September Shenanigans

Well, I've officially started my thesis research, hooray for me! I knew I was meeting with a guy today who had a background in qualitative research and who worked a bit with wetlands, but completely misunderstood why I was meeting with him. Turns out, it was a practice interview, and based on the feedback I got it seems I did pretty well. So, I may get this thesis thing done after all, boo ya! Another happy note from today, the guy I interviewed said that a lot of natural resource employers are looking for people with the natural science and human dimensions background that I have, super. To make it better he said that my plan to move to Hawaii for a while was good idea because employers also want someone interesting working for them. Which I took to mean that going to Hawaii would make me more interesting, which means I must go because I have a deep fear of becoming boring. Anyways, that was my mildly stressful, but ultimately productive afternoon.

On to other things. I've been going through my cell phone lately, perusing pictures because its not like anyone ever calls me (boo hoo), and I've found some more photos I feel I must share.
First off, I see this sign when I go walking most everyday. I think it's excessive. Remember the song by Five Man Electrical Band called "Signs"? If not, here's a bit of the chorus: Sign Sign everywhere a sign Blocking out the scenery breaking my mind Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign.
I bet they hate hippies. Jerks. Really? No standing, what the heck?

Speaking of my walks, one night I came home and looked at my shoe and found a hitchhiker. This tiny slug had attached itself to my shoe, it was really cute, but I didn't know what to do with it. Sadly, but the morning it had dried up and died. But it made me happy that night. Another night I came home to a less happy bug confrontation. I found this guy in my bathtub. I tried using my toothbrush as a standard to measure it against, but I don't think it shoes the full intensity of this bathtub spider. Seriously, take a look at it, you can see its eye stalks! That's a huge spider, and the only reason I know about it is because it got stranded in my tub, what if there are other ones? What if they're radioactive and bite me? What if there's radioactivity in my apartment and I get cancer? It's all very scary.
I tried adding a scale to another camera phone picture later, and it might have been more effective. This is a baby painted turtle at the zoo, can you see how small and awesome it is? Really, its a whole turtle that's only a little bit thicker than my finger. How cool is that?
Turns out, not everything at the zoo is that cute. While cleaning one of the buildings I saw something huge crawl across the floor. Freaked out and intrigued I went over to see what it was, and it was a giant spider. Seeing as it was unafraid of me and there was a tape measure nearby I decided to measure it. It was two inches long! That's freaking insane! Unfortunately, in my efforts to document the visitor I forgot to squish it, so its still at the zoo, I hope it doesn't bite anyone, or reproduce, that would be bad.

It's also been an interesting month for sign reading. Coming back from my doctors appointment I was behind this SUV with this elaborate window sticker that went across the back and the sides. Ridiculous! Who thinks oil rigs are beautiful? Not me. In the middle it says "gotoil.com" I refuse to go to the site right now because I'm afraid it would make me angry, and I've got enough to be riled up about right now. I hope the guy driving it had investments with Lehman Brothers. And I hate his blue tooth.

While in the bathroom later that week I happened to take a closer look and the tampon/pad vending machine and finally learned what matrons do, apparently they restock the feminine hygiene product dispenser. The world makes sense again.
One last sign, then I'm done. While out on my walk I noticed this sign on the port-a-potties outside the football stadium. It's silly, but poo humor makes me giggle.

Hope everyone's week is going well, and that you've got something to look forward to this weekend (if you've got nothing to look forward to, remember that Heroes starts on Monday, and that Heroes is amazing!).

Everything Comes Down to Poo

I have an unfortunate fascination with waste disposal. I don't know why. I hope its just a mildly humorous quirk, rather than a discomforting preoccupation. One of the coolest field trips in my college careers was to the waste water treatment facility at the bottom of the valley here. I just think its fascinating that the city of Logan is using natural processes (oxidation by algae and bacteria and filtering through wetlands) to remove waste from our water. This isn't to say that I would drink the effluent, but I'd be willing to kayak in it. If any of y'all plan on visiting Logan, take a look out toward the center of the valley, the 'square lakes' you can see from campus are actually oxidation ponds where living organisms are removing 'solids' from our waste water. How cool is that?

