What the hell is up with Litch?
So uh... yeah.
Things are a discombobulated for me.
In case you've not been paying attention, remember when the economy crashed and burned in 2009? It took me with it, couldn't find a job, lost house, wound up selling everything and heading to oregon with the intention of going to medical school. Since my grade from aTm ~1991 wouldn't get me admitted to anything I decided to do a post-baccalaureate program here at UO to get some grades and learn the underlying biology. I started that in 2010.
Last fall I finished the last course I needed to get a second bachelors degree (calc II, I failed that fucker twice at aTm). I didn't submit my paperwork on time to have a degree dated 2013 and I was playing around with the idea of doing some more undergraduate research this winter term. But I dragged my feet and realized I'm a little burnt out on school right at the moment so I decided not to register for any classes and just submit my graduation paperwork. Unless something unexpected pops I should have a BS in "General Science" in March.
The thing is, since I am not attending classes I have no student loans to use to pay rent. Nor do I have a student worker job making minimum wage helping the UO population with their computers in the library. I spent my saved money paying January rent.
I have perforce been looking for a job. The economy has improved so I have actually had a few interviews. I was kind of hoping for a lab tech position of some kind so I could use my science background. There aren't very many of those jobs out there, there are a lot more IT jobs so I applied for some of those too but I am not really thrilled about going back into that grinder.
I want something that will pay the rent, buy food, get me enough money to take the MCAT, GRE, pay the AAMC and any PhD application fees, and let me save enough that I can move to wherever I wind up going to school.
Yeah, I still intend on going to graduate school. I am going to try to get into medical school but my first choice (OHSU) is fairly selective, the average incoming 1st year has a 3.66 GPA and a 31 on the MCAT. I'm leaving UO with a 3.3 (that does not average in my aTm grades) and we'll see what I get on the MCAT. It's score can range from 3-45, average is 25.6 and 90% score less than 33 (I suspect I will score in the low thirties since I'm pretty good at these). I'll apply to some others as well but they're all pretty finicky so we'll see. Even if I do get accepted I couldn't start before fall 2015.
I'm also going to apply to some PhD programs. The problem is I am not sure exactly what I would study, the thing that really interests me is genetics but these days that's like saying you're going to study chemistry in grad school, there's all bloody kinds. The new hot thing I've been sidling up to is bioinformatics, it's what happens when you hit squishy bit with big data techniques. Things like sequencing all the DNA found in a sample of something interesting (say the contents of a zebrafish colon) to get an idea of what the hell is there, looking at how similar it is, how it changes over time, if protein expression changes with changing environmental pressure. I did some of this (sort of) last fall, it's cool as all hell, there is research money flowing, and there are commercial potentials with deep pockets interested in some of the practical take aways. But I also dig epigentic protein expression, the biochemisty of molecular genetics, and lots of other genomic research fields.
But that's all later this spring. For now I need to find a job. Well, actually, I have. I think. I don't quite believe it because it's weird. I've never been hired over the phone. It's not really science or even computers. It's a gig as a mobile espresso machine repairman. The company repairs and service the espresso machines and grinders at a large number of a certain nationally known coffee shop that is based here in the PNW. They are going to send me to spokane for two weeks of training and then give me a company car and a credit card and have me fix the java machines at locations across southern oregon. There are scheduled maintenance and emergency/urgent repair at thirtysome locations in my region and they will pay for my travel. Expedia says I've got a ticket waiting for me monday morning to fly to spokane and get cracking.
I also happened to look on craigslist and found a really cool ad for someone looking for a good dog who can vouch for their human to be roommates that only costs about half of what I pay here.
I'm a little gobsmacked.
Things are a discombobulated for me.
In case you've not been paying attention, remember when the economy crashed and burned in 2009? It took me with it, couldn't find a job, lost house, wound up selling everything and heading to oregon with the intention of going to medical school. Since my grade from aTm ~1991 wouldn't get me admitted to anything I decided to do a post-baccalaureate program here at UO to get some grades and learn the underlying biology. I started that in 2010.
Last fall I finished the last course I needed to get a second bachelors degree (calc II, I failed that fucker twice at aTm). I didn't submit my paperwork on time to have a degree dated 2013 and I was playing around with the idea of doing some more undergraduate research this winter term. But I dragged my feet and realized I'm a little burnt out on school right at the moment so I decided not to register for any classes and just submit my graduation paperwork. Unless something unexpected pops I should have a BS in "General Science" in March.
The thing is, since I am not attending classes I have no student loans to use to pay rent. Nor do I have a student worker job making minimum wage helping the UO population with their computers in the library. I spent my saved money paying January rent.
I have perforce been looking for a job. The economy has improved so I have actually had a few interviews. I was kind of hoping for a lab tech position of some kind so I could use my science background. There aren't very many of those jobs out there, there are a lot more IT jobs so I applied for some of those too but I am not really thrilled about going back into that grinder.
I want something that will pay the rent, buy food, get me enough money to take the MCAT, GRE, pay the AAMC and any PhD application fees, and let me save enough that I can move to wherever I wind up going to school.
Yeah, I still intend on going to graduate school. I am going to try to get into medical school but my first choice (OHSU) is fairly selective, the average incoming 1st year has a 3.66 GPA and a 31 on the MCAT. I'm leaving UO with a 3.3 (that does not average in my aTm grades) and we'll see what I get on the MCAT. It's score can range from 3-45, average is 25.6 and 90% score less than 33 (I suspect I will score in the low thirties since I'm pretty good at these). I'll apply to some others as well but they're all pretty finicky so we'll see. Even if I do get accepted I couldn't start before fall 2015.
I'm also going to apply to some PhD programs. The problem is I am not sure exactly what I would study, the thing that really interests me is genetics but these days that's like saying you're going to study chemistry in grad school, there's all bloody kinds. The new hot thing I've been sidling up to is bioinformatics, it's what happens when you hit squishy bit with big data techniques. Things like sequencing all the DNA found in a sample of something interesting (say the contents of a zebrafish colon) to get an idea of what the hell is there, looking at how similar it is, how it changes over time, if protein expression changes with changing environmental pressure. I did some of this (sort of) last fall, it's cool as all hell, there is research money flowing, and there are commercial potentials with deep pockets interested in some of the practical take aways. But I also dig epigentic protein expression, the biochemisty of molecular genetics, and lots of other genomic research fields.
But that's all later this spring. For now I need to find a job. Well, actually, I have. I think. I don't quite believe it because it's weird. I've never been hired over the phone. It's not really science or even computers. It's a gig as a mobile espresso machine repairman. The company repairs and service the espresso machines and grinders at a large number of a certain nationally known coffee shop that is based here in the PNW. They are going to send me to spokane for two weeks of training and then give me a company car and a credit card and have me fix the java machines at locations across southern oregon. There are scheduled maintenance and emergency/urgent repair at thirtysome locations in my region and they will pay for my travel. Expedia says I've got a ticket waiting for me monday morning to fly to spokane and get cracking.
I also happened to look on craigslist and found a really cool ad for someone looking for a good dog who can vouch for their human to be roommates that only costs about half of what I pay here.
I'm a little gobsmacked.