To say the least I've been absolutely swamped with school and research. I figured it has been a month since my last post so I'm going to go ahead and write a new blog post for all three of you who actually read it. I send this blog out to all the potential graduate students who either have already been accepted or who are deciding if they should take the leap.
To anyone who is thinking about graduate school, do NOT take on the option lightly. Ask yourself 1) are you ready for a commitment that borders along the lines of marriage? 2) Are you willing to spare a decent amount time from your personal life? 3) Do you have the patience to feel completely stupid almost every single day you come in to work because to put it lightly, sometimes, you JUST DON'T GET IT! If you've answered "yes" to any of these questions then welcome to club as soon as you've found an advisor to take you on. You will become innundated with due dates and writing. You're desk will become your second home. Your advisor, well, they're your new best friend/butt-kicker *wink to my own advisor* Once you're in, he/she becomes your second brain; your go-to person.
First off, the decision to take on graduate school is something I'm still coping with. I know my advisor could be reading this now so I'll go ahead and elaborate by saying I made the right decision. I'm in the office everyday between 8:30am and 4:00pm. I have both research and school to think about and I have many deadlines for both. I have been an undergrad for the past 4 years of my life so switching to a more graduate level time management system has been difficult and I'm still working on it. But knowing this, I say that nothing comes before your research. I repeat, nothing comes before your research! I've learned this the hard way. Deadlines and tasks for school are deadlines and tasks, deadlines and tasks for your research are critical. My work is at a site that recently has become very unreliable (and dry). I must be flexible. I should be thinking about my next task months before I actually perform it, but also I need to be able to perform it on the fly. I must be ready to go on a days notice. This is commitment. This is my job. It's super fun, but it's still a job.
We as graduate students have to make certain sacrifices for our job. Quitting your old part-time job that got you through undergraduate school, taking time out of playing your PS3 and discontinuing those long nights with your friends. Preparations for sampling must now be made, abstracts and proposals must now be written; lab meetings to attend, guest speaker talks to attend. Your day may end at the office around 4 or 5pm, but remember that you also have school and that's something that you normally don't finish before your day at the lab/office is over. So you now have to come home and complete it there. Welcome to graduate school life.
Sometimes you don't get it. Sometimes you go through the motions to complete your research tasks but what does it all mean? Sometimes you don't get it. Sometimes you feel 100% retarded and think to yourself, how am I ever going to explain this to someone else when I don't even completely understand it? Well, you're not alone. Stupidity is key to good research. It makes you think about what your don't know or understand and then forces you to look for the answers. Whether that means looking through journal article after journal article or sucking it up and confessing to your advisor that you just don't understand. Realize that it comes with learning. Your advisor is there to help and also if you're not quite sure you want to ask your advisor first, then hit up any post-doc that may be working in your lab. They can be a big help sometimes. There's nothing wrong with your feelings. Just make sure you don't completely rely on everyone else to help you find the answer. I, myself, am working on just that as we speak because when you figure it out on your own, it means sooooo much more!
So, I hope this has helped, even a little, with your decision about graduate school. If you've already made it in to a grad school, congrats, but also be aware that this applies to you as well. No one is safe from the wrath of new beginnings and a more difficult future. It's a beautiful thing to think about when someone believes in you as much as you beleive in yourself and they take you on as a graduate student. It's borderline magical, because it makes you believe that your 4 years of undergrad amounted to something.
An update on my site:
Dry! I've been trying to get out to my site for the past 2 weeks but the water has been so low that not even an airboat can access it. I'm trying to collect sediment for my mesocosm experiment that I'll get to in next weeks blog.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Monday, February 9, 2009
And I think to myself, "What a wonderful world."