(I couldn't find a pic of the square ponds, but these are the polishing wetlands, which are also awesome)

Anyways, the thing that spurred this whole train of thought was a book I'm reading for my history class called Down to Earth: How Nature Has Shaped American History. It's a really fascinating read, should anyone have time to pick it up. Anyways, there's a chapter in it called "Death of the Organic City" that is primarily about the way Americans used to deal with our waste. Turns out, back in the day there used to be a thriving poo-vegetable trade between urban and rural areas (that's not exactly the terminology used, but pretty much the gist of it). Before the advent of automobiles horses were the main transportation system both within and between cities, and horses produce between 15 and 30 pounds of manure per day. That's freaking intense! (Another factoid: geese eat about 5 pounds of grass per day, they poop about 4 pounds of that back out in a day) Anyways, there was really no way to make use of it in the city, so there was a network of haulers that would take the poo to nearby rural areas to use as fertilizer for the vegetables that the city would later import. Neat! This system was pretty beneficial for all parties involved, especially because of the pollution that the horse doo-doo would have made- according the book ground up horse manure (it was ground up by horses walking on it, not intentionally) was the early 20th century equivilent of automobile pollution. He added that the respitory effects were similar in the case of both irritants, which makes me even more uncomfortable with the various car-produced -oxides I inhale everyday.

As the automobile replaced the horse this trade decreased, but it was pretty cool. There was also mention of the extensive use of pigs in the city. Until the 1950's pork was actually the primary meat consumed by Americans. And until the 1920's there was pretty extensive pig populations within cities that not only provided extra meat, but also served to dispose of organic waste from households. Unfortunately, pigs are also prone to copulating in public and charging young children, so they were eventually removed from cities. (Another city/wildlife factoid: turns out wolf spiders (a natural desert inhabitant) are 5 times more dense in cities than in the wild, apparently people habitat is good wold spider habitat)

One more fun fact from that article, which I suggest you integrate into your vocabulary as soon as possible, is that human waste used to be called 'night soil.' Not only is it a far more pleasant euphemism than crap, but there's meaning behind it. Used to be, there were people that had to clean out the public bathrooms (this was at a time when all bathrooms were public), and they did this at night, thus the product they carted away was called night soil. It was also used a bit for fertilizer, but not extensively.

So now there's a whole new suite of poo related things for you to think on. And just for fun, here's the "Everything Comes Down to Poo," a musical achievement that I think has only been bested by The Little Mermaid.

Some Awesomeness

No adventuring for me this week. However, I was moderately productive, I got almost all my readings for my pretty cool history class done on time, I got all the paperwork that I needed turned in for my program, and I gave up caffeine. This weekend has been less than productive, mostly due to the caffeine withdraw headaches. Friday night was pretty good though, the Retro House hosted a little concert in the backyard, and it was really good. I haven't been able to find them on google, I plan on looking harder later, but Black and White Rainbow is a really hilarious and talented band out of good old Logan. One of the other acts was this guy who called himself Calvin Smooth, he likes to rap. It was really pretty entertaining, and one of his songs is on YouTube, so I thought I'd post it here. It has about a thousand fun pop culture references, and you can catch a glimpse of my truck at the beginning (it doesn't get any better than that).



Some other awesomeness you should be aware of: G Love and Special Sauce. They opened up for 311 some years ago, but it's only lately that I've remembered to download their stuff, and it is just so good. My current favorite is "Superhero Brother." When times get dire, I'm calling on G Love to come save me, hopefully he gets bit by a radioactive spider or somethin' in the meantime (everyone, look up the song on whatever website you can, it is hilarious).

Also very good: Stumble Upon! Scott told me about it some time ago, and I just added it to my web browser. It is a fantastic way to waste time. Just yesterday it pointed me in the direction of this video.



Daft Punk and the Charleston!!! There is nothing better. Well, maybe there is something. "Heroes" comes back on September 22!!! I just finished the 2nd season, and it was good, but I have higher expectations for the 3rd season. Nathan just got shot, Sylar got his power back, Adam is locked in a casket...what's going to happen next?!?!?! The TV Guide just made it worse, at some point in the season Future Claire tries to shoot Future Peter! Oh my! Also, I don't know if anyone else actually watches "Heroes" (but you all should), does anyone have any idea what Angela Patrelli's power is?

Anyways, enough dorkiness. I'm off to Clinton.

There Can Only Be One Highlander!

