Sunday, October 23, 2011
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Fall Courses
To complete my PhD at LSU I have to take a number of graduate level ecology-based courses. This is one of the main ways in which a PhD from an American university differs to one from a university in New Zealand where a PhD is almost entirely research based. Some of the courses I'll take while I'm here include classes in macroecology, community ecology, insect taxonomy, and statistics, along with a number of 'seminar' courses which consist of a weekly meeting to discuss papers, give presentations, or talk about chapters of a book.
This semester I have been taking three courses and teaching a class of my own. One course is called 'Biodiversity & Macroecology' which focuses on large-scale ecological patterns such as the latitudinal gradient in biodiversity (in general species richness declines with increasing latitude), species-area and species-time relationships (species richness tends to increase with area and geological time), spatial autocorrelation (variables being more closely related the closer they are together. This can confound ecological studies), and the use of phylogenetic trees (trees of species relatedness usually based on genetic analyses). We meet twice a week and discuss one or two papers on one of the above topics, and sometimes our instructor, Richard Stevens - a leading macroecologist, will give a lecture. The most fun part of this course is the project we get to work on. We have to use original data to conduct a (hopefully) publishable study on an aspect of biodiversity or macroecology. This is great for me as my old lecturer from Lincoln University (Hannah Buckley) has kindly allowed me to use data on sand dune communities I helped collect from all around New Zealand a couple of years ago. In using this data I plan to answer the following questions:
1. Is there a difference in beetle species richness between sand dunes with exotic and native vegetation?
2. Is there a difference in beetle species richness at different sections of the dune (fore, mid, and rear)?
3. Is there a latitudinal gradient in beetle species richness?
4. Is beetle species richness driven by habitat heterogeneity (i.e. the species richness of plant species)?
This is not an insignificant challenge and will definitely keep me very busy for the next two months!
The second main course I am taking is called 'Statistical Techniques I', which is a pretty basic introduction to statistics which can be applied to ecology. I've done a course like this in my second year of university back in New Zealand, but it's good to get a bit of a refresher and I'm learning how to use a new statistical software program in the lab part of the course. Otherwise it's a fairly boring course as you would expect with statistics.
The third course was only for half a semester and has already finished. It was basically just a lecture course about how to teach university level courses to undergraduate students, and was useful preparation as this semester I have also begun teaching for the first time. I have to teach two three-hour introductory biology laboratories a week which involves a quick lecture on the topic of the lab and then leading the students through a series of experiments which they conduct, collect data from, and then analyse as their homework. I also have to write quizzes, grade all of my students' work and make sure I am well prepared and know the material for each class. This is more challenging than it sounds, as I haven't thought about most of the topics (photosynthesis, respiration, membrane permeability, enzyme kinetics etc) since my first year at university, so I'm learning myself at the same time.
In any case, I'm learning a lot and gaining a great variety of new skills during just my first semester studying at LSU!
This semester I have been taking three courses and teaching a class of my own. One course is called 'Biodiversity & Macroecology' which focuses on large-scale ecological patterns such as the latitudinal gradient in biodiversity (in general species richness declines with increasing latitude), species-area and species-time relationships (species richness tends to increase with area and geological time), spatial autocorrelation (variables being more closely related the closer they are together. This can confound ecological studies), and the use of phylogenetic trees (trees of species relatedness usually based on genetic analyses). We meet twice a week and discuss one or two papers on one of the above topics, and sometimes our instructor, Richard Stevens - a leading macroecologist, will give a lecture. The most fun part of this course is the project we get to work on. We have to use original data to conduct a (hopefully) publishable study on an aspect of biodiversity or macroecology. This is great for me as my old lecturer from Lincoln University (Hannah Buckley) has kindly allowed me to use data on sand dune communities I helped collect from all around New Zealand a couple of years ago. In using this data I plan to answer the following questions:
1. Is there a difference in beetle species richness between sand dunes with exotic and native vegetation?
2. Is there a difference in beetle species richness at different sections of the dune (fore, mid, and rear)?
3. Is there a latitudinal gradient in beetle species richness?
4. Is beetle species richness driven by habitat heterogeneity (i.e. the species richness of plant species)?
This is not an insignificant challenge and will definitely keep me very busy for the next two months!
