How Many Jobs Can I Apply To In A Day?

Answer: Too many. You can easily do 20 in 3 hours. Yes, I know because I just did. Yay.

So...how are my rose petals today? Still looking pretty from Love Day I bet :) Oh, you should check out this link. If you don't see the beauty of Earth, you will after this. Just  see the Aurora Borealis from a satellite. I dare you to click the link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG0fTKAqZ5g (It has dramatic music too! haha...I love Earth)

Anyways, I applied to multiple jobs today. I'm trying to figure out what I want to do this summer since it is my last one I will spend in Wisconsin for probably at least 10 years or so. Unless, I come back to UW-Madison for my Ph.D. which is highly unlikely - I rather go explore new places and pathogens. So what was I getting at? Hmm...oh! I remember. Since this is my last summer is the Midwest, I don't want to work my pretty little fanny. My first summer in Madison, I worked two jobs with a total of 45-50 hours a week. I made BIG BIG BIG bucks which covered an entire semester's worth of tuition :) To top that off, last summer I worked the same two jobs and took two summer classes. I didn't make as much money but my semesters this final year were lighter loads so I could raise my GPA. Yeah, I worked hard and now I want to have a relaxing summer while working one job (25-40 hours).

I'm looking at a lot of places in Elkhart Lake such as Victorian Village, Siebkens, and The Osthoff. I'm also looking at all of the KOHLER Company places - Blackwolf Run, Whistling Straits, KOHLER Landscaping, Woodlake, The American Club, etc. I applied to 20 jobs in the past 3 hours to the above mentioned companies. My top pick (if I get accepted) would be KOHLER Landscaping where I do landscaping work for many of the KOHLER Company places. I may be at Blackwolf Run for a week and then The American Club. You get the idea. Come on! What is better than playing with plants while getting paid to do so? NOTHING :)

I'm going to find some cool pictures to post on here. I PlantPath Girl-ified my Biochemistry Office. There was too much white and not enough nature. I found a bunch of HD Nature Photos and printed them off and did a little interior designing to Feng Shui my cubicle. umm...33 MORE DAYS UNTIL ENGLAND!!!!!

NC State

Why hello there! Sorry for not posting lately - I've been busy with preparing for graduate student recruitment weekend at NC State! I had a wonderful time - I'll tell yall about it!!

I left for NC on Wednesday right after a physics class - literally right after class. I ran out of lecture and to the bus which left practically the second after I got on. Thankfully the bus got to the terminal early (and that I checked in online) because there were so many people! When I landed in Raleigh, a graduate student was there to drive me to the hotel. I had to wake up at 7a their time to have breakfast with everyone. It was so busy - we were scheduled from 7a to 9p both days!

Can't help myself from taking Nature pictures!

Sedona, AZ

On Thursday, I got a tour of NC State and the surrounding area, shown places to live, dinner with graduate students and some faculty, tour of Bayer CropScience, whirlwind tour of other companies that collaborated with NC State, then dinner with the Dean and other graduate committee members.

PlantPath Girl and her brother - Grand Canyon National Park

Friday, I had 4 interviews with researchers who had similar interests to mine. Then we had 2 group interviews where all 12 of the recruits mingled with 10 or so researchers. I was so tired at the end of the day! Then we had dinner at a graduate student's house. I went to bed at 10:30 because I had to wake up at 5:30a to get to the airport for my flight home. Of course, I couldn't sleep on the plane but hey! It was a successful weekend to say the least :)

Just a pine cone chilling in some ash

My main research interests are sustainability in the farm field. How can we control plant diseases be controlled without chemicals? Are biocontrols an option? Host resistance (genetic/plant breeding)? Grafting (root stock that is resistant to a soilborne pathogen with a top that has delicious tomatoes on top)? What else can we do to grow crops sustainably? Finally - I'm extremely interested in Extension work and getting the information out to the public and doing small workshops. Hopefully Dr. Frank Louws gets back to me soon and I can get in his lab :) :) 

