Proud Mary keep on rollin

There is little to tell from the tales of recent events. I must say that I have been proud to call myself an American in the last 90 days. I am also proud to call myself a Ph.D. candidate now. As of November 13th, I am now officially on the track to getting my doctorate. So far the journey has been hard fought with battles won and lost. My most recent loss is that I have to do a feeding trial with deer mice. You may not remember this, but I study plants. There are reasons for this including that I don't really enjoy handling organisms that may or may not carry the Hanta pulmonary virus. But the odds for getting this work published are good, therefore I must take life and limb into peril and risk all for a few stupid citations. It will be exciting to see my own name on web of science though. It will also be exciting when I can get a job after this. You're kind of nothing until you get your work published. Sure, you can try and get a job without publications but some snot-nosed double major with a 2nd authorship in The Southwestern Naturalist will totally beat you out for the job, because at least they have a publication.
I also added another member to the brood. Ned is the newest member of the guinea pig gang, joining Sparky and Zissou in the super-cage. So far Ned has only caused a few ripples. He and Zissou are best of buds, but Sparky is not so keen on him. No surprise there, Sparky tends to be adverse to change in general. A little fighting, but only Ned has been able to land a bight. Sparky's ear was bleeding just a little this morning, but I'm pretty sure he's going to live.
John continues to do well in Florida. I've been down a few times to visit. The last time for Thanksgiving, both of us were sick, which was not too fun, although we did manage to get in a few fun events. We went to a place called the Cock and Bull, a pub that carries 500 beers. It's as close to mecca as I've ever been. We also managed to take advantage of stone crab season. Mmmmm....crab......I'll probably head down there in February for a short visit.
Well the snow is coming down in Pullman and it's starting to get very cold (7 degrees F as the high today burrr). Hopefully I'll get in a couple of turns on the ski hill before the craziness starts back up.

Since when did elite become a four letter word?

Not to borrow a note from Sam Harris' page, but I'm beginning to have serious doubts about the simple reasoning capabilities of the average American. Perennially, I fail to see why we would want to elect someone otherwise unqualified for the job based upon the fact that I think I could sit down and have a beer with him or her. In the case of the president, this is the person who holds the launch codes for the largest nuclear arsenal on the planet and I want to be able to have a beer with him? No. I want the leader of the largest super power in the world to be educated, at least as much as me, experienced and worldly. After all, nationalism is not the only issue that a president deals with on a daily basis. I also want a president who can think on his or her feet - who doesn't need a cue card to remember relevant facts and situations. And, I also don't want a president or vice-president who believes that this is the "end of days" and that she's fighting the fight of the "last generation". Perhaps that's too inferential, but having attended Assembly of God services three times in Alaska (once in Wasilla), I can tell you for certain, these people aren't operating on the same level as you and I. Foregoing the evolution debate (she's a strict creationist which makes me shudder, can you not reason with these people?!), the parishioners of the Assembly of God churches believe in a micromanaging God. A god that tells them what to eat, when to sleep and ultimately how to deal with every minutia and issue in their lives. The Pope may be leader of a country and also have the ear of God, but while I respect her right to exercise whatever religion she would like, we're fighting a war on fundamentalism and I don't think we should fight it with more fundamentalism. Much like her leader, Palin cannot tell you the ideological differences between Suni and Shiite Muslims, nor how mainstream Islam is different from radical Islamists in their interpretation. Her small-town leadership has not prepared her for a whole-world paradigm and I'm simply not comfortable giving her the spare key to the whitehouse, even if she isn't an "educated white male" or "east-coast liberal".

Where's my federal handout - errr- bailout?

