I Feel A Miracle

Just a quick entry (hopefully). A lot of excitement this last week, actually :)

So I'm working with a new recruiter. He's suggested a few things I need to do on my end, and while I'm working on that, he's actively working on digging some stuff up to see what he can do to help me. So that's awesome :D

I'm actually doing better with my insane reading load than I expected. I'm still wasting tons and tons of time, but I'm slowly getting back into decent study habits. Once a certain distraction is gone (not that I want him to be!) I'll probably have an easier time putting my nose to the grindstone. By the end of the semester I should be pretty set.

I met with the prof for my US Power and Policy class and my partner for the required project yesterday to discuss our topic. We had initially wanted to look into nuclear non-proliferation policy in the US, but weren't able to find much unclassified material in our preliminary research. After meeting and discussing a few options, we're going to pursue nuclear energy instead--first, taking an historic approach to the use of nuclear power as an energy source in the US, and then examining the power politics that have kept us from expanding our current use of nuclear power plants. Our professor also suggested we look into the PickensPlan. It's essentially a billionaire's pet project to pursue alternatives to oil. Not so much because of the environmental costs of petroleum use, but to get us out of our cycle of petroleum dependency. More of an issue of national security (and autonomy!) than "saving the whales". Or fish. Or what-have-you. She suggested pursuing an interview with him.

The best part? She set the bar reeeaaaallyyyyy high for me. She creeped on my admissions documents and said she was very impressed with my record. And that she has a lot of faith in my abilities to produce something remarkable with this project, ie., a publishable paper. How amazing would that be!? Published, after my first term of grad school! My partner is super excited for me, since from day one he's been trying to help me shape this project so that it will benefit me in the pursuit of my masters degree (he already has one, he's just taking the class for fun). Now I just have to deliver! Which means I've gotta get through all this other reading so I can really dive into the research.

I love research. I live for research projects. So much more fun than all these assigned readings...but they do at least give me a framework to build my conclusions upon once the researching is over.

Well, that was a nice break. Back to the books!