Amigos.

Since everyone here was so helpful during my application process, I thought I would turn to you again for help in the beginnings of the process for my partner. He is a field research biologist and wants to go back to school in the next few years, but there are so many catch phrases out there with regards to what he wants to study that he could use a little direction. Any recommendations for programs, reference materials or general application processes would be so helpful.

Here is his background: Undergrad in Envionmental Biology, during which he did an internship studying birds and aquatic plantlife with the NY State Dept. of Environmental Conservation. Graduated, did another research internship with Channel Islands National Park, studying a particular bird's reproductive success in order to develop a habitat restoration plan. Will be a second author on a paper forthcoming on that research. Then got a job doing similar monitoring in a NY State Forest, on another bird. He knows he wants to continue his career path in FIELD research with a focus on habitat restoration for threatened or endangered species, birds, mammals or amphibians. (Thought most of his work has been with birds, he doesn'y neccessarily want to keep it that way.)

Now that we're moving so I can start graduate school, he is looking to begin that process as well. He wants to focus his search in Iowa (where we will be) but isn't tied down to that, neccessarily. His main concerns are: What should my graudate "major" be? Am I a better fit for ecology, conservation biology, natural resource management, etc. Also, how specific should my research interests be? There are some schools that seem to want an outline for a specific research project, and others just want general research interests (which is certainly more where he is right now).

Overall, advice from anyone who has gone through the process in this field would be great. We need a starting point from which to jump!

This is my second month of using Nuvaring. The first month I had the constant bleeding going on, so this is the first month I should have the regular cycle.

I removed the ring at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday morning. It's currently 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning and there's no sign of my period at all. No spotting, no light bleeding.

I'm starting to get pretty damn worried. I have a doctor's appointment today so I plan to bring it up and see if they give me a pregnancy test. But, do you guys think I'm right in worrying? When do you guys get your periods in your off week?

I haven't been using condoms in addition to Nuvaring, but after this worrying I plan to. >_< Maybe not on birthdays and such, but I think I'd feel safer using them the majority of the time.

Current Mood:

worried

On Sunday, my hike to Point Reyes last weekend left me sore in the neck, back, and shoulder area, but managed to keep my knees in tact. It looked like the compresses, arnica, advil, and the icings were working fine until today. I ran on the track as usual, with some mild aching in the knee area, but I seemed to maintain a decent pace. Around mile three, I leaped into the track stands to grab my water bottle and missed the plank by about a half an inch causing my body to flail over and hit the bench with my shin. I found a welt on my leg, but I kept on going due to my roommates relating of some 14 year-old girl persevering through some Crossfit Contest in Aromas. I applied ice on the battered leg when I got home. It still throbs and has a nice purple shade to it.

Bruises: 2
Liat: 0

At least my shoulders and back feel better?

For as much as I think the place is lead by a cult leader, I've got to say, that 10 day Vipassana retreat is something that I am grateful for. Its been well over a year at this point, but in trying tonight I was still able to go right into body scan. I noticed that I have a huge blockage spot over my heart and chest. It used to be in my shoulders. I think I've worked through the shoulders and that this is the layer underneath.

I have a sense of narrowing in. I really can get through this blockage. I am relaxing as I make that choice again and again, dissolving the callous.

I've been on Nuvaring for about 1.5 years. This is my off week, and I'm supposed to put another ring in on Sunday, but I've been having some major insurance snafus so it doesn't appear that I will have my ring in time. I will probably have it in two weeks - about 1.5 weeks after I'm supposed to.

SO, a few questions.

1. Should I put it in as soon as I get it, or should I go a whole month without it and put it in when I get my period next? (Who knows when that would be, I've never been regular off BC)

2. Will this really, really mess me up? I'm kind of scared as to what my body will do if I go off hormones for a while, especially if I then go back on in a couple weeks.

3. Any other advice?

Thanks in advance.

( SOP under here )

Current Mood:	tired
Current Music:	Ayumi Hamasaki- Step you

So, after that, it was exciting to retake this test and be told that I'm about average in my level of emotional stability. I can definitely feel the change when I think about it. Other factors have also changed. I don't think I was agreeable back in 2003.

