I spent my Saturday morning at a place called Rollins Savanna, learning about how they restored the site from cornfields and cattle pasture to prairie and savanna - it's really a work in progress. I met the man of my dreams - the guy in charge of the restoration, who really understands about how ecosystems work and also knows an awful lot about the individual species that go into it. He's very honest about the mistakes they made at Rollins, and it's obvious that he works hard and is devoted to the site. He's also very deferential - by the end of the session, he was directing people's questions my way - i guess i can be sort of a loud mouth about ecology.
Now i'm off to the evanston art fair. I hope it doesn't rain on me!
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Friday, June 22, 2007
Man vs. Wild!
My roommate just introduced me to a new tv show - Man vs Wild, wherein a 30-something former British Special Air Service guy gets dropped off in the middle of a different wilderness every week, with nothing but a knife and flint and steel, and the clothes on his back.
And a cameraman! they don't talk about the cameraman, or even acknowledge his existence, but he must be just as hardcore as 'Bear'!
That's right, Bear. Bear Grylls. (His real name is Edward or something).
Check him out: http://www.beargrylls.com/
and the page for his show: http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/manvswild/bio/bio.html
The episode i watched was Bear in Iceland. He snared a ptarmigan with a shoelace, tore its skin off, and roasted it over a fire. He slept in a moss shelter and found water in a volcanic cave.
All in all, it was pretty cool. And ridiculous.
And a cameraman! they don't talk about the cameraman, or even acknowledge his existence, but he must be just as hardcore as 'Bear'!
That's right, Bear. Bear Grylls. (His real name is Edward or something).
Check him out: http://www.beargrylls.com/
and the page for his show: http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/manvswild/bio/bio.html
The episode i watched was Bear in Iceland. He snared a ptarmigan with a shoelace, tore its skin off, and roasted it over a fire. He slept in a moss shelter and found water in a volcanic cave.
All in all, it was pretty cool. And ridiculous.
believe it or not ...
oh yeah, and something that i just learned about last week ... who knew they existed?
this is a prairie crawfish. that's right - it lives in the middle of a prairie. i didn't see one until the day after it rained a lot, when the grass was still wet, and it's a mesic prairie, meaning it's not terribly dry. but still ... in my world, crawfish lived in streams.
i think he's kind of cute. pretty darn cool, at the very least.
this is a prairie crawfish. that's right - it lives in the middle of a prairie. i didn't see one until the day after it rained a lot, when the grass was still wet, and it's a mesic prairie, meaning it's not terribly dry. but still ... in my world, crawfish lived in streams.i think he's kind of cute. pretty darn cool, at the very least.
yay internet
so now i have wireless. hooray for technology. i got a wireless router (graduation present from Bridget), because my ethernet is nonfunctional on this computer (my laptop). after consulting bridget and dave, i decided it would be more economical to buy a wireless router than fix the ethernet. plus it's cooler. now i can be on the internet with no cables anywhere in my house.
the downside? i wasn't smart or cool enough to set up my own router. i tried. i gave it a good go, but the technology kicked my patootie repeatedly. so i called in the tech support - i called up Pete, Mr. Internet himself, to ask for guidance. he said, "okay, i can try to talk you through this over the phone, or i can come over and have it done in 10 minutes."
i decided that, for efficiency and sanity's sake, i'd swallow my pride and let him do it. and he wasn't lying. i didn't see what he did differently from me - i think that technology is just the same as animals - it recognizes an authoritative touch.
so, however i got it, i've got it. now, i guess, i owe Pete one. i made him a couple of margaritas to help the work go more smoothly, but i think he still wins.
then he impressed me by showing me his phone, which he managed to hack so that it has free internet. he's the biggest nerd i know. all that work just so he can check his email on his phone. and then he took me out to meet people. he's determined that i need to make friends. he's right, after all.
i really enjoyed the guys i met, but most of the girls seemed dumb as posts. nice, but not much under the hood.
all that's left now is to decide what to do with my friday night. maybe sleep - i'm going to learn about savanna restoration tomorrow morning, and i have to drive an hour to do it.
then orchid monitoring on Sunday - not a real weekend, after all, but a vacation day in the bank all the same.
it's actually kind of cold out - what a nice change. sleeping under blankets, what a treat! maybe i'll have a cup of hot tea - now *there's* something i haven't wanted in a while ....
