Journal Entries
The Cancer Shot
Posted Oct 26, 2006
I wrote an email to my mom yesterday, trying to convince her why I should get The Cancer Shot- the new vaccine that protects against HPV.
First off, I want to assure everyone that I'm not putting myself at risk for HPV, nor do I plan to do anything without protection in the future... but sometimes people make mistakes, men lie, and condoms break. And what then? Besides, it's not like I'm planning to get the flu, or measles, or meningitis, or any of the other horrible things I'm immune to now.
I'm within the window, they're offering it at the school, and my insurance covers it- I called and asked. It protects against most strains of HPV, including the two that cause 70% of all cervical cancers. This is a cancer with a fairly good survival rate, and it's caught early most often with pap smears... but... cancer is scary and you don't want to get it.
She called me later- strangely, she was more OK with it than I was. I'm setting up the appointment today.
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Latest reply: Oct 26, 2006
That warm fuzzy feeling
Posted Oct 12, 2006
OK- so I've been away from the beagles for a while. I can still get warm fuzzies.
Today, I was applying for a job, so I thought I'd see if one of my internship's webpages had been updated.
It had: http://espo.gso.uri.edu/~surfo/surfolist.html
I'm on it!
Don't know why that made me feel so good, but it did.
Maybe it's because I got the nicest rejection letter on earth today- Newfield doesn't want me to come work for them, but the guy who interviewed me wrote me a nice personal note, saying he enjoyed talking to me and if I was going to be around next fall, he'd like to talk to me again.
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Latest reply: Oct 12, 2006
Cheaters
Posted Sep 30, 2006
I am sure I'm going to murder one of my students before the end of the fall semester.
I was grading homework assignments last night- the first one was an opinion paper on whether hurricanes have gotten stronger, and if they can be blamed on global warming. There were some good ones, some not so good ones, and one that had the word "crap" in it. About midway through it, I came across a paper that looked... odd. There was a paragraph in it that began, "Late last month, a study was published in the journal Nature..." Reading on, I realized that study was published last year and got suspicious. So I googled.
I gave up after finding four straight paragraphs he copied and pasted from a website, put a zero in my gradebook, and emailed the prof. When he saw it this morning, he was as shocked as I was. After we did a little more research together, we found that the kid had written all of three words of the entire paper.
I wanted to throw the book at this kid- he was a junior, and he should have known better. The prof decided to call the advisor, give him a zero, and give him an extra assignment, an essay on honesty in society.
Wonder what websites he'll copy that from.
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Latest reply: Sep 30, 2006
Can I catch a break here?
Posted Sep 25, 2006
Ugh...
You may have seen that I mentioned in another thread that my maternal grandmother (Baba) was ill. Well, it was a bit more serious than I thought.
She's had a stroke.
I'm kind of glad my dad didn't tell me right away, because when I heard that I was ready to jump in the car and drive, 
classes the next morning. It was pretty minor, and they're keeping her in the hospital, and she's got a good doctor, but...
As I understand, 48 hours is the golden rule. If she's OK this time tomorrow, she'll be OK.
Those of you who are religious, please say a prayer for her. Those of you who aren't, I'd appreciate it if you kept us in your thoughts.
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Latest reply: Sep 25, 2006
You want me to do what? Where?
Posted Sep 18, 2006
I've decided I have good animal Karma. Whenever I do something nice for an animal, I get repaid in spades. From babysitting my friends pets in Akron and letting them pull me out of depression, to taking in a betta and finding it knows how to dance, to volunteering for a rescue and getting a career boost, I've benefitted way more than I should have from every try.
Anyway, back to this beagle rescue I'm working with. I mentioned to the operator that I was a geoscience student, and we got into a bit of a conversation about that. He asked me if I did GIS, and when I said yes, he wanted to introduce me to his wife, a professor in art history who was doing some archaeology and needed someone to do some work on data in Egypt. I said OK, I could use some funding for next semester anyway- a little work on the side never hurt anyone.
Fast forward to today at 3 PM. I'm sitting in her office, and she's explaining a little about the project- they're trying to preserve a fort and a temple in Hierakonpolis that's being threatened by hypersaline groundwater seeps. It's the home of the first king of Egypt, and has been pretty important ever since. There's a bunch of data from the area that hasn't been processed yet, and they need someone who knows GIS to help. I'm no expert- I can't build something from the ground up- but given enough time I can make the maps dance.
Then, I listen a little longer- she's not just asking me to do GIS for her.
She's asking me to come to Egypt.
My first impulse was "Oh holy crap!" I mean, this would be a dream come true! I'd get to run around in the desert and play Indiana Jones, Daniel Jackson, Lara Croft, what have you! This is something I'd wanted to do since I could pronounce the word "Egypt!"
My second impulse was also, "Oh holy crap!" This might not be such a great idea. She wants me to go in January, and I don't know if I can be where I need to be with my thesis by then. Plus, with everything going on, this isn't a good time to be an American in a primarily Muslim country. With my personality, I'd probably get deported or shot within the first week.
I haven't even told my mom about it. You'd be able to see the mushroom cloud from Ireland if I did. I just mentioned to her that I might have a way to get funding next semester (which wasn't a lie- I can get it without going to Egypt), but I'd have to talk to people about it.
I walked out with my head spinning- this would look great on my resume, it's something I've always wanted to do, and the field site is just an absolute mystery! I mean, we kind of know what happened there on a vast regional scale, but as for local stuff? Pfft! There's hydrology, geomorph, sedimentology, stratigraphy, geochemistry, geophysics... I mean, we don't have the answers to very many questions there. We don't even have enough info to know if we're even asking them all!
But then, this is the first time I've been genuinely scared about going somewhere. And that by itself makes me worry.
What do you think?
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Latest reply: Sep 18, 2006
Scandrea
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