No fitting title

A couple of hours ago my husband and I heard our baby's heartbeat for the first time! It was so, so incredibly cool. Wow.

Otherwise the doctor visit went well. I am not at high risk for anything. I am healthy. I've actually lost 5lb since my last visit at the beginning of November. I didn't have to have a pap, just a little bit of blood taken to test my thyroid. All is well.

Thanks!

Thanks for all of your congratulations! I'm excited about having a baby, but sometimes it's really hard to be happy and excited *at the moment*. Like when I'm sick or sleepy at 7pm, or when I can't cook anything because it makes me nauseous, or when I think about how different things are going to be! Silly. I've got a doctor's appointment tomorrow, so I'll let you know how that goes.

I've decided that studying for comps will take precedence over counting pollen. Why? So I can get the darn test over with as soon as possible! Late January, probably. Which will be better than February because I think one of my committee members is going to be gone most of February. So, with a couple exceptions I will be reading constantly for the next month. I'm almost certain to fry my brain. But then, it'll be done!

I'd better start... I'll probably need a new eyeglasses prescription when this is done too!

Finally posting again

Yes, finally. After a loooong time. Sorry. I am finally done for this semester. This morning I had a 7am final. Actually, it was either 7, 7:30 or 8. I got there at 7:30. I was throwing up at 7.

Why was I throwing up? Well, I will tell you all now that I am pregnant. I got pregnant in October. Baby is due sometime around July 6. I don't know about any of you who have been pregnant in school, but the first trimester is killing me! I've been sick since week six. And I'm so sleepy! Sheesh. Somehow I managed to complete the semester. I'm so glad.

During break, we are going to visit D's dad and family for Christmas. We're leaving Christmas day again (we did this last year). It's fun though. I'm looking forward to Chicago. Then, just after New Years we are going down to Jackson for some more of my thesis research. This time we're going to hang out at the Historical Society in downtown Jackson for 3+ days. I'm looking for old photographs of any areas around the lakes I cored. I want documentation of land-use changes since settlement. At the Historical Society there are also documents and papers, journals, etc. So we've got our work cut out for us, but at the same time we get to hang out in beautiful Jackson in January, and we got a hotel for really cheap!

Then it's back to school. Over break I am also studying for my comprehensive exam, which will be sometime in Feb I think. My topics are: paleoecology, Quaternary history of the greater Yellowstone area, and settlement of the West and specifically Jackson Hole. I have to get on that settlement stuff, because I know nothing about it. I have a couple books already, and I have a list of papers that I have to get from the library. That's next Monday's project. Also over break I have to start counting pollen. I can't decide which is most important - studying or counting. I don't think I'll fail my comps, but I have to learn this settlement stuff and review everything else or I might do so bad they can't help but fail me. However, getting everything done is going to be a problem. I have to decide on a priority, and I haven't yet.

Everyone, enjoy your break (if you get one)! And do take a little bit of time off to appreciate the fact that you are alive. Happy holidays.

I made an age-depth model

Yes, this morning I sat down and made an age-depth model for the one core that I have fully dated. I did get those radiocarbon dates which I was waiting for to see how old my records are, and now I'm waiting on some 210 Pb dates from the tops of the other two cores. When you have both 14C and 210Pb dates from a site, you can put them together and make a pretty graph. So that's what I did. Here is that nice graph:
Isn't it pretty? I fit a 3rd order polynomial to the data (black line) which is the actual "model". Now I use that to make my charcoal data into a time-series. Then I can start doing all kinds of fun statistics on it. I am looking forward to getting my other lakes age-depth models worked out because one big thing I want to look at is possible correllations between lakes.

Shot day

Today was flu shot day. My husband and I both got them this year. I can't even remember the last time I had a flu shot. It must have been years and years ago.

Today was also nap-at-work day. Whew! I was so exhausted that I fell asleep in my chair for about 20 minutes. Then when I woke up I was all out-of-it. Needless to say, I haven't gotten much done today other than that flu shot.

I did grade tests, and I'm about to go get some dirt out of the oven and then go to class. I'm still way tired and just sluggish. I'm so glad the semester is almost over!

Well, well

Another week. I can hardly believe that Thanksgiving is next week! My husband and I are leaving on Wednesday for his mom's house. We're coming back the following Monday. Should be a nice vacation - if I could be assured of not being airsick.

