THE LATEST ON DOCTOR JOHN

Maybe you have or maybe you haven't read previous "transmission" from my friend, the good Dr. John. I met John 10 or so years ago as he was taking over ownership of a veterinary clinic in the Atlanta area. South side. So he could be amongst his peeps. He has been in Ely and Duluth Minnesota as of late, both working and advancing his education. Below is Johns most recent transmission.


Sent: Monday, December 14, 2009 3:24:23 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: journalism

What up T?
So I've been on this (wildlife)ecology path for 3 years now because I
wanted to have a legitimate segue from my previous career. Now I have a
"job" so to speak at Auburn Univeristy in wetland ecology - which,
although in the school of forestry And Wildlife sciences, it is slanted
more towards forestry because it deals with urban effects on carbon
cycling and water retention. Point being - its important work in
today's climate - no pun intended - but not what I really started out
on. You see, along the way towards getting certified in wildlife
ecology so that I could apply my previous scientific background to
managing overall wildlife populations, I took a wetland course, then got
certified to determine where a wetland begins and where it ends, got
contacted by this professor at Auburn who was really interested in me,
and wha-la, here I am. Suppose to show up at Auburn on January 11 - I
get a stipend to work on a project and teach some undergrad biology
labs. Its freakin ridiculously low wages but its progress on the path.
Also along the way, I have written a lot of papers - gotten a fair
amount of writing practice. Its funny to see my instructors correct me,
though, because I like to put a creative bend on the writing. "You
can't do that! Its a freakin Science paper!" So now, I think I want to
be a journalist and work for somebody like NPR and report on scientific
matters so that people can understand the issues and get a clear
understanding of both sides. Oh, what to do? So many choices in
life...so little time. I'm packing the car and driving south in 4 days
as soon as my finals are over here in Duluth....."Headed down south to
the land of the pines...." I have some pictures of wintertime here to
be sent later. jd