online JOURNAL

30 June 06
For the past week there's been a stray cat living in our backyard. He had no collar, and no microchip that I could feel. Our neighbors put up lost cat posters, we posted a Craig's List ad, and no one has responded to either. So today I took him to the SPCA. I didn't realize in advance just how difficult that was going to be.

I walked into the SPCA with the cat in a carrier and started talking to one of the guys there. The place was so institutional and I soon found myself fighting back tears. I handed over the cat, and as soon as I got back to the car tears started streaming down my face.

The SPCA will put up pets for adoption if they pass a health and behavioural test. This cat is in good health and has the sweetest, most wonderful personality, so I am certain he will not only be put up for adoption, but that he will be grabbed up quickly. And adoption to a loving household is better than an uncertain life on the city streets (or backyards, as it were).

I would have kept him myself except 1) we're about to leave on vacation, and 2) we already have a cat who wouldn't be happy about sharing her house with another animal.

But man oh man, I am sad. This was so hard on me. I can only hope for the best.

28 June 06
Yesterday I received my first-ever seal bite. Since I work with many different animals of various species, sizes, and temperaments, it was only a matter of time until it happened. See if you can guess which animal bit me.

Was it:
The Guadalupe fur seal who is the size of a small dog, with the strength of a large dog and the jaws to match?
The 150 pound California sea lion who is so aggressive he wouldn't let smaller animals near the pool to eat?
The 371 pound adult male California sea lion who scaled a 6-foot chain link fence (I still haven't quite figured out how he did that) because he felt like swimming in the pool on the other side?
Or maybe the 15 pound cute-as-a-button fluffy harbor seal pup?

If you chose "the cute harbor seal pup" then you are a winner! Granted, it's not a very big bite because he doesn't have a very big mouth, but the teeth were needle-sharp and I did bleed.

Now let's just hope the flesh-eating bacteria doesn't cause my finger to fall off.

26 June 06
Recent Readings:

Dead Men Do Tell Tales - William R. Maples, Ph.D. and Michael Browning - I feel like this book was written especially for me. Included within are "The strange and fascinating cases of a forensic anthropologist," and they do not disappoint. Dr. Maples recalls some of his more interesting and puzzling cases, describes what he was looking for, and what the evidence was able to tell him. You learn what an amazing amount of information a forensic anthropologist can get from something as small as a piece of bone. Sure, these tales probably aren't for the faint of heart as they lean towards the macabre, but that's what makes them so great. My only complaint is that this book wasn't much longer; I would have liked to have continued reading on this subject. Highly recommended.

Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science - Atul Gawande - This book takes away as much of the mystery surrounding modern medicine as it adds back to it. Dr. Gawande presents several stories and case studies from his years of surgical residency, and adds to them the insight that only an insider would have. He lets us know that doctors are far from infallible, and sometimes medical professionals just don't know what to do. But at the same time, a physician can develop a sort of sixth sense and some unconscious clue will push them towards the correct decision, thus saving a patient's life. An interesting, well-written book that is recommended for anyone with an interest in medicine.

26 June 06
I typically don't get sick. With the exception of an occasional stuffy nose or tummyache, I go years without getting a cold. I'm not sure if I've ever had the flu. Instead of colds, I get weird things going wrong with me. A few weeks ago it was a reaction to an antibiotic (that I was taking for yet another weird thing) that had me laid up on the couch for a couple of days.

Now I'm experiencing issues with thermoregulation. Last night I came down with a fever. I was so cold and shivering that I went to bed bundled up in t-shirt, sweatpants, socks, and a bathrobe underneath the covers. I took my temperature a few times during the night and it was 101.0-101.3°F. This morning I took some ibuprofen to get rid of a headache. That broke my fever and my temperature plummetted to 96.6°F. My normal temp is lower than the average of 98.6, but 96.6 seems crazy. It has since gone back up to 97.7, and I feel perfectly fine and healthy now, as I did yesterday afternoon.

I leave on Sunday for a week-long dive trip to Mexico. Part of me thinks I should go to the doctor again and find out what's wrong so it can be fixed while I still have access to reliable healthcare. The other part of me thinks that as long as I'm feeling fine (like right now), then everything's okay and I shouldn't worry about it. And some little bit of me is remembering the case study I just read about necrotizing fasciitis and, despite the fact that I have none of the symptoms, is convinced my body is being consumed from the inside-out by flesh-eating bacteria because that's just the sort of weird thing that would happen to me.