Alright, so this isn't about Highlander (a show/movie (?) I've never seen). It's about the last week or so. First off, last Tuesday I got pulled over (August seems to be the month for that), and received my first traffic warning. Fun fact, there is a $55 fine (that I did not receive) for having the wrong address on your driver's license. Anyways, I got pulled over by a really nice officer, and was pretty happy about the experience.

Then last Saturday me, Scott and Dad (and Dad's co-worker Austin) hiked Mt. Timpanogos. It was glorious. At 11,700 and something feet, the views were amazing. I was totally psyched to see all the evidence of glaciers at work, and at the same time I was sad that I didn't know more about geology and glaciation. One of the best parts of the hike was sliding down the glacier on the backside of the mountain...on my backside (hahahaha). My bum was mighty cold afterward, but it was totally cool. And, now I've touched a glacier, I was moderately concerned that I wouldn't be able to touch one before global warming took them all away. All in all, we were on the mountain for 10 hours. But it was awesome.

Monday I had an unfortunate doctor's appointment. But then I came home and got to have lunch with Mom and Liz, and I got to have a dance party with Tyler and Aaliyah. (Look at that happy boy, does it get any happier than that?)

Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty stressful, but by Thursday I gave up on getting hold of my major professor and just decided to go with the flow, as much as I could. I was even moderately social. Friday I went to the ENVS (my department at school) Last Friday social at the Owl. There was some food and good conversation. Then I spent the night watching "Psyche", which makes me laugh like I've rarely laughed before. Among my favorite Psyche lines are:

• Don't be a giant snapping turtle.
  
• Don't be a rapid porcupine.
• Real men take bubble baths.

And while I'm on the subject of good quotes, I saw "Pineapple Express" with Scott (my BFFF) a few weeks ago, and it was full of wonderful little bits of advice including

• Safety first. Then teamwork.

I'm certainly not good at doling out advice myself, but I have a Post-It note wall full of some of my favorite quotes I'd like to share, because I think they're wonderful.

• Do you want to be the big spoon or the little spoon? That's the question. --Dr. Cox
• A revolution without a dance isn't really a revolution. --V for Vendetta
• Let's treat people more like they're in our home than in our way. --Allstate
• Naming is not explaining. --I don't know who said it, but it's totally true
• You don't think yourself out of a problem with the same thought process that you thought yourself into it with. --a rural sociologist somewhere
• Do you know what people are? People are bastards. Bastard filled bastards with bastard frosting. --Dr. Cox
  
• It's the one's with the sorest throats that have done the most singing. --Bright Eyes
• Let them take risks, for godsake, let them get lost, sunburnt, stranded, drowned, eaten by bears, buried alive under avalanches- that is the right and privilege of any free American. --Edward Abbey
• You're awful. I love you. --Ludo
• Everyone should have a secret evil plan. --Dennis Leary
• Love is a battlefield. --Pat Benetar
• Come to me, cuddle me, hold me. Together we'll break these chains of love. --Erasure
• You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm. --Collette

Anyways, I have other stuff to talk about (mostly political- Lizzy, I loved the blog) (also, a much needed warning about mink), but I'll save that for later. Happy Labor Day!

Busy,,,But Happy

Just thought I'd post some good news before I get swept up in the whole school thing. This week my school world has been flipped upside down. Most of the issue has to do with listening to Louis. He's pretty on top of things, so he spends a lot of time accidentally (and purposely) pointing out all the things I'm not on top of. This summer my graduate program became very stressful to me, mostly because there's a lot of paperwork I have to turn in before I can do any real research. Moreover, I have to get three signatures before I can turn any of that paperwork in. To compound this frustration, my major professor needs to approve anything before I send it to my other committee members for approval. This is frustrating because my professor has recently dropped off the face of the earth. Really, it's not just me, no one can find her.
But there is good news. I've decided to move on without. I've signed up for an environmental history class that I'm pretty excited about. I hope when she finally returns to this planet Joanna will approve of it, but for now I'm keeping. I also sent my program of study off to my other committee members and they liked it and said it doesn't really matter much if it changes. Then I went ahead and asked all the questions I've been sending to Joanna to some other people in our department and they gave me good answers.

