Changes for 2013

Things are changing and changing fast. I've applied to graduate school and things look promising. I will be going to Japan for a while before any programs start. I'm leaving this horrible little life as a health inspector! Yes! My life has direction, however, I'm pressed for time, energy and creativity.

I'm currently working on a pre-proposal for graduate school with one of the programs that is very promising. The work is interesting, it's on winter limnology. I'm focusing on the water chemistry of these frozen lakes. The three nutrients I'm focusing on are carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus. How will these nutrient dynamics change with a changing climate? What happens under the ice? How will less ice cover each year change the nutrient dynamics of the lakes? What is the end result?

I think most of the dynamics really depend on the concentration of oxygen available in the system. So many of the natural cycles of these particular nutrients depend on the concentration of oxygen. So, yes, oxygen will be measured and monitored...

As for the other nutrients... How does one monitor those changes? I'm thinking that a monitoring plan will need to be developed for before ice in autumn, with ice and ice melt in spring. The dilemma I'm coming up against for writing these mini-proposals is that it seems like all I want to do is monitor these nutrients over the year and see what happens... That doesn't seem very complicated to me....

First of all there are several nutrient forms that I think would be interesting. Nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, ammonium, nitrogen gas, ammonium hydroxide could all reveal how the nitrogen cycle changes over the course of winter. The phosphorus cycle is less complicated, as there is only one form of soluble phosphorus, orthophosphate, also known as soluble reactive phosphate.
The carbon cycle is also interesting, but in terms of greenhouse gases, methane and methantrophy are the factors I find most interesting.

This does not take into consideration the spatial variability, the daily variation that could be changing. How does one find the perfect time to measure? How does one measure these unique forms of nitrogen (or other nutrients) without changing their chemical make up (exposure to warmer temperatures, pressures, etc.)?

I think part of my problem is the scope of these mini-proposals, I only need one page to two page documents.  How do I concentrate all this down to so little text? OR I could sum it all up in one sentence: "Measure the concentrations of the different forms of nitrogen, phosphorus, oxygen, carbon and other particular micronutrients as the pertain to the above macronutrients over the course the formation and melt of lake ice."
Done...
For some reason, I think that my potential adviser is looking for something beyond a sentence, and a little less than a full-blown proposal... So, what do I write, what do I cite? I'm at a loss.

I've been studying nutrient dynamics for a while, but the introduction of lake ice is very interesting. It's a twist  because of the rapidly declining ice days per year. Over the last 30 years or so (my adviser says) we've lost a day of ice cover each year, resulting in the loss of a month of ice cover! That's crazy! Such rapid changes will definitely result in some paradigm changes in the world of limnology.

Living Without Dairy

YAY for health insurance!

Apparently I'm sensitive to dairy. So, now I'm learning to live life without it. I have not been very successful though. I don't eat a lot of meat, none at home. (Except fish) Without dairy, my main source of protein, I've been getting creative, but I also fall back on it. Eggs have been great, but I'm not the biggest fan of eggs either.

I have fish occasionally. You would think living on the coast would make it cheaper to have fish, very wrong.

I feel better when I don't have dairy. My stomach isn't in a constant uproar. Which is really nice. I'm also taking anti-indigestion medication, which helps. I'm so glad to finally get all this under control.

So, new foods: vegetables (not really new, but with greater emphasis), beans (awesome bean soups), and quinoa (high in protein). I've gotten really into cauliflower and eggplant.

Tonight I'm making a tomato eggplant pizza (dairy free) with a bean sauce. I'm hoping it turns out. Mostly concerned about the pizza dough. Funny Italian cookbook told me how to make it and it's a very stiff dough. I'm hoping it will rise. Doesn't look likely. Maybe I'll just think of it as a super thin cracker for putting stuff on.

Still adapting.

I've been working on my paper (thesis to be published). I'm making progress. I'm procrastinating right now! Cleaned the house and now, blogging. Yeah. Headed for it right now!

A Real Job!

I finally got an interview, which turned into three total interviews a few weeks ago for a retail electronics customer service position. I then got hired! The job was fine, first week was training, second week working the registers. But, the Tuesday of the first week I got a call asking me to come in for an interview some time that week! I had work from ten to five every day, so I had to make it a very early interview (the new place was two hours away) and be an hour or so late to work. I went in for the interview. So thankful for my wonderful, amazing, supportive boyfriend who willingly got up at 5:30 to accompany me on that drive.

The position I interviewed for was for an Environmental Health Specialist Trainee with a county on the coast. I have really no experience besides one class in environmental health, I did not expect the interview to go well nor to receive a call back. Afterwards, I didn't feel bad, but not great.

Anyway, I got it, moved out here and have been working for almost four months. YAY!!! A real job! Part-time, but there are some many other things to master... Like living with a closet bathroom, funky smell, and fruit flies that just won't leave. And living away from the boyfriend/partner/best-friend.

The job is really great. I inspect places for potential problems... Trying hard to think of it as an educational experience for me and for the pic (person in charge).