22 June 06
Recent Readings:

Eragon - Christopher Paolini - This book came highly recommended by a good friend, and now that I've read it, I want to recommend it to everyone else. It's a good, solid fantasy story about a boy. And a dragon. And an evil king, demonic forces, families torn asunder, battles, magic, and all that other good stuff that happens in such a book. And it's quite well-written - something that may come as a surprise when you discover the author was only 15 when he wrote the novel; it holds its own against just about any fantasy novel written by an adult. All in all, a very engaging, enjoyable story.

Eldest - Christopher Paolini - This is the sequel to Eragon, and the second book in the Inheritance triology. I find the story has taken on more complexities and plot twists as it moves along, making it even more enjoyable. Now I wait impatiently for the third book to be released! Highly recommended.

21 June 06
Three weeks ago we drove into the Zoo with four underweight elephant seals, and this morning four fat, sausage-like seals were driven out, on their way to be released at Point Reyes. The pups are doing so well that one seal gained 16 kgs. (35 lbs.) in 22 days! They're going to need that extra blubber while they learn to catch wild fish in order to feed themselves.

It was a media circus there this morning. Someone from Channel 2 was there early on, and he wanted the seals to be in the right side of the enclosure so he could get a good shot. He didn't seem to understand it when the seals would follow us around (they were hungry, afterall) instead of staying put for the camera. I'm kind of surprised he didn't ask us to wipe their snotty little noses to make them more presentable.

Two seals were on the floor of the drained pool (as opposed to the pool deck, where they could be escorted out the back door), so we had to load them into crates and have them forklifted up and out of the pool. This entire procedure was documented by Channel 11 News, The Chronicle, The Examiner, and possibly other papers as well.

With so much media nonsense going on, I opted-out of going on the actual release, and instead stayed behind to finish cleaning. The pups should have been released within the past hour, so lets hope they are taking well to their new super-large pool.

Media coverage I've found so far:
NBC News 11 story, includes super-crappy still photos.
SF Gate photoessay, and me with a very worried look on my face.
Marin Independent Journal article

19 June 06
Yay, my husband and (another) one of my best friends are now scuba-certified! Charlotte and Frederick completed their open-water classes with flying ~~fishes~~ colors, and are now ready to dive their little water-logged hearts out in Kona later this summer.

While we were all down in Monterey, I finally learned how to dive in a drysuit. I spent an hour underwater with nothing but my hands and head getting wet, and I felt comfortably warm the entire time. Even though you lose a great amount of heat through your head, at no time did my head (or any other part of me) feel cold. And the best part was that once I was done with my dives, I took off the drysuit and was wearing dry street clothes!

A couple of things did surprise me about the drysuit. One was the amount of weight I used - I expected to dive with less weight once I rid myself of the buoyant neoprene, but that wasn't the case. The buoyancy of the thick "long underwear" I was wearing, the air contained within the drysuit itself, plus the fact that I was an inexperienced drysuit diver all added up to me carrying even more weight than I would in a wetsuit. (At a total of 38-40 pounds of lead, plus a heavy tank, that's quite the weightlifting session.)

The other surprise was the comfort of the drysuit get-up. I expected it to feel like diving in my jammies. But between the layers of thick undergarments and the bulk of the suit itself, it was almost as restrictive as wearing a wetsuit. Plus, I'd heard of a "suit squeeze", where the water pressure at depth presses the suit tightly against your body, but I was surprised to feel that on my legs while my head was still above water. Even once you put air in the suit to allieviate any discomfort, you still feel like you're getting a full-body bear-hug. But all-in-all, a drysuit is better than a wetsuit, and I doubt I'll ever go back.

Saturday evening we stopped for an ice cream sundae, then took a walk along the water, going down Cannery Row, past the Aquarium, and around the corner to Pacific Grove. We looked down to the beach (protected by a chain-link fence, as it was on the property of Hopkins Marine Station) and what do we see but seals. And not just a few seals, but a haul-out with over 150 harbor seals! Everything from adorable pups to full-grown adults. The funniest thing was when a rogue wave washed high up on the beach, catching them off-guard. As soon as the water hit, countless heads and tails went up as if to say, "Ahhh, cold!"

