So guess who can't sleep when she has to get up in less than 7 hours for DIEnamics? ME! So guess who's blogging...lol.
Ok, so I think I'm having an identity crisis. First off, I really like who I am as a person right now. I accept my flaws, but I also feel like I'm doing something right with my life, and persevering through tough times. Overall, I like who I am, which is a big step for me. It also helps that I've got a couple of great people (especially one in particular) who support me and will be there with me through the thick and thin. Love you guys. <3
I have become stronger in my beliefs (in general) and that has better allowed me to get to know myself. And to learn that I don't need to change for people, they can like me for who I am, or not like me at all, end of story.
I guess because of who I am now, I'm worried about the coming months of job interviews, networking, and interacting with folks who are more than just my peers. I actually have to care what these people think about me. And I'm worried about how I come across.
Deep down inside, my dream has always been to move to North Florida or Georgia, somewhere rural, where I would then commute to work, and live out my idealistic lifestyle. But as the real world is encroaching on my doorstep, I'm worried about whether that dream is even feasible.
There aren't many available options in the meteorological field job-wise right now, so I would basically have to be willing to go where the job is. And I used to imagine that and be ok with it, knowing that I still had plenty of time to think about it. Well, I'm graduating in a little less than 8 months and honestly, I'm freaking out.
My dream was to live a simple lifestyle (yeah, it probably doesn't help that I've been listening hardcore to country music for over a year and had that idea firmly planted in my head). And I feel like things will be really weird if I end up anywhere out of the southeast. Honestly, I wish I had either a stronger Southern accent or none at all. I don't know how I sound to other people, but I don't want it to sound forced (when its not) or like I'm putting on. Besides Floridians "aren't supposed to have accents," which isn't true.
I want to grow up, marry a good Southern boy (preferably; he'll get me more than a Yankee or any one else), and have if not my dream job, one I at least enjoy, and raise a family.
Anyway...the reason all of this is on my mind is because I'm taking my resume to be reviewed and critiqued tomorrow in preparation for the Career Fair next Tuesday and the interest meeting I'm attending for a company called Universal Weather and Aviation on Monday night. AND potentially the AMS conference in January. So I get to stress about real life in addition to the hell Laz will probably put us through tomorrow since we all failed his test. And with that, I will stop for the time being, and sleep so I can actually stay awake in that class. Have a great day.
So I am officially obsessed with Amazon.com. Yes, I know, it's horrible. I finally caved in and am now one of those people that buy their textbooks online. I ordered my Hydrology book on Amazon and I believe it came in today finally (I got the notice, just didn't make it to the mailroom in time).
Slowly but surely the top half of the case on my phone has been falling apart -- all the claspy thingys have fallen off but one. And since the only place I can buy a replacement case is online, I figured I'd look on Amazon. I was stuck in a draw between these two cases:
Lime green! (I don't know why this pic is so much larger)
Black rubberized by Body Glove
Both are pretty awesome (and the green will be my fallback in case I don't like the black), but I ended up ordering the black one. It had much better reviews and many more orders than the green one. It's supposed to get here sometime between September 7 and September 10. I wish it would get here faster...lol.
But yeah, so I also started listing a bunch of my old textbooks online as well, since my mom had been pestering me to do something about them. I've listed nine books I think and I sold four last week, all within three days of listing them. I'm afraid I missed the "textbook window" slightly and will have to attempt to sell them again going into the Spring semester. So we will see.
It's been an adventure to say the least! Have a great day.
Luckily, I suppose, I was not the one who got appendicitis. I got a call from my parents Friday afternoon shortly after I got out of class, saying that they were on their way to Gainesville because Roy had tentatively been diagnosed with appendicitis.
He had started having bad stomach pains Thursday evening, and when he called my dad the next morning, my dad told him to go to the urgent-care facility in Gainesville. From there, they recommended he go to the hospital. So my parents loaded up and got up there in time for him to be going in for a CT scan where they officially diagnosed him. He went under the knife around 7:30pm Friday night for an emergency appendectomy.
Everything went great with his surgery and they released him from the hospital after just an overnight stay. My parents brought him home, and he has an excused absence for the week from school, but he's hoping to go back on Tuesday. Though he's doing great, I don't know if he'll be well enough to walk the millions of miles across UF's campus to go to class in the heat. If it was Florida Tech, maybe, UF, I don't know.
He's still in a lot of pain and is having numerous struggles. But he's doing great. Not that it was great that it happened at all, but at least it happened going into a weekend, so he has more buffer time before missing school. He was very lucky though, to catch it before his appendix ruptured. I worry about him, but I know he's doing good. I feel bad for Yvette, because she's all alone up there while he's at home. But then I know EXACTLY how she feels since I was in the same situation in May and June. At least she'll get to see her man again in a few days... I miss mine and want to see him desperately. Have a great day.
