Two standard deviations from frustration

Hello folks,

I come crawling back with a sense of guilt that I haven't kept up with this, only begging this blog to take me back once again. I promise, I'll never falter again, never sway, steadfast in my resolve.

Though I've been working tirelessly(merely a phrase, not the truth), I've come against roadblocks that are slowing my progress towards getting my degree. Not for long, though, as I still intend to graduate this coming summer. I've been busy doing analyses on the demographic data from the forests in Cambria, looking at such things as lambda (population growth rates), stable stage structure(if the population continued on it's trajectory, what would the distribution of certain sized individuals be), reproductive contribution(I'm sure you've got that one), but now it's time to get outside this comfort zone, the known, and delve into the theoretical deep, probing the population with hypothetical survivorship changes to determine what it takes to really throw this populations growth up or down. Anyhow, working on my statistics for the ectomycorrhizal shifts in community and its dependence on environmental factors. Getting rather comfortable in R, which is an open-source statistical/programming package with loads of bells and whistles. It's a rather steep learning curve, but it's coming along and fortunately, the community behind its development and use are fervent supporters of the R newcomer.

Great sites that I've come across include: Stackoverflow (a generally helpful programming website with increasing traffic and pages from the R community)

Quick-R - (Super helpful R site)

Cerebral Mastication - Links to other R sites along with helpful info

For developing your programming chops and picking up some basic mathematical background, I've found Project Euler to be incredible. Solve number problems by figuring out the basic mathematical concepts that these questions are based around and then programming your package(R in my case, most others use Python, Ruby, C++, etc.) to determine the correct answer. It's suduko for the new age. It's all the rage and I'm surprised you hadn't heard!

It's been awhile

Well! Hello again and welcome back to the confines of that which some may refer to as the interweb. It's been awhile for me and I'm sure, no. stop. , positive that you've been salivating over what profundities will arise during this morning discourse. I'm afraid that I'll have to dash your hopes yet again as I have little intent nor hope of divulging much of anything today that will make you go "whoa!".

School, tomorrow once again it begins. The campus grounds have flooded with inquisitive minds, beguiling me with inquiries such as " Where can I find the Insert(greek letter, greek letter, greek letter)","Which way to Abners Chicken", and perhaps if I'm lucky "Do you these beans taste sour to you"? I know, you say, campus life sure seems harder then it did when I went to school. I'm afraid i have no basis for reference, but I'm sure you're correct. My brain can't handle it all, really.

I've moved into a new house, a mile further from campus, but quite a deal cozier, calming, and spacious. The kitchen es muy largo. One of my main concerns when purveying a future flat. I believe the decided upon nomenclature for our house has been decided. "Casa de cacahuete" The house of peanuts. I do believe we've consumed an ample supply of peanuts since our arrival with the number hovering somewhere between 10 and 40 lbs. Natures original MSG. Savory, yet salty. Hitting every bud upon my tongue that I care to hit. The house consists of one carport, one storage hut adjacent to said carport, laundry room, large kitchen/dining area with mesmerizing checkerboard flooring, one sun room, one living room area complete with wood flooring and miniature closet, 1 communal bathroom(sans the bath...plus one shower) 3 bedrooms with ample closet space and ceiling fan, and a fat ol' backyard complete with not one, but two storage sheds. I sleep like the dickens every evening and well into the morning; this tomfoolery must stop.

Classes as such include mycology, meta-analysis, community ecology, and multivariate statistics. Excited for all of them. The meta-analysis class will be a joint venture taught by some of the best mycorrhizasts(that's mycorrhizal ecologists for ya'll(or also, those who study the symbiosis of mutualistic fungi and their plant hosts that occurs in the plant rhizosphere(root zone))). Got that? I couldn't be more excited...really. Mycology will be a treat, community ecology the after dinner coffee, and multivariate the glue that binds. It will be a busying semester. I also teach four sections of Human Biology for the non-major. I hope to teach something else next semester as I'll now have taught this class for 2 semesters and 2 summer sessions, but I've got the material down pat and despite a heavy grading work-load, it will work to my advantage to teach this with so many classes. I'm guessing research will come to a slight standstill...not too still, hopefully, but I've got all of next semester without any classes to complete what remains. I've finished a good portion of the research this summer and last semester and will be analyzing my own data in multivariate statistics.

