Fourth and Final Fort. Bragg Pictures

The final pictures in our series. Leaving Fort Bragg behind .



This was also in the botanical garden. Ricardo often takes pictures like this, of just a field of repeating patterns, like roof tiles. I like the texture of these plants that carpeted the ground.



This picture is of the ocean off the point that comes halfway in the walk around the garden. There was an Osprey there that day, diving for food. Real fun to watch.



An impressive cannon at the fort near the chapel (center) and an officer's house (left). I found one of the rangers trying to move one of these cannons in in the eastern round house. This building is heavily fortified, and multiple cannons face out, defending the fort. Someone had moved the cannon nine inches aways from its slit in the wall. Eventually we had three people, levers, everything. We could not budge it. It must have taken a crowd to dislocate it.



A sparsely furnished bedroom in the officer's house in the fort. This would look even better if it was black and white.



The Golden Gate.

Done!

Well I finished the semester at SJSU. I still have about 5 more weeks of my online course because they are on the quarter system, but it feels great to be done with one school course. My last final of the semester there meant I should move out of housing. I won't have classroom instruction except maybe once a week in the Fall so it doesn't make sense to stay. I will mainly work on my thesis all the time, and I can do that anywhere.

It was quite the end of an era in my apartment. Three out of the four of us moved out. We hated to leave the poor 4th one but the time had come. I hope she gets some good housemates. I was so lucky that everyone in that house was so kind and generous. I enjoyed hanging out with them all the time and we all became good friends. We had a good time. I can't believe it is over.

Now I wonder how to integrate my stuff back in to the house. I lived at school for 2 years, so I accumulated a certain amount of stuff. I'm going to get rid of a lot of it hopefully. There's just no room. Amazing the amount of stuff I fit into that room without it seeming crowded at all. It felt open and spacious and yet I took bag after bag out of there. And it is a pretty small room too! Man. Well wish me luck in getting this done somehow. Now some of my stuff is in the living room so I know Mom is rooting for the swift integration.

Utah Pictures Up

Ricardo has posted three pages of photos from Zion, Bryce Canyon and other parks in the southwest Utah region. They are, needless to say, gorgeous. You can reach them by clicking here. Take a look; they're fabulous. Such amazing rock formations out there and Ricardo catches them all in the best light.

Magazine

I was the Editor in Chief for a magazine in my features class. It came out and it looks great. I'm so proud of it. It is called "Other Voices" and is about people who society generally rejects, like immigrants and the homeless.

My other article came out too. I got an article in the school magazine about the black box label on antidepressants warning of suicidal thoughts in teenagers. I examined the controversy. I'm proud of that one too.

There are about four more new posts. Read on if you like.

Ricardo's pictures

My boyfriend Ricardo went to Death Valley and Bryce Canyon a couple of weeks ago. I was going to accompany him but there was too much happening at school. He has some great pictures though. Check them out here. They are labeled "Death Valley 2008."

He only puts his absolute best up there, so there aren't many. He's still working on the Bryce ones. These are beautiful though.

Internship!

I got an internship! This Summer I will work at NASA/Ames as a science writer. This is the culmination of a dream. The internship is perfect, just what I had hoped for. It truly embodies the science writing principles I intend to use in my career.

My job will be to write the end-of-year reports for the Air Simulation group at Moffet Field. Due to a shortage of staff they have neglected to write the reports for 2006 and 2007. So that will be my job. I'll interview the scientists about their research and discoveries for both those years. Then I'll write up the official report for NASA that they will give to potential customers who may want to use their equipment and expertise.

This seems like a very big deal to me and I feel so lucky to have this opportunity. I start June 9 and run through September. I can't wait! Yaaaay!

Thesis Approved!

My thesis was fully approved by the committee! They didn't think I had to change anything with my method or anything. I'm so happy. Now I can work on it this Summer.

It will be hard finding all the suicide reports, because if they follow the guidelines they won't use the word "suicide," especially in the headline. So it becomes difficult to find all the reports with certainty.