I hate the word "procrastination"

There are plenty of situations where the word "procrastination" can apply to me. I try not to procrastinate, but it just happens. Yet, it seems when I work hard to get something done well in advance I cannot make any progress and it still ends up getting done last minute. Lets take a presentation for example. I can sit and work for days attempting to put together a really great presentation and the entire time I either draw a complete blank or I end up hating what I have done and erase it all. Once the deadline nears and the pressure is on everything just seems to flow right onto the screen as if I am not even doing it. This is not an isolated incident. This tends to be the norm for me. A couple of years ago I had roughly two months to put together a 15-20 page review paper for a class. I spent plenty of time gathering up all of the articles I would reference, but everytime I sat down to write I just sat and stared at a blank screen. The night before it was due (yes, the night before) I sat down and wrote the entire thing, finished about 6am and ended up with the highest grade in the class on that paper. I have no idea what phenomenon causes this but I wish I could remedy it. As well as things tend to work out, I really wish I could get projects and papers done (to my liking) as soon as they are assigned so that I don't have to cary that stress around until the last minute. That being said, I hope everyone likes my presentation today!!

Recycling

Whenever Norman began the curbside recycling I thought it was so neat and I was really excited. Of course I hardly ever used it like most people I knew. I always planned to, but it really just slipped my mind and the big green tub ended up somwhere in the backyard. The few times I did use it were generally for newpapers, phone books and end-of-the-semester folder cleanout (those are the most amazing days!). Lately, however, I have really gotten into the whole recycling thing. It has almost become second nature for me to put everything allowed into that tub. Beofre I throw anything in the trash I stop and decide if it can be recycled and it very often can. I am quite proud of myself, although there are times when walking into the garage seems like such a difficult task that I decide saving the planet just isn't worth that grueling walk. But progress is progress. My biggest question is why cardboard is not allowed in the recycling? We have to take a trip to the recycling center on a weekly basis to take cardboard and I don't even bother with the small boxes (i.e. crackers, pop tarts). If those could go in my tub I could probably eliminate at least half of what use to go in the trash can. At that point I would probably have to pay the $3 charge to get another tub because as of today mine is already full and doesn't get picked up until Thursday. Huh, maybe I already need another one. Yay for me, the new recycling queen!

I'm getting married!

Well, in the words of several of our friends it’s ‘bout time! After 3 years together and an almost 2 year old little one, Brian and I are finally getting married! This is not a real shocker because it is something that has been in the works for quite a while, but it is still new and exciting. I knew the ring was bought and that it was coming soon and it finally did make its way to my finger on Tuesday. Of course, even five days later, I cannot quit looking at it and it still has not completely sunk in. But the stress has already set in.

We already knew where we wanted to get married and that makes planning difficult. We are going to have our ceremony in a small, small town in southeast Texas where part of Brian’s family is from. The church was built in the 1850’s and is just the cutest thing ever. We figure the reception will need to be in the area and have come up with a couple of options to look into. But, we only have eight months (we think) until the wedding and only one trip down there planned in the near future. So this week the phone calls have to begin and some long distance scouting is in order. I am definitely the organized, persistent and time aware one out of the two of us so I will have to really push to get decisions made. But I guess this is all suppose to be fun and I am going to try to look at it in that way as much as I can. In the meantime it is time to put my imagination to work and see what fun ideas I can come up with!!

Where, oh where, did the satellite fall?

I think one of the more humorous things I have read lately has been the story of the falling NASA satellite. I am sure most people heard about the satellite a month ago and there have been the occasional blurbs on the news since then. At one point NASA said that they would be able to only give a 2 hour warning for where the satellite would fall and that there was little chance that anyone would be injured. The actual statistic they gave was a 1 in 3,200 chance. Really? Considering the number of people on the planet, that number does not jive with “little chance.”

Anyway, last night about 10:15 local time NASA announced that the satellite would likely fall between 10:45 and 11:45 (local time). So much for a 2 hour warning. But even better was the statement that at the time of re-entry into our atmosphere the satellite would be passing over Canada and Africa as well as the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Now it has been a really long time since I have had a geography class or looked at a map for that matter, but I am pretty sure that all of those locations are spread out across the Earth and in no way did that announcement narrow things down or provide any kind of warning.

