Ok, who in the world is interested in sand anyway? I never intended this blog to be an outlet for serious academic thoughts, but came across a few pictures in my photo album, which captures what I do for a living, and thought I'd post them here. I study sand and mud, and yes, it is as geeky as it sounds. However I study sand and mud to figure out how the climate changed in the past, which is of interest to anyone who might ponder on what might happen if the climate changes in the future. That's the serious explanation, ie. what I tell people when they ask me what I'm doing and usually people lighten up at the recognizable words "climate change" and appears to either think something along the lines of "ok, that makes sense" or feels obliged to share ALL their personal beliefs about the evil nature of mankind. Either way - what I don't tell them is that I don't really care about unveiling the climate history. What really fascinates me is the mere thought that a change in grain size, structures and stratification in an old rock DOES say anything about anything.

However geeky I might be when in the field, I actually never intended to become a geologist. I'm still not entirely comfortable with the concept. I mean...... I should be an explorer, a traveller, driving cool 4WD's through the deserts of central Asia, an authour, a philosopher..... anything but someone who spends most of her time behind a desk reading duller than dull technical articles discussing recent findings about the movement of sand grains in some experimental tank in a far-away city in the midwest. I mean who writes this stuff anyway? Did they really want to be experimental-tank-operating geologists? and please... can I be something else when I grow up? The geology thing kind of just happened to me. I was a lazy brat in high school and went to too many parties and dreamt about too many guys to get the grades needed for my first choice - geography (figured that would be the proper academic background for an explorer). Geology did not sound awfully different and at the drop of a hat ...... I was en route to become an earth scientist. The coolness factor of the geology degree what pretty high due to the number of excursions to remote regions, and awesome social scene. Wanna meet a bunch of fun people and go with them to Greenland where you can sit outside the tent watching the midnight sun drop behind the mountains......and be at school - well, maybe then geology is for you too. The fun people and the exotic (or arctic in my case) travel opportunities just kept rolling in, and there was never really any good reason to leave, and here I am, still. 12 years after the haphazard entry to the subject, not doing too bad, and still waiting for them to figure out that I'm just a wannabe explorer/ author/ philosopher in disguise.

At the tender age of 31 with a graduate degree under my belt and the next one looming, I seems kinda late to think about "what do I wanna be when I grow up?". It's more like... geez, I have grown up, and this is what I'm doing. It's not too bad though. I do a fair bit of travelling to some neat remote places, where very few people ever get the chance to go (I'm not entirely sure they would want to though, but that's another story). I have mustered up a peculiar fascination for sand and mud (never thought about that opportunity back in the days of high scool career advice) and have so far landed an awesome job - just how awesome it will be is subject to investigation over the next few weeks as it is beginning tomorrow morning. It's time to get back to work. If not for anything else - to save up for the cool car for the desert drive.