Every thing is working!! The scope, the cam, the comp!! Holy Moley!! I am so excited that I get to shoot Algae again and that everything is once again working top notch!! [It only took 3.8 months!!] Oh well, back to work work work! For all you peeps out there get ready because Austrailia Bloggin' is getting closer, Feb. 11th to be exact!! Woot!!

Yea yea..i know I stink at remembering but ya know its' not so bad when you consider the alternative

Man, I really suck at updating this thing, but have no fear when I leave for Aussieland there will be a sister blog to this one. For those of you who don't know I am Australia bound more specifically to Sydney come Feb. 11th 2010. Am I excited? Heck Yes...though a bit nervous too. Some people in my family believe that I ran from home to go to undergrad in upstate NY, but the truth is I totally went for the escape to a new life-experience--I wanted to go to a place no one knew me/judged me; let me tell you so far the decision has paid off. I met tons of new people and had a chance to experience a lot of new and exciting things...like garbage plates eww..ok not the best example, but you get the point. If you are one of those kids out there trying to figure out where to go to school, then my best advice is to go where you feel like you can make a difference. Even if its' only a small impact, for instance joining a co-ed honor fraternity or even an obnoxious, yet awesomely exciting group of hockey fans. Do college for yourself not your parents; what you do with your life should always start with you first and foremost...don't let anyone pressure into anything. My only regret is that I didn't take a year off to travel, but I guess that's what life post grad is for, the plan you may be wondering is this: get my Masters in Applied Science and Microscopy then apply for my Doctorate, also at USYD!!
The dream may seem lofty to you, but that is where I have decided to set my bar for now, but knowing me I may raise it to the stars or even shoot for the moon. I started out a little differently than I had intended that to go, but its all good for now. Work, you say? Work is awesome-I'm not kidding I am having the time of my life; yes it can be frustrating at times. But if life was as smooth as a summer breeze--would I really be learning anything? I mean seriously I learn something new every single day...its like being back at college except I don't have any homework or exams--except for the practical applications of the job whether it be photography related or not. Ya, know I wonder if somewhere out in that big black nothing if a bunch a men and women are playing some big game of chess, and we are all assigned as the pawns, rooks, knights, bishops, etc. No, I haven't lost my mind and yes, I know its' strange, but that thought is always in the back of my mind. Back to work--what have I been doing...well, the computer that's connected to the Zeiss scope I work on died in a fire, not really but the RAID failed and corrupted the comp. making everything just a big pile o' poo. One of the IT guys here at SI, rebuilt the comp from scratch[he's my hero...shh...don't tell anyone!], now its' back to ground zero recalibrating the scope and reloading all of the software. Whilst the whole cataclysmic event happened I researched a back up Dell laptop via Q-imaging and our Dell rep. After 2 weeks, I had compiled a sufficient spec for a back-up system if this were to ever occur again. [I really hope it doesn't!] I have also been working on shots for the Peer Awards 2009 and of course editing diatoms/algae, and of lately scanning 'chromes for Dr. Laughlin.
What's been going on most recently? Like this past weekend I attended a beautiful tribute service to the epic Jessie Cohen, a photographer for the National Zoo, whom passed away this past October from a relapse in Breast Cancer. Mehgan Murphy helped organize the who tribute is was truly remarkable and I would even say uplifting. It gave everyone a chance to remember all the good memories we had with Jessie. She was truly a remarkable woman!! G-d Bless her soul, she will be deeply missed. I am now the proud new owner of two of her pictures, one of a red panda and the other of an orange frog on a white background. I can't wait to hang them up in my apt!! Saturday night was Barb's 50th birthday party and it was supposed to be a surprise, but that was a no-go oops! So, awesome food with Peruvian potatoes, yummy venison/cheese/floury goodness made by Barrett--oh and the cake...delicious. My fav would have to be the yummy pineapple and the sweet strawberries that Judith brought; oh yeah Judith is back in the country but she is mighty jet-lagged. See what I have to look forward to....22 hrs to Sydney via LAX woot! Sunday, I was lazy, but I did clean the apt/wash dishes etc.
I go home tomorrow night woot woot!! Plans for tonight = shower [ok, tmi, sry], din-din, New Moon with Scotty Boy (best cuz ever), packing then sleepage, shootage/workage then FL till the 30th!! Whose excited, you know it! Oh I almost forgot M.&M. passed away on Nov. 4th so this post is dedicated to his loyalness [14 yrs in fact, he was and will always be my best friend and first puppy] We've got JD now, but I will save his tale for a future post. I gotta jet, tootles my friends. I thought I'd try something new, last words:
I could not, at any age, be content to take my place by the fireside and simply look on. Life was meant to be lived. Curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life. ---Who said It?
<3>