It's quite a few months since we last chatted hasn't it? What would you say...5 months? So, I guess this means I have to catch everyone up. Let's start with the bad news; the main reason I haven't posted; the Storm. I capitalize the "S" in storm because indeed it was a BIG storm; not by windspeed, but by sheer size. At one point in it's existence it covered almost the entire Gulf of Mexico. Ike hit Galveston on September 13, 2008 as a category 2 but had the storm surge of a category 4. Several people lost their lives and economically, the island lost billions. In all, it claimed many dozen lives as it winded its way from Texas all the way up to Ohio.
Yours truely got out of the way. I had samples on me that took somewhere around 2 weeks to collect and I for sure wasn't about to lose them to this monster. So like the Beverly Hillbillies, I packed up my bags/samples and moved. I went north, though, not west. My first stop, the parents house in Montgomery. They had a large freezer, so I was certain my samples would be safe there. At around 3am on the 13th of February 2008, the power goes out. GREAT! Around 10am in the morning I'm searching for a place to go. I remembered that one of my colleagues was working in College Station, TX and potentially had some extra freezer space.
*Ring, ring*
- "Carolyn? Hey it's Mike! So listen, the power's out where I am right now. How is College Station doing?"
- "The power is still on here."
- "I have my samples with me and they need to stay frozen. Do you have any extra freezer space I could borrow."
- "Sure there is space."
- "Great! See you in an hour!"
*click*
The conversation was not verbatim; hardly even paraphrased, but made the point: I needed space and she had some to spare.
I ended up remaining in College Station for the semester where I continued to process the sampling I collected back in August. Basically, what I was doing was picking through all the sediment, grass, algae, and detritus and counting all the animals (vert or invert) that I found in each replicate. I also took observational notes on the % grass, % algae, and % detritus in each replicate. These measurements were subjective, but basically they allowed me to compare % type of vegetation with animal abundance. What I found was pretty interesting. Animal abundance, although not significant at the 95% level, showed a positive linear relationship with % grass. Animal abundance also showed (this time significant at the %95 level) a negative linear relationship with % algae. In June I will be more precise in my sampling among each restoration habitat.
Within the three restoration methods, I will sample spots within that contain mainly algae and spots that contain mainly grass. So instead of just three replicated from areas 1a/b through 4a/b (24 replicates total). I could possibly take 3 grass replicates and three algae replicates in each of the areas 1-4 a/b (48 replicates total). I would do this once in June and then again in January or February. This will allow me to collect samples in the middle of two different seasons, summer and winter. Hopefully, by then, I will be able to see if there is some truth behind the previous regressions I found. Until that time I am helping other collegues with their sampling as well as developing some other aspects of my own research.
Right now, I am in the middle of performing monthly diversity surveys with Chuan-Kai (CK for short), which include recording species present on designated mounds as well as perform hit count measurements using a 2m skinny wooden dowel rod and using a 10cm x 20cm quadrat to collect plant samples for species identification, height measurements, and chlorophyll analysis back at the lab. The areas are designated d1through d8 (slightly different than the designations I use for my study). It works well. Each area has 10 mounds randomly selected and flags are used to tag each individual mound. So for instance, mound 7 in area 3 will be marked with a flag "d3-7" so we can find them easier at a later date. CK and I are also preparing an area about 15 minutes north of Galveston Island for mesocosm experiments. What I will potentially do is use these enormous tanks to run controlled experiments testing plant/algal growth with sediment agitation and nutrient input. So, to put it in lay terms (taken from Dr. Armitage), the next question is why? Is there something different about the soil source, like the amount of nutrients it releases? Is there something different about the consolidation (i.e., less consolidated sediments are less suitable to rooted SAVs)? A great way to answer these questions would be to do mesocosm studies, where you would put in clumps of algae and/or grasses into tanks with different soils in them and look at growth and nutrient uptake. Likewise, you can take a bunch of the same soil and have some treatments with settled soil and some with suspended, unconsolidated soil and look and grass and/or algal growth and nutrient uptake. More to follow shortly on this subject.
