Updates and Decisions

I'm here for an update on what's been going on. Dr. Jones just got in from the dinosaur farm out in Wyoming - if I play my cards right I am hoping to get out there myself one of these days - preferably in the near future. Such is life, I guess!

Well, I have also come to a decision as far as my furthering my career goes, anyway. It came about due to a lack of clarity in that memo assignment for class a couple of weeks ago. I realize that if I want to remain in Pittsburgh and work on becoming a professional paleontologist - I might as well utilize those resources at my current location to the fullest extent I can. So, to make a long story short: I am seriously considering grad school and majoring in geology - basically to get a M.S. degree in Geology - or higher - whatever the case may be. I can choose my subfield whenever I wish at this point but the current resources are pretty limited at the moment around these parts - at least as far as pursuing a paleo degree like I plan to - despite the affiliation of this university with the Carnegie Museums.

This also gives me a chance to beef up my other scientific skills and knowledge - like the biology and chemistry I will be needing at some point in the future. There is also the fact that I do have at least one or two non-paleo related topics for research - including Yellowstone - which has become a more practical project than it was originally. Also, I have been reminded about a Yellowstone field camp that exists - absolutely perfect for grad school and my project.

The writing class is being taylored to each person's individual field and interests - focusing on career and job research - in the form of memos, reports, outlines, resume, a cover letter, and a career related research paper. This is forcing me to make decisions I hadn't even realized I even needed to make and crunching it all into a mere six weeks. Also, my instructor mentioned helping me during office hours with a career statement for grad school - we don't get to do that officially for class so it has to be during her office hours.

Also, due to some mismanagement on my part - I am now needing to think and set up a more set-in-stone study and classwork routine for the rest of the semester. I even found an old semester weekly planner on an old disk from 2001 and have already started to change it to my current status. A helpful form of damage control, if you will. Good thing it won't take too big a bite out of my plans - besides, classes will be finishing for the summer in just 3-4 weeks - though now that means crunch time for me. I guess I can look at the bright side of my one friend going on a cruise at the end half of the month.

While I was at it looking through old disks - I found a bunch of old project work - including that related to the Pleistocene Mass Extinction - among other things. I really need to put it all together into one master document so I can play with it and keep it in just one disk - or two for a backup. I might as well do this with the other project work I've found, too - just so that it's all in one place when I need it in the near future. Well, I printed out everything I found important so far and will have to go through the rest of the disks at a later date to get the rest. I even found and salvaged an old powerpoint project from a French class - it might look good in my portfolio. Now, if only I could find the oone on Paleontology I did way back when... I would be a very happy camper.