14 June 06
My cat is strange. She's weird (and wonderful) for many different reasons, but the one I have in mind right now is her obsession with water. Not just any water, but "people water."

For some odd reason she loves to drink any water that's not her own. She'll completely ignore her water bowl and instead retrieve the last milliliters of water from the bottom of a drinking glass with her paw, licking the droplets off her foot. We learned long ago not to drink from an unattended glass because it has probably been "Kisafied." And shortly after we learned to protect our drinks by placing a napkin or card over the top of the glass, she figured out to push off the barrier to reach the people water underneath.

Now Kisa's latest thing is the bathtub. If I bathe with the door latched, she'll wait outside until I open it, otherwise she wanders in. If I'm showering she allows me to finish, then jumps in the tub to lick up the water droplets. If I'm taking a bath, she hops up on the side of the tub and drinks while I'm soaking.

She's an odd little cat :)

(And yes, the vet has checked her for both diabetes and kidney problems, and declared her free from both.)

13 June 06
Today, for the first time, I got to work with harbor seals! Normally there is a separate crew caring for the harbor seals, as the pups have underdeveloped immune systems and we avoid cross-contamination between species. But it's the end of harbor seal season and there are only two pups left; they've been brought up to the "topside" pools, and I was able to feed them today.

Harbor seal pups are the Cutest. Things. Ever.

Seahawk, a little sea lion about a year old, has habituated to humans and cannot be released (again). Today was his last day at TMMC, and tomorrow he flies off to his new home at the Pittsburgh Zoo. (PGH people: he'll be the guy with the orange tag on the trailing edge of his left front flipper.) As a treat, we fed him live fish today. Seahawk turned his pool into a whirlpool as he dashed after every last one! It was interesting - after we dumped the 30 or so live fish, most of them schooled together. Several times the school passed right in front of Seahawk's nose and he didn't go after them. It must have registered as something too big to eat. He'd only chase them when a single fish broke away from the group.

12 June 06
After a brief test run last Halloween, I am back on the air on SomaFM! We've got a new channel called Doomed, playing all dark, haunting, spooky music. I've dug into the depths of my CD collection (literally scanning over 10,000 songs), and pulled out a selection of music which, if I've done it correctly, you won't be able to listen to with the lights off ;)

Doomed has been "soft-launched", so there's no hoopla about it yet as we fine-tune the channel and add additional songs.

Doomed is currently accepting music submissions. See below for submission info.

Listen, and enjoy!

--

SomaFM's Doomed plays "dark music for tortured souls." We concentrate on soundscapes rather than dance tracks; the sort of music that sounds like it belongs as the background to a horror movie. If you have a track or an album which you believe would fit into our playlist, we'd love to hear it. CD (audio or MP3, 256 kbps or better) submissions may be mailed to:

SomaFM
attn: DJ Lucretia
1890 Bryant #303
San Francisco, CA 94110

Emails and links to downloadable music may be sent to: lucretia <at> somafm <dot> com. (If you have more than one downloadable song, please indicate which are appropriate for Doomed.)

8 June 06
I have this love-hate thing going on with the human race. While I do love my friends, I don't like people in general. I wouldn't mind if most people went and disappeared from the face of the earth (so long as the good ones were left behind ;) ). But at the same time I think cruelty and torture are wrong.

When I told friends several years ago that I was planning on going into nursing, I think some were surprised. After all, why would I choose a career caring for people? Truth is, I wanted to work in trauma and/or surgery so I would be dealing with just the situation and the biology, but not the person. All that being said, I always wondered how I would handle it when a patient died. I'm fine watching surgeries, looking at photos of injuries, looking at dead bodies. But it's different when someone (something) dies in front of you.

In contrast, I never wanted to be a vet because I didn't want to deal with dying animals or having to put them to sleep. I don't like looking at photos of injured or dead animals. However, I was okay watching and participating in necropsies, although I noted I was very detached and operating from a scientific vantage point. (And in the case where we necropsied a euthanized sea lion, I did not watch the euthanasia.)

It's funny how the mind makes its own little distinctions. I wonder what it all really means, deep inside.

7 June 06
The problem with working with animals is that sometimes they die. And since we're working with sick animals at TMMC, we do periodically have animals that don't make it. But yesterday was the first time that an animal I had been working closely with had died.