After spending a weekend surrounded by small children and republicans, I find myself wondering how do we go from one extreme where our parents tell us to share with the other children, to pandering for the absolutist-free market-no-regulation agenda of the current republican campaign? AND does the current situation with the financial sector suggest that government handouts to corporations are ok for the better of the financial situation, but $600 should do it for most Americans? I don't know about you, but $600 is a nice little kiss from the federal government, but if they wanted to solve all of my financial issues for the next ten years, it would take a lot more than that. Take, for instance, the fact that I will be absent from the workforce for at least 8 years because of education. This means no equity, no investments, and living in the red for prolonged periods of time. The rationale behind this is that I get it, I make it big because of my big education, and I pay back all that money with time and interest to spare! BUT, what my peers and I failed to see when we re-entered academia was that we face the same competitive atmosphere that every other sector does. Just because you'll be able to call me doctor, doesn't mean that the whole world will be clamoring to hire me. Rather, it means that I have to go above and beyond what people did even 10 years ago. I have to finish in a shorter time, publish more papers and forsake any semblance of a personal life to do so - a little thing I think we call sacrifice. But what for? A post-doc that pays a little more than my TA appointment, but has similarly hellish hours? A government job replete with bureaucratic red tape? And what happens if this whole thing with the financial sector goes down ugly?
Nope. John and I were talking about this. Both of us being academics, we'll probably not be able to find teaching jobs in this post-collapse environment so we're planning on living in Oregon in a cob house, crabbing on the weekends, raising chickens and living off the grid. That's if my parents will let us squat on their land since we won't be able to apply for a home loan. But we'll manage the vineyard and subsequent winery we put in. Fair trade, don't you think?

September is update time...err...again

After a lot of peer pressure, I am persuaded to update this thing. "But I'm not doing anything new!" I protest. "No one wants to hear about the lame stuff I do everyday - it's just not the stuff of good blogging." BUT alas, always one to satisfy the masses (or at least my mom) here goes. I'm still in grad school. I have my PhD candidacy exam this semester which has resulted in a significant amount of anxiety. Remember those dreams where you haven't been to class all semester, but you realize you missed it and now you have to take the final? I've been having them in series every night. It's a rousing good time! Despite my euphemistic pessimism that you may receive if you ask me how the day is going, the research is going well. I have mountains of data, which now I have to try and plow through in order to get a grant application in to the NSF by November. Again - anxiety.
John is still in the picture for those of you who are wondering. He took a post-doc at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Florida and is fastly becoming a bonafide adult and scientist. Who knows why he sticks around with me? Maybe I remind him of the good ol' days. I've been down to see him once, and have a trip planned for this Thanksgiving. A much needed vacance. Right now it looks like he'll be up in January at which point in time we'll celebrate Christmas/New Years and go skiing and stuff.
Currently I'm volunteering for the Democratic National Party's local office here in Pullman (Dad, don't write me out of the will - sooner or later, you'll see the light too). It's mostly calling registered Dems, but also is some fun events with local politicians. I just can't sit by and watch Sarah Palin do, well, anything. She's frightening and someone has to expose her for the scary psycho extremist she is. That's not me of course, but I'll be enrapt when someone does do it.
I recently moved into my first, all to myself, apartment with my two guinea pigs, Sparky and Zissou. We have a good time in our little autonomous state here. No tv, but a good internet connection and a very quiet apartment (no neighbors!). I love it, needless to say.
That's about the gist of it - I'll attempt a more regular maintenance schedule of the blog, but don't hold me to it too much this semester - until November 21st, I'm going to be crazy busy, and then for about a week after that, I'll probably be crazy sick.

September is update time

Strike up the band folks cause I’m singing a new tune. Let’s see where we’ve come from in our heroine’s story: entered grad school while simultaneously entering depression….coincidence, I don’t think so. Girl gets better through outdoor activities and a copious amount of skiing in winter. Girl starts summer research. There was a violent battle scene with the bamboos and the meadow voles – heavy casualties were sustained on the bamboo side. Our tactics must be reevaluated for next season. But, I just did the plots today and….. I HAVE DATA! Alright, for those of you not in the science world, this is kind of huge. It’s my first year in, and I have stuff that is actually usable for my thesis that will hopefully be coming to a thesis advisor near you in spring of ’10. So, on the research front, still a huge amount to accomplish, even by the end of this year, but I’m at least a little on my way. To what I’m not sure, but I’ll let you know. And then there’s the personal life. I hope you all are sitting down. After about three years of vagrancy I have somehow managed to snag myself one heluva boyfriend. No really, he’s great and I’m not just saying that. Not only can he wax philosophical about species concepts, but he can also change brake pads. What a renaissance man! And if he wasn’t so nice, I might be a little annoyed that he’s in Hawaii for six weeks, but flowers showed up at my door last week and a package is coming next week and if he keeps me well gifted, I might be satiated. Just kidding, I’m nowhere near that level of maintenance. Anyway, we enjoyed a lovely week here of sunshine, cold nights, and not to mention international talk like a pirate day, which reminded me of the bar stool races three winters ago. So, I’ll leave you with this as an ending thought.