I'm afraid Jeff and I have given up the garden to Nok and Nom who will treat it well. We just have no time to replant or plant anew for the continued growing season. Not to mention, little to no time to water or kill the ever growing detrimental insect population.

That's all for now. I hope to post every now and again, but we will see. Stay tuned, or don't.

-K

The closest to Sainthood as I'll ever get.

And I'm supposed to say "Who Dat?" Good bowl party at Erynn and Aarons place. Your typical vegan fare from Erynn, mixed with a little Chicken leg from Jeff, chocolate chip cookies from Kristen B., and some of Marlenes delicious dip recipe with freshly fried tortillas. First bowl party with taco salad ever, mark that one down I guess. Haven't written for a while on here mostly due to exhaustion from picking all those mycorrhizal tips while I was with fever. So...yes! Kristin got back from the University of Minnesota and was tired but we both went to the Super Bowl party and then dissected fetal pigs for the fun of it. And why not? It's what everyone "really" wants to do after eating a bunch of snack food. The hardest part was figuring the muscles of the mouth and cheek, but after that opening up the chest cavity and figuring out the major digestive and respiratory organs was a cinch. Oh, and by the way, Kristin made me do it. I guess that's what love is all about.

It was, as far as I am concerned, the first day of spring around here. Orioles were everywhere today and it nearly hit 50 so biking was excellent. So excellent in fact that Kristins roommate Jella was washing his car. Those crazy Dutch...you never do know what they'll do next. He seemed to be reveling in the fact that he was washing "his own" car for the first time. Kudos to that. Pretty soon the Magnolias with be blooming, fungi will be growing, and I'll be in heaven.

Speaking of biking in Mississippi, it isn't the easiest thing to do, but it's getting better with organizations like Bike Walk Mississippi which advocates for better biking and walking ordinances within the state. Apparently Oxford received the first bicycle friendly city designation in Mississippi in 2008...a bronze medal out of the possible platinum, gold, silver, and bronze. They certainly have a long way to go before I'd call this a bicycle friendly city, but strides are certainly being made. Hopefully before I leave this place in a year and a half I'll see some more. The Oxford Cycling club is helping out as well and if you buy a membership, 10$'s for students, you get not only 5-10% off accessories at the bike shops, but half off your second sushi roll when you buy two at "Two Stick"! If you like sushi, this'll pay itself back in no time AND you'll be supporting biking in Oxford. Yay!
Anyhow, it is late again and I'm ready for bed. G'night ya'll.

That fungi just totally ate that twig

So I've been processing my ectomycorrhizal samples (the soil fungi) and am starting to come across some neat individuals. The black spindley fellow is Cenococcum Geophilum which is a pretty omnipresent mycorrhiza that occurs in both early stage and late stage forests. This implies that not only is it good at colonizing new substrates relative to other fungi, but that it is a efficient competitor for root tip space. This is an easily recognizable mycorrhiza...the others are not so easy. The highest image is of some fungi that is actually surrounding and eating a decaying twig. We can thank fungi for not being neck deep in dead tree leaves, grass, amongst other dead things because they are the primary decomposers of dead matter.
Kristin helped me clean some soil off of the roots we collected for a while the other and has been busy also preparing for her lab that she will be TAing. Sounds like she has quite a bit of stuff to learn but I think she will do well and will care whether her students do well. It takes a while to find your voice from my experience but it eventually comes. I'm not feeling very well...I had a temperature earlier today and have felt quite weak all day long, but unfortunately I need to get homework and lab work done. Tired and going to sleep. G'night all.