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| The sand dunes we sampled at Mason Bay, Stewart Island |
The third course was only for half a semester and has already finished. It was basically just a lecture course about how to teach university level courses to undergraduate students, and was useful preparation as this semester I have also begun teaching for the first time. I have to teach two three-hour introductory biology laboratories a week which involves a quick lecture on the topic of the lab and then leading the students through a series of experiments which they conduct, collect data from, and then analyse as their homework. I also have to write quizzes, grade all of my students' work and make sure I am well prepared and know the material for each class. This is more challenging than it sounds, as I haven't thought about most of the topics (photosynthesis, respiration, membrane permeability, enzyme kinetics etc) since my first year at university, so I'm learning myself at the same time.
In any case, I'm learning a lot and gaining a great variety of new skills during just my first semester studying at LSU!
Saturday, October 15, 2011
LSU Campus
I finally went for a small walk around campus and took a few photographs I thought I'd share along with some others I had taken previously:
The weather is slowly getting colder here as autumn (fall as Americans call it) really starts to set in. Today I actually had to wear a sweatshirt for the first time.
More blog updates to come this weekend as it's mid-semester break and I have a small amount of free time!
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| Looking over the quad from the Middleton Library |
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| Random mural on Allen Hall |
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| Fountain in the quad |
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| One of the old oak trees on campus, which are home to hundreds of squirrels |
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| Statue of Mike the Tiger in front of his $2 million tiger enclosure |
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| Looking across the small LSU lake at campus |
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| Pete Maravich Assembly Center, home of the LSU basketball team |
More blog updates to come this weekend as it's mid-semester break and I have a small amount of free time!
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Mammoth
This is some artwork I did for my old band Mammoth. It was originally intended to end up as a flyer for a show, but we never got around to playing it because we all left to go overseas. Members are now in Christchurch, London, Boston, and myself in Baton Rouge.
My sister also did some artwork for our EP, some of which ended up looking like this:
Inside the booklet featured two quotes which I find inspirational and served as a theme to some songs on the album:
"In the end, we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught." - Baba Dioum
"Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the Earth." - Henry David Thoreau
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Callin' Baton Rouge
Last Sunday marked the day that I had been in Baton Rouge for one month. I figure that's enough time for me to form a pretty solid view on LSU and the city in general. So I'll update you briefly with what I've been up to and some of my more interesting experiences so far. I'll save some of the more exciting things for future blogs.
My time here started pretty badly. First, my pack with all my worldly belongings didn't arrive on my plane. Luckily it did turn up a couple of days later, much to my relief. Second, my first few nights were spent sleeping in a dormitory. This wouldn't have been so bad, except for the air conditioning being set to 'Antarctica', not having a sheet, pillow, or warm clothes, being so jet-lagged I couldn't sleep, and being charged about $70 a night for the privilege of staying there. Third, I went to visit the apartment I was meant to be living in on campus to see if I could move in early to get out of the dormitory. I was gutted to see the apartment was an absolute dive. There was no carpet anywhere, the rooms were only large enough for a single bed, there was massive air conditioning ducts in the bedrooms, roaches in the kitchen cupboards, and the bathroom and kitchen fittings were from the 60's or earlier. I had decided within two minutes that I was going to forfeit my $200 deposit and move somewhere else. Finally, the weather here is incredibly different from New Zealand. For the first few days, temperatures were peaking around 40 degrees centigrade, and the humidity was almost unbearable. All this, combined with the odd fit of homesickness, has made me ask myself "Is my decision to move to the United States the right one?". At this moment, I'm still looking for the answer.
Not everything since I arrived in Baton Rouge has been terrible however. In fact, the good things have probably outweighed the bad. I have already made many good friends, particularly with international students, including awesome people from the UK, France, Serbia, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, and Honduras. Alcohol is ridiculously cheap here (you can buy a 1.75L bottle of spirtis for US $10), so we have had many crazy parties by the pool, playing beer pong, watching football, and dancing all night at various student bars. The bars here are quite different from New Zealand: they usually have a $5 door charge, often have free drinks from 8-10pm, have up to four bars where you can buy drinks spread throughout the bar, allow underage students in (the drinking age here is 21, but that doesn't stop them), and close at 2pm. I've also been playing a lot of basketball, and am starting to get my old skills back, which is good considering I haven't played for around eight years. I've entered a team of international students into the intramural 3 on 3 competition for this fall semester, which will be fun. We should be fairly competitive as we have some good players who have played at a decent level before. I will keep you updated on the blog!
