So close, yet so far

Less than 4 weeks of school are left. This semester has been a whirlwind of research and projects and field trips. I can barely catch my breath.

I have finished my research from Colorado. I presented it at a poster session today, and I am also presenting it at the Keck Geology Symposium on April 15. The map is awesome (if I do say so myself) and the calculations, well, we made them work. But, it's complete. I just need to have my thesis revised and get two signatures, then I'm good to go.

I have accepted an offer to grad school. I'm pretty excited to work in an actual geology department where there are rocks everywhere. I also know which classes I'm taking in the fall: Tectonics and Mineralogy. The description of the tectonics course: "Evolution of Earth’s lithosphere in context of plate tectonics theory. Formation of continents through comparative anatomy of mountain belts, including Appalachians, Alps, Urals, Caledonians, Cordillera, Andes, and Himalayas." That sounds so awesome! Much better than the classes I have been forced to take at GT (specifically field methods and data analysis).

On that note... field methods is probably the most irrelevant class I've had to take. And it requires the most work. It's so biased towards water chemistry that it's almost impossible to create a project in anything else.

The curriculum of this department is poorly organized. Some classes are duplicates of others. Some classes are irrelevant to some students. Basic classes (such as mineralogy) are missing. There is no excuse for these faults. Well, they do give an excuse, but it is a poor one: "We don't want to compete with UGA." Honestly, what does competing with UGA have to do with the course offerings? If a course is useful to the students in the department, it should be offered. If the course is required by all other comparable curricula and departments, it should be offered.

Then they suggest that students take the courses they don't offer at GT at GSU, which, yes GSU is right down the street and it does offer the courses, but the logistics are just wrong. I looked into this. The courses I needed to take (sedimentology and mineralogy) all conflicted with the classes I needed to take here (which are irrelevant to my interests, but required for graduation). It was impossible.

So now, I will have to take remedial courses in grad school to catch up. And I'll have to wait another year to take the siliciclastic petrogenesis class that sounds cool (if they offer it next year).

Now I just need to go to the gym so I can get in shape for field camp. I'd like to not die when I get there. Here's a link to the field camp:

http://www.geology.siu.edu/courses/geol454/index.html

Two spaces or not two spaces?

I've finally finished the first drafts of my three NSF essays. I must say, I really did not enjoy it. It's so hard to incorporate "broader impacts" into it all like they want. Writing these essays gave me a headache, which I still have.

And in this whole writing process, I learned that I have been wrong about something all my life. Apparently it's wrong to use two spaces at the beginning of each sentence! I've been doing this since I can remember, and now it's just second nature. It supposedly went out of style when they switched from typewriters (which use a monospaced font) to computers (which use a custom spaced font). I don't know what to think anymore.

I think I'll keep my two spaces, thank you very much.

Updates...

I visited a potential grad school this weekend. I really like it there, everyone seemed pretty nice. I hope I get in...

Meanwhile, we are still waiting on microspheres for my research with Joe. And I think we will finally start sieving my Colorado samples this week (progress!). I was really getting tired of the waiting around to do stuff. And is it just me or does the word "sieving" look like it is spelled wrong?

We have our second field trip for structure this weekend. It's mostly "show and tell" I am told, but who knows for sure? Kurt does, but he's not saying anything. And, we're getting t-shirts made for structure! I got to design them, so I'm really excited to see them.

I've been looking at buying a new camera. I have found lots and lots of good reviews for the Panasonic FZ35, but they recently came out with a new model (the FZ40). I'm a bit wary of buying a new model before it's had ample time to have it's flaws pointed out, but then I feel like I should not buy the old version because it is the old version.

Making connections

I've been working on "networking" with geology professors at different grad schools recently. What an ordeal it is! Write an email, reread said email 15 times, attach super long CV, send, and wait for a reply. The waiting is the worst. Some professors reply the next day. Others, not so much. I've been waiting five days for one of them to reply. And I know he's in his office. I saw him give a presentation last week when I was in Colorado. Does it really take that much time and effort to say, "Hey, I got your email and will look at your CV when I have time." Or just cut to the chase, "Hey, I'm not accepting MS students right now." Just let me know something.

So, for those who don't reply to my emails, I'm going to take it a step further. I got the idea from one of the professor's websites. It said, "Please try good old U.S. mail if email isn't working!" So this is my plan. I will send them a letter in the mail. Hopefully, it won't get lost or ignored like an email might. I mean, they may get 3o emails a day, but only 2 or 3 letters a day. And soon, one of them will be from me.