The week after Thanksgiving I have a committee meeting that I have to prep for, and I have another presentation that week too. Ugh. At least the semester is almost over. I'm just looking forward to the break from classes. Yes, I have to work a lot over Christmas break, but at least I don't have to go to class at certain times. I'm getting really tired of that.

I have to go use the printer now to print some papers I need to read for class tomorrow. I completely forgot all weekend, and yesterday, so now I have to catch up. Yay. My brain is addled.

Long weekend!

I didn't realize until yesterday that tomorrow is Veteran's Day and that means no classes! No statistics tomorrow, yay! A long weekend will be nice. I don't know what we're going to do, but we'll do something.

I feel like I'm plodding along so slowly in my research. Now I'm supposed to finish by the end of June, and that doesn't seem plausible to me. I still have to count all the pollen samples, and then I have to do a whole bunch of data analysis, and write my actual thesis. I feel like maybe I could finish by then if I worked non-stop. But I can't do that. If I did I would just go crazy. Plus I still have to take classes next semester. Aargh! I'm a little worried about this. And I STILL have to go back to Jackson one more time to look at photographs. I don't even know how I'm going to work the photograph thing into my thesis. Yes, this week I'm supposedly "powering" through another round of thesis questions - so that I really can start writing my intro and methods and that preliminary stuff. I'm kind of stuck though. I guess I just have to sit down and think for a while - something I haven't had time for.

On a completely random side note, the strangest things can cheer me up. Just now, I was thinking about the above paragraph and looking at my desk when I realized that I still have these two fake rocks that are models of rocks on Mars. They're fake because they're not really from Mars and they're man-made. But they're pretty cool! That just made me a little bit happier.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone! Relax a little...

To do this week

I had a meeting with my advisor this morning to talk about the dates and the next step in my project. So now I have a list of stuff to get done by next Monday. It's kind of nice to have research meetings on Monday. Here it is:

• rewrite questions in proposal - to get ready to start writing actual thesis
• "play around" with 14C and 210Pb dates from one core and see if they can be correllated
• figure out a temporally equal sampling interval for pollen in all three lakes.
  

This stuff won't take me too long. Except maybe "playing around" with the dates. That one's a little weird. This week I have a lot on my plate though. I also have:

• doctor's appointment Tuesday
• car appointment Thursday
• haircut (!) Tuesday
• read for veg history by Wednesday AM
• statistics test in less than 1 hour

At least the test will be over 2 hours from now. Whew!

14C

I finally got my radiocarbon dates! Now I have to make sense of them. This can be a little tricky. My biggest problem? Two dates from the same centimeter (one bulk sediment and one macrofossil) came back different. Very different. Not even close to being within one standard deviation. This is the biggest problem. The others I can probably work out.

I feel extra busy right now. I need to really get cracking on my presentation for veg history. I'm giving it on the Wednesday after Thanksgiving. I'm also setting up a committee meeting, which I think I'm going to have the Friday before Thanksgiving. Now I have to get cracking on my thesis again. I guess I feel like I haven't been working on it much, because I haven't been writing or anything. Now I can actually start writing something, and be writing as I count pollen. Processing starts next week hopefully!

Now I have to eat my banana.

AM pollen

This morning I decided I'd better get my pollen samples ready for processing, since I need to finish up my thesis next summer. In order to do this I needed an actual physical accounting for each sample that I have. So, I went down to the refrigerator in the basement to grab my sample box. I had to transfer everything to a larger box, since I had some extra that wouldn't fit. While doing this, I spilled everything on the floor! Ugh. It only took me a few minutes to pick everything up. Sheesh.

I got to my desk and started an Excel spreadsheet for all the samples. It took quite a while to write in all the numbers, since I have hundreds of pollen samples. Once that was finished I got to choose which ones I will process. I chose every 7th for each core for the low resolution record. I haven't chosen a higher resolution portion yet, so I can't pick those samples yet. Total processing amounts to 61 samples for the low resolution record. Not bad. I don't know the time-resolution that the pollen will be yet; I'm still waiting for radiocarbon dates. Now I need to start processing and then start counting! It'll take a little bit to get used to counting pollen, but I learn that sort of thing quickly, and I don't see it taking too long. That's the last thing before real data analysis! Oh, plus the January trip down to Jackson to look at historical photographs. I'm looking forward to that too.