In short, most things are going well. I was on the verge of a breakdown last night. It got cold at work and I forgot a hoodie, my school schedule was up in the air, my Comcast billing got all screwed up (again), Discover wants to change my APR and they won't accept "NO" over the phone, and the final nail in the coffin was when I couldn't find a parking spot near my apartment when I came home last night at 12:30. So I decided to give up for the night and figure it out in the morning.

The biggest new news is that I have another source of income. I've been pretty stressed financially lately. The biggest frustration has been that I didn't want to find another job if I was just going to have to quit it to make my school work proceed. However, I got a better stipend this year, my zoo work schedule is going to work pretty well for me, and I got offered a position as a T.A. this semester! The T.A. job is looking pretty stressful, but I think it will be a good additional source of income.

So, everyone be happy for me, things are looking up this week (by the looks of Monday morning, things were going to suck)! I'll post something more interesting later, but I wanted to share my good news with someone.

Also, I touched all of Dr. Healy's scopes and stuff, and it was awesome. Now I want to go on regular doctor's office safari's and touch all of their stuff (I suppose just all of their steralized stuff).

The Wellsvilles: Mountains Best Hiked in Pants

So August hasn't been all that productive for me. Currently I'm waiting for my professor to acknowledge my existence and email me back (I really do like her, it's just frustrating how busy she always is). However, August has also been quite enjoyable. First, my Lizzy and my girlies came up to visit me, which was wonderful. We went to get ice cream and to the zoo. Plus we also got fast food. Awesome.
It was kind of difficult to fit the four of us sisters in the same picture, but we managed it getting ice cream (doesn't Courtney look cute, I never look that cute eating), and then found an easier way outside the Eccles Conference Center (I often check myself out in these mirrors, but I always look wind blown when I do because I keep moving to make it look like I'm not checking myself out. Anyways). I was really excited to show my family the zoo, because I like it so much. Everyone was quite entertained by the monkeys, even Tyler. I'm glad we have one photo of him enjoying animals, because it seems he's kind of scared of them in general (really Liz, you thought he would enjoy a house full of chickens. No one likes to be in a chicken coop).

Once I gave up on being productive I started a new go hiking whenever I feel like it tradition. First I hiked the Crimson Trail up Logan Canyon on a particularly blah Monday. It wasn't a really difficult hike, but it was a good opportunity to test out my new tripod (which is bendy and tons of fun), and the hike runs along the China Wall (a really cool looking bit of cliff that runs through a good portion of the canyon). I also ran into some vegetation that reminded me of being a hobbit, because the leaves were so big (I am such a dork, it never ever stops. I get around big plants and automatically think: Gee, this is like being in the Shire.)

This last week I finally made it to the Wellsvilles. They're the mountains between Logan and Brigham City. Every time I drive through the canyon I think that I should hike them, so I actually did accomplish something last week. The Wellsvilles are pretty steep mountains, and it was quite an ordeal getting to the top. However, the views from up there were absolutely phenomenal. I could see the entire Cache Valley and most of the northern end of the Salt Lake Valley. Plus, the Wellsvilles are important bird observation areas. I saw a Broad Tailed Hummingbird and a Sharp-Shinned Hawk without the aid of binoculars. Awesome. Before I left for my hike I had read in two different places that the trail began in lush vegetation. In my mind lush vegetation is soft and inviting. However, in the Wellsvilles, lush just means big and impeading. I spend 1 1/2 hours hiking through vegetation up to my shoulders full of plants that were itchy and painful. Today was the first day I was able to shave my legs because they were full of those tiny scratches that shaving totally exacerbates. I should have worn pants. However, it was absolutely worth it, and I got down before the wind storm that came through that night really got started.
This is what I anticipated when I heard about the lush vegetation (by the way, does anyone know if this vine is invasive, because it is pretty intense here).
This is what lush vegetation looks like in real life.
And here's tree I really likes. I just think that trees that can grow on the top of windy mountains are interesting. Plus they're always really old. Cool.

So, that's how I've spent my month. I'll have to tell y'all later about my mink exploits (just so you know, mink are evil, and I do not like them).

Bear Lake, Woot Woot!

The lack of blogging makes it look as though I've been busy. Really, I should have been busy, but the busy only happens intermittently. Anyways, Lizzy said to post pictures from our vacation a few weeks ago, and here they are. I had tons of fun chill-axin' with my family, it was definitely a good break from school stress. Plus, they're fun.