ll never forget it.  But I want to see everything!  I want to go on safari in Africa, I want to wander though Europe, I want to see the pyramids, the rainforest, a glacier and a volcano.  I want to go whale watching.  I want to explore the world, different cultures and ecosystems.  Hell, if it was somehow possible for me to go to space I would do it, even if it was just to the moon and back. 

I want kids.  Yes, someday I would like to raise a child.  If I do eventually meet someone I want to procreate with, I will.  But if I’m forty and things aren’t looking good in the man department, I’m adopting.  There are so many kids out there that need homes.  I’ve always figured why make more when there are so many already?  I don’t care if they aren’t infants—That just means we can skip the diapers/not sleeping thing, and any kid that can talk and tell you what they want seems a lot easier than trying to interpret the shrieks of an unhappy little person who doesn’t yet grasp the language (even though they may try.) 

A year from now I hope to graduate with my master’s degree in environmental science.  Right now, I don’t know what I’m going to do after that.  But I’ve got a year to decide.  Maybe I’ll start a doctorate program in entomology.  Maybe I’ll get a job, halfway around the world.  Right now, the possibilities are endless.  I just have to make up my mind.  

It's been a year. . .

I've just about finished my first year of graduate school.

I have a research project.
I have an advisor and an almost complete committee.
I'm going to start research very very soon.

I'm excited and terrified all at once.  If I mess up I'll have to take another year.  I won't mess up.  I've got a lot of work ahead of me.  It should be fun.  Field days for my stream ecology class start May 25th.

I'll be doing all this and working two jobs.  Still looking for scholarships.  Hopefully going to get a car in the next few weeks.  Hopefully.

Quick note

Made this video with Carol today!