A week and a half ago a male elephant seal pup we called "Batman" was rescued from Monterey County and brought to the Center. He was malnourished and was suffering from a Otostrongylus infection. Since he didn't (couldn't?) eat on his own we were tube feeding him. I fed him yesterday morning, and noted he laid in one place for hours. Come noontime he had moved to a different area in his pen and I noticed he began trembling. We tried to feed him again but could not get a tube down his throat due to some sort of physical blockage, so we gave him subcutaneous fluids instead. I sat with him as he was getting fluids and saw the tremors getting stronger. We were afraid we were watching him die. A few hours after I got home last night, I received an email saying he was found dead at 6:45, and I couldn't help but crying a little.

R.I.P. Batman.

2 June 06
Well, yesterday the nice man came and picked up Snowball. I found another donation center that took her away, no questions asked (and any proceeds go towards the Marine Mammal Center!). They come and tow the car away, and you don't even have to be home for them to do so. Although it was very strange putting the signed pink slip and the keys in the glovebox, and just leaving the car parked on the street like that.

Now, for the first time since I was 17, I have no car of my own (although I do have Frederick's to drive). Some day I will again have a car.

31 May 06
As of this morning, there are now elephant seals at the Zoo! We brought four pups over and they took to their new digs like fishes to water. Their new pool is 8-10 times the size of their previous pool, and they love it so much that they didn't leave the water once during the few hours we were there. The polar bears just across the way seemed interested in the seals; we're assuming they caught their scent.

This means that due to some sort of recursive meta space-warp, I am now volunteering for The Marine Mammal Center, the San Francisco Zoo, and TMMC at the Zoo. Heh.

Here are some photos:

29 May 06
Well, I was on-call both yesterday and today, but didn't have to work at all. I suppose that's good, as the reason I'd get called in is if a seal needed rescuing. (I'm only on-call for the area from Half Moon Bay to Marin and we don't get a lot of strandings in that area; most seem to come from Monterey and San Luis Obispo. Even so, on a nice three-day weekend with a lot of people at the beach, they expected it to be busy. Oh well.)

Elephant seal season is winding down at work, and we're seeing the beginning of seal lion season. While most of the ellie pups are admitted for malnutrition, the sea lions are usually admitted because of domoic acid (red tide) poisoning, leptospirosis (bacterical infection), or human intervention (entanglement, gunshot, etc.). Domoic acid poisoning affects the hippocampus, and acute cases often result in the animal acting lethargic, confused, and sometimes seizuring. Because their feeding range overlaps areas of domoic acid outbreaks, pregnant female sea lions frequently become poisoned. Their bodies tend to abort the fetus and instead devote energy to recovery.

On Friday I transported a large (106 kg.) female sea lion back to the Center. She was an acute domoic case, and had aborted her pup the night before. I had the sea lion in a carrier in the back of the truck, and the fetus in a cooler so the vets could examine it. Periodically the sea lion would thrash about in her carrier, shaking the truck back and forth. I only hope the "Marine Mammal Center" logos plastered on the truck explained my bouncing vehicle to the drivers around me.

Speaking of, the last time I went on a release it was a sunny Sunday afternoon. Three ellie pups were loaded into carriers in the back of the pickup truck. As we drove to the release site at Point Reyes, I'd occasionally hear people saying something like, "Oh look, it's The Marine Mammal Center! They've got seals!" It's a great feeling knowing that other people are excited about what you do :)

27 May 06
Several years ago I had two working computers at home. (Well, three if you count the sTinkpad I inherited from work.) During one particular week, both of those computers died. A similar thing is happening to me right now - my car is mostly dead, and the other day I went out to ride my bike and it's not working either.

It has been a couple of months since I last rode my bike, so I charged up the battery and when I went to start it there were horrible clunking sounds coming from the engine, the starter spun but it didn't sound right, and it didn't start. I need to call the bike shop and have him come pick it up and make it work again. It's a 23 year old Honda, so maybe it's due for a new engine? Even if that's the case, it's still cheaper than buying a new bike. As soon as I'm back in school, I'll again be riding it every day, so it's worth getting fixed.

