And so begins a new day...

I really should be studying for a midterm tonight but need a break from all the homework. What better to do than create a new blog. I have not been terribly successful to date in maintaining my blogs. This time will be different. I need an outlet for my research and hobbies. Facebook is too distracting and mundane; Google+ will be a good outlet, but I am still learning the ins and outs of it. And so Blogger it is!

To start off with, a little about myself. I am an undergraduate student at Oregon State University studying zoology, specifically evolutionary biology and ichthyology. I am the collections manager of Oregon State's Ichthyology Collection in the basement of Nash Hall, a collection of approximately 250,000+ fish in about 20,000 cataloged lots and another 10,000 more lots of back logged specimens. This blog to highlight some of the personal research I am doing in the collection as well as the occasional post about my current coursework and some guest pieces on other research my friends and associates are currently working on as well as some of my personal posts. The format may change depending on readership, but for now, I will post some personal posts here.

I am overwhelmed with school work and research at his moment and just need to vent. I have a midterm a week the rest of this month and then a weeks break before finals. My coursework includes calculus, genetics, and organic chemistry. I need to finish a several large projects in the OS ichthyology collection regarding a recent upgrade in facilities and the moving of the collection to a new room. On top of that, I have fallen behind in my goals to have a proposal ready for an upcoming grant. The deadline is in two weeks and I know I won't have it ready by then.

I am a little lost on getting the proposal done. I need to sit down and come up with some key goals and methodology hammered out and go from there, but when? I will probably work a little on it later tonight, a little this weekend, and maybe I will have a decent proposal ready to present to funding sources by December.

Well, I am going to head back into the wonderful world of calculus for a little bit.

Til next time, best fishes!