Sluisy Checking In

It's good to hear from you guys. It sounds like everyone is doing quite well, despite the pressures of actually growing the fuck up. I hesitate to count myself among you all in this regard, as grad school remains a far cry from the real world. I am, however, settling in and slowly feeling the reality of becoming a real person. I still find time to 'get shitty' and 'party down' every so often, but 2nd year is much more real than the 1st. Most of my cohort, myself included, are engaged in some level of qualifying exams. While the vast majority of students pass these exams in my department, they're still a big deal and need to be taken seriously. It involves me proposing what I'll be doing for the next three or four years to a panel of four faculty. You need to be fairly knowledgeable about your field, and prepared to say what you'll do in the very likely scenario of having absolutely nothing work as planned. It's tricky, and requires you to understand how science is done in your field, for which there is no manual. You also need to know what papers are generally considered to be garbage, because if you justify an experiment or method with that paper, you're suddenly in a good bit of trouble. I don't have a date for the exam, but it will likely be in April.

Last semester I taught intro biology lab, which was surprisingly little work and a fair amount of fun. It's a huge class of about 600 kids, so everything was streamlined and a lot of the work was done for me. I didn't have to design or set up any of the labs, so essentially I just walked in the room, talked for a little while, and scared the undergrads for three hours twice a week. I was definitely the 'cool guy' GSI and diligently avoided having to do any more work than I had to. Despite my best efforts, the kiddos seemed to like me, and gave me good evaluations, featuring feedback like, "Aaron is chill," and, "Pretty laid back, good GSI," and a surprising number that focused on my appearance, oddly enough. This is certainly a result of the "GSI effect" where, contrary to all logic and reason, I'm seen as an authority figure who is mature and successful. Those silly girls.

Berkeley remains beautiful, despite the homeless, and the oppressive police force in Oakland. The weather is fantastic and abnormally dry for the season. We've had several weekends with solid t-shirt weather (everyone come to California *cough* *cough*) and I've managed to get out of the lab and outside. I recently got a fairly nice camera, so have been going around taking pictures of plants and mushrooms and things. While mostly staying around town due to the imminent exams, we're hoping to get some trips in the coming months. Hawaii has been floating around, as well as Puerto Rico, but that would probably be in the fall.

I guess we're looking at the weekend of March 9th? I may be able to do that, we'll see. That's just after my girlfriend takes quals (she won't be happy to seem me jet right after she gets her life back, but she can deal), and right before Maize Meeting. The later is a conference for researches who work with Maize (duh) and is purportedly a complete and utter shit show. Apparently it's fairly common for some attendees to stay awake for the entire three days (probably with the help of amphetamines) and be drunk for most of it. Favorable job offers are apparently given to those with the stamina to drink and stay up with the best of them. I can only hope the Michigan prepared my liver for what it is about to receive. Anyway, the weekend in question does fall right between those events, so I might manage to make it out. No promises, but I'm certainly hoping I can.

Hope you all continue to be awesome.
-Sluisy Loosey McGoosey