What's making you happy today?

[Lamplighter]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

Today is my grandson's first day of real employment in a fish hatchery (Lake Merwin, WA).
He's still in the last year of the Fisheries training program at a local community college,
and he'll go for full time employment in the summer.

I'm a bit concerned that he is taking on too much this semester...
14 credit hours + 2 days per week at the hatchery + 1 day per week
at the plant nursery where he's been part time for the past year.

<snip>

FWIW here's a mid-term update...

Much to my amazement, Sam has not missed a day of work
and has been keeping up with his classes. It has been a real strain on him.
When he has a day off, he crashes, and lights out at 9 most nights.
Lots of grumpy, tired, late-for-dinner days, but so far, he is keeping up.

On top of all that, he has started his "field work" project.
This is an ongoing stream survey of "pre-spawning mortality of Coho salmon in urban streams".
This project is not so much doing new research as it is to learn how to do research.
Yesterday, he found 1 male and 1 female that died before spawning.
The project requiring about 3 more hrs of his time each week.

Here's a description of the pre-spawn mortality issue:

Acute die-offs of adult coho salmon 
returning to spawn in restored urban streams

Beginning in the late 1990s, several agencies in the greater Seattle area began
conducting fall spawner surveys to evaluate the effectiveness of local salmon habitat restoration efforts.
These surveys detected a surprisingly high rate of mortality among migratory coho females
that were still ocean bright and had not yet spawned.

Pre-spawn mortality (PSM) has been observed in many lowland
urban streams that have been surveyed to date, with overall rates that generally
range from ~ 20% to 90% of the fall runs.
By comparison, the rate of die-offs in non-urban (e.g., forested) drainages appears to be low.
The precise cause of PSM is not known. However, at present,
the weight of evidence suggests that the widespread coho die-offs
are a consequence of non-point source water pollution.

[Sundae]

Lamp that's wonderful.
Sounds like he just needed time and the right motivation to get himself together, and when he did, he was able to take on more than you hoped.
Good for him.

Tiger has a new speech therapist.
Yay.
Been waiting since beginning of September.
First meeting today went well.

AND he stayed overnight at a friend's on Friday night.
The two other boys changed their minds and went home, but Tiger slept there and had breakfast.

He had tea at home, and bath, and completed his routines. Then went over at 19.00.
K's garden backs onto his and of course Mum is a family friend and is aware that Tiger has Asperger's.
But it's a HUGE step for him. For many five year olds, let alone those on the autism spectrum. The Tiger confounds us again.

[ZenGum]

Numbers.

Yep, see here, I'm comparing this 17.4 to this 17.2. Same same.
And I'm comparing this 14.4 to this 14.5. Same same.
But then I'm really comparing this 14.1 to this 11.6. Different! That's a mother#$%^ing finding baby, exactly what I was hoping to find.

Although the fact that I did actually in the office when the computer spat that out makes me wonder if my life hasn't gone horribly wrong somewhere.

The other downside is that the whole group has 102 people in it, and the finding is based on a subgroup of just nine. I'm going to have to talk with a colleague to see if that is statistically significant and/or reliable. I have grave doubts.

[footfootfoot]

are those percentages of the group of 102 or decimated people?

[BigV]

Your excitement has led you to have grave doubts? You must be positively enraptured.

[infinite monkey]

My niece (can she really be 11 already?) has her own (parent-sanctioned) email now, and sometimes I come in for work to an email from her. Even her emails are cute!

In case you didn't know, this is a monkey face: (sorry, sad smilie trumps monkey face)...you put a colon, parenthesis, small L, close parenthesis. Here's a wide monkey... : ( l )

She made sure to explain to me I have to look at it sideways.

[DucksNuts]

I got the job I wanted!!!!! Woooot!

As mentioned in the other thread, I recently moved further North again and in turn left a very good job with a very good career path.

I moved because my Mum was going to move to be where ever I was and I didnt want to relocate her to an area where I wasnt 100% happy and would likely leave anyway.

So I relocated both of us to Queensland, I had a job offer for a job I was really "meh" about as the hours didnt really suit and I wasnt overly happy with the business, but I was hoping this job would come through because its a big company with a lovely high ladder I can climb as the kids get older and I can work more hours.

My official uniform will be a red shirt and a pair of demin shorts with workboots (I will have to find some stylish ones with heels) and you may see me with a hammer or screwdriver hanging off my belt.

YAY.

[Trilby]

Congratulations Ducks!

[Griff]

Excellent DN!

[limey]

Well done Ducks. I expect the guys will want pics of you in your uniform!

[monster]

hurrah!

[zippyt]

Congrats Dux !!!
Heres some girly work boots for ya

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by DucksNuts

My official uniform will be a red shirt and a pair of demin shorts with workboots (I will have to find some stylish ones with heels) and you may see me with a hammer or screwdriver hanging off my belt.

YAY.

What about flair? Will you need to wear flair?

What kind of job is that?

[Aliantha]

What movie was that from foot? I can't remember whether I loved or hated it, but I definitely remember the 'flair' thing being a big side issue for the protagonist.

Aden had confirmation from his maths teacher yesterday that he has achieved an A overall for maths this semester. That's a huge jump from a low C last semester. I'm so proud of him. He's worked hard to improve and this will set him in good stead as he enters his last two years of high school next year. He was so pumped about it that he actually promised to win the maths prize for next year. I know he can if he sets his mind to it.

Finally my biggest boy is putting his great mind to use, and none too soon either.

nb I guess maybe it's not such a big deal to some people just getting an A in maths, but Aden has had a lot of trouble knuckling under in highschool. I put it down to him having incredibly nurturing teachers for the last couple of years of primary school, and so the whole; it's your responsibility thing, hit him pretty hard, plus he had a short foray into dope smoking when we first moved here so that set him back for a bit too, so I'm just really happy to see him making good choices now, both socially, educationally and financially (he has a part time job now too).

[footfootfoot]

Flair comes from one of the funniest movies ever, "Office Space"