Everything in its right place

No photos again today. I'll try to take some tomorrow, but in the meantime; Wow! So Kristin totally shot and hit the moon with a job here in Oxford. I would have thought that it would take at least "some" time to find a job for her, but no. We arrived yesterday and I spoke with my advising professor who said that another Dr. had been looking for me to discuss my teaching this semester. Well, it seems signals got crossed and although I have a Research Assistant appointment this semester, they also had expected me to TA. Well! That left room for someone else to sidle into that position. Enter Kristin. So, Kristin got a position as a TA within the first 24 hours of getting to Oxford. Not too bad for a girl from Minnesota. Had my first class today in Biometry, otherwise regarded as statistics and experimental design geared toward ecological research. It shall be very useful throughout the semester and as I continue through the sciences. I think the professor will be pretty informative and I'm really looking forward to reading ahead in the book. It's rainy in Oxford right now and thunder storming with some pretty intense lightning cracks. Pretty fun to listen to. Tomorrow night Kristin and I are going to try our hand at making our own pasta with eggs, wheat flower, herbs, and salt.

On another food note,l We went to the grocery store Krogers today with a spaghetti sauce glass jar that we were hoping to fill with bulk items. Well, besides the olive bar there really is no bulk food. BUT! Krogers has the best sun dried tomatoes that they make and so I was hoping to get some of these put our jar. So I asked the women at the deli if she could weigh our jar prior to tomato input and she said she would have to ask the manager about that...initially she said we should just put the sun drieds in the jar and she would weigh it, but at 7.99 a pound and by her logic, using the glass jar would have cost us nearly 6 dollars in addition to the sun drieds we would purchase. So the manager comes over and I explain that we would prefer not to generate any waste if possible and he says that he, not super enthusiastically, says that that would work. He said that this was the first time anyone had ever wanted a container weighed for this purpose which was I suppose not super surprising, but interesting to hear. So he calls over the huge loud speaker and we run to the front and has this gentlemen weigh it and then tells the guy to remember the number and my face for the checkout lane. So...after a long debacle, they let us fill up sun drieds in our jar. I hope they let this fly in the future also because they have some wicked kalamatas and dolmas..and of course the sundrieds. Anyways, that was our day. It was a good day, a very good day. I think this semester will be a blast. G'night.

Oxford town, Oxford town

And I am back...with one more in tow. Kristin and I arrived in Oxford today and I think she is pretty excited to be here. Along our travels from Cambria to Oxford via auto, we traveled approximately 1800 miles with to evening stops to kick it in a motel. Driving has been exhausting and it is soooo great to be back. Kristin met Jella her new roommate and I think the two will get along smashingly. Have yet to ask him why he called the place the "Murderhouse" but perhaps there is a good reason for that like; someone got murdered there. We stopped in Albuquerque New Mexico and picked up some new wares to seal up bulk food item purchases. This is because Kristin and I are making a pact to cut as much of the waste out of our eating habits as possible. Ultimately, we will have to use some things that will ultimately be thrown but this will be kept to an extreme minimum. I like Kristin's new place...very homey already and her room, she says, is totally sufficient despite its small stature. She met my friends Jeff and Maryanne(sp?) and I think they and she hit it off well. I can't wait to show her around the town over the next day or two and get her well acclimated to the area. School starts tomorrow for the both of us. Kristin has microbiology at 8 am and I have biometry starting at 12:30 pm. Lookin forward to school as always. G'night all.

That wave just totally ate that rock!

And so it did. The waves have been spectacular here for the past three or four days. Rained about an inch and a half last night and we were expecting rain today, but no, it was sunny and beautiful. Kristin and I did the transplant experiment today to see if late stage Ectomycorrhizal fungi on the roots of seedlings from the interior of the forest will stay on or get kicked off by disturbance tolerating ectomycorrhizal fungi when we plant them into the grasslands. Probably my favorite day of field work considering we just walked around the woods and got our hands muddy. Not to mention the gorgeous view of the sun going down framed nicely by the two palms on either side of the Kristin as you can see in the photo. We found some great 'shrooms due to the tremendous storm last night and I had a hard time not photographing every.single.one. The couple that caretakes the rancho had us over tonight for dinner and we had a fantastic time. Grilled chicken, hummus and homemade bread, pinto beans w/ rice cooked in coconut milk and a couple bottles of wine. Yum yum. And great company to boot. Don and Miranda are quite the hosts and super great people. Their two girls are quite shy...at least around my scary bearded mug, but it was a great night. So much so that they invited us back for another meal/get together on Friday night before we leave on Saturday. Finishing the night off with some tea and Kristin working...eh hem...on her application so it was a grrreat day. Good night all and good morning dad. Love you all.

kris