Author: meridithbartley

Carving Out Time: #WinterWishlist Edition

Finals. To anyone still in the thick of it, YOU’VE GOT THIS GO GO GO. But, to my fellow survivors on the other side of things:

tired

I had to push past a flooded apartment, screaming baby next door while studying, and being locked out of my apartment (and away from my computer charger when I had a report due), but it’s over and I’m still alive. I know a lot of us still have other responsibilities and likely a stack of homework/exams to grade, but let’s promise ourselves right here, right now that we are going to Take A Break. For me, the last few weeks have been nonstop with projects and finals and I barely remember what it’s like to have a moment to just breathe. But, it’s so very important to carve out time for yourself because if not, everything else will take over. I am looking forward to using this break to regain some sanity and motivation going into the new year. I hereby promise to spend a good portion of my winter break treating myself to some Real Life goodies.

I understand that our collective brains are sufficiently fried so we’ve got a lovely list post for everyone.  Rachel and I have compiled our happiest of Real Life things to do during the break. I barely know where to start! We would also LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to hear about your Winter Wishlists! Leave suggestions in the comments or tag us in your own post. You can keep an eye on our Instagram and Tumblr to get peeks of our #WinterWishlist fun. Continue reading “Carving Out Time: #WinterWishlist Edition” →

Crawly Cuties and Apartment Composting

My apartment here in State College is quite small, but it’s still the first place I’ve lived where I can make it (along with Benjamin, of course) my (our) own. Long hours at campus mean I want to make the most of my time at home enjoying the space and using it to explore any outside interests I try to maintain throughout graduate school. We use this space to develop some of our shared interests, and this is reflected in how we attempt to arrange the living area in a way that extends our tiny, tiny nook kitchen out into the rest of the room.  We try and cook for ourselves as often as possible and we relish our weekly CSA deliveries of local produce, dairy, eggs, and bread. However, this produces a LOT of food scraps that we don’t want to end up in a landfill somewhere. I really wanted to have a compost bin somewhere outside, but we don’t have a lot of space available to use around our apartment building and I wasn’t sure how well it’d be received. An indoor possibility was on my radar for a while, but, as I’ll discuss, I had some reservations. Having a bin full of worms in one’s apartment seems like something that should be filed under “You know you live with/might be an ecologist when….”, but in my research before I found that they are way more popular than I anticipated! Continue reading “Crawly Cuties and Apartment Composting” →

Why I Went Full Stats Stud

In honor of World Statistics Day 2015 I felt motivated to write about my own experience with Statistics and my decision to switch career paths from Ecology(ish) to Statistics for my PhD program. One could argue that my current position as a statistician is a result of an intense desire to avoid any more Chemistry courses as an undergraduate student in Biology. My Chem 2 experience was the roughest of my educational experience (the last year notwithstanding) and when I crawled out on the other end I vowed never again. Since a minor in Chemistry was out, I decided to go the Mathematics minor route instead. Why not? I took AP Calculus. I was “good at math”. My second grade teacher told me so. Let’s do this.

Continue reading “Why I Went Full Stats Stud” →