There are some days when I really don't know what I'm doing, how I'm going to do what I need to do, and where I'm going in life. Today is one of those days. I know I want to be a geoarchaeologist and own my own company. The owning my own company part of this dream is stagnant, but occasionally leaps forward a little. Currently, I'm working with a group of amazing people on campus called PSPE Rube Goldberg Team to modify a gumball machine to look like a human torso. The object is to teach little...

Well, it would appear that I'm going to be a graduate student at Purdue after all. The go ahead from the committee is in, but I've not received the official paperwork yet. Thankfully, I work in the EAS department, so I can find this information out readily. The graduate secretary says the paperwork will probably be sent out before the end of this week to make everything official barring Murphy doesn't rear his ugly law.

So, with that my to-do list has gotten rather cluttered. While...

I've worked for this professor for a while now. However, I'm fed up with it. I've fought for my projects tooth and nail, but he won't let me actually do what is important to me or my career. Instead, it gets blown off for more "important" things that mean nothing but a lot of busy work that will never get me back around to the things that will actually help me.

So, I've decided to look elsewhere for prospects. I'll start with continuing to use this job as a paycheck, while...

Just a heads up here. I've been invited to be a co-author on the Human Time Scale portion of the new Geological Time Scale book that is due out in spring. Since it was my senior thesis, I just have to review a lot of notes, get things together, and not sleep for a while. Oh, and not really much of a social life to speak of.

It is so worth it. Published twice in one year means a lot to me, and even more to graduate school and career opportunities. It will also up my chances of getting...

After an unexciting, but really long day in the chemistry lab, I went home to start my paper. In order to avoid this long project though, I checked my email to find that it is official. I'm a published author. Granted, I'm the last author on the paper, but I'm still an author. Better yet, I understand the paper, the stuff behind it, and I could teach my students about it someday. This rocks. Here is a copy and pasted version of the email I received:

PCCRC paper number 0810, "Earthworms,...