Look Ma! I did it!

Well, the summer started off with a rather muffled bang, but started it did none the less. After frantically getting ready for the summer field season, I was whisked off to Nebraska for training on a gas exchange machine. After two days of intense photosynthesis, I flew back to Spokane and then drove over to Glacier for the long weekend. We went hiking through an area that burned last summer. You can really tell how intense the fire was. The air is still permeated by the smell of campfire some nine months later, and though there are plants coming back, the dominating landscape is charcoal. It's profound to stand inside a place that was once hot enough to melt glass, and as it burned its way over the landscape, it left little to nothing in the way of living matter. The hike lasted for about 17.5 miles. A long hike by any standards, especially for the first hike of the season. The views as usually were spectucular and the weary walkers were treated to delicious food (BUT NO PIE!!!!) at the Park Cafe.

The next day would have been a great day to rest, but time is of the essence now that I don't live in Glacier any more, so we decided to bike up the Going to the Sun Road. It was a cool morning when we left, and it preceded to get cooler and wetter. By the time we made it the 15.8 miles to the top, the rain was coming down sideways and Logan Pass did not disappoint on the weather. We took a quick pic and headed down. One our way down we saw 21 big horn sheep, a black bear, a grizzly bear, three pairs of harlequin ducks and a moose. Despite being borderline hypothermic we probably had the best wildlife day I've ever had in the park. Still no wolverine, but it'll happen someday, rest assured.
Now it's back to the daily grind at school (as much of a daily grind as I have), but I've planned a raft trip for this weekend, and a trip to Yellowstone in a month, and then a volunteer trip coupled with a backcountry hike for the last week in July and the first week in August. All of this has been made possible by the absense of my advisor. Thanks Dick, I really appreciate it.

Spring time in the Palouse

As the days begin to lengthen and the sun sheds more light on more of the day, you begin to notice things changing around you. I've been making the walk from home to school since the early days of January. In the midst of winter, I would walk to school in the dark, and make the trek home at dark as well, passing a bridge, a park, and many quiet abodes on my way back to mine. Recently, though, this commute has become somewhat of an experiential sojourn. I leave the office, usually around 5, at least that's what I aim for, and I exit into an often sunny evening. Students are bustling about with their ipods in ears, wearing the latest spring fashions (even though it's still only about 50 degrees F outside). It's funny, but they sort of form a homogeneous mass, making them easily discernible from other members of the campus (e.g. grad students, faculty and staff). I descend a massive hill (note: this hill must be ascended every morning as well) noting the newly blooming daffodils and other spring ephemerals. I also notice that the brown hill is slowly becoming green as dormancy gives way to the great growth that must start and end before the fall. I walk past the park and enjoy the rowdiness of pee-wee t-ball and soccer being played on the newly green fields. What a freedom it must be to run and chase and fall with such abandonment. Then I turn the corning and begin to mount the second of my hills.
Recently, I have been watching an old man who is out tending to his flower beds every evening as I pass by. His back is curved from years of spinal degeneration, and his home and other buildings bear the signs of neglect. Yet, here he is, pulling weeds, raking dead humus away to reveal a carefully planned and beautifully executed series of flower beds. Purple lilies, a variety of tulips and daffodils, and snow drops emerge from their once frigid dorms in this dark earth. I don't know if he notices my observations (I'm staring at him, taking in his every move), but I find some serenity in his actions. He his methodical and calculating in his efforts to cultivate beauty.
In some way, this is what spring time is: A methodical process of bringing the world out of our wintry hibernation and into a season of tempestuous unpredictability.
I look forward to warmer days and less time at the desk. Ciao.