Busy Week

I'll warn you now that I'm going to have quite a few blogs on the way out in the next couple of days. I've been in the habit of writing blogs and keeping them on my desktop, publishing one a day as I see fit in order to allow me time to focus on writing, but also and more importantly time to focus on what is quickly becoming a more busy work schedule.

It's not that I'm actually doing any more physical work but I've had a lot of projects and the like which are open and running at the same time. All of these things have to come to a close soon, especially as I get ready to finish classes and head into the summer with research and literature reviews. I've been trying to wrap a lot of stuff up this week and the middle of yesterday afternoon finally marked the breaking point where I was mostly done with all pressing matters and I could collapse into temporary complacency on the rest of it. Last night we watched Megamind in honor of that and Amanda graciously sat through a movie which is not her type and smiled along with the dumb humor which I of course was very entertained by.

This week marks the submission of my IACUC proposal for starters which has been a much larger endeavor than I had originally supposed. For those of you who don't know, IACUC is an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee and every research institution has one of these committees. The main purpose of the committee is to oversee research that deals with animals and ensure the animals' well-being by reviewing the protocols and making sure that the animals will be well cared far, that the research has a practical use in today's society, that animals will not be wasted needlessly in this research and that there isn't some crazy professor doing horrendous things to animals in the name of science. All of these criteria have some very specific reasoning behind them which focus on the 3 R's of research today: Replacement, Refinement and Reduction. For more on that I'll refer you to a parallel blog of mine where I've already commented on this. Let's just say that I spent over a month now refining my protocol and editing in many people's comments, ensuring the staff for the project were appropriately trained and certified and dotting my i's before it was turned in this week. I'm very glad to have it off my chest.

Second big thing on my plate this week was my last homework for my SAS class. I've got to say that apart from the homework, this hasn't felt like a class at all. I've enjoyed nearly every minute in class and out of it when I've had questions for the professor. He is a great guy and we are lucky to have him teaching here. I finished the homework and immediately after turning it in had regrets on the accuracy and appropriateness of my models; hopefully it went better than my gut feeling is always telling me.

Then the third big thing I had this week was a research seminar on the 3 main manuscripts leading to my research proposal. This was for a class and a satisfactory grade so while I wasn't super concerned about it, I have my own reputation to uphold as well and I want to be known for professionalism and a job well done in these things. I tried to throw a bit of pizazz in the presentation with imaging and using our department's new big screen TV rather than blurring my images through the old slide projector and I was really happy with how that turned out. But the presentation itself sometimes felt more like an interrogation session than a talk I was giving. It's something that I'll have to get used to during my time here pursuing my Masters, I think. Based on my impressions from Masters defenses around here they're just prepping for the big show in the future.

So with all of that off my plate, I can refocus on my other stuff obscuring my desk right now. Lauren and I still owe 4-H our final write-up from March and I have a final exam project for SAS along with finishing up data collection from elapsed video shots (~130 dvds in all!). I can't wait to be done with that, it feels like that's all I've been doing the past year.

Toxic Couches (Graduation: T-12 days)

Toxic couches.... who knew? Definitely sounds worse than a rug burn. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8644156.stm

I still can't figure out how to make a link work. I did it just once, and had to remove it because it linked double in a row and was really awkward looking. Anyhow, until I figure it out or learn how to write my own, please continue to copy and paste into your browser. If I use the google blogger method the entire link disappears (even though they say it's linked) so that was definitely not a viable option.

I'm sitting in 401 class today and really questioning what this was supposed to accomplish. Some of these students have been here 4 years and still can't talk in public without notecards, yet this class is about debating animal issues. If you can't debate or even discuss, I'm a strong proponent of you not passing this class. Sure, I may sound cruel, but the opposite viewpoint states that I don't want you out in the world toting a BS in Animal Science without you being able to even discuss what you've learned in the past 2 years.

Also. I'm pretty good about blowing through questions and forcing believable answers without people knowing I have no idea what's going on. I have seen some very sad cases of people trying to lie in front today without any clue of what they're talking about.

Tri-State

It's 10.27 pm and I am back from Tri-State Dairy Nutrition Conference and settled in for the evening. I'm planning on sleeping soon and late into the morning because I am absolutely exhausted from such a long day. However, it is really exciting to be returning with a 2nd Place certificate for my efforts and a good day in general. Honestly, after giving my presentation, I was pretty unhappy with how it went and I was very pleased even to be able to receive 2nd place in the competition. Congratulations to the other two winners, and props to everyone who presented. It was great having such a large increase in presenters this year.