The car, however, is turning into the proverbial albatross. I was going to donate it, but the company that handles donations told me "it's not cost-effective to come pick up the car" (apparently beggars can be choosers), although they'll take it if I drive it to their Redwood City office, but that's a pain in the butt for me. I suppose I could call junkyards to see if they'll take it, but it seems a shame to junk a car that runs so well. The Blue Book value is about equal to the cost of replacing the clutch, plus the body is beginning to develop rust holes around the windows, so maybe it is ready for the junkyard?

I suppose I could sell it, but I hate dealing with that sort of thing. Anyone wanna buy it really, REALLY cheap?

26 May 06
I'm not doing a very good job of being unemployed.

This week I worked on Tuesday, Thursday, and today. I'm on-call Sunday and Monday, and am scheduled to work next Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, plus being on-call again next Friday.

But ... does it count as "work" if I'm not getting paid?

---

The cool thing about working on Wednesday is that is the day we are transporting seals to the SF Zoo! The Zoo has graciously allowed TMMC use of its seal pool, which has been empty these past few years. Space is limited at the Mammal Center due to the rebuilding of the facilities, so some animals are being relocated to the Zoo. There will be a big press thingie on Thursday, so watch the news that evening.

If you're free next Wednesday somewhere around 10am-noon, come by the Zoo and watch us bring the new seals over!

22 May 06
Over the years, as I've been learning more about nutrition, I've been altering my diet to be healthier. It's common for me to go weeks without eating meat, and often the only reason I eat it is because I find myself at a restaurant with no good vegetarian dishes. But I've recently realized the following:

The reason I cannot be a vegetarian - Bacon.

The reason I cannot be a vegan - Cheesecake.

They're both too yummy to give up, and the imitation products just don't cut it for me.

17 May 06
Assorted Geekery-

Games:
I've never been into videogames. I played a little bit of "Heroes of Might & Magic III" a few years ago, but it didn't really do it for me. Recently, in a discussion of how we both used to love playing D&D, Ashley told me about "Neverwinter Nights". For the past couple of weeks it's all I've been doing in my free time.

Music:
I've been listening to my music library via iTunes as I play NWN. It's amazing how often the music matches the gameplay so well that it seems like a soundtrack.

I bought new stuff based on peoples' recommendations, and I'm waiting for it to be delivered.

Haujobb's Homes and Gardens is one of my all-time favourite industrial albums, and has been for 12+ years. It contains everything I love about the genre. Kilo-Cycle Respirator is one of the Best. Songs. Evar. and needs to be listened to very loud.

Biology:
I'm starting to miss being in school; Fall semester begins the end of August. In the meantime, I just ordered the book Analysis of Vertebrate Structure to tide me over.

9 May 06
And speaking of work stuff, I was able to watch (and somewhat participate in) my second necropsy last week. This time it was a sub-adult (~1 year old) sea lion, compared to the previous weeks' elephant seal pup.

We were about halfway through the procedure when I thought about what I was doing and realized, "This is pretty gross."

9 May 06
As Frederick and I were having dinner tonight, I found myself going on and on (again) about my "job". I recalled how, a few years ago when I was working at the horrible UCSF job, I'd listen to friends interviewing for jobs they were incredibly excited about. Back then I wondered if I would ever again be excited to work someplace.

A few years of school went by and I pushed that work thing to the back of my mind. I had been scarred by working at a job I hated, and wasn't sure when or if I'd get a chance to be happy about work.

Well, I'm happy to report that recently I've been really, really excited about working at the Mammal Center! If you had asked me when I was just a child what I wanted to do with my life, I would have replied, "I want to work with animals." In the recent past I was planning on going into nursing. Then my incredibly wonderful husband person knocked some sense into my head, and now I get to work with animals! Wild animals! I am a nurse for marine mammals, essentially. And I love it. I *can* be excited about work!

7 May 06
After 15 years of faithful service, it's almost time for me to say goodbye to Snowball, my '91 Nissan Sentra. Snowball has driven me around four states and three countries and it'll be sad to see her go.

The clutch started slipping about 1.5 months ago, and now it's getting to the point where it's probably not safe to drive the car anymore. Sure, I could get it replaced, but it's not worth it to drop $500-800 on a car that old. Even though it runs like a champ, it's also kinda falling apart.

