Happy Birthday, Superoceras!

It was Friday, November 3, 2006, approximately 3:30PM. I was sitting in the Geology Building at the University of Maryland, listening to the arthropod lecture in my principles of paleontology lab. As I was handed my lab report paperwork, I began to doodle in the upper right corner of the front page, as was my weekly tradition. But this week, instead of the modest spined spiral I would normally draw, I went all out. A few lines for shading, some stripes on the shell, and a fleshy, way to squid-like head sticking out of the end - I had created a "Super Cooperoceras", or "Super-oceras" for short.

A little under three years later, I had gotten my degree, and had found myself with a steady job, but something was still missing. I couldn't have told you what at the time, but after an e-mail from a friend and a few words of encouragement, I started to put the pieces together. Science. My life was lacking science. I immediately decided I needed to do something to remedy this situation. The conclusion I came to was to start blogging. The intention was to keep my mind sharp; to start reading articles, and practice writing again; to help disseminate scientific information to others; to share the wonders of the natural world and the things I love with anyone who wanted to listen. I thought back to that day in lab, and all the things I loved about it, and Superoceras was born.

As I sit here writing this, one long, crazy, year has passed. And I just want to take the time to thank all of you for making it possible. Thank you to the followers who stop by to read and comment on posts, and to all of the lurkers who don't as well. Thank you to all the researchers, artists, filmmakers, musicians, scientists, and anyone else I'm missing for constantly providing me topics to write about. Thank you to fellow bloggers for welcoming me into a community that I have the utmost respect for. Thank you to my family and friends, to teachers old and new, and to anyone else I met along the way who helped foster and support my love and appreciation for science and nature. And thanks to the girlfriend for putting up with me through it all. Thanks to everyone for being a part of this little experiment of mine. Coming back from SVP, I feel inspired to keep it up. I got a lot of positive feedback, and more than a few kind words, which makes me hopeful for not only the future of Superoceras, but my future as well.

Things may start to slow down here a little bit as my day-to-day gets increasingly hectic, but I plan to keep writing as long as you all want to keep reading. Please, as always, feel free to leave me a comment, or drop me a line via e-mail. I want to know what you like about what I'm doing, and what you don't. Have a topic you want to know more about, an image you'd like to see, or a question you'd like to ask? Don't hesitate! That's what I'm here for. So until next time, thanks again, and happy first birthday, Superoceras.

Original "Super-oceras!" above, ballpoint pen on paper, by me. Red logos added by Dr. Merck during the grading process.