Results

Yesterday I checked my research and I did not get the results I hoped for. But that's okay. Now I have to repeat what I've done to see if I keep getting the same results. Back to work!

Whoops!

"Whoops!" is one of my favorite words to say at school, especially in the lab! My friend Sam laughs at me every time she hears me say it. Well, today I said it! I forgot a step in my method yesterday so today I had no results! I had to do everything over again today. I will check tomorrow even though it's Saturday. Brian will come with me and we will have a good time.
I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow!

Anticipating Results

Tonight I am anticipating tomorrow when I will see the results for the first phase of my research. It took me a month and a half to get the methods down on my "practice" frog skin. This Tuesday I started on the "real" frog skin. In what took a month and a half with the practice will be at an end tomorrow with my real frog skin. I guess all of the practice paid off! But I'm worried about the results. Tomorrow I found out if I have been wasting my time. I found out if my hypothesis will not be supported. I found out if maybe I messed up. There are a lot of "if's" about tomorrow. I may also found out something exciting: that my efforts have not been in vain; that this frog skin does have antimicrobial peptides; that I will be able to move on to the next phase in my research; that a new species of frog will be added to the short, but growing, list of frogs with antimicrobial peptides...
If I do not get the results I hope for, then I feel like I have failed. Not just that I failed, but that maybe I am a failure. I know that I am making a big deal of this, but it's hard not to. I feel like science is not just something I do but a large part of who I am. It is easy for me to get disappointed and discouraged about my research. But it doesn't stop there. Then I feel like...I'm not sure. I don't know exactly how to describe it. If I do get good results then I will feel very excited. It is like a rush and I will be walking on clouds for a while. I will feel so important; like I did something very important. But again, I think I am making a bigger deal of this than I should. Right now it seems very important to me, but when I stop to think about it, there are things that are much more important. And I am not out to change the world with my research, so it is not the end of the world if my research doesn't go just the way I think it should.
Well, I know I've just been rambling on and just trying to put my feelings out there. Now I feel a little better.

Hear Cricket Frogs

I added a link "Cricket Frog" so that you can see pics, read about, and even hear cricket frogs. My mom found this website for me. Thanks, Mom!

Radagast

Here is my dog Radagast. For those of you who don't recognize this name, it is the name of Radagast the Brown wizard from the Lord of the Rings books. For short we sometimes just call him Raddy. He usually likes to have his picture taken. One of his hobbies is sleeping, which you can see him doing here. I got Raddy back in April 2003 and I like to say that he was my birthday present from God. I had wanted an Australian Terrier, which is a small brown terrier. We were going to get one for my birthday, but then this stray came in our yard. He was a cute older puppy. No one claimed him and I wanted to keep him. I knew I wanted him when he tried to follow me to work one day. I left him in the backyard and he squeezed between the gate and fence and started chasing my car down the street! I pulled over, opened the door, and he jumped right in my lap. I knew I was going to keep him. He's been a good little dog ever since.

Cricket Frog

I found this picture that I took years back while I was still going to Cameron University. I used to have time to go out looking for herps and on one of my trips I took a picture of this guy. Cricket frogs are small; about 1 inch or less. In our area they are usually a dark or light brown color. They can be found on the shores of ponds and lakes. Whereas most frogs have smooth, slimy skin, these cricket frogs have more warty skin similar to a toad. Cricket frogs sound similar to the sound of glass marbles being rubbed against each other. So even if you haven't seen one, maybe you have heard them before. The scientific name for cricket frogs is Acris crepitans.
To catch the cricket frogs there is no special method. I carry a medium-sized net and walk around the edge of the pond or lake while I look for the frogs on the ground. If they don't jump in the water right away, I chase them around. Many of them get away but I have managed to catch some. Dr. Scales has even helped me on a few occasions.
Because these frogs are so small, I don't get much skin from them. This is why the skin I have already collected is so important to me. This is why I am practicing right now on different frog skin.