My academic future is currently up in the air. I had a meeting with one of my professors today regarding graduate school and my future. He basically recommended that since my grades are not great, not to apply to grad school for meteorology because, basically, no one will accept me. This was a tremendous blow, even though I knew deep down it was coming. My goal had always been to get my master's degree in meteorology, at minimum, and preferably at Oklahoma, so I could chase storms. Now I'm not sure how much meteorology will be in my future after May 7, 2011.
For the past eight or so years of my life, all I've been able to think about is meteorology. It's the only career I've ever truly been interested in. And I love meteorology and the weather. I truly want to be a forecaster. It's my dream job. But I'm really afraid that it's just slipped away.
My professor said I still should apply for meteorology here at Florida Tech, because I may get accepted since I'm one of their own. But no guarantees...I basically have to do AMAZING on the GREs to even be considered. So now I'm looking slightly more seriously at going to UF and getting my master's in environmental science. They have a lot of diversity in degree programs there, and while there isn't a specialized degree for meteorology, I can hopefully still get to do something I'm interested in. My goal would then be to try and get a second master's elsewhere in meteorology. It's the only thing I can think of to do. I want to be a meteorologist so bad, and even if it takes two or more years before I can get back to it, I want to, desperately.
There are a lot of jobs in the environmental science field and my professor recommended me going the public policy route. So I could basically work for the St. John's River Water Management District, for example (which I wouldn't mind doing and sort of got a job offer there a few years ago). Working at a job like that, hopefully I can incorporate my meteorological background and have it help me move up through the ranks or into an actual meteorological position.
The only thing that still bothers me about this whole mess, is well, that I may never get to chase tornadoes for scientific purposes. I mean, yes, one day I will make it to the Midwest and chase a tornado, I'm promising you this right now; but I wanted that to be my job...or at least work on a related research project.
I don't know what my future holds right now or what I'm going to do in the coming months, let alone what I'll be doing a year from now. I've had a lot of "bad" things happen to me in the last three months, I just have to keep telling myself that everything happens for a reason. I just want to know what to do, because I am in fact, lost. Have a great day.
It still hasn't quite hit me yet that tomorrow is the first day of my senior year of college. Really? It's been three years already? It's nuts how much time has passed and yet it feels like just yesterday (or maybe last year) that I was in high school.
I'm hoping this semester won't kill me. But then I'm also taking my first semester of Atmospheric DIEnamics (or Dynamics if you're boring). And Dr. Lazarus is the professor for that class...and he expects a lot out of his students...especially ones he likes...like me...
I'm also taking Probability and Statistics, Environmental Hydrology, Remote Sensing for Meteorology, Physical Oceanography, and the corresponding Phys. Oce. Lab. Tomorrow I just have Prob. and Stats. and the lab, so hopefully not a horrible day. And they're both in Skurla, so I don't have to go anywhere.
So far, so good though. I like my roommate a lot, and I'm pretty sure we'll get along really well. I definitely feel like something's missing though and I know exactly what that thing is. I'm just trying to press on regardless from that respect, but it's hard when at every turn there is something to remind me of better days.
Oh well, I'll try and update you tomorrow on how the first day went! Have a great day.
Or at least I hope they're improvements!
Anyone who has ever visited the site before will notice the changes to the Home page, as well as the additional pages added with weather forecasts for selected sporting events and a News Archive of all stories posted on the Home page. For example, if you look at the News Archive page now, you'll see the story from where my lightning photos were featured on Weather Underground's Approver's Choice photo gallery last weekend. Another change includes the photo in the header at the top of each page, which is now a photo taken by me! :)
After looking around on the internet and seeing what other folks have done, I decided to change the direction of this site a bit. Originally it was purely so I could blog and feature my more creative side (which doesn't show up very often). Now I want to post regular forecasts for NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events, as well as the forecast for each game on the Florida Gator's football schedule.
I will still continue to blog (hopefully on a more regular basis, lol), but I couldn't say yet if in-depth forecasts will appear in the blog, or just on the home page. Keep your eyes out for continuous changes on the site. Have a great day.
Well first off, I'll be interested to see what time/date this entry actually posts as since its a little after 11pm and I'm not sure I will finish by midnight...lol
Ok, anyway. So I know, I've been neglecting this blog...but I mean I've been busy. So busy in fact, I should be writing my methods and introduction for one of the four papers I have due in the next week, not writing this blog entry...but obviously you can see where my priorities are.