So, as I am sitting here waiting for the sputtercoater to rev up; it occured to me that I need to still pick up those full tanks from the East Loading Dock. [I bet I can't write another song with that in it..."sitting on the east loading dock, sitting till it's 8 o'clock, watchin' the trucks drive away"] Who knows, it could work? Granted I had anytime to work out the rhymes--oooo---speaking of rhymes, on the metro yesterday I could not get Dr. Seuss's, Oh the Places You'll go out of my head.

Seriously, I thought the guy standing next to me was going to cut my larynx out. Granted I was bobbing my head back and forth and dancing to Troublemaker by Akon, but for all he knew I was reciting aloud various clips and phrases from that poem. Oh yes, it was quite a sight, but this really cute guy was like "you made my day!" as he was leaving the car at White Flint. Anyways, I have just began the cycle on the sputtercoater, so in like 15-20 minutes the samples will be coated and then I can return to the main lab and finish editing today's quota of diatoms!

I totally forgot my harddrive yesterday, so I ended up finishing the imaging for Erin, one of Doug Owsley's post doc's. It is really interesting that its' my job to take pictures documenting the crystals [which the researcher's think is brushite] found on bone fragments from a vault in Congressional Cemetary. Once I had finished with the R. ulna, I proceeded with the other crystal samples--then edited and burned a cd. Today, I signed up to use the Phillips environmental SEM for tomorrow afternoon to further examine the crystalline structures.

My samples are almost done coating and one of our student researchers' just told me something a bit disturbing, so off I go to finish up down here in the lab. I should probably clean up the counter a bit because Scott gets back tomorrow--yeah!! I have the coolest boss ever, ya know ya'll are jealous. I'll try to write soon!
~Ciao,
J

I'm Back!!!!!!!

So a lot has changed since the last time that I have posted, for instance I graduated college in May with a BS in Biomedical Photographic Communications with a minor in Archaeology. I am currently living in Rockville, Maryland and working at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History as a contract photographer for the Department of Botany and Smithsonian Photographic Services.

I found out not too long ago that I received an offer from University of Sydney in Australia to go there for graduate school. Classes start March 1st, 2010. I am super excited; I will be studying for a Masters in Applied Science and Microscopy. The program is 11 months long; so all you viewers will have to keep in touch. I really hope that after I complete my Masters, that I will be granted a chance to get my Doctorate.

At work, I am still post-processing the type diatoms and soon will begin digitizing the algal collections. As of right now, I am working on a project for a post-doc of Owsley's--photographing brushite & bones with an Olympus SZX12 set-up.

POETS!?! tonite, wahoo--then steak/salad and scanning old negatives

Until next time,

~JJ

FolkLife Fest starts Wednesday...ahhhhhh!!!

Party like a ROCKSTAR!!!!!

Friday: June 20th = Day off #1 freakin' amazing....i slept in late....i read my book out in the sun for 4.5 hrs and got interrupted by stupid ants....and then I lounged around the house and dealt with uber drama...that spread like the black plague around our lovely household

Saturday: June 21st = JJ's trip to the National Zoo, of which I took the metro to the Addams Morgan/Woodley Park zoo station...walked uphill 1 mile and arrived at a busy and highly crowded zoo. Many of the habitats were under construction which was a bit disappointing, but since its free there is no telling how many times i will go back and then see what has reopened and changed. I saw the panda bears, the red pandas, the red-ruffed lemurs, and the pygmy hippo that was sitting on the stairs, and so many more animals. My least favorite part of the zoo besides the fact that it was like 100 degrees F outside was the orb weave spiders exhibit...its' open--no glass, wires, of anything or sort...creepy my hand was in the exhibit!! After taking pictures and looking at everything I walked into Addams Morgan and then took a metro home. I slept and rested the rest of the evening including reading my book.