Visit with Twins

Recently we visited Jason, Jenny, Henry, and Emma. I thought I'd put some pics up. I'm also putting up a pics from the October visit. The pics from the recent visit have a date on them. Aren't they so cute!

School Friends

Sometimes at school I do get to hang out with some friends. Here's a picture of Sam. We were friends from the first. We both started graduate school in fall of 2003. All of the TA's at school are great and some of us share a large office space. Deyo and Liliane became TA's this year and also liked them right away. Carey became a TA about a year after me and she is great. Actually she just had a baby boy on the 13th. I went to visit her in the hospital yesterday and Xander is very cute.
Sam likes to exercise and I try to work out a couple times a week with her. We also go out to eat sometimes and we just talk "girl stuff." All of my friends at school are great. I would hate going to school, and I don't know if it would be worth it to me if I did not have friends to share time with when I'm there.

At school

When I am at school this semester I am either being a TA or working on my research. I am teaching two Botany labs on Mondays. So on Mondays I prepare for the lab and take care of plants. Then I have lab for 4 hours and I clean up after students leave. On Tuesdays I have a TA meeting because I am the coordinator for the Botany labs. Two other TAs work with me, so at the meeting I basically get to boss them around and tell them what to do to get ready for labs. I am good at this (being bossy!) and I've been the coordinator for the last 5 semesters. Then I take care of some more plants. I also have to grade quizzes and assignments.
When I am not doing these things, I work on my research. My research for my thesis has to be original and something that I design myself. So the subject of herpetology (study of amphibians and reptiles) has interested me for a long time. Well, at Midwestern there is not anyone working in this field. Dr. Scales comes close because in his genetic and developmental research he uses African clawed frogs. Although I am more interested in reptiles, I thought maybe I could work with frogs. I heard about antimicrobial peptides being found in frog skin. I thought this sounded exciting. I found out what frogs have already been studied, with the most popular or well-known being the African clawed frog. However, this area in antimicrobial peptides is not Dr. Scales area. He deals with finding genes and such. He has never done research with antimicrobial peptides, but I thought that he could help me.
Anyway, peptides are small proteins. These antimicrobial peptides are found in all types of organisms as a type of immune defense system. The peptides inhibit and kill bacterias, fungi, and even some protozoans. Some peptides can even kill cancer cells without harming other cells. I chose to study the cricket frog, which is a small brown frog that is locally abundant. Later I will try to post a picture of what these frogs look like.
Here's a pic of me and Dr. Scales at a school trip to the OU Biological Station.

It's a start

Well, this is just the start of how I hope to help my family and friends know what I'm up to. Also maybe if it is in writing you guys can understand better what all the science mumbo-jumbo is.
So far I've been going to Midwestern State University forever, oh I mean for three years. I started in the fall of 2003. In those three years I have completed all of my coursework required for gradution. However I need to do a thesis to complete all of the requirements for graduation. So far I have chosen a research topic that I think I'm still interested in. I wrote a research proposal that was accepted by a committee of professors that I had to put together. I also wrote a different but similar proposal that I entered into a competition for a grant from the Texas Academy of Science. I won this competition (alongside another winner who was a Ph.D. student), and I received 1000 dollars to help me complete my research. This was a big accomplishment. This semester I am really cracking down on my work because I have a hope to one day finish this master's degree. Right now I think I can see a distant light at the end of the tunnel and it looks like I will be there in August. But I have to really work hard and I am at school almost every day of the week. This requires driving an hour and a half there and back but I think I can make it. My gas bill was 245 dollars for January but when I get done it will be worth it. To offset this cost, I started substituting for the Navajo junior and senior high school. I will sub any class they will let me and if I can sub 4-5 days out of the month then my gas bill is paid for. I was able to do this last month and I've already got a day and a half for this month.
Later I will post about my research and what it is that I do all day. I may not be a genius but one day you will call me Master...(evil cackle follows)