Nature <3

Nature Inspired Love

Happy Valentine's My Little Fungal Spores :)

http://thoughtcatalog.com/2013/24-ways-to-be-a-better-person/#mft1PubUT7Mqy4AU.01

I'm sure you all love that compliment! I know, I need to tone it down. The boys are lining up at my door already at it's only 9:30a! I don't think I'll make it to class; too many guys to fight off ;) Oh, check out the link above. It's pretty awesome! My friend Marc showed me it! Anyways....since it's Valentine's Day and all (or Singles Awareness Day), I figured I should post some photos of Nature Inspired Love to get us all in the mood. Oooh - sounds sexy! I bet there is a lot of fungal and bacteria sex going on right now. They must now it's a special day. They can reproduce better than the entire world combined. Trust me - I count spores in a lab and then have a complicated algorithm to get the total number of spores produced by one sporocarp :) There can be many, many sporocarps on on fungal fruiting body. So, where am I going with this? Not sure. Have some pictures!

Anyone can catch your eye, but it takes someone special to catch your heart.  ~Author Unknown

If you are ever in doubt as to whether to kiss a pretty girl, always give her the benefit of the doubt.  ~Thomas Carlyle

Let your heart guide you.  It whispers, so listen carefully.  ~Littlefoot's mother, Land Before Time

Let your love be like the misty rains, coming softly, but flooding the river.  ~Malagasy Proverb

We say we love flowers, yet we pluck them.  We say we love trees, yet we cut them down.  And people still wonder why some are afraid when told they are loved.  ~Author Unknown

What we find in a soulmate is not something wild to tame but something wild to run with. ~Robert Brault

I can live for two months on a good compliment.  ~Mark Twain

If grass can grow through cement, love can find you at every time in your life. ~Cher

 Smile, it lets your teeth breathe.  ~Author Unknown

People are not perfect (except when they smile). ~Author Unknown

Cheerfulness is the very flower of health.  ~Proverb 

Oh, PlantPath Girl is Going to England!

Why hello my little seedlings! Getting enough sunlight to perform photosynthesis? You sure are receiving adequate precipitation to grow into something b-e-a-u-tiful! I have some extremely exciting news to share with all ya'll! I am visiting Anna in England over our spring break! :D :D :D :D

Let all of your troubles, worries, sorrows and pains flow over the rocks and fall away. Just let them go. Can you hear the rumble of the waterfall? Can you see the water sliding over the edge? Can you feel the power of letting go?

Let your mind and heart be open. There are always bumps, twists, turns, and rocky paths but we can overcome these. Where there is turmoil, focus on remaining your mind calm and open like the picture above. Can you feel the relief?

Ky and I will be there for 9 days, which may seem like a long vacation but it's not enough! We are planning on visiting our friend Zac who is studying abroad in London too! This is our unofficial plans (if Anna approves)!! Sat/Sun stay in London to visit Zac and tour the place. Monday see the Cliffs of Dover and then head to Shaftesbury (Anna's hometown). Tuesday we want to go to Stonehenge and relax in Shaftesbury. Wednesday we are leaving up to Anna to decided. Thursday and Friday - Ky and I want to go to Northern Ireland to see Giant's Causeway and lounge in the Emerald Isle! Saturday we would (hopefully) go to Anna's university - Warwick (one of the Russel League universities which is equivalent to America's Ivy League Universities). Sunday we leave our friends and go back to Wisconsin :(

We are Earth. Connect to Her. Imagine you're standing in this field! There is a gentle breeze that lifts your hair from your face, the grasses brush against your skin, the clouds paint pictures in the sky. Take a deep breath in - can you smell Nature?

Find Beauty in Everything. The sun is setting behind you, casting a yellow glow on the mountains, the serene pond, the sky. The only ripples are those when you dip your feet in. The only movement is your breathing. There is only you and Nature.

