Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Animal Research

What a topic to pick to talk about. Hate to break it to ya, but that is what my job entails. Extensive animal research that ends in termination of the animal.

I don't say termination to make myself feel better about what it going on, because any life lost is sad. I say it to be a little more politically correct. Although I'm not sure why, since this is a blog, and its my blog. To be honest-I'm rarely PC.

Well tomorrow we are euthanizing animals to harvest brains and hearts. That's pretty much all I can say on the subject. I get to cut off heads-after they have been euthanized. I know its a bit morbid, but I am so excited. Who could have thought that a heart could be harvested, and a brain dissected out of the skull in 22 minutes?! That is incredibly fast for keeping the workspace clean, while being humane about it.

Enough about animal innards, I have much more important things to talk about. Like what the hell am I going to do with my degree after I graduate. I have three options and I want to explore each and every one of them. I'll give you a preview of each of them and let you know more about them as I learn more about their attainability.

  1. Go to Vet school or Vet Tech School: This would be the best use and applicable to my future-being a farmer I mean. To be able to vet my own animals, or work as an on-call vet on a farm would be amazing.
  2. Become A Research Assistant for Oregon State University: A job opp will become available in 3 years and it is a five year contract to stick with the research team. The professor on the team is well recognized and trusts me enough already to dogsit two weekends from now. The pay is ~28,000 starting out. Eh. And fantastic benefits working for the state. Plus I get hands on training doing surgeries and other random procedures.
  3. Join the Peace Corps: Travel to a foreign country with my honey, living a bit more primitive and enjoying the things that matter.
Where to go and what to do? I'm not sure.