the downside? i wasn't smart or cool enough to set up my own router. i tried. i gave it a good go, but the technology kicked my patootie repeatedly. so i called in the tech support - i called up Pete, Mr. Internet himself, to ask for guidance. he said, "okay, i can try to talk you through this over the phone, or i can come over and have it done in 10 minutes."
i decided that, for efficiency and sanity's sake, i'd swallow my pride and let him do it. and he wasn't lying. i didn't see what he did differently from me - i think that technology is just the same as animals - it recognizes an authoritative touch.
so, however i got it, i've got it. now, i guess, i owe Pete one. i made him a couple of margaritas to help the work go more smoothly, but i think he still wins.
then he impressed me by showing me his phone, which he managed to hack so that it has free internet. he's the biggest nerd i know. all that work just so he can check his email on his phone. and then he took me out to meet people. he's determined that i need to make friends. he's right, after all.
i really enjoyed the guys i met, but most of the girls seemed dumb as posts. nice, but not much under the hood.
all that's left now is to decide what to do with my friday night. maybe sleep - i'm going to learn about savanna restoration tomorrow morning, and i have to drive an hour to do it.
then orchid monitoring on Sunday - not a real weekend, after all, but a vacation day in the bank all the same.
it's actually kind of cold out - what a nice change. sleeping under blankets, what a treat! maybe i'll have a cup of hot tea - now *there's* something i haven't wanted in a while ....
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
i love my job
today i got to hang out in the woods with a crazy lady. she is so cool - an artist and all that connotates. and on friday i got to hang out on the prairie with an author. and all the time i get to learn crazy stuff about beautiful and adorable plants.
and i'm getting paid to do it.
is it luck? or what?
and i'm getting paid to do it.
is it luck? or what?
Sunday, June 17, 2007
info dump after a long silence
so, life's been busy so i haven't been blogging. plus my internet doesn't work on this computer at home ...
i'm sitting in a coffeeshop 2 or 3 blocks from my place, doing all of the internet-y things that i've been storing up for the last few days and enjoying the air conditioning (it's about 90 degrees and 90% humidity here, and has been for 3 days or so).
so here are a few pictures of my new home:
the living room, only showing half of it (the other half is currently full of my roommate's brother's stuff ... he's moving out tomorrow)...
the dining room, which gets lovely evening light...
one of my fuzzy roommates, Olie.
He is incredibly friendly and in need of attention at all times. He spends the hot part of the day sleeping under my bed, and is always lying outside my door when I open it in the morning. He is the reason why i have an extra blanket on my bed - to catch the cat hair and keep it out of my pillows. His sister Peaches is much more difficult to photograph - she moves more quickly and is quite shy. She is prone to adorable bouts of insanity when she attacks anything she pleases and chews (gently) on it. Both of them are great at attacking you with all four paws and no claws.
I don't have a nice photo of my bedroom yet. I've been hanging pictures slowly, so it's finally getting to look like a place where I live. It's going to change soon, though, as Eric, the former inhabitant, still has some of his things there. I am going to lose a desk and gain some more closet space after tomorrow. I have a picture that I want to frame, and I mean to ask Emily for advice on that, as she is actually a professional.
I have realized i really need to cool it on the spending of money, at least for a little while - I haven't been holding still long enough to figure out the balance between income and outgo yet, and i haven't been worrying too much because so many of the things i bought recently were one-time, get-my-house-set-up purchases. I think i need to declare myself done with those and start only buying food and other necessities.
Anyway ... life in Evanston. It's good. It's better than in Roger's Park. The people here are cool, and the atmosphere is fun. There is a street fair a block from my house this weekend - called Custer's Last Stand, because one of the streets involved is Custer. I hung out there yesterday, and it was very cool- lots of artists and artisans (so many jewelry salesfolk!) and musicians of all kinds, plus greasy carnival food and lots of shiny Lincoln cars (Lincoln is the big sponsor, apparently). I made it to an Irish music session at the Celtic Knot on Tuesday, but I didn't play - i just went to case the joint. They already have 2 bodhran players - one of whom is really good, and his drum looks like it's made by the guy in Texas who makes the drums for Donnchadh of Danu. I plan to go again on Tuesday and this time be bold enough to talk to the guy. After I am done here, I am going over to Tommy Nevin's which is another Irish pub about 3 blocks farther north from this coffee shop. Apparently they have seisuns on Sundays, but I can't find anywhere that tells me when, so I figure i will just go ask. I was in in there on Friday night, with my friend Pete, but I didn't get a chance to grill the bartender about the music scene (the place was packed, as Saturday was Northwestern's graduation). I am hoping this session is easy to break into. I'm still trying to think of other pasttimes I might have or might enjoy that would allow me to meet some more people my own age - I know that bars are not the place to meet people, and I think Irish music tends to have more old people involved. And i don't want to rely on my roommate. Many of her friends are through her church, and they are very nice people, but, while I have a healthy respect for Jesus, i don't have the kind of consuming love for him that most of these church folks have. They do things like go on missions and go to conferences and try to change the world through Jesus' love.