So, when I woke up this morning I decided to look and see if indeed the satellite came down and, if so, where? Well, it did but there is still no consensus on where. Basically NASA is not sure where the satellite re-entered, but they think it happened over the Pacific and that it all ended up in the ocean. Oh, but wait! If you read another story, also supposedly based on information from NASA, if the satellite came down later than when they think (apparently they are just making times up and really have no idea) then it would have rained down pieces over the Northwestern US. And, despite people all over the world looking up towards the sky for this falling satellite that was expected to be very visible as it came down, there are no sightings being reported and no pieces have been found yet.

Maybe it did end up in the ocean and maybe it broke apart differently than expected which did not give the visible show that everyone expected. I have no idea and have frankly lost interest during the time that I have spent writing this. But, what would be funny (and I don’t mean this in a sadistic way) is if all of those pieces are still floating around in the atmosphere and haven’t dropped yet, because today the statistic reported earlier is now being stated as 1 in 21 trillion. Maybe they shouldn’t speak so soon since they obviously have no idea what is going on….

The woes of finding medical information

Yesterday was one of those days where I was very thankful to have the science background that I have and the ability to read and understand primary literature. I received a call from my doctor’s office letting me know that I have a condition for which I will need to follow up with the doctor to discuss the treatment plan. I had not heard of this condition before and, being a researcher, I immediately got online to gather my own information. Typically you can do a quick Google search on any medical issue and come up with more information than you could read in a lifetime. Much to my surprise that was not the case this time.

Apparently this condition, although not incredibly serious, is very rare. Rare enough that I found roughly ten web pages that essentially had the same material cut and pasted into each. What I found was not particularly good information, not detailed and left me with a lot of questions. However, among the pages I found were several medical journal articles that went into much greater detail and provided me with at least a little more ammunition to walk in with when I discuss everything with the doctor tomorrow. Fortunately I have the ability to read and understand this type of writing and am not intimidated by it even though there are plenty of things within that I did not understand. For most people this would be a daunting task and very few would even attempt to read these papers.

This is, unfortunately, one of the issues with health care today. Individuals are left to put 100% of their trust in doctors because they simply do not have access to the information they need to be in control of their own care. In many cases this can be a problem if the doctor is, for lack of better words, uninterested in the patients health and unwilling to do the research needed to better treat them. I think at one time or another we have all experienced a situation like that.

I will be heading into my appointment with a list of questions and a pretty decent understanding of the disease, its complications and the treatment methods. I have no qualms in questioning the doctor if I do not feel that what he prescribes is the right treatment. Although I am not a doctor and will, in the end, follow whatever he says, I can at least do so in an educated fashion. And, at the end of the day, I definitely learned some new and interesting stuff in the world of microbial biology! Since this disease is so rare maybe I should change research tracks so that I can find some more answers about this elusive microbe!

The LAST experiment (I hope)!

For the past year I have been working on my toxin degradation experiment. Over the summer there was a point when my adviser was decided that enough data had been collected to write up the paper. About 2 weeks later he changed his mind. I tried a couple of other experiments that he suggested but for a variety or reasons (mostly a lack of the needed equipment) they did not work. By that point the summer was over and it was time to head back to Norman. Because I need some of the machinery that is only available at the Biological Station, I could not continue trying any other experiments...until now. A new filtering system was ordered and I am set to head to the station after class on Tuesday and stay until Sunday. I feel an extreme amount of stress given that this may be a one shot try at finalizing the past year's worth of work. I feel like I have done some really grest work in the past experiments, but everytime something goes wong that is what is emphasized and all of my triumphs are forgotten. For that reason I tend to get extremely uptight and flustered when things start to falter and I definetly shed my fair share of tears over the summer. They were tears of frustration, but they would not fall if I did not care so much about my experiment. These things seem to take on a life of their own, or maybe they just take over your life. Either way, I am in a one hundred percent positive frame of mind at this point and am hoping to make it through this with a final set of data to make this paper a go. Updates will of course follow later this week!

Sharing writing knowledge

I love to write and I think that I am fairly good at it. By no means am I perfect and I have learned a great deal just in the first few weeks of this class. I realize how much I have learned by reviewing other peoples writing and applying it. My neighbor is taking graduate classes at UCO and after telling me that she had to write a summary paper every week I offered to look over them for her. She was very happy because she hates to write and I was happy to get some more practice. I have reviewed her papers the past two weeks and have been able to apply so many things that I have learned. I have also given her copies of a couple of the chapters from our book as well as the last lecture so that she can improve her writing without relying on me to fix it. It is amazing how you can learn not only from your own writing but also reading that of others.  I find myself questioning whether a certain comma is in the proper spot or whether a sentence is formatted correctly and this in turn makes me more critical of my own writing. I think that anyone who wants to be a great writer should really attempt to get into some sort of writing review program (the writing center?) because it can be such an eye opening and creative experience.

