A few years ago, when I started receiving my first few paychecks, I remember casually asking my elder sisters: “How much should I save?” And their resounding answer was: “As much as you can!” I’ve often kept that moment in mind whenever making financial decisions. I hope you noticed that since I had to ask this when I was already earning, money wasn’t a usual topic of discussion when I was growing up. My parents almost never talked about it except to remind us to save. I still try not to think about it, but even then I knew that it was something that I had to keep myself on top of. So, I decid ..read more

One of my students recently asked me for advice about her local geology chapter. She noted that her classmates had much longer chapters compared to hers. She believed that the others were writing too much, but at the same time recognized that she probably wasn't writing enough. This made me think back to what guidelines I followed during those times when I had to write my reports for field geology classes. These guidelines are listed below.   1. Finish your figures first. Making figures and writing content are two very different tasks. In my experience, my brain just doesn't like it when ..read more

Okay, I kind of repeated the title of last week’s post. That’s because this post is mainly based on a 2017 article by Zach Hanlon, and in that article he compared his old email system to “slaying a hydra.” It’s been a year since I last read his article, so no, I did not get the hydra inspiration of the last post from him. But when I looked it up again for this post and noticed he also used the hydra reference, I decided to continue with it, especially since it’s remarkably accurate. Anyway, if you want your email to look like this: ...then keep reading. As already mentioned multiple times in ..read more

The Hydra Torch You just graduated. You feel great. Excited. Powerful. Like Hercules. Then, you set out on a challenge. You unwittingly decide to be a graduate student. Much like how Hercules went on a challenge to slay the Hydra. You swiftly tend to your classes, just as Hercules swiftly cut off the Hydra's head with a stroke of his sword. Unfortunately for Hercules, and for you, the challenge doesn't end there. In place of the severed head grows a multitude of other heads. These come in the form of a new job, your duties as a member of a laboratory group, your research, etc. What you and Her ..read more

Sometimes during lectures we tend to take a passive mindset. When the professor is speaking, we usually just lay back and listen. Sometimes if we're feeling a bit more attentive we try to do a bit more. Like take down notes, or try to listen as intently as possible to try and absorb as much as we can. Some people actually think that to do this is enough to get the most out of the lecture...but it probably isn't.  Learning has to be done actively. When the prof. is giving his or her lecture, you need to actively think of what new information you're being provided with AND trying to sort i ..read more

Is it?  Hi! I'm gonna go ahead and say that for us, it probably isn't. Not yet. But I got the idea for this post when I saw a video on YouTube which is literally entitled "How to Write a Paper in a Weekend (By Prof. Pete Carr)". Professor Carr is a relatively old man and I do not doubt for a second that he can write a paper in a weekend (he actually stated that he was involved in writing around 400 papers). So this post is going to be mainly a synthesis of what he said and my own reactions to his advice, based on my own experiences. First he laid down some preliminary requirements ..read more

Hi everyone! If you're stuck in quarantine like we are now in April 2020 because of the COVID19 disease, or for some other reason, now might be the perfect time to re-organize your digital file system.  About a week after I graduated, I applied for my first job, and about two weeks after that, I reported to work. During that month of inactivity, I didn't switch to a new file system, so throughout my first year of work, I was mostly creating new folders on-the-fly. This, of course, lead to a very messy file system! At some point in the middle of my second year, I just had to do something ..read more

Hi everyone! Our last post was about calculating lineament strikes using GIS. Check out that post here: https://adgeos.blogspot.com/2020/03/Calculating-fault-strike-using-GIS.html Note: When dealing with digital structural data, azimuthal bearing is the convention of choice. If you are used to quadrantal bearing, slowly re-familiarize yourself with the azimuth concept, as it is much simpler to encode. This time, I'll be showing you how to plot the strikes you calculated in informative Rose diagrams. If you don't know what a Rose diagram is, it's a way to represent directional data by emph ..read more

Hi everyone! I'll be outlining a way to automatically calculate the end-to-end strike/trend values of lineaments or faults which you have plotted in GIS software. This method uses ArcGIS, but can be adjusted and followed for QGIS. Let's get to it. Note: When dealing with digital structural data, azimuthal bearing is the convention of choice. If you are used to quadrantal bearing, slowly re-familiarize yourself with the azimuth concept, as it is much simpler to encode. Software used: ArcMap 10.4 0. Make sure your files use a UTM projection. 1. Open the attribute table of your lineament shap ..read more

This blog is mainly intended for all other young geoscientists currently going through the steep learning curve of graduate school, their first job, and basically, adult life. As such, the topics we cover will go way beyond academics, and will hopefully touch on other topics related to adulting and research life. These include, but aren't limited to: conferences, research methods, fieldworks, job hunting, tech, equipment, lifehacks, walkthroughs, checklists, and so on. See you around, fellow Adulting Geoscientists (AGs ..read more