Ether

Here and there. Sort of doing that "can't stay in one spot for long" thing that's been the staple of my last few summers. Landed here at home for now and recovering from a (hopefully) minor throat thing.

It's hot, it's muggy, and I don't really have much to say. My life's changing and I need a rock polisher. And a detailed strat column. And a place where I can go hiking!!!!

Been A While : P

I suppose I should resurrect this thing!

What I've been doing since the last update:
-Research
-Finishing up classes and attempting to keep my head above the proverbial waterline
-Research
-A couple of small, random band functions
-Research
-Final exams
-Research
-Moving out
-Research
-Graduating
-Research
-More moving out
-MORE research
-Commuting between GB and EL to tie up the big loose ends in my research, create my AGU poster, a vector map of my study area, and find what is apparently the ONE garnet in all of my thin section samples.
-Sleeping
-AGU
-Photomicrographs and petrography and discussion of metasomatism, oh my. Woo.
-Caffeine detox
-Pathetic attempts at packing

And tomorrow: MOVING to Champaign! This should be interesting.

Here's what a photomicrograph looks like, for the curious:

The scale bar is 100 micrometers long, and this is a shot of zircons embedded in alkali feldspar, quartz, and suspected "amphibole" (we're not sure yet; might specifically be actinolite) crystals. The zircons are the small, brightly-colored, semi-rectangular crystals. The "amphiboles" are the green/brown, furry-looking crystals; the alkali feldspars are the black-and-white crystals with the jagged lineations; and the quartz is the amorphous white stuff. There's a strange reaction rim around the zircons embedded in the amphibole that we need to look at a bit more, so don't ask me about that.

Seeing those in the thin sections means that we can extract zircons from the kilogram of aplite I have crushed up and sitting in a bag, once we process the sample a bit more. With the extracted zircons, we can mount them on a disc and zap 'em with a laser, creating a small cloud of melted zircon, containing such elements as Zr, U, Th, Pb, and Si, among other things. The relative proportions of the radioactive/radiogenic elements will allow us to extract an approximate age from the zircons that is hopefully representative of the age of crystallization of the rock.

Cool stuff. This is what I'm doing with my summer vacation - exactly what I was doing during the year, without the whole going to class business.

Spartan Brass celebrating victory over Louisville at the Elite 8 this year (I'm holding the trombone, far right)! Next stop: Final Four in DETROIT!! I couldn't be more pleased to perform my last couple of gigs as a member of Spartan Brass at an event of this level, let alone in my home state! This will also be the third (!!) Final Four I've performed at.

2005: Traveled with the women's basketball team to all rounds of the NCAA Tournament, including the Final Four in Indianapolis.

2007: Traveled with the hockey team to all rounds. Frozen Four was in Albany, NY and we ended up going all the way as a 3 seeded team, which is major underdog status in collegiate hockey. The tournament starts off with a much smaller pool than basketball.

2009: Going to Detroit! I won't make any predictions - I'll only go as far as to say that I totally homered in all of my tournament brackets. I knew it then, and I know it now! I love the excitement and extreme uncertainty of Final Fours, because the teams are all so good that it's VERY tough to predict an outcome. The media has the Spartans as the underdog against UConn and I'm okay with that.

I'm glad I stuck around for a fifth year. What a great year to be a Spartan, and hoping for many more.

Quick Update

-Nearly caught up. Made it through what I'm hoping was the worst of a burnout period.

-Withdrawal from long-term medications upon which one grows dependent sucks.

-Non-science major students in a general science class are cretins when it comes to grades.

-I love basketball. I love March. I'm getting pumped for the spring game, and I wish hockey was still playing.

-Trying to find time to fit a run around campus in. Maybe tonight.

-Going to Indy tomorrow for Men's Sweet 16. Should be a good time!

-GPR measurements are surprisingly easy and fun to do. At least when you're only looking at a 150ish foot transect and it's on nearly flat ground. Wouldn't want to hike up and down a cinder cone with a GPR setup.

-Free time? What a novel concept. Might actually have some soon. Sort of. Long-term projects are going to require some additional work soon.

Numba Three

No info on offer, and there's a provisional status appended. We'll see what I can dig up when I go visit tomorrow. I'm still not fully packed. Yay getting up 90 minutes before go-time and already having the car gassed up/loaded with food.

Number Two (officially)

No letter yet. Via e-mail from the prof who'd be advising me. Whoa.