endless forms most beautiful

[ID: photo of the book Speciation on a coffee table, alongside a mug. The book has 3 fish on the cover.]

11.01.2021 - daily tracking

DONE TODAY:

finished last chapter of Speciation, another book off my list! 

read one chapter of Phylogenetic Comparative Methods by Luke Harmon

paleo class

labwork

READING: The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang

November: read the remaining 4 books my committee gave me (2 chapters per day) + finish creation of general topic study guides (3 topics per week), interspersed with writing sessions and reading journal articles 

December: first draft of proposal to be finished before I fly home for winter break; begin reviewing topics and practice explaining concepts aloud (both alone + with study group)  

[ID: overhead view of box containing various leafy greens. END ID]

10.13.2021 - daily tracking

I took a break from studyblr while waiting for my laptop to be fixed and after that, I was out of the habit and just busy enough to not work it into my routine. I’m still busy as hell but also determined to get this back up. 

DONE TODAY:

read 1 chapter of Tree Thinking by David A. Baum and Stacey D. Smith

read 2 journal articles

paleontology lecture

ethics homework

washed my car

picked up my farm share box

worked on refining the hypotheses for my dissertation proposal 

READING: Sistersong by Lucy Holland

[ID: close-up photo of the back of a closed laptop sitting on a placemat. One side has cracked open, revealing the hinge. END ID.] 

09.09.2021 - daily tracking

The hinge of my laptop broke today. As long as I don’t move it, it can stay upright, but I’m afraid continuous opening and closing may damage it further. Therefore, I’ll be leaving it at home and only working part-time in the building (just when I have classes or meetings) until I can get this repaired. It’s not the end of the world - at least the laptop itself is working well - just annoying to have happen in the second week of school. 

DONE TODAY:

ethics class - we talked about misconduct and what to do if we witness it, hopefully never will but it’s good to be prepared

re-read 2 chapters of Origin of Species

outlined 3 potential thesis chapters to pitch to my advisor tomorrow

ethics worksheet

READING: The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri

I finished going through the evolution lectures today! Next goal will be re-reading On the Origin of Species (likely I’ll be skimming it rather than reading it in full again, just to get the key points down for prelims).

DONE TODAY:

readings for ethics

reviewed 2 evolution lectures; covered diversification patterns and species selection

labwork

paleo lecture

READING: The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri

[ID: photo of the book The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward R. Tufte. The cover features a rectangular figure with evenly spaced horizontal and vertical lines, and many non-parallel and unevenly spaced diagonal lines running through it, over the title and author’s name. END ID]

09.07.2021 - daily tracking

DONE TODAY:

read chapter 1 of The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward R. Tufte

reviewed 2 evolution lectures; covered speciation and punctuated equilibrium 

labwork

paleo lab class

meeting for group research project 

READING: The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri

Happy Labor Day! I thought about taking the day off, but with prelims in ~2-3  months and having already taken all of yesterday off for errands and rest, I figured I should do something. 

DONE TODAY:

finished ethics assignment on mentorship

reviewed biodiversity notes

labwork

DONE TODAY:

reviewed 2 evolution lectures; covered phylogenies and phylogenetic comparative methods

lab meeting!!! it’s good to have these again and especially to see the whole lab in-person

labwork

READING: The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri

DONE TODAY:

ethics class! first of the semester, it’ll be a chill but important class, mainly discussion and stories to help us learn how to be ethical scientists and deal with problems when they arise

reviewed 2 evolution lectures; covered phenotypic evolution and the fossil record

labwork

baked cookies for lab meeting 

READING: The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri

[ID: left photo is close-up of a page of notes on adaptive landscapes. Right photo is spinach shakshuka in a pan. END ID]

09.01.2021 - daily tracking

DONE TODAY:

reading for ethics

reviewed 2 evolution lectures; covered gene flow and quantitative trait evolution

attended paleontology lecture

labwork

DONE TODAY:

did prelab worksheet for paleo 

reviewed 5 evolution lectures; covered selection, adaptation, adaptive landscapes, neutral theory, and genome evolution

attended paleontology lab

First day of school - and first day of being in-person for my PhD! We’re all masked up and vaccinated, so I feel fairly comfortable being in the office and attending classes in-person. I’m also stoked to be out of the apartment and actually seeing people. 

I’m taking 2 classes this semester - the main one is a paleontology course focused on vertebrates and the second one is a half-semester ethics course. The big goal for this semester is preparing for my prelims, which will be at the end of the semester.   

DONE TODAY:

reviewed 3 evolution lectures; covered history and basics of Darwinian evolution, intro to population genetics, and genetic drift

attended paleontology lecture

labwork

READING: Bestiary by K-Ming Chang (finished)

[ID: photo of notebook with notes on the SIR model of infectious disease, with two pens and a plushie of the common cold sitting on the bottom and top right corners respectively. The notebook is on a laptop sitting on a desk. END ID.] 

08.27.2021 - daily tracking

I finished walking through my ecology lectures today! I’ll be going through my evolution notes next.

DONE TODAY:

reviewed 3 ecology lectures; covered biodiversity patterns, mutualism, and disease ecology

laundry

labwork

meeting with lab-mate to discuss hiring an undergraduate research assistant

READING: Bestiary by K-Ming Chang

DONE TODAY:

reviewed 3 ecology lectures; covered spatially structured populations and communities and biodiversity relationships to ecosystem functions (mainly stability and biomass) 

labwork

READING: Bestiary by K-Ming Chang

DONE TODAY:

reviewed 5 ecology lectures; covered food webs, competition, niches, and neutral theory

labwork

meeting for group research project 

READING: Bestiary by K-Ming Chang

[ID: photo of open notebook with pen sitting on top. END ID]

08.23.2021 - daily tracking

Today I started reviewing lectures from my earlier ecology course to prep for prelims. Writing helps me learn things better, so I’ve been condensing lecture notes to pull out the important parts and organizing them into “study guides”. They’ll also make a handy review down the road. 

DONE TODAY:

reviewed 7 ecology lectures; covered population dynamics, life history strategies, and predator-prey dynamics

labwork

READING: The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie