The semester is almost over.

This has been the hardest semester so far, no contest. Organic chemistry is not easy. I have done well, with an exam average of 93.5, but it hasn't come easily and I've spent a lot of time reading and re-reading the textbook, doing practice problems, attending reviews and taking practice exams. I am not sure how I have done in the lab portion of the class. For the most part, I've gotten decent grades on my lab reports; however, I have failed at least two lab quizzes (with 1 out of 3 possible points). My TA does not hand out perfect grades - he claims that it is nearly impossible to get a perfect grade, and so he just doesn't assign them. At the end of the semester, all of the lab grades will be scaled in case one TA is easier than another. I believe that my lab grade will be scaled up. The lab is worth 1/4 of my grade. Two midterm exams make up 50% of my grade. The final is worth 25%.

I have done extremely well in my Ecology and Evolution class. I am pretty confident that I will end the semester with an A.

A couple of weeks ago, my Eco & Evo professor gave an interesting lecture on creationism. He recorded it, so I will try to get a copy of the video to post.

On Tuesday, I signed up for classes for the spring semester. I'll be taking the second half of organic chemistry and a course called Earth, Life and Environment Throughout Time through the geology department. We have a weekend trip to NYC to visit the AMNH. I think I'm going to like that class!

Sometimes, my job is highly entertaining...

We received this email in regard to a manuscript we published last year about the correlation between teen pregnancy and sex on television:

Help my friends!

This summer, my friends JP and Meghan took off for Thailand and India. Meghan is working on her thesis there and both of them have found themselves fighting hard for a small colony of folks in Nellore, India. The colony is the Seva Jyothi Leprosy colony; the folks that live there have been provided with a small amount of land and cement houses, but are extremely poor and have to beg for their food. They do not have the resources to grow their own food. Their children are often orphaned or too poor to attend school.

Meghan and JP are project coordinators for the Seva Life Project - they are trying to raise $3500 to fund "The Garden Project," which will help develop the land for agriculture and be the first step in making the Seva Jyothi colony a sustainable, self-sufficient community.

Any amount that you can donate - even just a couple of dollars - will help! Instead of having a latte this week, send three dollars to the Seva Life Project. If a hundred people did that - they'd have an additional $300 to put towards their project!

Click here to go to the Seva Life Project webpage. Read more about it and donate what you can!

Danielle

This is my new roomate, Danielle. She was nice enough to let me take some pictures of her on Sunday.

I haven't been photographing much of anything lately and on Sunday, I just had to get out and do some shooting. It was beautiful out and I'd spent the whole day inside with my nose in a book or in front of a computer screen.

October love....

Good times at the SDS household. And by "good times" I mean "no time to have a bad time."

This semester has been SO trying. I am busier than I've ever been - taking two 4-credit classes and working. Go in to work at 7:00, get out of school at 7:30. I have just an couple of hours at night to eat and relax. Notice that that doesn't include homework? That's right - now I only have time to do homework on the weekend. So far, it's worked out okay, but I have a feeling things are about to get crazy. J's having a rough time, too.

Organic chem is not as scary as everyone made it out to be. I like it a whole lot more than general chem - it's more concepts-based and I like that. The teacher is pretty fantastic, which is helpful. The lab has been relatively easy, as well. I got a 95 on my first exam, and we only have two graded exams besides the final, so even if I crap out on the next one, I'll be in decent shape.

Ecology and Evolution is awesome. My professor is fantastic. He's brilliant, available and interesting. I really really enjoy his lectures. So far, we've covered population and community ecology. We're approaching concepts mathematically and I find it really helpful. I'm excited to get to the next half of the class, which focuses on evolution. We were also promised one lecture on evolution and creationism, so as to not ignore the elephant in the room.



I will, eventually, tell you all about the Westboro Baptist Church picket and the sweet field trip I went on a couple of weeks ago. But that will have to wait until a day when I have some time...and that might mean sometime in December.

I leave you with some love from Emily. She's a bit limpy lately, so we're taking her to the vet tomorrow to make sure she's not hiding some huge lung tumor or something. Wish us luck...or whatever.

Contest Update

I was keeping an eye out for the results of the "What's Your Favorite Toy" Brickfish contest but I got tired of waiting. The results were supposed to be posted a month after the deadline, but months after the deadline they still weren't posted. So I gave up.

Anyway, today I got curious and I checked and, not surprisingly, I didn't win. These people did.

Oh well. I really appreciated all of your votes and comments.

I had my first Organic Chem class today. My professor seems like he'll be a fantastic teacher. He immediately had the respect of the class, even though it was clear that he won't take any b.s.

