Slowly clicking into place...
It's been a months of ups and downs. At the moment things are on the up-swing, which cheers me up greatly. Yesterday I got confirmation of my distinction for my masters studies, which is a great weight off my mind. I've also got confirmation that some of my phd applications have been received, in some very positive emails. So I'm hoping something comes through there.
I also found out a few weeks ago that my paper in Palaeontology has been accepted for publication; I can now cite it as 'in press'. Given the backlog in these things it probably won't get printed in the journal until the end of this year, but now no one can take that paper away from me! The day after I heard about that I got a rejection from Proceedings of the Royal Society Series B - I'd only submitted the paper the night before! But I worked over the weekend, cut it down by 1300 words and submitted to Biology Letters. It's now under review, and has got further than the other did (it was kicked out by the editor without going to referees).
My only real headache now is finding a job, and hopefully getting a PhD. I constantly worry whether my referees are submitting the references that I ask them to, but I'm sure they will. And transcripts from Birmingham are taking about a month to arrive - I emailed them yesterday to ask where the hell they were.
I also received a two volume book I ordered from America entitled The Eurypterida of New York by Clarke and Ruedemann. Ate up most of my christmas money, but it's a real collector's piece, not to mention a really useful book - it was published in 1912, in a single print run, and has never been reprinted since. My copies are in fairly good condition too. Now I just have my eye on that Woodward 1878...
Yesterday I went and got new glasses too. I'm getting slightly more short sighted as usual, but this time I get sunglasses too, and everything only cost me £105 (£50 off for being unemployed, and there was a deal where the second pair of glasses and lenses were free, so that saved me £115).
Now I am submitting a proposal for funding to the Palaeontographical Society for a trip to Edinburgh to redescribe some eurypterids from Pentland Hills - if that goes well I could have a monograph to my name! I am also fiddling about with eurypterid diversity curves. I think the results are a bit skewed by the fossil record being crap, but it seems there was a massive radiation during the Silurian, with origination hidden somewhere in the Ordovician, and the eurypterids adopted different niches to avoid competition - the exceptions being hibbertopterids and stylonurids, where one out-competed the other, and the basal scavenging taxa which never achieve high diversity.
I am also continuing to work on Duma Tyr, and should soon have Chapter 16 finished. There's not much else to say at the moment - it's raining, and I'm about to go toast some hot crossed buns for breakfast and watch an episode of 30 Rock.
I also found out a few weeks ago that my paper in Palaeontology has been accepted for publication; I can now cite it as 'in press'. Given the backlog in these things it probably won't get printed in the journal until the end of this year, but now no one can take that paper away from me! The day after I heard about that I got a rejection from Proceedings of the Royal Society Series B - I'd only submitted the paper the night before! But I worked over the weekend, cut it down by 1300 words and submitted to Biology Letters. It's now under review, and has got further than the other did (it was kicked out by the editor without going to referees).
My only real headache now is finding a job, and hopefully getting a PhD. I constantly worry whether my referees are submitting the references that I ask them to, but I'm sure they will. And transcripts from Birmingham are taking about a month to arrive - I emailed them yesterday to ask where the hell they were.
I also received a two volume book I ordered from America entitled The Eurypterida of New York by Clarke and Ruedemann. Ate up most of my christmas money, but it's a real collector's piece, not to mention a really useful book - it was published in 1912, in a single print run, and has never been reprinted since. My copies are in fairly good condition too. Now I just have my eye on that Woodward 1878...
Yesterday I went and got new glasses too. I'm getting slightly more short sighted as usual, but this time I get sunglasses too, and everything only cost me £105 (£50 off for being unemployed, and there was a deal where the second pair of glasses and lenses were free, so that saved me £115).
Now I am submitting a proposal for funding to the Palaeontographical Society for a trip to Edinburgh to redescribe some eurypterids from Pentland Hills - if that goes well I could have a monograph to my name! I am also fiddling about with eurypterid diversity curves. I think the results are a bit skewed by the fossil record being crap, but it seems there was a massive radiation during the Silurian, with origination hidden somewhere in the Ordovician, and the eurypterids adopted different niches to avoid competition - the exceptions being hibbertopterids and stylonurids, where one out-competed the other, and the basal scavenging taxa which never achieve high diversity.
I am also continuing to work on Duma Tyr, and should soon have Chapter 16 finished. There's not much else to say at the moment - it's raining, and I'm about to go toast some hot crossed buns for breakfast and watch an episode of 30 Rock.