So I guess it's almost time for a new car. Based on mileage, reliability, and passenger/cargo volume, I've narrowed it down to three (coincidentally all Toyotas):

Corolla
   Big advantage: Manual transmission.
   Cons: MPG not as good as Prius, but better than almost everything else.

Prius Hybrid
   Big advantage: Mileage.
   Cons: No manual transmission. Looks awfully pod-like. No trunk.

Camry Hybrid
   Big advantage: Roomier interior.
   Cons: No manual transmission. MPG about the same as Corolla. Less cargo space than the other two cars.

I think what it will come down to is whether or not I would be able to stand driving an automatic transmission, and I'm not sure I can.

(What I really want is an Audi A4 wagon, but the gas mileage is lousy. Why haven't car manufacturers spent the last 15 years improving MPGs, instead of making SUVs bigger?)

2 May 06
I don't like diamonds. Wait, let me rephrase that: I don't like the hype the diamond cartel has created around little pieces of pressure-treated coal.

Sure, diamonds can be pretty, especially when they refract light into a rainbow of colors. No, it doesn't bother me at all that other people like and/or wear diamonds; I just don't want one myself.

When we were choosing our wedding rings I neither wanted nor received a diamond ring. Instead, we chose (imnsho) really cool, but simple rings. I love mine! It means a lot to me on many different levels, one of which is that it is quite unique.

I've noticed that when I tell someone that I recently got married, their eyes often automatically dart to my ring finger. They don't see a diamond there, so four times out of five they never ask to see my ring. I might not have thought anything of this until the day when a co-worker mentioned she got engaged and people oohed and aahed over her (tiny) diamond.

It was sad to see that most people seem to care more about something ordinary and expected than something unique (one could say that's been the story of my life!). Maybe my ring will help me weed out the ordinary people who only care about image.

30 April 06
Apparently this has been Marine Mammal week for me! A week ago Friday I drove to Monterey with my parents. On the way back, we stopped at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse south of Half Moon Bay. Walking out to the edge of the bluff I looked down at the water and saw a grey whale! I ran to the point in time to see the whale surface several times as it continued on its northward migration. This was my second whale spotting ever, and my first in California waters.

The following Tuesday was a big day for me working at TMMC, but I've already talked about that.

In addition to working on the Animal Care crew at The Center, I'm also on-call for the Stranding Crew. The Stranding department not only rescues stranded marine mammals*, but also releases rehabilitated animals, and last Friday I was able to to both.

We released three elephant seal pups back into the wild at Point Reyes. We set them down, in their crates, close to the water. They came out of their crates, greeted a resident seal, then made their way down to the water to examine their new home. This is what the job is all about, what makes the long hours and hard work so meaningful - helping these animals so they can live out the rest of their lives as wild animals.

(click on a photo to bring up the series, with additional commentary.)

After the release, we headed to the northern part of Tomales Bay to rescue a harbor seal pup. He was under a pier in a busy area, his mom hadn't been seen for almost two days, and he was underweight and dehydrated. But he is the CUTEST. SEAL. EVER. We took him back to The Center for rehabilitation, hopefully saving his life.

--
* You may have heard of the amazing humpback whale rescue some months back, where the whale nuzzled her rescuers after they cut away the ropes which almost drowned her. That rescue was performed by Marine Mammal Center volunteers.

27 April 06
I volunteered at the Zoo today. The weather was nice. I took pictures.

26 April 06
I read Mark Morford's latest column this morning. In there he talks about the Cottonelle Toilet Paper FAQ. Yup, that's right, answers to "frequently asked questions" about stuff you use to wipe your butt.

For some reason this just hit a nerve. It seems to embody different facets of one of the things I hate most about this country: waste.

I think it's a waste of time and bandwidth to create and publish a FAQ about toilet paper. People have been wiping their asses for thousands of years now, all without this piece of marketing garbage.

I think it's a waste of brain power to publish a FAQ which tells people things like how to fix their TP when it comes off the roll incorrectly. If you can't figure out how to use it, you probably don't deserve to live.

And finally, the thing that annoys me the most:

"Is Cottonelle® for Kids Toilet Paper made with any recycled fiber?
No, it is made with virgin wood fibers."

They waste forests just so people can wipe poo off their asses, and seem proud of this fact. Fuckers.

I'm glad I don't use any Cottonelle or Kleenex products.

(What do I use? Seventh Generation paper products, and laundry, dishwasher, and dish soaps.)