Looks like according to these guys I'm:

Extrovert/Introvert -- borderline
Agreeable -- yes
Conscienscious -- yes
Neuroticism -- borderline (!)
Openness -- yes

( more detailed test results )

karohemd

( t-shirt design )

The web is truly changing everything. Now even the culture-jammers have e-stores. (Of course Bansky's is really a mimicry of one and English's toys could never be sold in a Happy Meal). Still, for the others out there who are now taking their street art off the street and selling it to the public for consumption, one must wonder: will they continue to sell their products once they become famous or be forced to jam their own art in a violent fit of irony?

_M

Starting at the end of last month I began teaching that academic summer camp class on Food and Culture that I posted the syllabus for some months ago. The first day was rather nightmarish as I discovered how poorly I work without a detailed script. The second two days were better because I wrote up lectures beforehand and began showing them movies for large chunks of time.

I started off with 12 students: 2 from Spain, 3 from Italy, and from what I can tell the rest are basically JAPs from New York and New Jersey. One dropped the second day, three dropped as off today, and one more will be leaving as of next week. A few of these are leaving the program because they aren't having fun. Kids, you might have signed up to spend the summer in Southern California, but you still signed up to go to school. Of the seven that will remain, four are international students and that suits me fine because they seem to be the ones most interested in the material, or at least improving their English.

As first teaching jobs goes, this one has been really rough and every week or so I seem to need my friend John, who taught for the same program last year, to tell me that my feelings about this gig should not be extrapolated to my feelings about teaching in general. Because I'm having a serious crisis of faith, here. Strikes against me:

1) I was given no training or guidelines regarding expectations either for myself or the students.
2) The students think they are on vacation, not in school; they want to be entertained, not educated and I have no disciplinary mechanism through which I can make them act otherwise (they just drop the program).
3) I have no idea if they even get grades.
3 a) Even if they do get grades, what on earth are the stakes of getting a C in summer camp??
4) I'm teaching for the first time, for material I've never taught before, from a syllabus I created when I was working on my own final projects.

At the same time, I am assisting the chair of my department in a research project, preparing to attend a UC-wide science and technology studies workshop in the Marin headlands (Wed-Fri this week), and preparing my presentation for the Comic Arts Conference (aka the academic nook in Comic-Con). Great stuff, but time consuming.

And this past weekend I went to LA with two couples I"m friends with, one of which is leaving town in a couple weeks to move back east to start a professorship at Tufts/continue med school. Up there, I also got to see two friends I hadn't seen in about 5 years: my friend Keith from the Berkeley dorms and Ben, one of my favoritest people from middle/high school. Friends leave, friends return.

So, yeah, I've been busy. And tired. I would very like to watch some movies and cuddle, please.

These sorts of things simply shouldn't be easy. And it makes me want to ram a pitchfork into your chest when you say it. But, then again, i'm violent.

I was searching for some info online about this thing my friends has.
I'm not a doctor and I came across this website that so much doctor talk and I didnt understand anything.
I turned to my favorite website on the net (cause I'm a huge makeup freak and they have tons of makeup related videos), and searched for it there and like I thought - I found more info, and this time I understood it!
I thought this website can interest you as well, as it has great info regarding women's health and the best things is that everything is on video and you dont have to read articles from which you understand nothing!
http://www.sutree.com/videos/Womens_Health/12398
Hope you find this website useful, as I do ! :)

Current Mood:

bored

I had to decide if he would lay there with me for the rest of the night and greet me with morning kisses while my sister made pancakes downstairs or go home while I lay comfortably in the bed I had borrowed. I had gotten used to the idea of sleeping alone and I didn't want to make our union more meaningful despite the fireworks, the hand-holding on the Suzuki, and the near-perfection of our first and only date.

So, off he went like a prowler in the night, cruising on a bike down the mountains. There would be no Facebook stalking as he had never owned a computer. There would probably be a small chance I would return to my sister's home later this summer and see him again, but I was doubtful. There was attachment, but more of the sinking kind, like a cool summer dip in the swimming pool where you know it has to end sometime.

Sober mind.