So after an unorthodox semester in College Station, I am back in Galveston. I remember why I left College Station in the first place, and being able to return to the Island certainly filled a void within myself. There's nothing greater than being on an Island: the salty air, the persistant seabreeze, the plethora of natural beauty. To me there is no comparison. Islands, in my book, are places that make everything better. Since being back on this island, things have been better and I think to myself, "What a wonderful world."
Yours truely got out of the way. I had samples on me that took somewhere around 2 weeks to collect and I for sure wasn't about to lose them to this monster. So like the Beverly Hillbillies, I packed up my bags/samples and moved. I went north, though, not west. My first stop, the parents house in Montgomery. They had a large freezer, so I was certain my samples would be safe there. At around 3am on the 13th of February 2008, the power goes out. GREAT! Around 10am in the morning I'm searching for a place to go. I remembered that one of my colleagues was working in College Station, TX and potentially had some extra freezer space.
*Ring, ring*
- "Carolyn? Hey it's Mike! So listen, the power's out where I am right now. How is College Station doing?"
- "The power is still on here."
- "I have my samples with me and they need to stay frozen. Do you have any extra freezer space I could borrow."
- "Sure there is space."
- "Great! See you in an hour!"
*click*
The conversation was not verbatim; hardly even paraphrased, but made the point: I needed space and she had some to spare.
I ended up remaining in College Station for the semester where I continued to process the sampling I collected back in August. Basically, what I was doing was picking through all the sediment, grass, algae, and detritus and counting all the animals (vert or invert) that I found in each replicate. I also took observational notes on the % grass, % algae, and % detritus in each replicate. These measurements were subjective, but basically they allowed me to compare % type of vegetation with animal abundance. What I found was pretty interesting. Animal abundance, although not significant at the 95% level, showed a positive linear relationship with % grass. Animal abundance also showed (this time significant at the %95 level) a negative linear relationship with % algae. In June I will be more precise in my sampling among each restoration habitat.
Within the three restoration methods, I will sample spots within that contain mainly algae and spots that contain mainly grass. So instead of just three replicated from areas 1a/b through 4a/b (24 replicates total). I could possibly take 3 grass replicates and three algae replicates in each of the areas 1-4 a/b (48 replicates total). I would do this once in June and then again in January or February. This will allow me to collect samples in the middle of two different seasons, summer and winter. Hopefully, by then, I will be able to see if there is some truth behind the previous regressions I found. Until that time I am helping other collegues with their sampling as well as developing some other aspects of my own research.
Right now, I am in the middle of performing monthly diversity surveys with Chuan-Kai (CK for short), which include recording species present on designated mounds as well as perform hit count measurements using a 2m skinny wooden dowel rod and using a 10cm x 20cm quadrat to collect plant samples for species identification, height measurements, and chlorophyll analysis back at the lab. The areas are designated d1through d8 (slightly different than the designations I use for my study). It works well. Each area has 10 mounds randomly selected and flags are used to tag each individual mound. So for instance, mound 7 in area 3 will be marked with a flag "d3-7" so we can find them easier at a later date. CK and I are also preparing an area about 15 minutes north of Galveston Island for mesocosm experiments. What I will potentially do is use these enormous tanks to run controlled experiments testing plant/algal growth with sediment agitation and nutrient input. So, to put it in lay terms (taken from Dr. Armitage), the next question is why? Is there something different about the soil source, like the amount of nutrients it releases? Is there something different about the consolidation (i.e., less consolidated sediments are less suitable to rooted SAVs)? A great way to answer these questions would be to do mesocosm studies, where you would put in clumps of algae and/or grasses into tanks with different soils in them and look at growth and nutrient uptake. Likewise, you can take a bunch of the same soil and have some treatments with settled soil and some with suspended, unconsolidated soil and look and grass and/or algal growth and nutrient uptake. More to follow shortly on this subject.
So after an unorthodox semester in College Station, I am back in Galveston. I remember why I left College Station in the first place, and being able to return to the Island certainly filled a void within myself. There's nothing greater than being on an Island: the salty air, the persistant seabreeze, the plethora of natural beauty. To me there is no comparison. Islands, in my book, are places that make everything better. Since being back on this island, things have been better and I think to myself, "What a wonderful world."