My advisor wants me to help the new grad student in our lab write her proposals. She needs to write one for the department, and for Yellowstone NP, and she's applying for the NSF graduate fellowship (which I did last year, to no avail). Apparently my advisor thinks I write much better than the girl does, and she wants me to "coach" her. I don't really know about my coaching abilities in writing. I've never actually tried to help someone write a long paper before. I've edited or put my comments on a few longer papers, but I'm not really sure how to coach someone! I'm not even sure how I learned to write well!

I do remember the first time I tried to write a scientific paper. It was the end of my sophomore year in college, and I was taking a very awesome field geology course. We had to map a different area every few weeks, and then analyze the maps and come up with a geologic history of the area and present it in a scientific paper. It was one of the best classes I took. I remember getting that first paper back with a very bad grade, and hence learning what NOT to do in a scientific paper. I guess since then it has gotten easier.

Nothing to write about

I'm trying to come up with something, but it looks like I won't make it.

I've got to count some charcoal this weekend. And make sure the rest of the data I've already collected is in order. Next week I have to really start scheduling a committee meeting. And several other things I've been putting off. I should have radiocarbon dates in a week.

Last weekend my friend Marianne and I made pumpkin pies. We made them from pie pumpkins, which is really fun! You just boil the pumpkin until it's soft and scoop it out of the skin with a spoon. Then blend it until smooth and use like you would canned pumpkin. Makes really yummy pies. We made 5, which took all afternoon.

Yet another new template

I just changed the colors this time. I couldn't even stand looking at all that purple! I hope this is more aesthetically pleasing. If you missed the purple, you're probably better off.

Veg history answer

Like I mentioned before, here is a post of an answer for my vegetation history class.  The question: Does history matter?  In other words, do we need to know about events in the past to understand the present?
     History matters.  We do need to know about events in the past to understand the present, but even more, we need to understand the past to understand the present, and the future.  Understanding sequences of events that shaped the past or variables that interacted to cause events in the past will help us better understand the present.  
     The diversity of the Amazon rainforest is a pertinent question that involves the understanding of history.  If we can understand what caused the Amazon to become so diverse, then we understand the present condition better and can possibly plan for the future.  Adams and Woodward (1989) assert that diversity is controlled by modern-day net primary productivity.  However, they state in their introduction that, “ differences in species richness between three northern temperate regions, Europe, eastern North America and eastern Asia, can be mainly explained in terms of present-day climate factors … without the need to invoke the historical explanation.”     They conclude that history does not matter, because strikingly similar patterns in the productivity-richness pattern occur on various continents, separated by vast oceans.  Therefore whatever happened in these various places in the past certainly did not make any difference in what we see there now.
     McGlone (1996) has another argument.  He argues that, “A close relationship between climate and species richness is observable only at regional scales and results mainly from the influence of glacial-interglacial climatic cycles in determining the regional species pool.”  In other words, McGlone refutes Adams and Woodward’s hypothesis by saying that it is important what plants existed on each continent in the past, and what happened to those plants as climate changed.  McGlone argues that both the plants you start out with and the type of climatic changes they have to deal with all help to give us our modern-day assemblages.  He also reminds us that, “Ecological and biogeographical processes work continuously through time, and the current situation must reflect past ecologies.”
     Another author who advocates for the past is Retallack (2001).  In his paper, Retallack poses a lofty argument that Cenozoic climate change was driven by the expansion of the grasslands and the co-evolution of grasslands and grazers.  Throughout his paper, Retallack argues that grasslands have the ability to control global climate by being carbon sinks, fertilizers, dehumidifiers, and fire starters.  Besides his point that grasslands are important to climate change, Retallack reinforces the argument that understanding history is important for understanding the present.  An underlying point of his paper is that we need to understand what caused the Cenozoic global cooling that lead to the recent ice ages in order to understand our present situation, and what might happen in the future.  
     Leopold and Denton (1987) use grassland development to make a strong argument that history is important.  They study the development of grasslands in western North America, and the differences between the Great Plains, Rocky Mountains and Columbia Plateaus grasslands through time.  They state that, “The biogeographic, physical, and climatic contrasts of these regions imply that their historical development must have been very different.”  In comparing the evolution of grasslands over the western U.S., they found stark differences between the three regions over time.  Their conclusion: the regions had to have something different happen to them in the past, and that past affected what we see in those areas today.  
     Lastly, Whitlock and Bartlein (1993) show that history matters in the paleoecologic record of the northern Rocky Mountains.  They conclude that vegetation and climate changes in the northern Rockies during the Holocene were due, at least in part, to changes in summer insolation.  Knowing things like this about the past can help us understand why conditions are as they are today.  