Joke: How many health inspectors does it take to screw in a light bulb? None, they have the pic do it... My mentor asked me the question and that's what I said... He thought it was pretty funny, I'm not so sure.

Going to try working on a manuscript for my thesis. I was supposed to get it out rather soon, but hey, a job, a move, and limited access to literary search engines, and we're months behind...

Overall, life's good...

Defended and Signed Off

I had my defense on May 4th. I presented my project for about a half hour and then I answered questions. I got a question I couldn't answer right away from one of my committee members. Luckily I had a few minutes after the presentation and before the defense to kind of figure it out. Once I figured it out I felt really silly. I panicked for about 10 more minutes then I went up for my defense.
My committee members trickled in and finally we were all there together. I was really nervous. But one of my committee members wanted me to outline my P cycle in the system. That was easy enough and was included in my thesis. He had mentioned wanting that type of information when he gave me back my comments. Then we circled around my other committee members question that she asked at the presentation. I was able to answer it but she thought that I needed to include some plant information in my thesis, or at least a clause so that I wasn't ignoring the plants in the P cycle. Then we just talked for like another half hour about my thesis and how it needed to include some statements that softened my conclusions. Which, I agree with and I didn't really like how strong the statements were, but my adviser seemed to think that the stronger the better. Then it was over. The committee member handed me her version of my thesis that had some minor comments. And that was it. I had most of the edits done in two days. My adviser sent it back to me and I fixed everything in another two days. My the end of the week after my defense I was able to send my thesis to the graduate school. I just got the go ahead from the graduate school today. Sending out the pdf and word to my adviser. He'll take it to the copy center and they'll print it out and post it online. So, I can even link to it on here once all those things are done!!!

What a great feeling to be done. I find myself kind of wondering what to do next. I think besides looking for work I'll start volunteering. I want to volunteer at the native plant center in town. I want to see if I can also work for some farms around here. That would be fun. I'm hoping that I can find a job soon. I want to enjoy my summer and not be stressed out about finding a job. I really want to work. I'm so tired of not having a job and it will be even worse now that my thesis is over.

So, the serious job hunt begins. Field work come to me!!!

Thesis defense!

So the idea that I could focus on finding work didn't work out as well as I would have hoped. But more pressing things have come up. I've finally set a date for my thesis defense. It will be May 4th at 2PM in ES 80. But that means I have a lot of work to do. And some very serious deadlines. I have to complete my advisers edits basically by tomorrow. Which there are pages of... One might wonder why I'm blogging if I have so much work to do. Procrastination! The BEAST! Anyway, will do it one way or another. Then Monday I send it out to my committee. Oh my! Home stretch.

My worry is, not that I won't get it done, but what if I get a job opportunity? I really can't do anything until mid-May. Blah. Just have to hope that things turn out for the best. This is not my normal style, but I don't really have a choice at the moment. I need a job more that ever, my cat needs a place to live, I need money, all of which require me to have a job. Oh well, must not concern myself yet. Something will come up at the appropriate time, right? Yes!

On that half-positive note, back to work on some thesis edits.

Semi-Completion!

A couple of hours a go I finished writing my thesis! It still needs a bit of editing, but it's complete! I have gone through it a few times and will need to go through it many more times, but everything is there that I need to work with! I have some editing I'll need to do on the discussion and conclusion tomorrow morning and then I send it off to my adviser. He'll edit it to bits and send it back to me, I'll fix and then, we'll have a working draft I think I can send to my committee. That's the great thing about my adviser, he is so thorough that I think I'll just need to fix his remarks and edits and I'll have a very good product.

I feel really good having everything together. I know there are quite a few things I need to do, like build my presentation and edit and think and plan. But, this is such a huge step!

Anyway, now that the hardest part is done (I say that with some trepidation) I can finally find a job. So, for the next week (until I get the edits back) I'm going to concentrate on writing really awesome cover letters and finding a job.

To celebrate, I am going to a movie after I'm done with the edits tomorrow and I'm going to read a book this weekend.

So great!

Frustration

My thesis is coming along, the background is coming together and I hoping to start working on my discussion and conclusion soon. I've got the background well enough together that I just need some basic editing. I haven't been able to find any sources that explicitly talk about soluble organic phosphorus. I want to be able to say more about what kinds of phosphorus are dissolved in the water column or pore water, but I haven't found much besides suggestions that they exist. I'm not talking about the obvious soluble reactive phosphorus though. Oh well, I think something will come up eventually.

On the job front, I'm making less progress. I got an interview with an AmeriCorps position but it wasn't a paid position. I got another couple of rejection letters. I thought it was getting better but now I'm just not seeing anything... I really want to be able to work. I worked at the elections office for about two weeks. It was really boring, but it felt good to do something. I'm also looking forward to being paid. Luckily, that will tie me over for a little while.

Oh, on a side note, I made my best loaf of challah yet! I'll post the recipe with pictures later. I halved the recipe which, I think, made it easier to work with and led to the better loaves. I say loaves because I made a tiny round loaf too. Very cute! And tasty. Then the next morning Z and I made french toast with the remains, and that was so good!