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
A blog with pictures this time
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
As I sit behind Mazzio's Italian Eatery (catching awkward looks from passer-bys)
I think that title would make a great name for a song.
(sings "as I sit behind Mazzio's Italian Eatery...catching awkward looks from passer-bys")
Ok...ok...enough of that. Let's get to the point. I'm sitting here behind a great italian food joint in Nederland, TX. You might ask where that may be. Trust me...not important. What is important is that I have come out here to J.D. Murphree Wildlife Management Center hoping to get out to my site (LNWMA) to begin my fish/invert sampling and vegetation surveys. But, alas, Dolly is standing in my path. Today we did a dry run. That run lasted about, oh, 40 minutes until the rain and winds came. After calling it quits we headed back to the Center. By this time I am soaked and COVERED in sediment. The great thing about these throw traps is that they are large, slightly heavy, and when you throw one in to the water, guess what, you too must jump in and hold it in place. This means sinking in sometimes more than 2 ft. of mud. Yes, yes, wonderful! So now my shoes are soaked, dirty, and so is everything else on me.
Now, after arriving about at the center, we discuss the real sampling that should be occuring tomorrow, and we decided (thanks Dolly) to go ahead and cancel the fish/invert sampling. Trust me, I potentially just saved two people about $40, time and energy to get up here tonight to help with the sampling. What I will try to do tomorrow are my vegetation transects...3 of them...1000m a piece. Point intercept recording will occur every 5m along these transects. In total that's 600 readings. Not only that but I will have to do a percent cover quadrat reading every 100m. It's going to be a looong day tomorrow if we end up doing it.
I should digress from my bitching, to reinform my readers that, yes, I still do love what I am doing. There is just something about getting muddy I enjoy thoroughly. It's just the process of cleaning up that I don't like. I am blessed to be doing what I am doing and blessed to have patient and understanding help from TWPD. Thanks guys! Oh and one more thing...research can get boring...during the times when you're not doing it. I'll end with that. Have a great one y'all. I'll let you know about my experiences.
(sings "as I sit behind Mazzio's Italian Eatery...catching awkward looks from passer-bys")
Ok...ok...enough of that. Let's get to the point. I'm sitting here behind a great italian food joint in Nederland, TX. You might ask where that may be. Trust me...not important. What is important is that I have come out here to J.D. Murphree Wildlife Management Center hoping to get out to my site (LNWMA) to begin my fish/invert sampling and vegetation surveys. But, alas, Dolly is standing in my path. Today we did a dry run. That run lasted about, oh, 40 minutes until the rain and winds came. After calling it quits we headed back to the Center. By this time I am soaked and COVERED in sediment. The great thing about these throw traps is that they are large, slightly heavy, and when you throw one in to the water, guess what, you too must jump in and hold it in place. This means sinking in sometimes more than 2 ft. of mud. Yes, yes, wonderful! So now my shoes are soaked, dirty, and so is everything else on me.
Now, after arriving about at the center, we discuss the real sampling that should be occuring tomorrow, and we decided (thanks Dolly) to go ahead and cancel the fish/invert sampling. Trust me, I potentially just saved two people about $40, time and energy to get up here tonight to help with the sampling. What I will try to do tomorrow are my vegetation transects...3 of them...1000m a piece. Point intercept recording will occur every 5m along these transects. In total that's 600 readings. Not only that but I will have to do a percent cover quadrat reading every 100m. It's going to be a looong day tomorrow if we end up doing it.
I should digress from my bitching, to reinform my readers that, yes, I still do love what I am doing. There is just something about getting muddy I enjoy thoroughly. It's just the process of cleaning up that I don't like. I am blessed to be doing what I am doing and blessed to have patient and understanding help from TWPD. Thanks guys! Oh and one more thing...research can get boring...during the times when you're not doing it. I'll end with that. Have a great one y'all. I'll let you know about my experiences.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
A day late, a buck short
Ok...ok...for anyone who does read this, I know I am a tad late on posting an updated blog. I apologize. I know millions want to hear about what I am doing and being almost 2 weeks past due on a new post is insufficient for my blog followers. Once again, I apologize.
