So…what happened to Cheshire?

So…if you’ve been following this blog, you’ve probably noticed a distinct lack of posts. I wrote about this two posts ago, but I figured I’d share some details. For the past year, I’ve been trying to get into a graduate school. My grades are excellent-I’m one of the top in my class…it’s been a solid [...]

Bed Bugs in Their Natural Habitat

So…last night, I had an opportunity to look for bed bugs in their natural habitat. I was called to a friend’s house to collect some specimens for the ISU entomology department. I rooted around on a couch for an hour, and helped them clean the place up before leaving. It’s kind of an interesting thing, [...]

Dear Undergraduate

Dear Undergraduate, I know how things are for you right now. You’ve been a part of the education process for the past half-decade and it’s become all you’ve known. Now, you’re at the end of your undergraduate journey and you’re staring the real world in the face. Maybe you’ve worked the same shitty part time [...]

Aphids have mutualistic viruses!

Aphids can be a pain in the ass to gardeners and farmers. Although they look pretty harmless, they’re to plants what mosquitoes are to people and more. They transmit some pretty serious diseases which cause millions of dollars in damage per year. They’re also famous for their fecundity-they’re parthenogenic and their daughters are actually born [...]

What the recession means for prospective graduate students.

As I’ve said a few times here on the ‘blog, I’m currently looking for graduate school. I’d really like to get into research because it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time and I think I’d be quite good at it. I’ve been having some problems, though. Times are tough due to [...]

Cheap hotels…another great thing about college life

So over here in Iowa, we had a big snowstorm this week. Okay, it wasn’t that big. It was probably about six to eight inches or so. However, the problem was the TYPE of snow. It was the light fluffy stuff that Christmas songs make such a big deal over. And it came down quickly. [...]

RIP Francisco Ayala and a word on regrets

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gPDJPki2ZyAyIdd8lztIKWkD3IsQD9BO5ETO0 Francisco Ayala has died, a brilliant mind’s time has gone by. About a year ago, Ayala came to Iowa State to give a talk. Unfortunately, my work schedule conflicted with his visit and I was unable to make his lecture even though several professors (including one entomology professor who knew about my passion for [...]

Fuck…I don’t think I’ve ever been excited about finals before

It’s Thanksgiving break! That means that I get to spend time with the family, the kid, and some family members who come in from out of town. Yay!!!! And all I have to work on is two presentations, a paper and about three dozen insects to sort through. Seriously…I love insects, I really do. They [...]

College and work

Bug Girl has a post about where to find jobs in school. It’s a great list, but I’m gonna kind of pull a Kanye here and point something out. Jobs around campus aren’t difficult to find if you know where and how to look. However, if you have special circumstances (in my case, child support), [...]

Graduate school and irony

Hey, guys…looks like this graduate school thing is going to be a bit longer than I thought. Took the GREs…gonna take them again. Need to apply for graduate schools, need to take care of some legal issues, and of course wrap up all of my loose ends here in Iowa. It’s going to be a [...]