State of the Dispatcher
It's been an eventful few months, and I'm really bad at keeping people abreast of events, mostly because I doubt anyone's interested anyway. Just in case, though, here's what I'm doing and where things stand as of now.
I'm still dispatching for TAMU, although it feels a little different now that we're not a volunteer service anymore. The paycheck is nice, but I miss the old attitude.
Still working at Admissions. Not much to say there, it's a day job, it pays the bills, my coworkers are a good group of people, and it's keeping things afloat while I do something about this master's degree thingy and get going on a real career track. That's okay, at this stage of life, I've finally realized.
As for the degree, I finally sort of gave up on the Nautical Archaeology bit. I adore archaeology, I really do. The past fascinates me, I love ships and sailing, and the ocean will always own a piece of my heart. The profession itself, though, isn't something I can take seriously as a life's work. I need to be out there saving, or at least improving, lives, making a tangible difference in the world. Even at that, I still believe on a philosophical level that the study of our past enriches humanity at large and gives us a shot at improving our future, and that no knowledge is ever totally frivolous-- but personally, I need to do something more... solid, I suppose.
Predictably enough, given the hobbies that sort of took over myself these last few years, the new plan turns out to be forensics. I've found an online MS program at the University of Florida-- and before you scoff, bear in mind that this is a legitimate, credible school with a fine reputation. The nice thing about working in Admissions is that you learn who's credible and who's not, and UF *is*. The program also requires a qualifying exam at the end of it, which is a fair litmus test for a decent grad program. It's 32 hours, but 90% of the courses look like they're offered in spring, summer, and fall, which means if I get on it I can finish the damn thing in the same amount of time it would've taken me to finish the NautArch bit anyway, minus the year off.
As for the remaining semester or two off, I'm going to spend it auditing some courses in biology and chemistry, so I can go into this hard-science-based program with sufficient background to actually do well at it. There're still some things I have to sort out before I can actually DO it, and those are seeming a bit daunting just at the moment, but I'll get it all lined out and hopefully start back in the fall.
It feels better, having a plan.
As for the hobbies, still doing SAR and recovery diving, still loving every minute of it, and I think everything here's fairly up to date as far as callout stories go.
Because the MS program is a non-thesis track, I'm going to need some independent research to go along with it, for the sake of my CV; I'm working on piling up some data, with the help of the wonderful folks at Texas Parks and Wildlife, which will become (within the next few months) a very thorough statistical study of the relative effectiveness of various search/recovery methods in various contexts for locating drowning victims. I'm focusing on issues involving sonar, canines, and picking the right resource for the right environment, but there's so much data there that I'll end up doing a fair bit more than just that if I have my way, which I will because it's my project. Gosh, I love this freelance intellectual gig...
So, in other news, there's this guy... I won't say too much here, because he'd get all bashful and then fuss at me for it, so I'll just summarize by saying that he's incredible and I'm happy. :)
In a more immediate sense, I'm going to RenFest with the team tomorrow, spending the day Monday in Temple with the grandparents, going to what will probably be a rather uncomfortable dive meeting Monday evening, and then spending Monday night with Greg. The rest of next week will shape up however it chooses, and I hope it's good.
I'm still dispatching for TAMU, although it feels a little different now that we're not a volunteer service anymore. The paycheck is nice, but I miss the old attitude.
Still working at Admissions. Not much to say there, it's a day job, it pays the bills, my coworkers are a good group of people, and it's keeping things afloat while I do something about this master's degree thingy and get going on a real career track. That's okay, at this stage of life, I've finally realized.
As for the degree, I finally sort of gave up on the Nautical Archaeology bit. I adore archaeology, I really do. The past fascinates me, I love ships and sailing, and the ocean will always own a piece of my heart. The profession itself, though, isn't something I can take seriously as a life's work. I need to be out there saving, or at least improving, lives, making a tangible difference in the world. Even at that, I still believe on a philosophical level that the study of our past enriches humanity at large and gives us a shot at improving our future, and that no knowledge is ever totally frivolous-- but personally, I need to do something more... solid, I suppose.
Predictably enough, given the hobbies that sort of took over myself these last few years, the new plan turns out to be forensics. I've found an online MS program at the University of Florida-- and before you scoff, bear in mind that this is a legitimate, credible school with a fine reputation. The nice thing about working in Admissions is that you learn who's credible and who's not, and UF *is*. The program also requires a qualifying exam at the end of it, which is a fair litmus test for a decent grad program. It's 32 hours, but 90% of the courses look like they're offered in spring, summer, and fall, which means if I get on it I can finish the damn thing in the same amount of time it would've taken me to finish the NautArch bit anyway, minus the year off.
As for the remaining semester or two off, I'm going to spend it auditing some courses in biology and chemistry, so I can go into this hard-science-based program with sufficient background to actually do well at it. There're still some things I have to sort out before I can actually DO it, and those are seeming a bit daunting just at the moment, but I'll get it all lined out and hopefully start back in the fall.
It feels better, having a plan.
As for the hobbies, still doing SAR and recovery diving, still loving every minute of it, and I think everything here's fairly up to date as far as callout stories go.
Because the MS program is a non-thesis track, I'm going to need some independent research to go along with it, for the sake of my CV; I'm working on piling up some data, with the help of the wonderful folks at Texas Parks and Wildlife, which will become (within the next few months) a very thorough statistical study of the relative effectiveness of various search/recovery methods in various contexts for locating drowning victims. I'm focusing on issues involving sonar, canines, and picking the right resource for the right environment, but there's so much data there that I'll end up doing a fair bit more than just that if I have my way, which I will because it's my project. Gosh, I love this freelance intellectual gig...
So, in other news, there's this guy... I won't say too much here, because he'd get all bashful and then fuss at me for it, so I'll just summarize by saying that he's incredible and I'm happy. :)
In a more immediate sense, I'm going to RenFest with the team tomorrow, spending the day Monday in Temple with the grandparents, going to what will probably be a rather uncomfortable dive meeting Monday evening, and then spending Monday night with Greg. The rest of next week will shape up however it chooses, and I hope it's good.