The LSU campus is spectacular! It is rated as one of the most beautiful campuses in the United States and rightly so. The campus itself is huge; it would take over 30 minutes to walk from one side to the other. Nearly all of the buildings are really nice looking, and are a nice tan colour with beautiful red tiled roofs. There are lots of massive oak trees lining the streets with squirrels running around all over the place, birds singing, and insects chirping. On one edge of the university are three really nice and quite large lakes, which house turtles, fish, and various birds, and which people run around to keep fit (I haven't done it myself yet, but will soon). Mike the Tiger (the university's mascot) even has a $3 million habitat built for him. The sporting facilities are also unbelievable: I have mentioned the stadium previously, but there is also an athletics stadium, baseball stadium, soccer stadium, basketball stadium, and the list goes on....This is not to even mention the LSU recreation center which has five state of the art basketball courts, about 10 squash courts, a climbing wall, swimming pool, huge weights and fitness room, about five football fields, and over 15 tennis courts - I'm sure there's more to it, but haven't had a proper look around yet.
As for Baton Rouge itself, the city seems to not be too bad, but I'm yet to have a real good look around yet. From what I've been told it is split into two areas - south Baton Rouge and north Baton Rouge. South Baton Rouge is where LSU is based and is considered to be the nice part of town and is relatively crime free. North Baton Rouge is apparently a different story. As one man put it when we saw a lady out jogging around the campus lakes, "You wouldn't see that in North Baton Rouge unless she had a couple of big dogs on a leash and was carrying a gun". That's a pretty scary thought, I don't think I will be spending too much time there. The city has a giant mall called "Mall of Louisiana" which is like 10 New Zealand malls all put in the same place, it's just ridiculous and you can buy everything you need there. The only problem is getting there. In Baton Rouge, public transport is pretty much nonexistent. LSU provides a fairly good bus service, but all these buses just travel within a small radius around campus. If you want to get anywhere else you need to drive, which is why I'm already looking at buying a car.
Now that I'm somewhat settled in and getting into a routine I hope that I'll be able to find the time to update the blog more often with stories of what cool stuff I've been up to. For example, my next few blogs will be about classes I'm taking (and teaching), my first LSU game day, my apartment, and my laboratory I'm working in.
I'll leave you with this song "Callin' Baton Rouge" played with a video which basically shows you what LSU and Baton Rouge are all about. Most people here seem to go a little crazy when they hear this. Enjoy!
My time here started pretty badly. First, my pack with all my worldly belongings didn't arrive on my plane. Luckily it did turn up a couple of days later, much to my relief. Second, my first few nights were spent sleeping in a dormitory. This wouldn't have been so bad, except for the air conditioning being set to 'Antarctica', not having a sheet, pillow, or warm clothes, being so jet-lagged I couldn't sleep, and being charged about $70 a night for the privilege of staying there. Third, I went to visit the apartment I was meant to be living in on campus to see if I could move in early to get out of the dormitory. I was gutted to see the apartment was an absolute dive. There was no carpet anywhere, the rooms were only large enough for a single bed, there was massive air conditioning ducts in the bedrooms, roaches in the kitchen cupboards, and the bathroom and kitchen fittings were from the 60's or earlier. I had decided within two minutes that I was going to forfeit my $200 deposit and move somewhere else. Finally, the weather here is incredibly different from New Zealand. For the first few days, temperatures were peaking around 40 degrees centigrade, and the humidity was almost unbearable. All this, combined with the odd fit of homesickness, has made me ask myself "Is my decision to move to the United States the right one?". At this moment, I'm still looking for the answer.
