Sunday, October 31, 2010

Paleontology Motherload

I love paleontology. I watch every single silly 3-D animated show on dinosaurs and prehistoric critters that I can get my hands on with childish glee. Some are done really well, and some are basically segments of 3-D animation shown over and over with a thrilling soundtrack and the occasional blurb from experts. Beautifully rendered, but repetitious and tedious. I particularly enjoyed Chased by Dinosaurs and the Walking With Dinosaurs series. (anything that Kenneth Branaugh got involved in, actually)

So imagine my delight when I discovered this blog. It is a wonderful blog, and the gentleman who writes it is exceptionally knowledgeable. It seems that he writes for peers, though, so a lot of his posts are really quite dense. If you are unfamiliar with the format of peer-reviewed literature, it can be a bit of a slog to get through. His analyses are exquisitely detailed, though, and I always enjoy reading them.

Still more delight: his blogroll includes several more blogs that only talk about dinosaurs. How I wish I didn't have midterms and applications to deal with. I could lose myself for hours reading.
So this is my first post. The look of this blog is probably going to evolve over the course of the next month or so, as I get the hang of Blogger and I find pretty pictures and quotes to put up. But first, a bit about me and my mission.

I am a liberal atheist that is trying to get into either medical school or grad school. I wanted to blog my experiences doing just that. I am also a post-bac going to school full-time at San Francisco State University, and I thought it would be fun (and help me get a firm grasp of my material) if every Friday I put up a post that takes a topic from class and explores it in-depth.

My chosen field is neuroendocrine physiology and/or surgery. As I learn more about this sub-specialty I will probably take my research and reactions and talk about what I am learning. I thought that until I handled a few bits of school business it might be fun for me to go over old topics from the endocrinology course I took last semester and discuss them in detail. 

On this blog I will ramble expansively about science, atheism, politics, and my quest for higher education. I am an adult, and the material I post may have adult themes or content. I am open and comfortable with my sexuality, and may well talk about that as it relates to physiology and endocrinology.

 I am excited about this opportunity to share my thoughts about higher education with the community at large. I hope you enjoy what I have to say.