Although it may not seem like tough work, reading scientific papers and emailing people for coordination purposes is EXHAUSTING! For one, I am not a big reader and my ADD attention span is along the lines of what you could call "extremely short." I work very hard to control it, but all reading does is tire me out which then causes me to lose concentration, but it's for the good of my work and therefore I have placed reading on a need base policy. It NEEDS to be done, whether I like it or not. On the same note, I do have to acknowledge that what I am reading is quite interesting. I harken back to my methodology blog to discuss this next topic with you. Like science, none of my blog posts can be compartmentalized; to understand one you must read the others. Methodology still haunts me, plus reading, plus coordination. Let's start again with methodology.
I have decided on how I plan to sample my fish and the vegetation. I am going to stick with the throw traps used back in '97 - '99. I also plan to revisit the vegetation transects used back in the earlier study as well. To look at the overall health of this site, I must be able to compare my data with previous date, therefore I must use the same techniques. The older study relied on a grid system for each site (E87, W87, Control) and took a represenative sample from each square in the grid. Good, but so much data that it's difficult to see the trees for the forest. What we have decided to do is designate areas within E87 site representative of all 3 restoration methods: pumped mounds, excavated mounds, and excavated mounds with fill around them. Plus we added the reference site. So in total we have designated 4 areas to be sampled. Each area consists of two subsets and will be sampled at "X" number of random points in each subset. All areas will have the same amount of points sampled. This should help us see the trees for the forest. For the vegetation study, we have decided to revisit the previous transects. We feel this should be sufficient.
Coordination with my helpers, my advisor, and the Texas Parks and Wildlife, has not been too difficult as of yet, but it has proven to be a very complex dance consisting of 5 people. I'm sure once we get all the initial happenings (i.e., training, dry runs, etc.) out of the way it should run more smooth especially seeing as how it is I who will be spending the majority of the time up there. So then it will just be me coordinating with TPWS. For round #1 I head out on July 15th to go over some methodology, and collect sample plants from each area for identification. July 21st, I, along with about 3 other people will be with TPWS to go over airboat safety training. I will then be staying overnight between the 21st and 24, possibly 25th of July to perform my first round of sampling.
Well, that's my life as of right now. As for the title of the post. I am more than a day late getting this blog up, and yes I have no excuse for it.
Although it may not seem like tough work, reading scientific papers and emailing people for coordination purposes is EXHAUSTING! For one, I am not a big reader and my ADD attention span is along the lines of what you could call "extremely short." I work very hard to control it, but all reading does is tire me out which then causes me to lose concentration, but it's for the good of my work and therefore I have placed reading on a need base policy. It NEEDS to be done, whether I like it or not. On the same note, I do have to acknowledge that what I am reading is quite interesting. I harken back to my methodology blog to discuss this next topic with you. Like science, none of my blog posts can be compartmentalized; to understand one you must read the others. Methodology still haunts me, plus reading, plus coordination. Let's start again with methodology.
I have decided on how I plan to sample my fish and the vegetation. I am going to stick with the throw traps used back in '97 - '99. I also plan to revisit the vegetation transects used back in the earlier study as well. To look at the overall health of this site, I must be able to compare my data with previous date, therefore I must use the same techniques. The older study relied on a grid system for each site (E87, W87, Control) and took a represenative sample from each square in the grid. Good, but so much data that it's difficult to see the trees for the forest. What we have decided to do is designate areas within E87 site representative of all 3 restoration methods: pumped mounds, excavated mounds, and excavated mounds with fill around them. Plus we added the reference site. So in total we have designated 4 areas to be sampled. Each area consists of two subsets and will be sampled at "X" number of random points in each subset. All areas will have the same amount of points sampled. This should help us see the trees for the forest. For the vegetation study, we have decided to revisit the previous transects. We feel this should be sufficient.
