Mary Iverson

New Feist coming soon.

Kate Halpin

John Edmonds

But that’s not really what I’m talking about. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it on here, but cooking has become my escape. I don’t take as many pictures as I used to, but I cook more now than ever. I love trying new recipes and doing a little improvisation along the way. Alesia and I attempt to eat mostly home-cooked meals, and it makes me feel much better about my place in the world. There definitely is something magical about starting with raw ingredients and ending up with a wonderful, delectable dish.

So as my term as a graduate student is about to start, I find myself on the brink of being insanely busy most of the time. Of course when I’m busy the first thing I begin to sacrifice is my cooking. I make quicker meals, and if I’m too busy, I give up altogether and grab something to eat at a restaurant. However, I found something today that has made me re-think my habits. If you have time, I highly suggest reading this article: Michael Pollen: Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch. I always find anything that Michael Pollan writes to be extremely inspirational and motivational. In this article he discusses the recent trend in the increasing popularity of food programs (specifically Food Network programs such as Iron Chef America), while the actual amount of cooking in a given household is decreasing. He compares the octane- and adrenaline-fueled Food Network programs to the goddess of cooking, Julia Child. He points out the difference between the two: a subtle shift from the art of cooking to the art of eating. Everyone loves to see food, but how many people are willing to work for it? Personally, I find great joy in the process, the “alchemy” as Pollan puts it.

So as my career as a graduate student draws near, I’m also planning meals. I refuse to let my professional life spill over into my personal enjoyment of cooking and eating well. Yes, I realize I will have to make some rearrangements, but I know it can be done. So, maybe you all can look forward to an active blog, focused on cooking, life as a graduate student, and more!

Miami, I’m here and I’m ready to make the most of it!

First off, I finished my last semester at OSU! It was terrible, terrible, terrible. I was busy all the time and I stayed up all night so many times I lost track of how many times it actually happened. Alesia and I barely survived. But I’m done now, except for one class that I might have to take this summer. My undergraduate career is essentially over!

Of course, with the end of one stage in my life, comes many goodbyes, but also the next stage is right around the corner. This summer I’m wrapping things up in Stillwater: spending as much time with friends as possible and completing my research project. I’ve already had to say goodbye to many good friends, and even more goodbyes are on their way. I hope to see everyone again some day! I’m sure we’ll all have holidays in Oklahoma, so we’ll probably meet up again.

So what’s next? Alesia and I are moving to Miami, FL! Crazy right? I’m finally escaping dull, dead, cold winters!

Alesia and I applied for graduate school last fall. We picked out schools that we both found someone who we wanted to work with, or at least the universities were in the same city. It was a very long process, and we were rather unfortunately interrupted in the process by our best friend Cameron’s death. We were devastated and trying to pick up the pieces as we trudged through the end of our fall semester and the extensive grad school application process. Needless to say, I don’t think our applications were as good as they could have been. It’s now been 6 months (to the day tomorrow) since our dear friend Cameron died, and I don’t know if I’m over it but I’m starting to move on. Other great friends have helped to fill the void, and I’m eternally grateful. (I’m looking at you Ben, Mary, and Lauren)

We ended up applying to the University of Washington in Seattle, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Arizona State University, and the University of Miami and Florida International University (both are in Miami).

If you’re not familiar with the grad school application process, I’ll fill you in quickly (if you are, skip this paragraph). First you contact a professor at the university that you would like to work with, talk to them, decide if you want to apply, and apply. Then, the department that you applied to decided whether or not they want you. In the sciences, grad students are funded to go to school through teaching assistantships (TAs), fellowships, or research assistantships (RAs), so the process is competitive like a job application. The department chooses a number of the applicants to invite to visit the university. They pay for the trip to the university and they interview the applicants. But it’s also the applicants opportunity to decide whether they really like the professor they want to work with, if they like the school, the environment, etc. Finally, the department decides on who they want to offer positions and send out acceptance letters. Applicants who weren’t accepted immediately are generally put on a second-string list to be offered positions if someone first-string declines the offer.