Not everything since I arrived in Baton Rouge has been terrible however. In fact, the good things have probably outweighed the bad. I have already made many good friends, particularly with international students, including awesome people from the UK, France, Serbia, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, and Honduras. Alcohol is ridiculously cheap here (you can buy a 1.75L bottle of spirtis for US $10), so we have had many crazy parties by the pool, playing beer pong, watching football, and dancing all night at various student bars. The bars here are quite different from New Zealand: they usually have a $5 door charge, often have free drinks from 8-10pm, have up to four bars where you can buy drinks spread throughout the bar, allow underage students in (the drinking age here is 21, but that doesn't stop them), and close at 2pm. I've also been playing a lot of basketball, and am starting to get my old skills back, which is good considering I haven't played for around eight years. I've entered a team of international students into the intramural 3 on 3 competition for this fall semester, which will be fun. We should be fairly competitive as we have some good players who have played at a decent level before. I will keep you updated on the blog!
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| Cheap alcohol has lead to some good nights out so far... |
The LSU campus is spectacular! It is rated as one of the most beautiful campuses in the United States and rightly so. The campus itself is huge; it would take over 30 minutes to walk from one side to the other. Nearly all of the buildings are really nice looking, and are a nice tan colour with beautiful red tiled roofs. There are lots of massive oak trees lining the streets with squirrels running around all over the place, birds singing, and insects chirping. On one edge of the university are three really nice and quite large lakes, which house turtles, fish, and various birds, and which people run around to keep fit (I haven't done it myself yet, but will soon). Mike the Tiger (the university's mascot) even has a $3 million habitat built for him. The sporting facilities are also unbelievable: I have mentioned the stadium previously, but there is also an athletics stadium, baseball stadium, soccer stadium, basketball stadium, and the list goes on....This is not to even mention the LSU recreation center which has five state of the art basketball courts, about 10 squash courts, a climbing wall, swimming pool, huge weights and fitness room, about five football fields, and over 15 tennis courts - I'm sure there's more to it, but haven't had a proper look around yet.
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| Looking across the parade grounds to the law school |
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| My friend Darko from Serbia in front of Memorial Tower |
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| The Ol' Misty (Mississippi) |
I'll leave you with this song "Callin' Baton Rouge" played with a video which basically shows you what LSU and Baton Rouge are all about. Most people here seem to go a little crazy when they hear this. Enjoy!
Friday, August 26, 2011
Destination: Baton Rouge
I have arrived in the United States safe and sound, ready to begin graduate school at Louisiana State University (LSU) in Baton Rouge, but it was an epic process to get here!
I had to be at Christchurch International Airport at 6:30 am on August 9th for my three hour flight to Sydney. My parents took me to the airport after I had about three hours sleep the night beforehand, and my good friends Geoff and Ollie also came to see me off (cheers guys!). It was a pretty sad feeling leaving Christchurch and my family and friends behind, but I will be back to visit, and I'm sure I will live there again one day.
In Sydney I had around three hours wait in the airport, and after a brief moment of panic where I thought I had lost my passport (it was in my pocket!), I was winging my way on a 13 hour flight to Los Angeles. The flight was good, but I only got around one hour of sleep. This I blame on the guy who I was sitting beside. We were sharing four seats between us and it turned out he was a really cool dude, so we had a few beers together, watched movies, and talked crap for most of the flight.
Arriving in Los Angeles after travelling back in time (it was now only 11:30 am, August 9th), I was extremely tired, but knew I needed to stay up to try get my internal clock adjusted to US time. I caught a shuttle to my youth hostel and went for a walk along Santa Monica beach and pier. A lot of people had told me that LA is overrated, dirty, and the traffic is awful. Well, I mostly disagree. Santa Monica especially was really nice, and there were impressive street performers every 30 metres as you walked through the outdoor shopping malls. That night I finally managed to get six hours sleep despite the snoring of my youth hostel roommates from Brazil.
The next day I went on a tour of the city on the Rasta Bus with a few other tourists. We saw Malibu Beach, lots of movie stars' homes in Beverly Hills, Greystone Mansion, the Hollywood Sign in Griffith Park, the Walk of Fame, Rodeo Drive, and a few other things. It was a pretty good tour which took in most of the important things you would want to see in a day as a tourist in LA. That evening I went for a run along Venice Beach and then attempted to get some sleep before my 5 am shuttle to LAX. But I got around three hours sleep that night due to the amazing snoring concerto of two of my roommates mixed with the effects of jetlag.
