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I studied physics, turns out people only want that for mining, gambling, banking, and weapons. Understandably I burned out hard.

Well, creeping disability has given me the push I need to go back and try follow my one regret of never having done grad school. Serendipitously I mentioned looking for projects to someone I met and he hooked me up with his mate. Now I'm going back, big field change. Conservative and ecology stuff, water remediation.

I am finally going to learn how to do something actually good for the world!

I've quit smoking, drinking is a WIP but the occasional relapse is a marked improvement from daily day drinking. Exercise is now a regular part of my life, home sitch is way more stable than my 20s.

If I fail this time then I will have failed having done my best and set myself up for success, and if that happens I won't have regrets.

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[-] FishLake@lemmygrad.ml 11 points 1 month ago

I've quit smoking, drinking is a WIP but the occasional relapse is a marked improvement from daily day drinking. Exercise is now a regular part of my life

You must think you’re pretty slick sneaking these other major accomplishments into your post like they’re no big deal. Well it’s not gonna work on me. I’m gonna congratulate you for all of it!

[-] insurgentrat@hexbear.net 7 points 1 month ago

Assembling a person out of the ruin that fell upon me through the pursuit of greed has been a work of some years. I owe a lot to the endless patience and love of my wife and the wise council of friends.

[-] FishLake@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 1 month ago

Hell yeah! Your wife and friends sound amazing, but congratulating YOU. I’m proud of YOU! YOU are gonna rock grad school! Keep it up!

[-] Civility@hexbear.net 3 points 1 month ago

party-blob

Congratulations!

I am so proud of you.

[-] Blakey@hexbear.net 3 points 1 month ago

I'm doing honours by research and my project is related to ecology. Nothing to do with water remediation (although that's super cool!) instead I'm doing a study into the diets of a couple of migratory shorebirds. It's fun! Hard, but fun. Getting to actually do science rather than just use the knowledge gained by science is great. Good on you! And well done on the other stuff, too - no small thing!

[-] FedPosterman5000@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago

Hell yeah - as a migratory shorebird watching enthusiast : sicko-slideshow

[-] Blakey@hexbear.net 2 points 1 month ago

So far it's involved a LOT of painstakingly sorting through droppings with a microscope, a needle, and tweezers

[-] FedPosterman5000@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago

Tyfys - shorebirds are my fave (my jobs building coastal restorations)

[-] SevenSkalls@hexbear.net 2 points 1 month ago

Congratulations! I want to try that one day.

[-] insurgentrat@hexbear.net 2 points 1 month ago

Wishing you the best of luck!

[-] Lerios@hexbear.net 2 points 1 month ago

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! WE LOVE TO SEE IT party-parrot-science erm-this-you

comrade i also studied physics, then went into banking for 2 years because everything else was even more morally disgusting, and now i'm starting my phd in green energy! i guess communists really are a hivemind lmao. i'm happy for you, and i hope we'll both get to use what we do over the next few years to help the world <3

[-] insurgentrat@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago

Haha god it's tragic. You know how feynman joked about one electron moving forward and backwards in time? What about one braincell? Glad you're able to find a field where you don't go to sleep musing about having made the world worse that day.

I am doing a lowly masters, as I dropped out of honours because I needed money for housing and fintech promised it. If it goes well maybe I'll switch to a PhD but I'm mostly hoping to go work for the gov doing like vegetated swails, water quality testing you know, practical useful stuff that's outdoors and isn't just moving fake money around in ways that give horrible people more power.

[-] FedPosterman5000@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

You might enjoy this study - I’ve seen it presented a few times and it really helped me conceptualize trial set up at a field site like this!

https://www.uwgb.edu/UWGBCMS/media/Watershed-Monitoring-Program/files/Concentrated-Flow-Area-Treatment_FWWA-UWGB_Final-Report.pdf

[-] insurgentrat@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago

Cheers, I have a lot of catching up to do. It's been... 11 years? since uni so even in the fields I was good at there has been decay. Any and all relevant resources need to be devoured. If I have one thing going for me it's enjoying learning from papers.

That said, murder is a likely outcome should the originator of the passive voice be colocated with the present typist.

[-] FedPosterman5000@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago

Lmfao. Holy shit. I never realized that until you pointed it out. Or should I say until you formerly pointed at that

[-] FedPosterman5000@hexbear.net 2 points 1 month ago

Yayayayay!!! HMU if you’d like support on any of those things! I switched from chemistry for similar reasons, and do all sorts of water things now (mostly the ecosystem restoration sorts of stuff, but have dabbled with remediation). Not sure of your general familiarity with the state of the practice, but happy to help if I can :)

Impressed by your efforts - Quitting smoking is a crafty enemy!

congratulations!!!

this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2025
72 points (100.0% liked)

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