Sorry!

So I know I promised to keep this blog up to date, but I'll be damned if a Master's degree doesn't involve a little bit of work...I'm sure a lot has happened since my last post (considering it's been almost a month), but I don't really know where to start.

I just turned in my first big assignment today (33% of the grade for one of my classes) which was focused on comparing methods to assess surgical pain in rodents. Is this a topic worth writing about? It turns out that yes, it is, as pain is a HUGE issue in animal welfare (obviously). The weird part though, is that there is still a pretty extensive argument about whether animals can feel pain or not. Now I know you're all thinking "of course they can!" and I'd probably agree with you. It just seems so intuitive that they would. But the issue needs to be dealt with from so many different angles that it is almost impossible to get a definitive answer. Essentially, in order to feel pain (rather than another, less controversial perception of noxious stimuli called nociception) requires not just a physical component, but an emotional response as well. This leads us into philosophical and scientific questions of animal cognition and consciousness which is, in itself, an incredibly complex field with a lot of different viewpoints to be assessed. I know it's not a particularly interesting subject for a lot of you, but that's what I've been focused one for a while now. The paper itself was meant to judge if this relatively new method of pain assessment was actually more reliable than some of the older methods. It was, so it looks like research is at least headed in one positive direction.

Other than coursework life has been...interesting. I won't get into it too much, but I think it will suffice to say that the hunt for a nice British girl has taken a few unexpected, discouraging, and bizarre turns...Essentially, it turns out that I am particularly attractive to girls that don't interest me in the least. I'm chalking up the disappointment to a combination of my incredible animal magnetism, dance floor dominance, and my absurdly high standards. I'm still optimistic, although I'm not really sure where all the beautiful, reindeer-enthusiast, country girls (alternately accepting Voodoo Princesses) hang out...probably Finland if I had to guess (I can get a plane ticket there for 12 pounds though, so I might give it a shot one of these weekends).

As I don't have much enthusiasm for extended stories right now, I'm just going to toss in a bunch of random thoughts - most of them in question format. Maybe one of them might be interesting. If not, I'll intersperse them amongst more pictures of Edinburgh that I know are more interesting.

After three weeks of searching I managed to find fresh cranberries for Thanksgiving. They were ridiculously expensive, but will be my ticket to a full Thanksgiving dinner with some American friends.

How do I go about finding a PhD program? How important is it that I take the GRE?

Who wants to come visit me here? Who wants to come visit me and then go immediately to somewhere that  stays light past 3:30? Tenerife? Marrakesh? I can get tickets to both places for 30 pounds.

Why do hiking boots all look stupid these days? I recognize that boot technology has progressed a lot since I bought my last pair seven years ago (RIP Kamik) but even the good boots look dumb. I guess it doesn't matter that much, as I don't have enough money to buy them anyway.

I was doing well at not being homesick until Friday night. Then for some reason I thought I should tell some girl about my dog...mistake.

What does everyone want for Christmas? Too bad, you're getting Scotch Whiskey.

Does Lindsay's baby have a name yet? I know they won't know the sex until it's born, but is Tsugotai still on the table?

Alright, last one - I finished working on Sarah's wedding pictures recently. Not sure when they'll be released to the world, but here's a little taste.