Proposal again.... this time, for money!

The last week or two has been very tough. Jeff and I are writing a proposal to get NSF $$ for my next job. We need to request 3 years of my salary plust overheads (admin and computer people). Staying on after you graduate is a little unusual for the typical "standard track", but since I've got to stay in Hawaii for Liz, I'm stuck. I never wanted to be with the heard of sheep anyways! There are tons of interesting things that you learn when you try to deviate from the heard, and when you try to sell yourself. To sum it up, I spent a lot of time writing and worrying about how to justify myself. Do I really think that 3 years of my work is worth $400,000 of the taxpayers money? My salary is only $150 of that (3yrs @ 50k) and the rest is for.... well, the rest of the support "system". But still, what is that money going to buy? Some understanding? Some new technology? A hell of a lot of telescope time for sure. I think it's worth it. We'll see what the poli-tists and sci-ocrats say.

I'm heading to Moloka'i tomorrow with Liz to go work on a long-term coral monitoring project. We'll be on the south shore of Moloka'i at the Kamiloloa site, of all places, at the "Happy House"!