Confessions of a lousy blogger
This entry was posted on 9/7/2007 9:00 AM and is filed under Ambassador.
Greetings from Cornell. Being a slow adopter of technology, this represents my first foray into the blogosphere ("blogonome"?). Very exciting! And a bit daunting. With an audience of smart, busy graduate students, there is a certain pressure to be succinct, witty, and informative, none of which can be considered strong suits of mine. So...rather than rise to the challenge, I'll just ignore the pressure and fill this space with awkwardly constructed sentences lacking both wit and wisdom. Read on at your own peril.
Still there? Well, you must be a glutton for punishment. I suppose if you won't go away I should introduce myself. I am a "non-traditional" student (aka "old") beginning my fourth year (oh my god, why don't I have any data?) at Cornell. I work in Jeff Doyle's lab, where I am studying the evolution of photosynthesis in polyploids. I use a group of recently formed polypoid species that are closely related to soybean. This is a nice study system because the diploid progenitors are still around, allowing for direct comparisons between ploidy levels. There are several polyploid species in this genus, so it is also possible to look for patterns across independent polyploidy events. I am using chlorophyll fluorescence to characterize photoprotective capacities in polyploids and their diploid progenitors, and molecular approaches to look at the evolution of gene families underlying these traits.
On a personal level, I am a native Oregonian, living on the east coast for the first time (though Ithaca hardly counts as the east coast - with homeless hipsters in the Commons, and ready access to quality beer and coffee, I'm pretty sure it somehow budded off of Portland, OR and drifted over here). I just got married this past weekend, and my wife works as an embryologist at a fertility clinic in Syracuse. After a week off planning and executing a wedding I am now trying to get back in the groove in the lab (or rather, writing a blog instead of getting back in the groove).
I will stop here for the time being. In a future installment I hope to talk about being a non-traditional student, and how I cope with the sad realization that I am in the same stage of my career as people who graduated from potty training when I graduated from high school.
Until then..
i admit you have a fine taste of writing.