An brief update of what I've done since I last wrote here:
-I launched a radiosonde (weather balloon)
-I storm chased, multiple times...for SCHOOL! :D
-I went to a friend's wedding shower and reception
-I visited another friend who recently had surgery and is recovering (I wish
him well! <3)
Basically, the reason I am writing this blog is to ask everyone out there that reads this (haha, good joke Sarah, good joke) what they think of this idea:
Do you think receiving a book of letters is romantic? My fear is that because of what I would probably write to him would only be maybe 50% romantic, the rest would be random stuff that happens to me, similar to what I write here. Any advice/suggestions on this matter would be greatly appreciated!
Any other ideas for keeping romance alive when you cannot talk on the phone, text, regularly keep in touch via the computer (basically my options are snail mail or driving 150 miles), I would love to hear!
I'll leave you with this: me helping inflate the radiosonde balloon. Have a great day.
Yes, it was really awkward to hold and I was afraid my arms were going to give out.
Sorry that I haven't posted anything in awhile; school got pretty busy. I just got back Saturday from my research cruise aboard the R/V Weatherbird II. We left Wednesday afternoon from St. Pete and docked on Saturday afternoon in Key West. So, yay, my first trip south of Lake Okeechobee!
Here is the Weatherbird, my home for four days:
We did lots of science and yet still had to have ENORMOUS amounts of free time, and were often bored. The major activities we had while on board were:
- Continuous weather monitoring
- Buoy/ADCP deployment (see link below)
- CTD deployment
- Water testing using the YSI
- Use of the side-scan sonar
- Using the Aanderaa to measure currents
- SST measurements using the "dipstick"
- Precipitation measurements
The most tedious thing to do was the continuous weather monitoring, which we measured every 30 minutes. We also didn't set up a very organized shift schedule, so every night we had to scramble to make sure we would have 2 people up to do the weather and that everyone else would be up to take care of their respective tasks.
Our basic route was this:
We left out of St. Pete; went parallel to the coast; dropped the buoy somewhere between St. Pete and Venice; continued south and did CTD casts near Sanibel Island; then headed west to 84W longitude, stopping every half longitude (82.5, 83, 83.5, 84) to do a CTD cast as well as look for oil (which we didn't see); then we headed south towards the Dry Tortugas, also doing CTD casts every longitude line again; then we went swimming and snorkeling in the Dry Tortugas, as well as touring Fort Jefferson National Park; then we headed east to Key West, stopping every two hours to do a CTD cast.
Because of the whole oil spill thing, we got publicity for potentially doing work concerning the spill (we were going to deploy drifters to detect oil if we were able to reach a high-probability area, but did not get far enough west for the captain's preference). So the buoy deployment was big news in Tampa, and they had a piece on tv and such. Here is the link:
http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=133388&catid=8Overall, it was quite a fun experience and I could write pages, upon pages about all the occurences on the cruise. So if you have any questions/comments or want to know more, shoot me an email, or message me on Facebook. Have a great day.
So, for most of the world who isn't obsessed with tornadoes and storm chasing, you may not have heard about the controversial event that occurred on Wednesday (5/19). Ok, now I'll assume that you may be familiar with the Discovery Channel show, "Storm Chasers", that has had three rather successful seasons, all of which I have watched. My dad and I have always been intrigued by Sean Casey, and his TIV, Tornado Intercept Vehicle. And even as I watched the show, I recognized the recklessness of this individual and his disregard for science.
Joshua Wurman, of the CSWR (Center for Severe Weather Research), has always been the scientist behind the TIV on "Storm Chasers", telling Sean where to go, so that he can get his money shot for his IMAX movie, many years in the making. Wurman issued a statement today about how the TIV is not at all associated with the VORTEX2 project, that is occurring through the beginning of June. This was in response to a video posted on YouTube that shows the TIV and his crew driving recklessly.
See the video here:
The final vehicle in the armada has a CSWR decal on it, which Wurman made sure to state was not an authorized vehicle.
There has been a lot of critical discussion in the last 48 hours since the event occurred. Other folks have come out concerning the recklessness of inexperienced chasers, as well as chasers who do it for the thrill, and not for
science. Experienced forecasters and chasers are saying that the main danger of chasing right now is other chasers, not the storms themselves. As much as I would love to be out there chasing, I know to do it intelligently. There are too many unprofessional chasers out there who don't know what they are doing and being completely unsafe and potentially endangering others.
I have no idea how to prevent this from happening, or how to regulate those on the road. Except to continue to stress the safety impacts that inexperienced chasers can bring to the table. And to cancel shows like "Storm Chasers". Yes, its great entertainment, but its also encouraging people to pursue severe weather in an unsafe manor. The Weather Channel and all sources of media in
general, need to stop the superfluous coverage that attracts thrill-seekers.
My dream is to one day chase tornadoes in the Midwest. I just hope that whatever comes from this weeks events doesn't hinder me from reaching my goal. I'd love to hear anyone's opinions on this occurrence, and I can provide you to any further links/information. Have a great day.