On the subject of missions and God's love - i am reading The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, and boy, do I recommend it. She is one of my favorite authors - I recently read Animal Dreams, which is another excellent book, and Prodigal Summer is one of my all-time top 5 books. Poisonwoods Bible is a long and intense book - it has carried me through a week of lengthy train rides and a few evenings at home, and I am still just half-way through. It's very difficult to put it down - i rode the El for 4 hours yesterday, reading it, and it felt more like half an hour. She is such a versatile writer that I can't get tired of her writing. I really miss the cornell library right now - I still haven't gotten my Evanston library card, and I want to get her other books. Maybe I'll check the used book store for more - that's where i got both Animal Dreams and Poisonwood Bible (they were in the front window, which means they cost a dollar apiece - the local used book store is awesome. the guy who works there is surly in a wonderful way, and covered with tattoos).
I'm checking my email while I'm writing this, and I was just looking at an email from my friend Matt Perkins, one of the CU engineering school's Golden Boys of environmentalism - he's in Beijing, trying to save the world : http://cornellsun.com/greenolympics can offer a window onto what he's doing. It's pretty fascinating!
the other thing i started this weekend:
last summer, i got it into my head that i wanted to make a bunch of my old clothes into a quilt. i had all these shirts that were stained, hole-y, or otherwise not really wearable, but they had a lot of sentimental value (i know it's hard for some of you to believe that Old Stone-face knows what sentiment is, but apparently i'm not as shallow as you think). so anyway, instead of giving my crappy clothes to charity, i tore them up and said, now i will learn to sew. then nothing happened. i found other things to do and forgot. i just carried this bag of rags every time i moved.
i finally pulled it out the other night and started sewing - hand-sewing. janni thinks i'm crazy. i think it doesn't matter, because it's not the destination, it's the ride. i don't care if it doesn't turn out as a quilt. we'll see how it turns out, and i'll have fun while i'm doing it. i think a little hand-sewing could be a good way to pass the time on public transit - when i read, i don't take advantage of the good people-watching opportunity.
anyway. updates will be posted as life goes on. I've been getting a few phone calls from folks - keep 'em coming! I love hearing from people I know and love! and i don't have the presence of mind or the predisposition to make lots of phone calls.
i'm sitting in a coffeeshop 2 or 3 blocks from my place, doing all of the internet-y things that i've been storing up for the last few days and enjoying the air conditioning (it's about 90 degrees and 90% humidity here, and has been for 3 days or so).
so here are a few pictures of my new home:
the living room, only showing half of it (the other half is currently full of my roommate's brother's stuff ... he's moving out tomorrow)...
the dining room, which gets lovely evening light...
one of my fuzzy roommates, Olie.
He is incredibly friendly and in need of attention at all times. He spends the hot part of the day sleeping under my bed, and is always lying outside my door when I open it in the morning. He is the reason why i have an extra blanket on my bed - to catch the cat hair and keep it out of my pillows. His sister Peaches is much more difficult to photograph - she moves more quickly and is quite shy. She is prone to adorable bouts of insanity when she attacks anything she pleases and chews (gently) on it. Both of them are great at attacking you with all four paws and no claws.
I don't have a nice photo of my bedroom yet. I've been hanging pictures slowly, so it's finally getting to look like a place where I live. It's going to change soon, though, as Eric, the former inhabitant, still has some of his things there. I am going to lose a desk and gain some more closet space after tomorrow. I have a picture that I want to frame, and I mean to ask Emily for advice on that, as she is actually a professional.
I have realized i really need to cool it on the spending of money, at least for a little while - I haven't been holding still long enough to figure out the balance between income and outgo yet, and i haven't been worrying too much because so many of the things i bought recently were one-time, get-my-house-set-up purchases. I think i need to declare myself done with those and start only buying food and other necessities.