The flights to Baton Rouge were relatively uneventful although I once again didn't sleep on them at all. I did have a change made to my flight at the last minute and so I flew directly to Dallas, Texas before Baton Rouge, instead of stopping in Phoenix, Arizona on the way. Because the airline did this they also decided it would be a good idea to give me $400 of airline vouchers. Bet you guys back in New Zealand wish that Jetstar had this level of customer service! I think I'll use these vouchers to visit New York during the Christmas holidays. Also, the Dallas airport is absolutely huge! As they say, everything is bigger in Texas...
More to come soon on my arrival in Baton Rouge and my first impressions of the city and LSU...
I had to be at Christchurch International Airport at 6:30 am on August 9th for my three hour flight to Sydney. My parents took me to the airport after I had about three hours sleep the night beforehand, and my good friends Geoff and Ollie also came to see me off (cheers guys!). It was a pretty sad feeling leaving Christchurch and my family and friends behind, but I will be back to visit, and I'm sure I will live there again one day.
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| Just about to walk into the departure lounge |
In Sydney I had around three hours wait in the airport, and after a brief moment of panic where I thought I had lost my passport (it was in my pocket!), I was winging my way on a 13 hour flight to Los Angeles. The flight was good, but I only got around one hour of sleep. This I blame on the guy who I was sitting beside. We were sharing four seats between us and it turned out he was a really cool dude, so we had a few beers together, watched movies, and talked crap for most of the flight.
Arriving in Los Angeles after travelling back in time (it was now only 11:30 am, August 9th), I was extremely tired, but knew I needed to stay up to try get my internal clock adjusted to US time. I caught a shuttle to my youth hostel and went for a walk along Santa Monica beach and pier. A lot of people had told me that LA is overrated, dirty, and the traffic is awful. Well, I mostly disagree. Santa Monica especially was really nice, and there were impressive street performers every 30 metres as you walked through the outdoor shopping malls. That night I finally managed to get six hours sleep despite the snoring of my youth hostel roommates from Brazil.
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| Santa Monica pier on Sunday afternoon. You should have seen how crowded the beach was! |
The next day I went on a tour of the city on the Rasta Bus with a few other tourists. We saw Malibu Beach, lots of movie stars' homes in Beverly Hills, Greystone Mansion, the Hollywood Sign in Griffith Park, the Walk of Fame, Rodeo Drive, and a few other things. It was a pretty good tour which took in most of the important things you would want to see in a day as a tourist in LA. That evening I went for a run along Venice Beach and then attempted to get some sleep before my 5 am shuttle to LAX. But I got around three hours sleep that night due to the amazing snoring concerto of two of my roommates mixed with the effects of jetlag.
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| Me and the Los Angeles Rasta Bus driver |
The flights to Baton Rouge were relatively uneventful although I once again didn't sleep on them at all. I did have a change made to my flight at the last minute and so I flew directly to Dallas, Texas before Baton Rouge, instead of stopping in Phoenix, Arizona on the way. Because the airline did this they also decided it would be a good idea to give me $400 of airline vouchers. Bet you guys back in New Zealand wish that Jetstar had this level of customer service! I think I'll use these vouchers to visit New York during the Christmas holidays. Also, the Dallas airport is absolutely huge! As they say, everything is bigger in Texas...
More to come soon on my arrival in Baton Rouge and my first impressions of the city and LSU...
Monday, July 25, 2011
Snow
It's just under two weeks until I begin my big adventure in the United States, so it's awesome timing for the largest snowfall in Christchurch for 15 years.
I went to bed with the backyard looking like this:
And then we woke up to this:
Mum and Dad decided that after living on Clifton Hill for 28 years, it was finally time to snowboard down it! So we made a video to remember the occasion:
I went to bed with the backyard looking like this:
And then we woke up to this:
Mum and Dad decided that after living on Clifton Hill for 28 years, it was finally time to snowboard down it! So we made a video to remember the occasion:
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