Coordination with my helpers, my advisor, and the Texas Parks and Wildlife, has not been too difficult as of yet, but it has proven to be a very complex dance consisting of 5 people. I'm sure once we get all the initial happenings (i.e., training, dry runs, etc.) out of the way it should run more smooth especially seeing as how it is I who will be spending the majority of the time up there. So then it will just be me coordinating with TPWS. For round #1 I head out on July 15th to go over some methodology, and collect sample plants from each area for identification. July 21st, I, along with about 3 other people will be with TPWS to go over airboat safety training. I will then be staying overnight between the 21st and 24, possibly 25th of July to perform my first round of sampling.
Well, that's my life as of right now. As for the title of the post. I am more than a day late getting this blog up, and yes I have no excuse for it.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Methodoly
I was asked a question the other day by one of my co-workers at starbucks. I have it written down and I'd like to share it with you:
"So, what's so tough about research?"
And that question I feel only needs one answer and that's "how you plan to do it."
Methodology is key...if you don't have sound methods, you're research is more-or-less doomed, I say. So that's what my job has become for the next 2 to 3 weeks - finding sound and understandable methods for the experiments I want to perform. My first problem has come down to simple transportation around the study site: "Pee-rogue" vs. airboat. Yes, the pee-rogue is less invasive than the airboat, but if I plan to resurvey fish and invert diversity and abundance at my study site, I will need to perform throw trap experiments so I can compare diversity and abundance to the surveys performed back in '97-'99.
(For the lay reader, a quick overview of a throw trap: it is usually a 1m cubed metal frame covered on all four sides with mesh nets. The trap is tossed in the water and allowed to sink and settle at the bottom. The fish caught by this method are removed using a dip net similar to what sport-fishermen use to collect their fish from the side of the boat. There are some drawbacks to using this method. They can be biased by size and morphology, they are good for shallow water but usually can only be used at low tide, and although they can be operated by a single person, it only samples a small, yet defined area.)
Other methods I am considering in this project at light traps (see Meekan et al., 2001 paper A comparison of catches of fishes and invertebrates by two light trap designs, in tropical NW Australia for more info on that method) and SMURFs, which stand for Standardized Monitoring Units for Reef Fishes (see Ammann, 2004. SMURFs: standard monitoring units for the recruitment of temperate reef fishes for more info) The only problem is that if I want to compare one year to the next I need to use the same method for each sample period, but if I want to compare one method of collecting to another and decide which is more appropriate or recieves better results then different methods each sampling period is fine.
So how would I get these throw traps out to the many sampling sites, a "pee-rogue"? Could work but the traps are large and the boat unstable. How about using an airboat like they did in previous years? Good thought, but as Dr. Anna and I sat down to discuss this idea, we came to the consensus that even though it might be our best option right now we are nervous that the noise from a massive engine would hinder our results due to the fact that it might scare the fish as we approached.
And so you see, this is just the beginning. As our ideas become deeper and more involved. The roadblocks become larger and more numerous. So when my co-worker asked me "what's so tough about research?" It's methodology.
"So, what's so tough about research?"
And that question I feel only needs one answer and that's "how you plan to do it."
Methodology is key...if you don't have sound methods, you're research is more-or-less doomed, I say. So that's what my job has become for the next 2 to 3 weeks - finding sound and understandable methods for the experiments I want to perform. My first problem has come down to simple transportation around the study site: "Pee-rogue" vs. airboat. Yes, the pee-rogue is less invasive than the airboat, but if I plan to resurvey fish and invert diversity and abundance at my study site, I will need to perform throw trap experiments so I can compare diversity and abundance to the surveys performed back in '97-'99.