Ok, back to Alesia and I. I was invited to visit UW-Madison and ASU, and I was put on the 2nd list at UM. Alesia was invited to visit ASU. So Alesia and I got to take cool trips across the country visiting universities. I didn’t like UW-Madison. It was ridiculously cold for one, but I didn’t get a very good vibe there anyway. I guess it showed too because I wasn’t offered a position there. (But Madison is a really cool town. I wish I could find a town like that down south where it’s warmer!)

Alesia and I both really really liked ASU. It seemed perfect for us. Neither of us were accepted. Not enough funding I guess. One result of the economic downturn in the last few years has been the rapid increase in people attending graduate school. Add the funding crunch for lots of departments and you get a VERY competitive grad school application process.

We both were denied from UW-Seattle, so that only left a slim chance at UM. We were quite distressed and quickly made plans to stay in Stillwater next year.

Cue April 1. April Fool’s day. I get a wonderful email from the professor I wanted to work with at UM. She says I’ve been accepted AND they’re offering me a fellowship to do tropical botany!

Is this a joke?!

Nope! I visited Miami a couple of weeks ago, loved it, and made my final decision to accept UM’s offer! Alesia and I are headed to Miami at the beginning of August!

Alesia doesn’t have a job yet for the next year, but she’s looking. I’m sure she’s plenty qualified for a great job :D

We’re both searching for housing, which has proved quite challenging. Rent in Miami is at least 2-3 times higher than Stillwater. I’m not sure how we’ll afford to move, but we’re going to do it! We’re so excited!

It’s sad to leave family and friends behind, but I really feel like this is a natural progression for Alesia and I. The life of academia requires you to move between universities to get a diverse experience. Someday we may be able to settle down, but I think we’ll be happy to travel for a while longer. It’s been a crazy year so far, but it’s looking up! Miami, here we come!

Did you know that it’s been since the beginning of April that I last posted a blog post? I’m totally sorry, but a lot has been going on since then! How about some updates?

*Spring semester of my junior year of my undergraduate career is over. Not the best semester ever for me, but I did have fun. My ‘Biology of Fishes and Reptiles’ class turned out to be really awesome. I learned a ton and met a bunch of really cool people.

*Alesia and I moved into our new place together. I feel like it’s a big step forward in our relationship. The move took a gargantuan effort, nearly 3 days straight of packing and moving. We were both so exhausted by the end, but we made time to drink a bottle of wine together once everything was here. Well, not the whole bottle. And that brings me to my next point:

*I turned 21! The last day of finals week was my birthday! I would say we’ve been boozing it up since then, but that would be a lie. Traditions in Stillwater deem trips to the local bars (aka the Strip) were in order, but Alesia and I stayed in with a couple of friends and had rum and cokes. The coolest part about being 21 is being able to go into the liquor stores. So many awesome bottles. We’re trying to like wine. I don’t know how well it’s working out so far. I’ll keep you posted.

*Summer is in full swing. I went to work for the first time today. No more of this silly moving-unpacking-visiting family stuff (I do love visiting my family though). I’m finally learning the ways of molecular genetics this summer. I’m getting paid to work in a lab learning stuff that I think is pretty cool. Being a scientist is awesome b-t-dubs. I’m also working on two independent research projects this summer. One of them is at a serious road block considering I can’t seem to find anyone willing to teach me how to use a machine I need to BEGIN MY PROJECT! The other one will take a while to get started, but I can’t wait for the awesomeness to consume me. Anyway, this all boils down to a lot of lab time this summer.

