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Somehow, I had arranged the semester to be fairly light allowing me to work on my research. I was only signed up for one class, the work of which parallelled the work I have to do for my degree, namely write up a dissertation project proposal. On top of that, I was slated to teach one lab section, so overall my class and teaching load would be light. Funny how things actually work out. I am taking 3 classes, though one not for credit, and teaching two sections of lab. 314 lab isn’t really that bad, it’s all computer-based, but the extra time committment and grading will be a minor annoyance. The bioinformatics class will be fast-paced and full of work, but I should come out of it with the basic tools to analyze gene expression and sequencing data that will surely be a part of my dissertation. And Quantitative Genetics is just something that I need a firm background in since we are primarily a quantitative genetics lab. So all of that, topped with a research proposal and a manuscript of the selection data I presneted last week, and I’ve got a busy semester ahead of me.
So much for having a breather.
I’ve been in graduate school now for a year and a half, and I have yet to reveal just what it is I’m working on. Almost immediately coming in, I took over a project originally designed and run by Mary Oswald, the previous doctoral student who had graduated over the summer and left the lab officially at the end of my first semester. The project, in essence, is a selection experiment to analyze the genetic component of boldness, a trait often associated with the evolutionary process of domestication. Our model organism is the Zebrafish, Danio rerio. The back story is that in the wild, Zebrafish, like most organisms, are [read more...]
Holy crap it’s Thanksgiving already! Well I’ve been thinking about what to make this post about. There are several great options: The real story of thanksgiving and how it became what we perceive it to be today, the start of the commercial materialism season, the nature of human behavior, and so on. But I think rather than the normal cynical post about our need to celebrate lies and propaganda, I’ll just fill you in with a brief update of what I’ve been up to.
For starters, it’s been a busy semester. The past month, I’ve been breeding the 3rd generation of selection fish with mixed success. Several families have [read more...]
Since I started using Flickr to show of my photography to the world, I’ve neglected my own self-hosted galleries here at Mineral2.com. I’m considering doing away with the Gallery software altogether and maybe swapping it out for a simpler interface for displaying a portfolio.
At any rate, Flickr has been a much better interface for me because in addition to being a photo hosting site, it’s also a social network and that allows me to get greater exposure into the world. One of the things Flickr does is rate your photos according to “interestingness.” I’m not exactly sure what that entails, but its some magic formula combining the number [read more...]
Looking back (south) on Grandfather Mountain
I’ve been very busy with graduate school, and that has put hiking and exploring on hold, but that also has me itching to get out, especially as my days of decent hiking weather grow shorter and shorter. I’ve been trying to get up to Sandpoint to get in one last snow-free summit for the season, but time just hasn’t been on my side. So this weekend, I headed up to Grandfather Mountain with Erin for what might be our last chance [read more...]
Tonight I had a great surprise and learned a valuable lesson as to why it’s somtimes good to stay up late, even on a school night.
I got the word of an aurora event tonight around 11:30 local time, and this was from people on the east coast. So I thought to myself: I wonder if I can see it here. I went outside and didn’t see any dazzling lights dancing in the sky, so I came back in thinking that either I missed it or I was just in [read more...]
Taking a break from the usual trips into the mountains, I went to Florida last weekend to celebrate the marriage of one of my good buddies. The wedding was in Pensacola Beach, with the actual ceremony on the beach outside of town.
I’ve been to Florida before, but not the Gulf coast, and especially not the panhandle, and so when I got there, I was quite surprised at just how built up it was. When I think of Florida, it’s [read more...]
The West Fork Wallowa River Valley from the Lakes Basin Trail
A year ago this weekend, I set foot in Oregon for the first time and explored one of its most beautiful and least advertised mountain ranges. Last year, we only got a preview of the Eagle Cap Wilderness in the Wallowa Mountains, only able to stay one night. So this year, I arranged the backpacking trip for Labor Day Weekend, which let us spend 3 nights in the wild and [read more...]
Last night, we had the storm of storms come across the Palouse. It was a quick, but powerful cell the big lightning strikes every few seconds that produced enough power to disrupt phone service (land line) each time a bolt struck the ground. Luckily, we had no major power surges and all of the electronics in the house work just fine. But the ligntning and thunder show was both awesome and a bit frightening. I stood outside with the camera as the storm approached, [read more...]
Escaping the Heat at over 6000 feet. This view is from Crater Peak. Below is Crater Lake and Lookout Mountain is the rocky peak in the distance.
While the east coast has contended with an earthquake and a hurricane, we have been enduring our summer heat wave, temperatures in excess of 90 degrees. It rarely gets to 95 out here, but when it does, it’s brutal. Of course, when it’s in the mid-90′s up on the Palouse, it’s over 100 down in Lewiston. Currently, our weather [read more...]
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