Weekly writing assignment

Below is my re-write of the case study argument that we worked on last week. It comes from Hutchinson 1959 and is titled. "Interrelations of food chains."

Among ecologists, the question of why there are so many species of animals can be answered by looking at the way food webs function. Food webs consist of many levels and often a level will contain more than one species. If one of those species becomes scarce, a predator will have an alternate food source and, therefore, the extinction of any of the species will be prevented. As a result, a community with greater species diversity will be more stable and will also outlast a less diversified community.

Regardless of stability, community food web structure will evolve. A more efficient species will replace one which is less efficient. If a new species is introduced it may completely replace a pre-existing species or it may share that level of the food web. A new species may also fill in an area of the food web that was not previously occupied. These possibilities of change within a community can work to increase stability. However, there seems to be a point at which further diversification levels off and the opportunities for new species to invade become rarer. The unanswered question that remains is what causes this leveling off and why are there not more different kinds of animals?

Where were you?

In 2001, I was 21 years old and working as a bartender. I worked late nights, sometimes until 4am, and it was pretty normal for a bunch of us to go grab breakfast after work and for me to not get in bed until 6 or 7. Needless to say I did not get up very early. There were times I slept until it was time to go back to work and do it all over.

September 11^th of that year was no different. After sleeping most of the day away, I got up, got ready for work and hopped in the car. At the time my drive to work was only about 5 minutes, enough to make it through one song on the radio. It was right after a song had ended that the DJ got on air for a few seconds and made a comment about it being a sad day in American history. I had no idea what he was talking about and assumed someone famous had passed away. Another song came on and I pulled up to work.

I noticed that there were not very many cars in the parking lot, but did not think too much about it. I walked in to see one person sitting at the bar and my boss standing by him watching the tv. I STILL did not have a clue what was going on and it was not until I had spent a few minutes putting my things away and getting ready for my shift that I finally stopped to see what they were watching. Then I saw it. Over and over and over for the rest of the night. I cannot really recall my exact reaction that night and I am not sure that I had much of one. Like most people I was just shocked. There was that small amount of fear that something else terrible would happen and that it was not over, but I also knew that I was witnessing history happening. My grandparents and parents experienced things like World War II and Vietnam that I had learned about in history class. I knew that this was going to be the big event of my lifetime that my kids and grandkids will be learning about.

As the news coverage began a few days ago my boyfriend looked at me and said, “Has it really been 10 years?”  I completely understood how he felt because it does not seem like it has been that long. I think the biggest reason for that is the visual reminder on the anniversary each year that is broadcast for days on every channel.  Those images always stay fresh on our minds despite them falling farther and farther into the past. And today, as we sit on the 10^th anniversary, those images will once again become fresh and remind us of how lucky we are to be seeing them.

It's county fair time!!!

As often as possible I like to head out to the Farmer's Market at the fairgrounds on Saturday mornings. I take my little one and push around his stroller while looking for the best deal on okra. This morning was no different, except I did not realize until I arrived that the county fair was in full swing. Since I was not in a hurry I decided it would be a good time for Derek to have his first fair experience, especially since this fair is free, small and fairly absent of the wierdos that are abundant at the big fair in the city.

After making sure I got my okra, we wandered into the farm building to take a look at the animals. The first thing we came across was the roosters, lined up in little cages, extending over several isles of tables. My initial thought, as it always is, was how sad it is to see them like that. It really is sad, but I try to think the best which is that their owners have them on open land and that this is just a temporary situation. That may or may not be the case. However, I only had a few seconds to feel sorry for the roosters before I was overcome by pure entertainment. My son was yelling back at the roosters crowing and it was the cutest thing. As we made our way through the rest of the building he showed the same enthusiasm for the cows, goats, and other miscellaneous critters we saw and I only wished that it was not so crowded so he could have gotten a closer look.

Hopefully as Derek gets older he will have opportunities to see animals in their wild habitat and not grow up thinking it is normal for them to be kept in cages. I will do my best to make sure that happens. In the meantime, I think I am ok seeing the roosters behind bars because they scare me a little bit!!!