Second paper

Well, I'm beginning to wrap it up now. A first draft at least. I should be able to turn it in early next week. A bit behind schedule, but nothing too terrible. I'm going to have an appendix M on this paper.

The first one I can hopefully have a second draft in this week. This one will be ahead of schedule, so I guess it balances out. I've tried to find some statistics on Ghana's environment for the paper, but have proved to be rather unsuccessful. I think I might have found some, but I think I may well just stick it in a final draft rather than wait until I can get the statistics to put in the paper. It won't impact my paper, just have another source for the paper. I'm still hoping I can get this stuff done by Spring Break.

Which reminds me...I'm thinking I'm going to nix both Hungary and Mexico options. They just don't seem to be working out. No worry, here are some tentative plans:

1. Try for a "last minute" trip to some yet to be determined city. I think there can be some good vacation packages (mainly just a flight and a hotel) to some fun cities. I think I might like Chicago since I'm vaguely familiar with the city. I certainly know I can navigate their El.
2. Try for a trip to Charleston and/or Savannah. If I played my cards right, I could be in Savannah for the St. Patrick's day parade there. This one could also be done fairly last minute.
3. If all else fails, I could try for a trip to either Nashville or St. Louis. I have people in both cities, and both could be made in a day, and fairly last minute. It may well too be my last good chance for either city. I always guess I could do both. Nashville would be a good halfway point on a trip back.
4. If ALL else fails, I suppose I could spend some time in Prattville as well (if I go to Nashville, I may well end up in Prattville for a couple of days anyway).

So that's what's happening now. Also Kerry's "Baby Pinky", is due here in just a few days. I'm "on-call". Funny thing: My cell phone rang at 7ish on Sunday morning. I thought it might be Kerry or Paul. No one ever calls my cell phone--I like it that way--but I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter, away to my cell phone, I flew like a flash. Alas, however, it was a number which I did not recognize, so I went back to bed. Since I got no voice mail notice, nor did my apartment phone ring, I figured that all it was was a wrong number.

Work is work. Job search consists of nothing much right now. I did get a job inquiry from a company in Madison, WI. They saw my resume on Monster.com. I'm not interested in the job right now, but it was good to see a response within a couple of days of posting the resume. I might be interested in the job in the future. Who knows. I also saw a temporary job with the National Park Service. It's a "Transportation" scholar, and is given potential for 3, 6, and 12 month assignments to develop sustainable transport within the National Parks. Needing a letter of recommendation to accompany my resume, and a statement of purpose, I'm thinking I'll get Dr. Weber to write me one. Reasoning: He's the transportation geographer in the department, his father was/is a park ranger at Death Valley NP. I'm not saying I'd get "stationed" at Death Valley necessarily, but rather someone who has experience with the NPS, and/or knows someone in the NPS might be able to secure me a position a bit more easily. This certainly intrigues me. I think with my creditentals, I might be a good candidate for the job. We'll see. Once I get my application stuff in, I should hear from them in, say, April, then get an assignment shortly after Graduation.

Ghana Video

Ahoy all...

This is the culmination of seven months of work (well, actually just two days, I let the videos sit around for seven months). This is a compliation of videos I took when I was in Ghana. The quality is not tha great on the videos since I took it on my still camera on which video is not the main function. In hindsight, or on a hypothetical second trip, I might take a video camera as well. It did capture some of the pictures, and certainly some of the sounds that I could never describe (the canoe section has music I added, but it was pretty much soundless, just imagine a paddle hitting Autauga creek, or the James, or the Black Warrior River and you have the same sound).

This is my first attempt at something in iMovie on my Powerbook. This is also my first attempt at Youtube.com. It made sense given the size of the video, as a means with which to share the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbYOqf2GnUM

Enjoy! And share as you see fit.

Brrrr...

Baby...it's cold outside...

Anyway, here's what's up in my world:

1. I got response back on my first non-thesis paper. No major re-write, just need to address a couple of topics in a bit more detail. I was thinking that when I turned it in anyway, but Dr. Weber gave me some sources on what he thought I needed to address further. I hope to have a second draft by month's end.
2. My second non-thesis paper is slow going. However, I am beyond the introduction and am in the procedure and analysis portion. That should go fairly easily. This does not have a terrible amount of sources since it is more a project than a research paper. I did manage to sneak in a reference to Prattville when talking about inter-municipal fire station responses (the Sept. 2002 mill fire called for Montgomery, Millbrook, and numerous volunteer fire departments from Autauga Co.).
3. I might be presenting my first non-thesis paper (the Ghana paper) at a conference in Tuskegee in late Feb./early March. I have a few days yet to make a decision on that.
4. I called the grad school up yesterday. They claim all my forms needed for graduation (degree application, candidacy application, comprehensive exam completion form) are all in. I got a time and a person I talked to in case it all goes awry.
5. I went to the career ctr. yesterday to get my resume critiqued. I now have it updated and am about ready to get it submitted. Related to this, I got a job announcement from the Geog. dept. a few days ago for a position in Mobile (it's a continuous opening I believe). I might send in my updated resume and require forms soon for that position. Even if I don't end up being able to get it right now, or secured right now, it would get my name "out there". Also with an updated and modified (for layout) resume, I can go ahead and start posting my resume on websites as necessary (Monster, Hotjobs, Geojobsource, etc.) and otherwise sending my resume out.

That is all for now...

First Post in a While

I don't post frequently because my life is boring. Kerry has a two year old child and is expecting another one soon. Kelly takes frequent trips to Washington and other exciting places to visit and/or with that RP character. I go to class, and write papers.

I am now about four days into my new assistantship. Things seem to be going smoothly. I have an office with only one other person having an office on this floor, a desk, a phone. It's almost like the real world...though I should be so lucky next year to actually have an office. I've mainly been setting up my computer/office like I want it, then updating the office's website (http://bama.ua.edu/~landmgt/). It is giving me experience in two other pieces of software, so no complaints.

I did get a first draft on my first non thesis paper turned in. I'm sick of reading the paper, but I did manage to get it to the initial maximum range my first reader suggested (he said 20-25 pages). I'm meeting with him on Friday to discuss, among other things, the status of that paper and what I need to do with the next draft. Other things I'm discussing with him:

1. Logistics of my second paper
2. My directed readings course

My one and only formal class only meets Tuesday nights, so I still have a few days until I can report on that. I got an e-mail from Dr. Webster about general things (it was sent to all grad students). He mentioned something about GY-500 for the current class. I had flashbacks. I'm glad that class is over.

I am ready to be done. I'm about 80% sure I'll walk in May sort of completing the cycle of the Gilbert siblings. That depends on my job situation.

That is all for now.