Dear diary, what is wrong with me?*
Today I've been trying to work on the internship forms - which, as I mentioned previously, scared me witless - and on deciding on a specific topic for my internship.
But first, what is it that I'm doing? Well, for four months, I'll be reading dozens of articles and summarizing them and using them as supportive material for a 4-5 chapter literature review. (No, I have no idea how long a chapter is supposed to be.) This makes the term "internship" quite misleading, as it's really just one hellishly long term paper.
My topic, as it stands now, is the African Wild Dog (aka Cape Hunting Dog, Painted Dog, Mbwa Mwitu (Swahili), Wildehund (Afrikaans), etc.) (Take a quiz1) This is, of course, incredibly broad. One co-supervisor suggested that I investigate populations in Central and Western Africa, where they are presumably extinct or non-viable populations, saying that any information I could find would be helpful. The problem is, of course, that I'd have to consider myself lucky to find anything on that topic, and that's not realy good for a project. Other options are range dispersal and patterns under different conditions, population estimates, and human perceptions (though this latter is more sociology than biology).
I did a cursory google and confirmed that, at least in 1997, most of the Central and Estern populations were pretty much gone. I found quite a bit on the social structure of the pack and on dispersal, so I might go with that. There's also quite a bit of interesting stuff on relationships with other carnivoes (the words "hyena" and "kleptoparasitism" have been used, which is awesome) so I might try to stick that in.
So I think, if I focused on dispersal under different 1) pack conditions, 2) habitat conditions and c) competitors, that would be pretty good.
And all of this I've just decided now, whilst writing this post. Which really was the reason for writing it in the first place. (I lie: I emailed my supervisor a similar thing a moment ago.) It's still pretty mother-lovin' broad, though.
As for the forms, I utterly failed at filling them out because I couldn't find the address for my institution, or decided the exact dates for starting, ending, holidays, turning in, presenting, etc. this whole mess.
So I had a little freak out. I seem to be having quite a few of these recently. They're not as bad that reading things like the wiki on limited symptom attack or various DMS IV entries doesn't fail to reassure me. "Oh!" I exclaim, "well, four symptoms or more, for five days running. I don't have that! I'm just dandy, then. Perfectly normal moment of panic for no reason!" Still... Seriously freaking out and hyperventilating and developing a deathgrip on a small innocent object isn't great. (These are times when I wish I had religion. Or at the very least a talisman. *eyes BlueSatin!Buddha* He doesn't count.)
This, by way of tangent, brings me to a pet peeve. Fanfic authors are always writing about people tensing up their fist so hard their fingernails dig in and draw blood. Here's a heads-up, folk: not that easy. Palms are surprisingly bouncy.
Biting your lip until you draw blood? Likewise as hard if you're going with a slow, constant pressure - which is usually what people do under emotional stress or when trying to keep themselves under wrap. If, on the other hand, you do a "Oh my, I'm fainting!" collapse, it's damn easy, what with the sudden *chomp* and all. Personal experience, let me share it.
Lastly, I'm just going to hug Livejournal people. *hugs* Getting little squeals of appreciation over the Tea Macro Story really helped balance out my evening. Plus, my obsessive refreshing of my inbox was actually rewarded for once.
In sum, I'm back in my little dingy on the waters, peeking over the edge for monsters. I can't really see harbour, but I'll drop anchor here for now.
* Travis, "Dear Diary"
But first, what is it that I'm doing? Well, for four months, I'll be reading dozens of articles and summarizing them and using them as supportive material for a 4-5 chapter literature review. (No, I have no idea how long a chapter is supposed to be.) This makes the term "internship" quite misleading, as it's really just one hellishly long term paper.
My topic, as it stands now, is the African Wild Dog (aka Cape Hunting Dog, Painted Dog, Mbwa Mwitu (Swahili), Wildehund (Afrikaans), etc.) (Take a quiz1) This is, of course, incredibly broad. One co-supervisor suggested that I investigate populations in Central and Western Africa, where they are presumably extinct or non-viable populations, saying that any information I could find would be helpful. The problem is, of course, that I'd have to consider myself lucky to find anything on that topic, and that's not realy good for a project. Other options are range dispersal and patterns under different conditions, population estimates, and human perceptions (though this latter is more sociology than biology).
I did a cursory google and confirmed that, at least in 1997, most of the Central and Estern populations were pretty much gone. I found quite a bit on the social structure of the pack and on dispersal, so I might go with that. There's also quite a bit of interesting stuff on relationships with other carnivoes (the words "hyena" and "kleptoparasitism" have been used, which is awesome) so I might try to stick that in.
So I think, if I focused on dispersal under different 1) pack conditions, 2) habitat conditions and c) competitors, that would be pretty good.
And all of this I've just decided now, whilst writing this post. Which really was the reason for writing it in the first place. (I lie: I emailed my supervisor a similar thing a moment ago.) It's still pretty mother-lovin' broad, though.
As for the forms, I utterly failed at filling them out because I couldn't find the address for my institution, or decided the exact dates for starting, ending, holidays, turning in, presenting, etc. this whole mess.
So I had a little freak out. I seem to be having quite a few of these recently. They're not as bad that reading things like the wiki on limited symptom attack or various DMS IV entries doesn't fail to reassure me. "Oh!" I exclaim, "well, four symptoms or more, for five days running. I don't have that! I'm just dandy, then. Perfectly normal moment of panic for no reason!" Still... Seriously freaking out and hyperventilating and developing a deathgrip on a small innocent object isn't great. (These are times when I wish I had religion. Or at the very least a talisman. *eyes BlueSatin!Buddha* He doesn't count.)
This, by way of tangent, brings me to a pet peeve. Fanfic authors are always writing about people tensing up their fist so hard their fingernails dig in and draw blood. Here's a heads-up, folk: not that easy. Palms are surprisingly bouncy.
Biting your lip until you draw blood? Likewise as hard if you're going with a slow, constant pressure - which is usually what people do under emotional stress or when trying to keep themselves under wrap. If, on the other hand, you do a "Oh my, I'm fainting!" collapse, it's damn easy, what with the sudden *chomp* and all. Personal experience, let me share it.
Lastly, I'm just going to hug Livejournal people. *hugs* Getting little squeals of appreciation over the Tea Macro Story really helped balance out my evening. Plus, my obsessive refreshing of my inbox was actually rewarded for once.
In sum, I'm back in my little dingy on the waters, peeking over the edge for monsters. I can't really see harbour, but I'll drop anchor here for now.
* Travis, "Dear Diary"