*The townhouse we moved into is further away from campus than we’ve ever been. Even though we usually rode our bikes, we could still walk to campus in a reasonable amount of time at our previous residences. Now it would take upwards of 30 minutes to walk, so we have to rely on vehicular transport of some sort. My truck is out of the question for daily commuting. 16 mpg is just not going to cut it, plus parking permits on campus are ridiculously expensive. Alesia is probably going to buy a little scooter though, it will be her first vehicle! But we can’t both ride that, so we need more options. We rode OSU’s public transport system for the first time today! It was really awesome. The bus stops like right next to our apartment, and it only takes like 4 minutes to get to or from campus! It will be really great on rainy or cold days. The rest of the time I hope to ride my bike. Good ol’ Stumpy is in the shop right now being renovated for town travel! I’m so excited.

*We haven’t turned on the air-conditioner yet. I’m hoping we can make it through the summer without it. However, we might cave in the mid-July heat. Especially since we’re already hugging the fans and chugging ice water.

*Alesia and I bought a steal of a TV, giant 32″ flatscreen HDTV for $100. Booyah.

*WE SURVIVED A TORNADO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE HEARD IT!!!! IT TORE UP TREES LESS THAN A BLOCK AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- that’s right, we’re awesome like that. It’s what biologists do, survive extreme situations.

Alright. I’ll stop now. I really can’t expect people to read this much every time I mass post. And here’s an extra sentence to keep my word count from being 666.

I hope everyone has been enjoying the delicious spring weather, I certainly have. It’s actually been hot here a few days. I’m afraid that it’s going to be an extremely hot and dry summer.

I’ve been super busy. School, mostly, but a few other fun things too. For example, last weekend we went to OKC to see my family. We ate at this awesome place called Big Truck Tacos. I highly recommend it! We cooked delicious meals all week long, too: taco salad, delicious wraps, chicken and black bean tostadas, Greek pasta, and mushroom sauce tortellini! So good!

Right now I’m sitting in the botany workroom scanning a Nikon Repair Book and trying out the scanner for some film. I would like to develop my own B&W film over the summer, but I also like having digital copies of my pictures, so I’m trying the scanner out. I think it will be good enough by looking at the scans I’ve made so far. Mostly I like B&W film for prints, so having it digitally isn’t that big of a deal.

Mr. Minolta update: He’s still working thanks to his post-surgery, rehab exercises. I found a battery for him, and the light meter seems to work. I don’t really like it though, it doesn’t give me much flexibility with aperture/shutter speed settings. It uses this strange “EV” system. It picks one or two shutter speeds for each aperture setting, and won’t pick any shutter speed below 1/30s or above 1/250s. Weird.

Alesia and I went on an awesome trip to the Ozark Mountains in eastern Oklahoma yesterday. We went with a group of grad students and our professor from Field Botany and his wife (and his dog, Bonnie!). We had a great time seeing the spring ephemerals. Here’s a selection of what we saw yesterday:

Viola pedata Bird’s Foot Violet

Ranunculus sardous

Erythronium rostratum Yellow Trout Lily

Phlox sp.

A view over the Illinois River. Just on the cusp of spring!

Alesia and I had a pretty awesome spring break though, we went to stay with my grandparents in the land of no internet. We got to go to the Aquarium in Tulsa, and we went to Devil’s Den Park in Arkansas. We had a great time.

I think my biggest achievement over spring break was taking apart and putting back together Mr. Minolta in an attempt to fix his gunky shutter. He’s working for now. I managed to get to the front side of the shutter blades and clean them off, but I couldn’t get to the back side of them. I was stuck for a while because I couldn’t get the rear lens elements off the shutter mechanism, but as it was sitting there it loosened up some and I got the shutter going again. I wouldn’t bet a lot that it won’t gunk up again, but I’m pretty happy about it still. Alesia won’t let me put a roll of film in him yet though, she wants to make sure that he’ll keep working for a while.

I haven’t tried to work on my Nikon FE, the book I tried to get just recently came to the library, so I didn’t have it over spring break. But I know I’m going to have to solder to do what I want in the FE, so I’ll have to practice before I try it out on my camera.

I’m really not ready for spring break to be over, but I guess I should start studying again.

