The View From the Ivory Tower

DISCLAIMER! In no way do I think that any of my opinions expressed in this blog are absolutes. Please feel free to disagree and feel even free-er to express your disagreements in the comments section. With that said, on with the show---

To get started, a brief history --

I am a 23 year old, PhD student at the University of Southern California and I currently live 12 blocks from the ocean in Santa Monica. I graduated from Rutgers U. in 2007 with BAs in Biology and Marine Sciences. My PhD will be in marine biology, but not the publicly-exciting dolphin training type of marine biology, but the general-conversation-yawn-fest field of microbiology. I study bacteria in the ocean.

So while I am busy most of the time being a good student and working towards future career goals, I do have my unproductive moments. This is my attempt to make my unproductive moments quasi-productive. Put some thoughts down on paper. Keep those friends of mine farther afield up-to-date and maybe get some new folks interested too.

I am sure I will post a ton of different, incoherent topics throughout our time together. I hope to keep topics to the growing gay rights/marriage equality issue, climate change, interesting news posts of the day... things of that nature. But I can guarantee I won't keep to these topics exclusively --

Living in Southern California has made me rather outdoors-y, so expect posts about trails, hikes and camping trips.

And in the same vein look for bike routes and adventures, as I love that too.

Absurd life stories! Always a must.

Rants about the injustices of the USC education system AND graduate schools in general.

And because I am straight, single male in LA, expect to hear stories of rejection and frustration because I am terrible at those first meetings with the opposite sex!

So let the fun begin!