Anyway ... life in Evanston. It's good. It's better than in Roger's Park. The people here are cool, and the atmosphere is fun. There is a street fair a block from my house this weekend - called Custer's Last Stand, because one of the streets involved is Custer. I hung out there yesterday, and it was very cool- lots of artists and artisans (so many jewelry salesfolk!) and musicians of all kinds, plus greasy carnival food and lots of shiny Lincoln cars (Lincoln is the big sponsor, apparently). I made it to an Irish music session at the Celtic Knot on Tuesday, but I didn't play - i just went to case the joint. They already have 2 bodhran players - one of whom is really good, and his drum looks like it's made by the guy in Texas who makes the drums for Donnchadh of Danu. I plan to go again on Tuesday and this time be bold enough to talk to the guy. After I am done here, I am going over to Tommy Nevin's which is another Irish pub about 3 blocks farther north from this coffee shop. Apparently they have seisuns on Sundays, but I can't find anywhere that tells me when, so I figure i will just go ask. I was in in there on Friday night, with my friend Pete, but I didn't get a chance to grill the bartender about the music scene (the place was packed, as Saturday was Northwestern's graduation). I am hoping this session is easy to break into. I'm still trying to think of other pasttimes I might have or might enjoy that would allow me to meet some more people my own age - I know that bars are not the place to meet people, and I think Irish music tends to have more old people involved. And i don't want to rely on my roommate. Many of her friends are through her church, and they are very nice people, but, while I have a healthy respect for Jesus, i don't have the kind of consuming love for him that most of these church folks have. They do things like go on missions and go to conferences and try to change the world through Jesus' love.
On the subject of missions and God's love - i am reading The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, and boy, do I recommend it. She is one of my favorite authors - I recently read Animal Dreams, which is another excellent book, and Prodigal Summer is one of my all-time top 5 books. Poisonwoods Bible is a long and intense book - it has carried me through a week of lengthy train rides and a few evenings at home, and I am still just half-way through. It's very difficult to put it down - i rode the El for 4 hours yesterday, reading it, and it felt more like half an hour. She is such a versatile writer that I can't get tired of her writing. I really miss the cornell library right now - I still haven't gotten my Evanston library card, and I want to get her other books. Maybe I'll check the used book store for more - that's where i got both Animal Dreams and Poisonwood Bible (they were in the front window, which means they cost a dollar apiece - the local used book store is awesome. the guy who works there is surly in a wonderful way, and covered with tattoos).
I'm checking my email while I'm writing this, and I was just looking at an email from my friend Matt Perkins, one of the CU engineering school's Golden Boys of environmentalism - he's in Beijing, trying to save the world : http://cornellsun.com/greenolympics can offer a window onto what he's doing. It's pretty fascinating!
the other thing i started this weekend:
last summer, i got it into my head that i wanted to make a bunch of my old clothes into a quilt. i had all these shirts that were stained, hole-y, or otherwise not really wearable, but they had a lot of sentimental value (i know it's hard for some of you to believe that Old Stone-face knows what sentiment is, but apparently i'm not as shallow as you think). so anyway, instead of giving my crappy clothes to charity, i tore them up and said, now i will learn to sew. then nothing happened. i found other things to do and forgot. i just carried this bag of rags every time i moved.
i finally pulled it out the other night and started sewing - hand-sewing. janni thinks i'm crazy. i think it doesn't matter, because it's not the destination, it's the ride. i don't care if it doesn't turn out as a quilt. we'll see how it turns out, and i'll have fun while i'm doing it. i think a little hand-sewing could be a good way to pass the time on public transit - when i read, i don't take advantage of the good people-watching opportunity.
anyway. updates will be posted as life goes on. I've been getting a few phone calls from folks - keep 'em coming! I love hearing from people I know and love! and i don't have the presence of mind or the predisposition to make lots of phone calls.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
this is the plant i spent all day looking for:
Oenothera perennis, or small sundrops. the average height of the plant was about 3 inches - they're bitty! i am sun-full, sweaty, and gritty, and it was so much fun. i can't wait to get home and crack open a beer
... although i'll have to go to the store or bar, as i have no beers at home.
despite that, life is *good*!
Oenothera perennis, or small sundrops. the average height of the plant was about 3 inches - they're bitty! i am sun-full, sweaty, and gritty, and it was so much fun. i can't wait to get home and crack open a beer... although i'll have to go to the store or bar, as i have no beers at home.
despite that, life is *good*!
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