colorado

Grades are back- better than expected! Christmas was great, got lots of cool stuff the high light: a camera (so I can post lotsa fun stuff up here) & some nice fuzzy wool socks. I also got a gift card to a liquor store (my boyfriend knows me so well). All in all, I cleaned up.

Working on the senior thesis... in short, its going to be two treatments: one that's burn annually & one that's burned biannually, and of course, a control. I'm sampling for NO3, NH4, & P immediately prior to the fire, and then 3 more times following the fire for 6 weeks. This is going to be quite the undertaking, taking four days off school. I just hope my professors are cool.

Speaking of cool professors, my advisor decided he's going to drop a few grand on the project! That's awesome, because testing for all this (at least 120 samples at almost ten bucks a sample)... I can't afford to do laundry, much less a grand.I'm really excited about it.

I'm in communication with a prof out of Wisconsin U. He's got a very exciting project going on. I know, I was going to wait a couple years before attending grad school, but seriously, its a cool project. Look:
We have very broad research interests, ranging from biochemical ecology
to ecosystem ecology. Central themes of our work include chemical
ecology, multi-trophic interactions and evolution. We are especially
interested in the role of plant chemistry in mediating ecological
interactions (especially, but not restricted to, trophic interactions).
Our research focuses on interactions between deciduous trees and
tree-feeding insects, although we do some work with herbaceous plants
and herbivores as well. This research is funded by multiple sources,
principally NSF and DOE.

A major component of our program addresses the independent and
interactive roles of genetics and environment (e.g., resource
availability, defoliation) on chemical defense systems in trees, and
consequences for tree-feeding insects and natural enemies. Our work has
identified the constituents in aspen that are toxic to many forest
insect species (e.g., gypsy moth), and is unraveling the complex of
factors responsible for dramatic variation in levels of these compounds
in the field. A primary emphasis of this research has been to address
the quantitative genetics of, and genetic trade-offs between, chemical
defense and tolerance in aspen. A related research program addresses the
complex of genetic and chemical factors underlying plant and herbivore
community organization in hybrid cottonwoods in riparian habitats of the
intermountain West. This work is being conducted in collaboration with
Tom Whitham and colleagues at Northern Arizona University.

Related research, for which I anticipate new funding in 2008, will
address plant-insect interactions in relation to use of poplar for
biofuel production.

see? And I've done a lot of that stuff: toxicology, genetic work, leaf level chemistry, insect-plant interactions, all that! He & I have had a couple rounds of email go by before I broke the news about my crappy GPA. Its not actually that crappy... but it could be better. I told him about all the other stuff I work with (forestry club, too much work, a high class load, and upper division class). And I sent him my resume... so hopefully he'll under stand.

Oh, look what I found! I didn't even know this was published on line. So thats exciting. I'm at work all alone today. There's not much I can do, with the mail room closed and all. Here are some job sites I've been looking at.

http://www.nrmjobs.com.au/ This one's Australian natural resource jobs
http://www.dfw.state.or.us/ This is Washington
www.fas.harvard.edu I also recommend this for internships. They have a REU program (what's an REU program?)

I had a great time at mine.


Me and 3 friends are leaving tomorrow for a road trip of epic proportions. How epic?
epic. Its going to be really really epic.

To Colorado! Where I haven't been for years and years. I'm going to try to learn how to snowboard, and we're going to see not only yonder mountain string band, but also Split Lip Rayfield. I'm exstoked. I won't be back until the Third when in infamous Blake "The Beat" Rouzer arrives from Humboldt county, CA. Speaking of epic...

See you in '08!

Oh.. and I'm collecting addresses for a massive postcarding project. Send me yours!