September 13th, 2010

Lame title, i'm aware. Get over it, here's you're first real update on my life:

So after sitting in my forensic anthropology class today, I think i've pretty much come to the conclusion that  i'll be staying in San Marcos a bit longer than I planned. I'm strongly considering doing the Masters program here at Texas State in Forensic Anthropology."Why in the name of everything you hold holy would you want to stay at Texas state?!" you might ask? 4 words.

Forensic Anthropology Research Facility. Thats just the fancy name for the Body Ranch.

Not only is it the largest in the United States (A healthy 27 acres of ranch land), it's the largest in the WORLD. The next (functioning) research facility is at the University of Tennessee with a whopping 2 acres. The one in Tennessee also next to the university hospital, and the parking lot has now grown around the facility. Lets just say parking out in that lot in the summer must suck. A lot.

The US is the only country that will allow such research to be done period. Other countries have to use pig models, and the UK i think does their research with RABBITS because even pig remains are not kosher (see what I did there? hilarious pun, i know).

Ontop of the that, the program here at TSU is barely 2 years old. PLENTY of research to be done, and even if it wasn't so young, there would still be insane amounts of research to be done because San Marcos is in a totally different climate area than Knoxville. therefore the information gather from their facility isn't really applicable to any other area OUTSIDE of the knoxville climate unless your region is similar.

So yeah, Do I think my concession to come down to Texas State to finish my undergrad was a good choice? Its a fucking EXCELLENT choice. Sorry Longhorn buddies, I think i've just been converted into a Bobcat.

Side note: most of the work done by the graduate students at the Facility? Boiling bodies and diggin' ditches. So if nothing else, i'll know how to dig a ditch real well.

Their PHD program is still in the works but I would probably choose to go somewhere else for that, just for some diversity.

Like i said before, i'm heavily leaning towards this decision. Nothing is set in stone. My next step is to talk to an advisor and some of the anthro professors to see how I can set myself up to succeed in this endeavor, or if this even is the right thing for me.

I have a lot more to discuss but i'll leave that for another day. I think this one topic is good for now. Now that I have sufficiently informed you, i'm going to eat my ribs now that were given to me by Liz De La Garza. And i'm sure they're even tastier after talking about boiling bodies to skeletonize them. Mmmmm, meat.