HESTEC Science Display

I admit this was my first time being involved in HESTEC festivities. I displayed a poster in the Science Symposium, met the NSF director, helped out at a booth, and set up a display of our different works in our lab at the science building. The entire experience was fun but what impressed me the most was the turnout of the science display that all labs participated in. I honestly didn't think there would be people excited to see science. The room was so jam-packed that many of us who were standing guard and answering questions had to leave to give visitors room to walk around. That kind of response from the outside public really made me proud to be part of the biology department.

Rough Start, Smooth Ending

I have to admit that today was a day that I was definitely not looking forward to. I needed to go out to the Science Symposium and stand next to my poster for others to see and ask questions. I've always been a nervous wreck and when I feel the slightest pressure I tend to go BLANK!! Anyways, so I was standing beside my poster when I was asked if the poster next to me was mine- two things immediately popped into my head DENY, DENY, DENY, or just say yes and look like a deer caught in headlights. So I said 'yes' and he proceeded to convince me to take a photo with my poster (WHEW!). When I thought that was the extend of our meeting he asked me the dreaded words, "Can you please explain your poster to me?" WHAT! Can he not read for himself? I think that was the point where it went splat! All my hard work just erased, I had nada, zippo, ni-fu ni-fa, my brain was literally MUSH! He just stared at me waiting for me to say something so I looked at the poster and read the title, DOH! I knew I had to say something else so I just pointed out that I had conducted several tests and it was ultimately inconclusive but we were working on trying to answer some of the questions that arose from the experiment. Then I admitted to being extremely nervous being that he was the first person that asked me a question but there was so much more to my experiment than what I said to him. He started laughing and said he was very happy with my short answer because he had previously asked another student the same question but he talked for almost twenty minutes. So we shared a laugh and we went our separate ways.
Later during the day, I showed Dr. Therrien, the Curator of Dinosaur Palaeoecology at Royal Tyrrell Museum, my poster and things went completely different. I was able to explain my entire poster, what steps were being taken, what my thoughts we on as to why my results weren't easily interpreted and what I thought should be done about - he asked questions I answered them without hesitation. Everything just "flowed" it was an awesome feeling to finally be able to represent my hard work and show just how it important it really was. It was great and he told me how impressed he was of both my poster and the work itself. So, yeah, my day started off all wrong but by the end of the day I totally made up for it! Yay me!
Next hurdle: Meeting the National Science Foundation (NSF) Director on Saturday...I guess there's more to come then, huh? HaHaHa Stay Tuned!

Indigenous Lifestyle

Today I was watching a marathon of documentaries of the indigenous people of the world. All I can say is 'WOW'. I saw one from a tribe in Africa where the girls of the tribe are set to marry men at a very young age. They interviewed one girl and she spoke of how she hates men, all they do is beat you, yell at you and hurt you. She hated all men and spoke of how most married men drive their women back to their father's home because of how badly they were treated by their husbands. How sad is that? From that similar tribe you heard men speaking amongst themselves about how they pay men for their daughters hand in marriage (like they were property and not humans) and how others steal wives while the men are away trying to find food for families. WOW WOW WOW! They had a funeral for one of the women that died because of the lack of health care. The nearest hospital being days away by foot there was no way she'd make it. When she passed away the entire tribe was mourning. Women and children cramped up into the small hut where she died all of them crying while the men outside dug her grave and sat around the hut taking turns blowing a horn that signified a loss in their tribe. It was just a completely different culture, I doubt I'd survive such conditions, the women were really put to work hard in the tribe; little girls were walking miles on end to reach a spring to fetch huge tubs of water and walked back to their home with the tubs on their heads, FULL!! Crazy!

There was another tribe in Brazil that really caught my attention. They didn't focus so much on their hardships but more on their traditions. This tribe had traditions during eclipses. They believed that during an eclipse bad spirits come out and bring bad omens to tribes, so they keep it from entering their tribe by having a long festivity involving the entire tribe young and old alike. I guess what shocked me the most was that these people weren't aware of their nudity. They lived without worries such a carefree life. I was telling my husband how cool it would be if we could live a life of no financial burdens, no worries of needing an education or a job, no outside influence from the bigger world out there. This tribe, everyone seemed so happy, as if they didn't have a care in the world. It made me wonder how that would be, to live like them, how different, how fun and interesting. I don't know, viewing these documentaries really made me think about things, I just thought I'd share this little bit of info with you.

Okay, so it's been three days and I have yet to get myself organized. I keep saying "tomorrow" but tomorrow never gets here therefore I've decided to put the whole thing behind me and not fret over it. Not accomplishing this one goal is really eating me up but whatever, right? Anyways, these next few days are pretty jam packed because I'm in the process of trying to complete the HESTEC poster for the Science Symposium. Posters have never been my strong point and with the deadline approaching much too quickly I don't think I'm going to do as well as expected. From what I heard today, there are several people who are going to turn in posters but those were posters that were already prepared! What the "HAY"! I'm working my rear off to complete a poster and others are going to use those that were already prepared, what, is that okay? Yeah, I guess. I'm wondering if they'll give us an extension because of Hurricane Ike, would be much appreciated.

My entire week has been chaotic! How chaotic you ask? Well, I'm finishing off research, attending all 4 classes, keeping up with one online class (weekly 100 question exercises, weekly 50 question quizzes and a bi-weekly case study), HESTEC preparations (abstract, poster, presentation), new research meetings (twice a week), homework, party planning and the list goes on! Obviously I have nothing better to do than to work, work, work.

Seriously, though, I need to make some time for "me" in my busy schedule. My mind has been working overtime and it seems to have interfered with my sleeping. I'm lucky if I get three hours of sleep and the entire day I feel light headed (well, more like vertigo-like symptoms)! I've been thinking a lot about my current situation and concluded that I need to make a schedule of things to do on a daily basis and STICK TO IT. It's going to be a really specific schedule, down to the very minute, and no side tracking from it. Normally, I try to do everything at once or I start one task get halfway done and start a new task. I tend to do this that way if I'm asked how much I've done on a particular task I can at least say "halfway done". Now, though, I'm going to try to start a project (in order by priority) and give myself ample time to complete it before I move on. I'll probably disappoint a few people, but hey, they're not in my shoes nor do they have the slightest idea of what a typical day is for me.

So, yeah, just a little update of me trying to get organized. Stay tuned to see how long that lasts, any bets?

A "Laborful" Day

Research is kicking up a notch in Dr.D's lab, so today was just the best time to get some of the experiments done. Met a past grad student of UTPA whose specialty is the seagrass I'm currently researching on and we're meeting later this week to learn how to take "integrative" measurements of Thalassia seagrass. Will definitely be an interesting week, lots to do! As for today, I'm halfway completed with my experiments and because of some problematic results I produced, I've created more experiments. DON'T YOU JUST LOVE SCIENCE?! Isn't it awesome when you're trying to answer one question you come up with 20 more questions, research rocks!

My work with the Walz Diving PAM is almost over :-( and soon will have to be returned to its rightful owner. I have some great memories with it and I feel honored to have even gotten the chance to master the machine, but soon we shall meet again! Check out my diving pam: http://www.walz.com/support/downloads/downloads/pdfs/divpam.pdf , ain't she a beauty? Yup, I'm one of the few who have been able to use this little machine and as an undergrad much less!! Wow, I just got the chills... I'm running my final tests on her so gotta go, ADIOS!