(For the lay reader, a quick overview of a throw trap: it is usually a 1m cubed metal frame covered on all four sides with mesh nets. The trap is tossed in the water and allowed to sink and settle at the bottom. The fish caught by this method are removed using a dip net similar to what sport-fishermen use to collect their fish from the side of the boat. There are some drawbacks to using this method. They can be biased by size and morphology, they are good for shallow water but usually can only be used at low tide, and although they can be operated by a single person, it only samples a small, yet defined area.)
Other methods I am considering in this project at light traps (see Meekan et al., 2001 paper A comparison of catches of fishes and invertebrates by two light trap designs, in tropical NW Australia for more info on that method) and SMURFs, which stand for Standardized Monitoring Units for Reef Fishes (see Ammann, 2004. SMURFs: standard monitoring units for the recruitment of temperate reef fishes for more info) The only problem is that if I want to compare one year to the next I need to use the same method for each sample period, but if I want to compare one method of collecting to another and decide which is more appropriate or recieves better results then different methods each sampling period is fine.
So how would I get these throw traps out to the many sampling sites, a "pee-rogue"? Could work but the traps are large and the boat unstable. How about using an airboat like they did in previous years? Good thought, but as Dr. Anna and I sat down to discuss this idea, we came to the consensus that even though it might be our best option right now we are nervous that the noise from a massive engine would hinder our results due to the fact that it might scare the fish as we approached.
And so you see, this is just the beginning. As our ideas become deeper and more involved. The roadblocks become larger and more numerous. So when my co-worker asked me "what's so tough about research?" It's methodology.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
A Blog @ 28,000 ft.
I guess if you can dedicate a blog post to someone, I am going to dedicate this one to my grandmother who recently passed. Mrs. Annabelle Hill Miller (1924-2008). Love you maw-maw.
This blog will consist of experiences, observation, ideas, etc. for the week of June 9th, 2008…
Nothing happened…well I can’t say nothing happened. The week was filled with many happenings. I’m still assisting, measuring, and reading….and reading. The new intern Larissa showed up Tuesday after her orientation and all the hoops HR made her jump through (we all love HR J). I want to welcome her officially on this blog, so Larissa “welcome”; I know you will be a great help to Allison and I both. Even though you are a Longhorn, hopefully by the end of this summer we can bestow upon you an honorary Aggie title.
I started to help Dr. Armitage (Anna) finish the seemingly endless task of weighing ground up aquatic plants from her post-doc work. It’s busy work and really needs to get done so whenever I am not busy I have the opportunity to assist her in that process. What I am doing with this ground-up plant powder is basically adding a certain amount to a small aluminium (?) cup, weighing it on a very expensive analytical balance that measures to the one thousandth of a gram (milligrams) and then taking that cup with sample, meticulously rolling it up into a ball, and placing it into a designated holder to later be incinerated for C, N, and P measurements. Trust me, the research is quite interesting, but I defy someone to tell me they actually enjoy the redundancy and meticulousness of weighing milligrams of samples using their best aseptic technique in the process. To put it in the best way possible, it passes time. :-D I know Dr. Armitage is going to question the professionalness (my brand new word) of this specific blog. So to Dr. Armitage, I apologize.
My colleague, Allison, has begun the sampling of her study site. Her study consists of sampling parts of Armand Bayou around Pasadena, TX for...
(10 minute pause for some pretty sketchy turbulence)
Nitrate, Ammonium, and SRP (I assume) level gradients as she takes samples at points further and further away from two point sources (a water treatment plant and another site) along the bayou. Her samples are consisting of pore water the interstitial spaces of the sediment, water column samples, vegetation, and the sediment itself. This week we labeled Ziploc bags and small plastic bottles with the designated sample points in her study site and both Alisson and Larissa along with the help of Dr. Armitage, Dr. Coe, and a volunteer named Josh recorded their first sampling day that Thursday. From all accounts the sampling went well except for one pesky alligator that gave Alisson and Larissa some trouble at one of their sampling points. Certainly a close encounter.
