I'm BAAAAACK!
Last updated 42 weeks ago.
Well Looks like its time to dust off this old journal and start updating again. Might take me a while to get back into the swing of things i suppose.
I've been working as a field tech for an Avian ecology study based in Columbus since April. The study mostly focuses on the Cardinals (a.k.a Red Devil Bird) but we also moniter Acadian Flycatcher, Robin, Gray Catbird, and Wood thrush nests. The only birds we band are the Cardinals and the Flycatchers, though. We put color bands on so that we can identify them (somewhat) easily with binoculars in the field and know who the parents are for each nest. It's a pretty interesting study, but of course mites rule the world, so it's only a summer job for me. My job is over Aug 31st, though the Red Devil birds continue to nest into the fall because they're crazy. Poor things were nesting in April when it was still snowing.
I've found some sweet bugs while I've been outside 60 hours a week for the job. I've been bringing in mites to Hans about once a week. I always have a good time when i go to visit him. He cracks me up and it always ends up that I have a perma-grin on my face while i'm there and then my face muscles hurt when i leave. haha He and i have the same sort of sense of humor so i always have a good time when i visit.
Starting Sept 19th I'll be a student again which is something I've missed since graduating in March. I'll be going to Grad school for a masters in Entomology and working with Hans in the Acarology Lab. Last week I met with Steve Rissing from the EEOB department about the project we have in mind for my thesis. We're not totally sure what the project will be, but it will definitely involve the Ants Steve Rissing has been studying and the mites that live on them and in the colonies. It's more of a naturalist sort of study than an experimental study which is something i really enjoy. By naturalist i mean like observing the animals and how they function in their environment to get basic knowledge of what they're doing. I love mites because noone knows what the hell they're doing most of the time. There's so much to discover and so many options. Sometimes, though, this is a bad thing because you're starting from scratch--noone has laid groundwork and you've got no background info to help you get started. It's going to be a lot of trial and error and writing detailed descriptions of what I find. But that's what i like. Makes me feel like I'm Antony van Leeuwenhoek writing detailed descriptions of "little animals" I see. He's kind of my hero. A member of the British Royal society (though he was dutch), he published his findings (in the mid-late 1700s) in the first scientific journal the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (now available online if you're interested). He was in fact the first person to describe protists and probably one of the first people to describe the activity of live mites and to even attempt rearing them (by keeping them in a vial in his pocket to incubate them for months haha). In fact the other scientists of the British Royal society didn't even believe that he was really seeing these "little animals" and almost called him a fraud. He managed to get important scientists to come to his home and see his animals which he placed under specially crafted microscopes. He'd have them sign a statement saying they had seen them too and that they did look like the drawings he had submitted for publication.
I feel like there aren't enough of these naturalist sort of scientists anymore i think. People that just want to know and observe.
So school starts September 19th. My first quarter with Hans will probably be spent mostly doing literature searches to get whatever background information i can find on the ants and the mites so that i can start formulating questions that i can answer with my project. Winter quarter I'll be going to Arizona for a couple of weeks to do my "field season". The ants only fly during a brief time in January and february, so I'll be leaving cruddy cold ohio to go to the desert during this time. What a shame!
I'm not sure exactly how the TA thing will work out since I'll have to be gone for a couple of weeks when i'm supposed to be working, but I'll work that out with the department. May have to do double time the next quarter or something which would be pretty insane... teaching 4 labs instead of 2... yikes!
Tomorrow I'm doing data entry which is nice because today it rained, and i got pissed off and soaked. I might go to my favorite haunt, Panera, to drink a lot of coffee and enter the data. Yeah I"ll probably do that for lunch. if the weather's nice i could ride my bike there to avoid having to pay for parking.
Well it's past time for dinner, so I'll go for now and hopefully it won't be another 42 weeks before i update.
Well Looks like its time to dust off this old journal and start updating again. Might take me a while to get back into the swing of things i suppose.
I've been working as a field tech for an Avian ecology study based in Columbus since April. The study mostly focuses on the Cardinals (a.k.a Red Devil Bird) but we also moniter Acadian Flycatcher, Robin, Gray Catbird, and Wood thrush nests. The only birds we band are the Cardinals and the Flycatchers, though. We put color bands on so that we can identify them (somewhat) easily with binoculars in the field and know who the parents are for each nest. It's a pretty interesting study, but of course mites rule the world, so it's only a summer job for me. My job is over Aug 31st, though the Red Devil birds continue to nest into the fall because they're crazy. Poor things were nesting in April when it was still snowing.
I've found some sweet bugs while I've been outside 60 hours a week for the job. I've been bringing in mites to Hans about once a week. I always have a good time when i go to visit him. He cracks me up and it always ends up that I have a perma-grin on my face while i'm there and then my face muscles hurt when i leave. haha He and i have the same sort of sense of humor so i always have a good time when i visit.
Starting Sept 19th I'll be a student again which is something I've missed since graduating in March. I'll be going to Grad school for a masters in Entomology and working with Hans in the Acarology Lab. Last week I met with Steve Rissing from the EEOB department about the project we have in mind for my thesis. We're not totally sure what the project will be, but it will definitely involve the Ants Steve Rissing has been studying and the mites that live on them and in the colonies. It's more of a naturalist sort of study than an experimental study which is something i really enjoy. By naturalist i mean like observing the animals and how they function in their environment to get basic knowledge of what they're doing. I love mites because noone knows what the hell they're doing most of the time. There's so much to discover and so many options. Sometimes, though, this is a bad thing because you're starting from scratch--noone has laid groundwork and you've got no background info to help you get started. It's going to be a lot of trial and error and writing detailed descriptions of what I find. But that's what i like. Makes me feel like I'm Antony van Leeuwenhoek writing detailed descriptions of "little animals" I see. He's kind of my hero. A member of the British Royal society (though he was dutch), he published his findings (in the mid-late 1700s) in the first scientific journal the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (now available online if you're interested). He was in fact the first person to describe protists and probably one of the first people to describe the activity of live mites and to even attempt rearing them (by keeping them in a vial in his pocket to incubate them for months haha). In fact the other scientists of the British Royal society didn't even believe that he was really seeing these "little animals" and almost called him a fraud. He managed to get important scientists to come to his home and see his animals which he placed under specially crafted microscopes. He'd have them sign a statement saying they had seen them too and that they did look like the drawings he had submitted for publication.
I feel like there aren't enough of these naturalist sort of scientists anymore i think. People that just want to know and observe.
So school starts September 19th. My first quarter with Hans will probably be spent mostly doing literature searches to get whatever background information i can find on the ants and the mites so that i can start formulating questions that i can answer with my project. Winter quarter I'll be going to Arizona for a couple of weeks to do my "field season". The ants only fly during a brief time in January and february, so I'll be leaving cruddy cold ohio to go to the desert during this time. What a shame!
I'm not sure exactly how the TA thing will work out since I'll have to be gone for a couple of weeks when i'm supposed to be working, but I'll work that out with the department. May have to do double time the next quarter or something which would be pretty insane... teaching 4 labs instead of 2... yikes!
Tomorrow I'm doing data entry which is nice because today it rained, and i got pissed off and soaked. I might go to my favorite haunt, Panera, to drink a lot of coffee and enter the data. Yeah I"ll probably do that for lunch. if the weather's nice i could ride my bike there to avoid having to pay for parking.
Well it's past time for dinner, so I'll go for now and hopefully it won't be another 42 weeks before i update.