Today was the first day this week where I didn't have somewhere not on campus to be. I had a very busy day planned, that I anticipated being very producti ..... I actually started writing this blog, and got distracted by a bunch of emails I saw pop up in the bottom right corner. Ironic that it was right while I was typing about how I thought I would be productive today. Anyways, today was by no means a bad day in terms of getting stuff done, it was more just annoying. It was a classic September day, and I was kinda hoping October would be different, but three days in and no dice.
I planned on going to the gym, and have had trouble sleeping the past few nights, so when I woke up at my alarm time of 6:05 AM...I changed it, knowing if I had any hope at being productive I needed at least another hour of sleep to make it through the day. Thus I got up at 7:30 and it was already too late, as I needed to be at the lab no later than 8:45. My volunteer came to the lab first thing this morning, and she was a huge help. She organized my current field work situation and made a great chart to let me know where I am at in terms of sample collection and how much more I need (and it's more than I thought, sad face). She also photocopied a bunch of stuff for me, and got about half way through entering the data for recruitment counts that I have been collecting. She did a solid 2 hours of work that was MUCH appreciated. It is ironic, however, as when I first met with her I told her, the reason I needed her was because I was "too busy" and didn't "have time" to do these things. Meanwhile, for about an hour of the time she was here, my field assistant from last summer had stopped by and we were catching up.
Anyhow, once she was gone I took a deep dive into the paper I have blogged about before...the one that makes my paper sound like it's wrong? I am sure you remember that one! Anyways, every time I read that paper it makes me even madder. I started a pretty detailed list about some of the problems and concepts that the authors mis-interpreted and problems with their field work, models, etc. Next week I am meeting with Lonnie to compare notes about this, so I am hoping we are both on the same page. He said there are 2 things that can come from our meeting next week: The first possibility is that we come up with a great list of the main reasons that the authors mis-interpreted my study and that's why they got it wrong... OR we figure out that maybe him and I are just full of sh*t afterall.... We are both hoping for the first one!
I spent mid-day prepping for my meeting with Lonnie, getting my thoughts together about what I had accomplished in the past 3 weeks, and making notes of everything I needed to ask and tell him. And that's when I had my first potential PhD project idea. It may sound dramatic, but I really did get goosebumps! haha, swear to God! One of the main problems in the paper that counters mine, is their definition of competitive ability in plants, which is highly focused on resource acquisition, i.e. you are a better competitor if you are able to gain and deny the most resources; this definition is the highly accepted one in plant ecology. The definition of competitive ability (that I would use, as would Charles Darwin by the way) is more focused on fitness, a plant with a greater competitive ability is not necessarily the one that gains the most resources, its the one that transmits the most gene copies into future generations...the ones that have the most offspring. The review I am currently slogging my way through writing looks at what papers have accounted for the main components of competitive ability in plants (based on a Darwinian definition) and if they controlled for sources of variation (proximity to carrying capacity, niche effects, etc.). In the previous review from 2002, there were no studies that accounted for all 3 AND all sources of variation. And that got me to thinking. It would be REALLY freaking cool...if you could have a study that did all that. I am not even nearly done the literature review yet, so I am not totally sure it hasn't been, but based on the month of research I have done in the Journal of Ecology, I would not be very hesitant to guess that it hasn't been done. I was so excited about the possibility of this idea, and incorporating it into a PhD project....you know.. the first study ever designed that accounts for all variation and components of a Darwinian view of competitive ability in plants! (I know to non-plant ecology people, you may think...."that's nice"...but really.. its pretty freaking cool, trust me). But then I thought...Wait...Is that even POSSIBLE?? There's a reason these studies didn't account for all these things...and that was because in many cases, it wasn't possible. I mentioned this to Lonnie and he thought the idea was very cool and super interesting, so that is a bonus, but it is going to take a lot more research to figure out how feasible it is...and so I continue.
I was excited when I asked him about the higher education course I wanted to take, that he was so into it. He signed my form, I got the graduate assistant to sign it, and there was a third blank that said "School of Graduate Studies". So me ..you know...having a brain thought...well I guess I need to go there for them to sign it. I also knew I needed to get two copies of my MSc thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies as well, so they could bind them free of charge. So I figured I would stop, get it printed, and kill 2 birds with one stone. I got the 170 pages printed off and went to the SGS. Before I went in I stopped to look at what was printed, once it's bound there's no going back. Unfortunatley, the printer screwed up on...of all things...the title page. I was already up there and figured there was no point in going back to get a ten cent refund. I then noticed all of my landscape figures (that were landscape in the PDF) printed portrait. At that point, I said forget submitting the copies today and just went in to get the form signed. After seeing 2 different people they said, you need to get the Centre for teaching and learning guy, Andy, to sign it first. How I was supposed to know that...who knows. So off I went to the Centre of Teaching and learning, and of course, Andy was off today. So I left the form with them to get signed and go pick up tomorrow. This is what I mean by an annoying day....doing so much...and really accomplishing nothing.
One cool thing I found out today was about a group called the Ontario Consortium of Undergraduate Biology Educators. This is group that one of my Supervisor's previous MSc students is very involved in running. He said that given my interest in teaching Undergraduate Biology, it may be good to check in with her, so I sent an email her way. It's a pretty cool group for people who are Biology educators and want to share teaching ideas and all have a passion for teaching Biology. Definitely interesting!
I know that was a long and winded rant, but it's been a long and winded day!
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