25 April 06
Today was a very interesting day at The Marine Mammal Center. I didn't get bit in the butt like I did last week (it wasn't a hard bite; didn't come close to breaking the skin), but I got involved in several new-to-me things.

This morning I learned how to restrain elephant seal pups so they can be tube fed. (Prior to this, I've been doing the actual tubing where we insert a long tube down the animal's esophagus and into the stomach, then use a large "syringe" to feed them a tasty herring milkshake.) But restraining is much more difficult - you quickly wrap a towel around their head to subdue them and protect yourself from bites, then kneel on the ground straddling and immobilizing the animal while your partner tubes them. This can be tough when you have a strong, active four foot-long seal!

Working with animals isn't all cute, fuzzy cheerfulness, however. Early this morning, as we were starting our feedings, I walked into a pen only to find the animal dead. This was the first death I've encountered on one of my shifts, so it was sad. You just have to remember that we are a hospital and every animal we care for is in some way sick or injured, so this is part of life.

If there was an up side to losing that seal, it was that I was able to watch its necropsy. Even though I've previously worked with preserved (human) cadavers, I've never before watched a necropsy/autopsy, so this was extremely interesting. The vet student performing the necropsy was very informative, explaining what she was doing and telling me all sorts of physiological facts as she worked. Not only did I get my introduction to elephant seal anatomy, I was also able to dissect the lungs and a kidney. (Pinnipeds and cetaceans have bizarre, amazing kidneys. They normally do not drink fresh water, and their kidneys have to both filter out an excess of salt while reclaiming enough water to keep the animals alive.) It turns out this seal died from a lungworm (Otostrongylus circumlitus) infection, so at least it wasn't as a result of something any of us did.

On a lighter note:
Here are photos of some of our patients, and recordings of elephant seals - 7 second recording/50KB or 20 seconds/150KB (they sound like someone doing a poor impression of a chicken).

19 April 06
Reflections on current social trends:

Lip piercings are the new lower back tattoos.

People who own super-bassy car stereos and play them loud enough to vibrate things outside their car need to be killed. Soon. Slow and painfully.

14 April 06
I just finished watching the second of a four-part series on PBS entitled Jean-Michel Cousteau: Ocean Adventures. It's a fascinating series (*much* better than Tivo's description makes it sound), following Cousteau and his research crew as they journey northwest through the outer Hawaiian Island chain, 1200 miles from Honolulu.

Some facts that struck me like a ton of bricks are the amount of human garbage that either washes up on those remote islands or is carried ashore by seabirds. On one small island, 1000 miles from the populated Hawaiian islands and about 3500 miles from the mainland U.S., they find countless tons of debris. Often the debris is ingested by birds who mistake it for brightly-colored fish, and it sometimes kills them.

In addition, the people working on this one island pull ashore eighty tons of discarded fishing nets each year. This is only a small portion of the estimated 4000 tons of fishing nets thought to be floating around in the Northern Pacific. Many (most?) of those were damaged nets simply cast adrift by Asian fishing vessels who couldn't be bothered to repair them or haul them home to dispose of properly.

Well, without me climbing any higher onto my soapbox, I'll just say that if you're at all interested in the ocean, fish, diving, the environment, or just looking at pretty pictures, you should watch this series :)

13 April 06
So. Lazy.

Since returning home Sunday night, I've set foot outside the house just twice: once to move the car, and another time to get something from the garage. Granted, I did come home with a cold, so part of my lounging about was due to being sick, but still...

For the last several weeks I have been so absolutely busy - running errands, going shopping, doing all sorts of things for the wedding. Then I was on holiday, and was busy having fun. Now I think I'm just taking advantage of having nothing to do while I can; I'm sure life will get busy again soon enough.

Today's goal: leave the house.

12 April 06
I've just put up pictures and stuff from our super-wonderful honeymoon in Costa Rica.

Stories, info, and pictures are in the travel journal.
Photos (including some not found in the journal) are in my Flickr album.

Have fun :)

9 April 06
I'm like, all married and stuff.

We had a wonderful wedding, a spectacular honeymoon, and the cold I caught a couple of weeks ago was kind enough to go away until we were on the way back home. Pictures and stories are in the works, as is post-vacation depression.

And, damn, it's still raining here :/