I am not nervous about the class. I've heard horror stories and I know that the subject is notoriously difficult. But I've gained a good deal of confidence in my abilities as a student and I am sure I'll be fine.

I have Ecology and Evolution in an hour and a half. The professor for that class has a reputation for being a great teacher.

I think I have a great course load this semester.

J also started today. It's his first time at a big university. He's taking 17 credits: two philosophy courses, calculus, chemistry and biology. So far, he seems really excited and happy about the classes he's attended. I'm SO excited for him. And proud.

Fred Phelps in Vermont

I learned the other day that Fred Phelps has Vermont on his picket schedule. On September 1st, the day that the new marriage equality law goes into effect, he and about 9 others will picket in Montpelier and Burlington. Phelps is planning on picketing in Vermont for about 3 hours. The RU12? Community Center is countering the picketing by holding a pledge drive.

I urge you to donate even a penny a minute (that's just $1.80!).

I'm going to take the day off from work and spend my day living as peacefully as possible...my own little protest. Maybe I'll protest in person...but I don't know...I don't want to give the crazy too much attention. It's a tough call with people as crazy as Phelps.

How would you protest? Would you protest at all?

Things I have/haven't doen this summer: list edition.

Have done:

• learned to use my new camera (and now I have a newer one to learn!)
• read books (except I haven't finished "The Link" - I'm finding it to be quite dry)
• ran around barefoot in the woods
• swam in my clothes
• picked strawberries (and tonight - blueberries!)
• seen Lucy and Ida (and Brian!)
• read numerous poems by Mary Oliver
• listened to the first bunch of episodes of Radiolab (please please listen if you haven't!)
• gone on 3 or more 5k runs each week
• started doing yoga
• reached a goal of 5 pull ups and am on my way to 10
• worked many hours of overtime because a colleague quit
• been really really lazy when I was home and enjoyed having nothing to do

Have not done:

• written on this blog

I bought my school books yesterday - looks like my Ecology and Evolution class will be very math-heavy (at least in the beginning). They don't even have my organic chem book in...but I'm sure that'll be very, well, organic chem-heavy.

Since I'm not taking a geology class this semester, I thought I would try and get myself signed up for the New England Intercollegiate Geological Conference. The conference is in Lyndonville, Vermont and there are a couple of interesting field trips. I'd like to go on any one of the following:

• Road to the Kingdom: A Bedrock Transect Across the Pre-Silurian Rowe-Hawley Belt in Central Vermont
• Glacial Geology, Climate History, and Late-Glacial Archaeology of the Northern White Mountains, New Hampshire
• Bedrock Geology of the Montpelier Area, Central Vermont

I've also decided to try and fit the following classes into my course of study:

• Prehistoric Archaeology
• Biological Anthropology
• Primates and Anthropology

Some of the stuff I've read this summer has really piqued my interest in the role evolution plays in behavior - especially human behavior.

We're all moved in!!!

And it's awesome!

The new apartment is huge - or at least much bigger than the last. It's got TONS of natural light and windows. The first night we spent there, it was so quiet that I could hear the wind rustling the leaves on the trees. The breeze comes straight into our bedroom window and I wake up to the sound of birds (cardinals!). This morning, it took me five minutes to get to work. I can now go home on my lunch break and read for an hour.

Look!:

The prints that are hanging up in the picture with J are two that I got at the SVP annual meeting. I've been meaning to matte and frame them for a year and just finally got around to it. I love them!

On a walk yesterday, J found a dead pileated woodpecker. I want to clean it and mount the skeleton, but I'm 98% sure that I won't find the time and that I'll just end up with a ton of bones, stuffed in a baggie somewhere in my closet. I haven't totally nixed the idea, though - I would love to have the skull with the little hyoid apparatus.

Sweet Crap

I'm busy! One of my co-workers quit a week ago and there's only two of us in this office, running this journal. On top of being one person down, we're also putting in close to eight hours of overtime each week...and moving! On Monday, our office is being moved (to a place with no windows about half the size of our office now), so we're juggling packing and trying to keep the manuscript submission, review and decision process moving smoothly.

On the home front, J's mom has been visiting. She leaves tonight and then we start packing because, on top of moving my office, I'm also moving myself. We are moving all the big stuff this weekend, but we'll probably be moving a bit and cleaning all next week.

I haven't had time to myself. I haven't had time to play with my camera or read my books or post my pictures and blog from my visit to see Lucy and Ida.

Eventually, when this all quiets down, I will return to having a normal summer. Hopefully by then, all this rain will have stopped.