New template

I've finally finished a new template. PLEASE let me know if you think it is the ugliest thing you've ever seen, and if it will make you stop reading my blog. Purple isn't my favorite color, but I wanted a cool-colored blog. Something relaxing. But if purple will cause me to lose readers, then I'll change it. :)

I've been combating the sleepy bug today. It seems to happen especially on Friday afternoons. I have statistics class at 1, in a warm room, right after lunch. That always makes me sleepy, and it seems I can't shake it on Fridays. I had some LOI analysis to finish (crucibles to take out of the oven) after class today, and that seemed to wake me up a bit. I was seriously considering going home at about 3 and napping, but I'm still here. I'm hanging on as long as I can today. I think I will go to the physics colloquium at 4. It's a nice change of scenery. Today's talk is, "The Compact Light Source: A Miniature Synchrotron Light Source for the Homelab". Maybe I won't go.

In the interest of something scientific, my next post will probably be from one of the questions we had to answer in my veg history class. I'm finishing them up for Monday, and some are interesting questions. We're learning about ecology, but I"m sure you ecologists out there know way more than I ever will. Maybe it'll encourage thinking. Next time...

The Salt Lake story

I've been back from GSA for a day now, and I finally have time to write. Sciencewoman asked what my favorite talks were, and how the conference went in general. So here is the story:

The conference started Sunday morning, with the student breakfast at 7. We got to SLC on Saturday afternoon, so we had a bit of time to relax, which was very nice! Sunday noon I had a meeting - and I got a free lunch out of it! Sunday afternoon I looked at the paleontology posters, and I met a couple grad students in paleobotany. They were all very nice. Later Sunday afternoon my husband and I actually got together with one of my friends from high school, who is at BYU. That was fun. We walked around the city and looked at the Temple, and then ate some really, really good indian food. Mmmmm.

Monday morning I saw some paleontology talks. My favorite was "Comparison of museum and published relative abundances reveals a consistent publication bias" by Edward Davis. But other talks were also really cool, like Dan Peppe's "Magnetostratigraphy and megaflora of the lower Paleocene Fort Union Formation along the southwestern margin of the Williston Basin, North Dakota".

Monday for lunch my husband and I went to this quaint little tearoom and had sandwiches and tea. That's where I realized my email problem, and wrote my last blog entry. Later that afternoon I went to some talks in the "Causes and effects of the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum and other Paleogene hyperthermal events" session. I think my favorite from that session was Victoriano Pujalte's "Abrupt climatic and sea level changes across the Paleocene-Eocene boundary, as recorded in an ancient coastal plain setting (Pyrenees, Spain)". But all the talks were great. After that session I had another meeting, and then the grad students that I met on Sunday afternoon invited me to dinner with them. We had empanadas, which were yummy and cheap. Monday night there were alumni receptions, and my husband and I went to the "Rio Grande Rift" reception (it was all NM schools plus UTEP) and saw some people we haven't seen in a while.

Tuesday morning I went to more paleontology posters and talked with Lael Vetter (Spider) about her "The Gilcrease Ranch mammoth site, Las Vegas Valley". I had yet another meeting that morning, and another at 1. We left SLC at about 2 that afternoon.

I didn't go to talks the whole time, but the ones I saw were really interesting. I also really enjoyed talking with the people presenting posters, and meeting new grad students doing what I want to do. It was good all around, I think.

Now that I'm back I have to get my butt in gear! I have a 10 page paper and presentation to write by Thanksgiving, I have stats homework, and I have to get my committee figured out! I'm still waiting for radiocarbon dates so that I can figure out my committee and re-write my proposal. I'm not worried about the writing, that will go quickly. I am getting a little antsy about my committee, since I need to have a meeting this semester and schedule comps for late January or early February. Argh!

In the midst of silliness

I'm in the middle of GSA in Salt Lake City. Very exciting. Geologists EVERYWHERE! I came here to meet people doing what I want to do, and so far I have had one success.

