Sunday, March 18, 2018

A brief updated on research and my life in general

It has been six months since my last posting and much has happened since September. I finished the semester well, glad to be done with classes, went to my relative's house in Alabama for Thanksgiving, and went home for an entire month at Christmas to rest, which I sorely needed. After thoroughly enjoying time with family and eating entirely too much food I flew back to MS in January, and got back into the swing of both classes and research. My classes this semester are particularly interesting and include Marine Botany, Multivariate statistics, and Ecology of Fishes. Research has been going along swimmingly (pun intended), and I have just about finished writing my research proposal from my PhD. work which I plan on presenting to my committee next month so they can (hopefully) sign off on it. Evidently they are also going to have me take my qualifying exams at the same time, but have yet to tell me what exactly that will entail (Every school I have been to is in my experience unnecessarily vague about what qualifying exams entail). In addition to research and classes I have also done a few trips for Zach (one of my advisors), one to Galveston Texas to pick up some equipment, a shorter trip to Deer Island to measure Fiddler crab burrows and count snails for a project he is doing with another professor (Dr. Biber who teaches my Marine Botany class) on the effect of a marsh restoration project on Deer Island, and several crab tagging trips in LA. Oh, I also started taking organ lessons in January from my choir director at church, Michaelle Harrison. Come the beginning of June, field work at the Chandeleur Islands will begin in earnest, and I can't wait to get started (I can only handle so many months starting at a computer screen). Once things really get going with field work I will make a stronger attempt to update my blog more regularly, but for now here are a few pictures of the last 6 months to keep you entertained.

Classic car from the Cruising the Coast car show in Ocean Springs 

Seamap cruise on the Tommy Munro R/V (I went along to learn how to ID fish) 

 Beautiful sunrise on the Seamap cruise

Larvae Fish lab Christmas door decorations (They won the contest)  
Ferry I took to Galveston

View off the ferry towards Galveston  

 My intrepid fellow lab mate Adam Kemberling on the ferry to Galveston 

 Me at the Mardi Gras parade in Downtown Ocean Springs
(It is apparently a big deal down here)

My potted herb garden for cooking 

Me stuck in the mud on Deer Island

Picture of the organ I am taking lessons on at First Presbyterian Church of Ocean Springs 

 Sunrise on a crabbing boat