Sunday: June 22nd I went to Eastern Market to get a loaf of potato bread--but i should mention my epic exploration walk past 7th street and to the Marine Barracks & the Navy Yard...guys reading this avert your eyes and close those ears...because damn no man could ever compare to the men i saw in uniform--my jaw dropped, i hung up on my friend because i was gosh darn distracted by the smexy-ness that passed before me. I found a card shop, a craft store, a blockbuster, a dunkin doughnuts/baskin robbins, a really cool home/gift store called Homebody--similar to Apples to Zinnias in Winter Park, Florida, and an Irish Pub! Good times!! I walked home then read some more andoh yeah updated the blog and then at 9 pm we had our first house meeting..i still have no roommate, but i think i am happy about this...no one can annoy me yet so...

Monday: June 23rd I got up at 7:15 am and was out the door at 7:30 am--I met the breakfast club at 8:05 am and stepped in a gigantic hole on my way to work...the sidewalk is under construction and the crew forgot to put caution tape around the big-ass [pardon my French] hole in the ground so naturally i ended up in the hole...long story short i found an earthworm and a rock in my shoe when i got home this afternoon. This morning i assisted John Steiner in the new Ocean's Hall in the Natural History museum and then at 10:25 am found Joe, Jim, and Ken in the Rose room which is aka the anthropology seminar room and then waited for the other interns and photographer's to arrive. Pizza and drinks were served and Hugh Talman, Joe's dad gave a presentation of past Folklife work and expectations/run-through's. After the meeting i finished inputing the proper metadata to the files and then converted the color tifs to bw using the new filter in CS3. Around 5 pm Iheaded home to beat the rain...it poured on me and then i ate dinner and talked with the roomies...made some phone calls and plans for this weekend and right this second I am going to stop blogging-read- then fall asleep.

Much Love and thank you Mema, Popeye, & Mom for providing me the opportunity to live in DC this summer...I know I don't always say this as much as I should, but I love you guys and am very appreciative of all that you continue to do for me. Peace out!! :o)

Invocation of the Muse 101

Take 5: updated release of happenings and whereabouts of Jennifer J. Hill

Friday: June 13th Printed out posters on the Epson printer for 2 scientists; the objective was to print a copy of the poster to give to Christan Samper, the acting secretary for the Smithsonian as a gift to honor his service and commitment to encouraging and promoting the well being of the museum. The poster was an image of a new species of daisy that has been named after him. I discovered a printing tone difference cool vs. warm--the scientists chose warm tone and after 2 screw-ups via pshop and me the poster was printed successfully.

Then at around 4:30- 5:00 pm Don, Casey, and I headed to Pre-poets in the Botany lab with Barrett and friends; where we sampled beers from around the world and all over the US in beakers and had brie with bread and honey plus Chinese cracker cookies. Yummy! Then around 7:30 pm we all headed down to Poets; I stayed until 9:45 ish. While there I met other interns and me, tony, sean, malorie, katie, Beverly, and others went to Artomatic until 12:45 am. Artomatic is an exhibiton of over 1000 artists, with 12 floors of madness for 40 days & 40 nights. It was truly amazing--we did almost half of Artomatic--I bought a t-shirt for the memory.

Saturday: June 14th I went to eastern market to get some fresh produce and then in the afternoon went back to Artomatic and finished what I could.

Sunday: June 15th I relaxed--end of story...I slept late and read all day.

Monday: June 16th Don had a meeting so Casey and I couldn't shoot Monk seal skulls so Casey helped Joe shoot snails and I edited photos and worked on the Black & white challenge of the glass positive lantern negative that James DiLoreto gave Joe and I. I figured it out via 2 missing steps--thanks RIT!

Tuesday: June 17th I shot Monk seal skulls with Casey Ross, Ken's other intern out at the Museum Support Center where we got to have a tour of the American Indian Museum storage center and other studio that had accordian lights...freakin' awesome!! We got stuck in the mega storm that blew down two tents on the National Mall that ended up injuring several children from Florida. Don and I got soaked walking across the Mall on the way back to the museum. Barb and Don gave me a ride home so i didn't get drenched because i forgot my umbrella...oops. Then I went to Union Station to get a book to read.