In closing and on a personal level, no matter if the death of a loved one was unexpected or you were just waiting for that call, I can honestly say it hits you the exact same way. Grieving for my grandmother has been one of the hardest experiences of my life, but I feel it only makes me stronger and more determined to accomplish everything I want to before my time comes. So now not only do I work for myself, but for her as well because I know she’s watching me with excitement every step of the way.
Some notes to leave you with:
1) Longhorns and Aggies can work together in harmony.
2) Weighing small samples of powdered plants is tedious, but quite the time consumer for those 8 hour days when there is nothing else for you to do.
3) To myself: it’s Anna not Dr. Armitage from now on, except in certain situations (I guess?). I think Dr. Anna is a good mix until I can learn.
4) Small 50-seater planes = no beuno.
5) Take good notes of what you do each week. In the end it certainly makes for a better blog.
6) On a personal level: losing a grandmother is tough…end of story.
This blog will consist of experiences, observation, ideas, etc. for the week of June 9th, 2008…
Nothing happened…well I can’t say nothing happened. The week was filled with many happenings. I’m still assisting, measuring, and reading….and reading. The new intern Larissa showed up Tuesday after her orientation and all the hoops HR made her jump through (we all love HR J). I want to welcome her officially on this blog, so Larissa “welcome”; I know you will be a great help to Allison and I both. Even though you are a Longhorn, hopefully by the end of this summer we can bestow upon you an honorary Aggie title.
I started to help Dr. Armitage (Anna) finish the seemingly endless task of weighing ground up aquatic plants from her post-doc work. It’s busy work and really needs to get done so whenever I am not busy I have the opportunity to assist her in that process. What I am doing with this ground-up plant powder is basically adding a certain amount to a small aluminium (?) cup, weighing it on a very expensive analytical balance that measures to the one thousandth of a gram (milligrams) and then taking that cup with sample, meticulously rolling it up into a ball, and placing it into a designated holder to later be incinerated for C, N, and P measurements. Trust me, the research is quite interesting, but I defy someone to tell me they actually enjoy the redundancy and meticulousness of weighing milligrams of samples using their best aseptic technique in the process. To put it in the best way possible, it passes time. :-D I know Dr. Armitage is going to question the professionalness (my brand new word) of this specific blog. So to Dr. Armitage, I apologize.
My colleague, Allison, has begun the sampling of her study site. Her study consists of sampling parts of Armand Bayou around Pasadena, TX for...
(10 minute pause for some pretty sketchy turbulence)
Nitrate, Ammonium, and SRP (I assume) level gradients as she takes samples at points further and further away from two point sources (a water treatment plant and another site) along the bayou. Her samples are consisting of pore water the interstitial spaces of the sediment, water column samples, vegetation, and the sediment itself. This week we labeled Ziploc bags and small plastic bottles with the designated sample points in her study site and both Alisson and Larissa along with the help of Dr. Armitage, Dr. Coe, and a volunteer named Josh recorded their first sampling day that Thursday. From all accounts the sampling went well except for one pesky alligator that gave Alisson and Larissa some trouble at one of their sampling points. Certainly a close encounter.
In closing and on a personal level, no matter if the death of a loved one was unexpected or you were just waiting for that call, I can honestly say it hits you the exact same way. Grieving for my grandmother has been one of the hardest experiences of my life, but I feel it only makes me stronger and more determined to accomplish everything I want to before my time comes. So now not only do I work for myself, but for her as well because I know she’s watching me with excitement every step of the way.
Some notes to leave you with:
1) Longhorns and Aggies can work together in harmony.
2) Weighing small samples of powdered plants is tedious, but quite the time consumer for those 8 hour days when there is nothing else for you to do.
3) To myself: it’s Anna not Dr. Armitage from now on, except in certain situations (I guess?). I think Dr. Anna is a good mix until I can learn.
4) Small 50-seater planes = no beuno.
5) Take good notes of what you do each week. In the end it certainly makes for a better blog.
6) On a personal level: losing a grandmother is tough…end of story.
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