To me, it actually doesn't matter what we do when we are in England. I am just so happy to see Anna again!! It will be about 8 full months since I last saw her :(  After this trip, who knows how long it will be until we meet up (we are both graduating this semester). It's a really sad thought so I'll focus on the positive. I'M GOING TO ENGLAND IN 39 DAYS!!!! AYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!

HAWAI'I

I GOT ACCEPTED TO UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI'I AT MANOA!!!!!
I CANNOT BELIEVE I GOT INTO MY TOP TWO CHOICES FOR GRADUATE SCHOOL
I GOT ACCEPTED TO HAWAI'I!!!!
AM I DREAMING?! OH MY GOODNESS!!
I DID IT! I HAVE OPTIONS NOW :D

THIS PLANTPATH GIRL IS TAKING LIFE BY THE HORNS AND HAVING THE BEST OF TIMES :D :D    

New Tattoo!

I got a new tattoo a few weeks ago! It's behind my right ear. It's a tree with a dove flying from the branches. There is a lot of meaning behind it - I'm not one to get a tattoo for the sake of it!

So the meaning behind the tree. Trees are flipping strong! They tolerate almost everything, support life, and reach towards the sun. So, the tree means to me: Think Like A Tree. Stand tall and strong - people will push you ever which way and try to knock you down. You have to stand tall and stay rooted in your passions even if people say you're wrong. 

Then for the bird. First off, I got it in memory of my friend Nikki Kehm. She was killed by a drunk driver the summer going into our junior year in high school. The window clings that were designed in her memory included a dove. Hence, part of the meaning behind the dove. But the other part: never let yourself get trapped into something that doesn't feel right. Birds fly free in the sky and try repeatedly even with a broken wing.

I got the tattoo behind my ear to remind myself to truly listen to what my life is trying to tell me. Plus, it is in a place where it's not too noticeable. Take a look of my newest tattoo :)

By the way, this is what I look like! Yes...I have a bamboo shower curtain :)

I Love My Tattoo!!!!

 

Capstone Project!

http://vimeo.com/markg/fullmoonsilhouettes Hey hey hey! This is a pretty cool video. Please enjoy :)

So, this post is going to be about my capstone project. I've been working here for two weeks already but haven't had the time to make a blog! I am taking 6 classes this semester and it's kind of taking over my life right now! Oh well, I am officially accepted into graduate school so it is all paying off!!!!

I love seedlings :)

My capstone - I work with Dr. Brian Hudelson in the Plant Disease Diagnostic Clinic (PDDC). I will be learning different lab techniques ranging from isolating nemtode cysts from soil to fungal spore isolation on agar plates. Right now there are not a lot of samples (obviously, it is winter in Wisconsin) but I got to do some disease sampling. My first day, Andrew, the other lab tech, taught me how to extract soybean cyst nematode (SCN) cysts from the soil samples. That was something I have never done and it was fun! SCN cysts we found! They were all over the place in our sample! Brian did a 1mL count instead of 5mL there were so many! I got to see the cysts and the juvenile stage. Nematode juveniles look like microscopic worms (vermicular form) and have a stylet (mouth/tongue thing) that you can see in a light microscope :) I'll try to find a picture and post it.

Other things I will be doing include going to talks/presentations /meetings with Brian, meet other extension workers, and write disease articles! http://labs.russell.wisc.edu/pddc/vegetable-facts-sheets/ <-- Here's the link where you can find the fact sheets! There are more than just vegetable. Look under Fact Sheets in the upper headings and enjoy diseases, insects, and basic horticultural fact sheets. Hopefully I will have a few up here within the next few months!!! I will then have a few things published which will look good on my resume. Here is the link to my second publication: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadang-cadanghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadang-cadang 

Let your mind be as free as the clouds in the sky.

Soak up the sunshine.

Let the wind play with your hair.

Don't be afraid to show your inner beauty.

Overall, I love my capstone project. I graduate in 105 days. I got accepted to graduate school at NCSU. I traveled to Guatemala. I'm a happy camper :)