I am one of the few left without a cell phone. So I told the people that I wanted to meet with that I would be checking my email often. I have been checking it fairly often, several times a day, but I seemed to not be getting anything! The webmail I am using from my university has recently been changed, so I was trying to use the new system. And just a few minutes ago I realized that I wasn't seeing new emails because for some reason, I wasn't sorting by date... *sigh* I had a couple of emails from the people I wanted to meet with, all suggesting times or places. One was this morning, which I completely missed because of my email faux pas. Oops.

Hopefully, all will work out well. Yesterday was really productive actually. My meeting went very well, and I *maybe* found some potential projects (PhD or just work, either is good). I have seen some great talks and met some really cool people doing cool things. I'm just a bit angry with myself for being such a dork. And, it is very difficult for me to just walk up to people and introduce myself, especially when they're talking to other people. I haven't got that level of self-confidence I guess. I'm learning to be more assertive though. It just takes some time.

Anonymous thoughts

BotanicalGirl has recently written a very thought-provoking post about anonymous blogging, and what or what not to write. This got me thinking a lot (as I'm sure it got most people thinking) about my own blog and how anonymous I am.

I've thought about this a little before. I changed my "name" to just K (before it was my first name). I don't have much in the way of a profile. I have made my geographical location clear in previous posts, and my university. I have talked about my department a couple of times, nothing very specific. I have talked a little about my research, but not in any great detail either. This is different for me than BotanicalGirl, because I'm not afraid of getting scooped, I just think it would bore all my potential readers to death! I try not to complain about specific things, such as university policies, my advisor, department, labmates, etc. Because I don't want them to find my blog and potentially read what I think about them, of course. So I try to keep that to a minimum. Except that I have expressed the fact that I don't particularly love my research and I'm looking for something new. But my advisor knows that already anyway.

Very few people I know personally read my blog. I think my husband reads occasionally, and my mom reads maybe once a month. My *constant* reader is my father-in-law (hi dad!). I really love the fact that he reads my blog on a regular basis. I love it because I know at least someone will read what I write (and that's always a good feeling). But I also love it because I feel that by reading whatever I write, he is getting to know me a little better, and with that I feel closer to him. We get along well already(which is fairly lucky I think), but we don't get to talk much, so this is a way of keeping mentally in-touch.

Sometimes I would like to post more about my research (when it is interesting), but I do feel like it is boring to the average reader. A few readers of BotanicalGirl's blog commented that they enjoy her more personal posts. I enjoy them too! I feel that we're all sort of getting to know one another in the blog-world, however anonymously. And it is always soooo nice to find out that someone else is going through similar things in their life. Whether you read about it on someone else's blog, or post something personal yourself and get comments, you're pretty much assured that someone out there can empathize. I love that about blogging. It's almost like group therapy. I know that sounds totally corny!

Getting things together

I spent this morning getting ready for my trip to Salt Lake city, where I'm going for the Geological Society of America conference. I'm not presenting a poster or giving a talk - I'm going to meet some people doing what I really want to do. I want to get to know more people in the paleobotanical field, maybe to find some PhD research or just other research in general. I'm really looking forward to this.

The weather should be nice for the trip too. My husband is driving down with me. It should be a nice break from school here, for a couple days.

Hooray!

More time-wasting quizzes! What else is the internet good for?
.

You Should Get a PhD in Science (like chemistry, math, or engineering)

You're both smart and innovative when it comes to ideas. Maybe you'll find a cure for cancer - or develop the latest underground drug.

What Advanced Degree Should You Get?

I just did something extraordinary

For me that is.

I was having a misunderstanding with my advisor. And what I did was clear it up right away. I told her exactly what I meant and what I was thinking. The whole story is too complicated for me to write right now, but the point is that I did something I haven't done before. I didn't let this thing stew in my mind, I just made myself clear. That was so nice. Now I don't have to be annoyed or angry or anything. Whew!

This weekend - two field trips to Yellowstone. Saturday it's for the Yellowstone class (that I'm TAing), and Sunday it's for the Veg History class I'm in. On Sunday Danny's going with, which I'm super glad about. And I rigged it so we don't have to core (which we've done enough times, thank you very much), but we're going to hike up on the hills above the lake they're coring and take pictures! Heheh.