So, after the tragic incident when my brand new (to me) Nikon FE went crashing to the concrete floor in Aspen, I have been frantically trying to find a way to fix the minor problems that will bug me until the end of its existence if I don’t. I finally won a Nikon FE for parts/repairs on ebay, it should be here on Friday. I also found a book that I’m getting through inter-library loan that should help me out. I’m so excited. I’m going to have to wait until spring break to really work on it, so I’ll have to be patient. I just hope I don’t mess it up entirely and everything goes smoothly. I think if I do it when I’m at my grandparents’ house, I can get my grandpa to help me out some (and use his very extensive collection of tools). I’m really hoping I don’t have to do any electronic stuff, cause I definitely don’t know how to solder or anything.

In other news, Alesia and I bought a couple of rolls of Kodachrome. I think we’ll save it for summer, when the colors are worthy of capture. I was surprised to find any, but I happened to be trolling Adorama and found some, so I bought it. My grandparents also gave me a Polaroid 600 land camera. Of course I don’t have any film for it, but I’m keeping my eye out for it. Surely some little store in OK hasn’t sold it all. If nothing else, it looks like the Impossible Project will be selling film again soon anyway.

Well, I guess that’s all I have for now.

My stress level has just been going up here lately. I don’t have time to do everything I need to do, and I’m having real issues making sure that I care enough to do it at all. Alesia and I are both working at our max, but it’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I’ve been so pissy here lately, every little thing just about sends me into a rampage. Seeing a girl wearing tights for pants, giant tahoes not stopping at the crosswalk for me, and stupid girls walking slowly and not getting out of my way are driving me insane. I’m going to snap, I keep getting closer. Today a girl was sitting in the hallway across from her friend and they were talking. She had her legs with those nasty Uggs strapped to the end of them spread across the hallway. When I walked toward them, she pretended I wasn’t there and made me walk over her legs instead of pulling her legs toward her. I almost kicked/stomped her legs out of my way I was so angry. Bloodrage. Everything was red on the corners. All because she didn’t inconvenience herself because I was walking through when I could easily step over her? This doesn’t make any sense, I’m not an angry person.

I have a few theories, number one has to be the weather. If it was above 50 degrees for a day, with some sun and a nice warm breeze, I would probably instantly turn into the happiest guy on earth. However, we’ve had overcast, freezing days forever!!! I need a dose of vitamin D! Other theories include but are not limited to school work, roommate troubles, and money. School work is very challenging this semester, especially my Ichthyology and Herpetology class. I have no previous experience identifying fish or reptiles, and we have to learn a LOT of species AND their ranges. My roommates are a little hard to live with, but in my heightened state of agitation every little thing they do I look at in a negative light. And ever since last semester’s money fiasco, I’m trying really hard to not run out of money, but I feel like it’s already slipping through my fingers. I’m pretty sure I have plenty of money to make it until summer, I just have to make it stretch.

Anyway, I feel like I need to start exercising or something. On the way back from lab today I felt like I needed to run, kick, and scream. I wanted to run and run. Actually, I’ve been wanting to run a lot here lately, even though running is my least favorite form of exercise (well, almost). I would much rather be on a bicycle, but it’s too cold for that to be enjoyable. I hate the cold.

I don’t know what to do. I know I need to get all my work done, but I’m having trouble working efficiently with all my stress. What is your favorite way to de-stress? What do you recommend?

I know I’ve posted some stuff about Fever Ray in the past. Well, Fever Ray was the solo work of one of the members of The Knife. I don’t know how many people are actually acquainted with The Knife, I think they’re pretty popular in Europe. They’re an electronic group, not always the easiest stuff to listen to. Anyway, the link above is to their new album where you can stream and listen. Very odd. I haven’t finished listening to it yet, but it has me captivated. I guess they made this album for an opera celebrating the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s “Origin of Species.” If you listen to the lyrics, they’re all in English, and really kind of ridiculous (the lyrics are also on the site above under “libretto”).

Happy listening and tell me what you think!

As a side note, I started a formspring, so ask me something, anything!