Wednesday: June 18th We finished shooting Monk seal skulls out at MSC then took the shuttle back to Natural History Museum to begin editing

Thursday: June 19th I finishied editing the monk seal skulls and went with Don, Jim, and Joe to the raven canoe launch into the Potomac River via an Anchorage Alaskan tribe; the ritual and ceremony was awesome and I got to be an assistant/runner for Joe, Jane, and Don. Afterwards Don and I went to lunch and then Joe and Jim joined us as well as Court and Leana. At 2:45 pm I met Barbara to go on the Behind the Scenes Folklife festival tour...kinda a snooze fest, but interesting none the less. After the tour ended I went home and got ready for the greek dancing and dinner in Alexandria, Va. It was so amazing we took the metro to Alexandria, had wine, danced, broke plates then came home. Alix, Kate, Remy, Michael, and I all went to Georgetown for an after party until 3:30 am. :o)

Friday: June 20th Day off--relax and recovering from the madness, blogging, uploading pictures, making pita bread , charging batteries for tomorrow's zoo venture!!

A week behind...oops sorry--I get tired too sometimes!!

Take 4 & More

Wed: June 4th + Thursday & Friday = Mali CD project with Don E. Hurlbert Wednesday we had minor [ rather a difficult time] with Mr. Epson R260; first the inks kept running out and then the contacts of the cartridges were defective

Thursday and Friday: I continued to finish the 98 items [including CDs & contact sheets] for Don; this project mind you is already a year-old...oh and yeah it took 3 days to finish!

Saturday: June 7th = JJ learns how to use the metro and goes to Dupont Circle. I walked all the way to GW and then back to Dupont for some yummy lunch at Teaism. Teaism has bubble tea and yummy eggs with cilantro & green peppers. Then I went back to Union Station towards home. All the while taking pictures! The head of security in the metro accused me of being a terrorist because I was taking pictures of the inside interior of the Metro! Puh-lease!! If you have Facebook--look forward to those pictures being put up soon-ish. I rested until Ladies night @ Hawk and Dove, a local bar located approx. 5 blocks from our townhouse. Not my type of place, but interesting none the less.

Sunday: June 8th = Trip to Eastern Market located at 7th Street and North Carolina to buy affordable/fresh produce. It's basically similar to the Winter Park and Rochester farmer's markets, but also includes crafts, antiques, and junk. I bought the ingredients to make Mom's grape salsa for Family Dinner/Potluck, which is a tradition we have started in our house. No matter what's going on we all try to eat dinner together on Sunday nights before the work week starts to catch-up and kyvetch. Everyone makes a dish and then switches the next week--it went amazing! We had shrimp 'n pasta, a salad, grape salsa, bread, and strawberry shortcake for dessert. :OD [talk about glamorous]

Monday: June 9th = I finished the remaining CDs for Don and talked pshop with Jim and Joe while they finished shooting 165 mya snail fossils

Tuesday: June 10th = ONE OF THE MOST AMAZING OPPORTUNITIES EVER!!!!!!! I got to participate in an archaeological dig. Scientists, visitors, soldiers, & photographers were present in Congressional Cemetery to witness the excavation of the top commanding US general of the War of 1812. The tomb was located 8-12 feet under ground. He was buried in a zinc coffin with his first wife and possibly his father as well. By the end of the dig, a total of 2 bodies were accounted for--the father still aloof. It was 100 degrees out and we were all sweating bullets. I found a tooth, phalanges, metatarsals, and other bone fragments while sifting and screening buckets of dirt from the dig site. It was an awesome experience and I really got to enjoy Archaeology, which I have decided to pursue as my minor during my last year at RIT. It stormed really bad, luckily Mr. Chip Clark, the photographer I was working with throughout the day generously offered to take me home :0).

Yesterday, I went to the Museum Support Center with Don for a tour of the facility and storage "pods". I finished a project involving retrieving negative numbers for artifact retrieval via database; process similar to stock photography. I also met Walter, another researcher/photographer.

Today: June 12th I was at Natural History retrieving images for 170 negative numbers that I had processed on Wednesday. I went through hundreds of CDs looking for images to place in a folder for Don. [All artifacts pertained to Anchorage Loan--Arctic Artifacts] This morning I also helped Jim, Joe, and John photograph the Korean exhibit on the 2nd floor of the museum before 10 am when the throngs of people start arriving. Roomies and I went to the Pour House, a bar located on Pennsylvania Avenue to visit Valerie, my cuz and hangout! That's it for now stay tuned...tomorrow's broadcast = JJ gets to shoot the skulls of a new species of Monk Seal!! Fun in the studio with Don!