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30 September 07 Oof, my brain hurts. I've been doing homework since about 9:30 this morning, minus a ~2 hour break for dinner and sanity. Now my brain is mush and I need to turn to more mindless tasks. And, hey! Here's Livejournal! Last Tuesday, as I was leaving the Marine Mammal Center, I stopped to check on the dead deer I had found the previous week. It had been completely scavenged. The only bits left were the forelegs which had no meat on them. Ten or twenty feet away lay the two scapulae, and I found more bones lying up to 100 feet away. All of the long bones (save for the forelegs) had been cracked, presumably for the marrow. The head/skull were nowhere to be found.   The deer's death wasn't all for naught. She went to feed a variety of other critters, including, I'm sure, the coyote I saw running from the area earlier that morning. And now I carry a scalpel, gloves, and plastic bags in the car for the next time I come across a potential addition to my bone collection. 18 September 07 I took that online career test, the URL of which has been making the rounds, and my top suggested career was Zoologist. Which is great, because that's exactly why I'm going to school. But that's not the only clue that I'm on the correct career path... Earlier today, as I was driving through the Marin Headlands on my way home from the Marine Mammal Center, I drove past a meadow. In the center of the meadow I saw a group of turkey vultures very interested in something, so, like any good zoologist, I pulled over to find out what the fuss was about. The vultures were chowing down on a dead (adult female) deer. There were about a half-dozen adults, 2 juveniles, and a raven. I had never seen a juvenile up close before, and these two looked different than my Sibley ID book indicates they should - Sibley's says the juveniles have an all-black or brown head, while these had a definite white band at the border where their feathers ended and bald head began.   I got a little too close and scared the birds off, so as long as they were gone, I went over to get a better look at the deer, and to see if there was an obvious cause of death. There was not, so I took a couple photos and left. On my way back to the car I found the (cleaned, sun-dried) bones of a bird which had been eaten, and grabbed the few non-broken bones I could find for my collection. Sadly, there was no skull around, and I am not able to identify species from a few feathers or skeletal bones, so I don't know what it was. Poor Frederick, he's had to get used to me coming home with dead things. 17 September 07 For those of you who were not aware, my alter-ego, DJ Lucretia, is the music director for the SomaFM channel Doomed, which celebrates its two-year anniversary this October. If you are a musician or in a band that has any dark, haunting tracks, well, I'm looking for new music to add for Halloween. It does not matter what genre or style of music you normally create - if you have any individual tracks that are truly spooky, like the soundtrack to a horror film, please send them to me! (Please note that songs normally classified as gothic, drone, noise, electronic, etc. are not necessarily Doomed material. The individual tracks should sound scary.) CD submissions may be mailed to: SomaFM 1890 Bryant Street, Suite 303 San Francisco, CA 94110 USA Attn: Doomed/DJ Lucretia Alternately, high-quality [256kb constant bit rate, "normal stereo" (NOT joint stereo) MP3s encoded at the highest quality setting] MP3 files with valid ID3 tag info may be emailed to: lucretia {at} somafm {dot} com. Thanks! 5 September 07 I'm a procrastinator. I always have been. I always get things done in time, but I often will waste time when possible, preferring(?) to work under a deadline. It's probably somehow related, but for most of my life I've been very short-sighted, never thinking about the long-distance future. To me, "The Future" was always next month or next year, and that's part of the reason why I never went to college when I was younger. That short-sightedness is how I got myself to actually GO to college a few years back - I just told myself, "Oh, this will only take a couple of years." Now, over four years later, I still have at least two more actual years left to get my degree. Oh well. I'm done with classes for the day, and I have no classes tomorrow. Which means tomorrow is my "homework day." Which means that if I started my homework now, I could be done earlier, and possibly have time tomorrow to do whatever it is I do. Which means I am not actually doing my homework now. Instead, I'm writing journal entries and generally finding other ways to delay what I'm supposed to be doing. Oh well. Hey, look over there! Oooh...a shiny object! 30 August 07 What beautiful weather we're having right now in San Francisco! If I had my way, the weather would be like this from May through October, the way it is in cities which experience actual summers. Since school has started, my summer is technically over. But my reading and homework are just ramping up, so I still have a bit of free time (yay!). And speaking of reading, it looks like I've read about 18 books this summer. Here's a quick review of some of those. Six of those books have been from Terry Prachett's Discworld series. It's amusing and light fantasy/sci-fi reading, perfect for when you're sitting in the resort bar, sipping a daquiri after a day of diving :) Another four have been from Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City series, which I'm enjoying. The series started as a newspaper serial in the 70s, and since found its way into novel form. The first couple of books, at least, should be required reading for every San Franciscan. The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill by Mark Bittner. I'm of two minds about this book. On one hand, I was thrilled to be able to learn more about San Francisco's wild parrots, whom I've occasionally seen flying around town. And part of me thinks that it's wonderful the way the author has chosen to bare his feelings and emotions in this book. But the cynical critic in me thinks negatively about a guy who goes through most of his adult life without a proper job, and who projects his own thoughts onto a flock of parrots and then reacts to those projections. R. McNeill Alexander and photographer Aaron Diskin teamed up on a great book. Human Bones: A Scientific and Pictorial Investigation does a wonderful job of combining the art and science of one of my favourite subjects - bones. In addition to providing a quick & easy overview of human skeletal anatomy, physiology, and evolution, as well as a primer on comparative anatomy, the bones herein have been photographed and presented as art pieces. Highly recommended. Finally, there is The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution by Richard Dawkins. This is one of those books that everyone should read. The Ancestor's Tale traces our heritage all the way back in time down the evolutionary tree, meeting up with such groups as the rest of the primates, mammals, birds & dinosaurs, all the way back to the bacteria (some of which we carry in our cells to this day). It not only outlines the similarities and differences between different branches of the tree as they meet up with us, but also has in-depth sections describing major elements of evolution. And speaking of evolution, there is so much evidence in this book to support evolution (probably as close to "proof" as we're ever going to get) that you wonder why creationists persist in their beliefs. 27 August 07 It's my final day of summer vacation - school starts tomorrow. (Why does it begin in August, four days before Labor Day? Why not just wait a week and make everyone happier?) I've had a nice summer. We've taken a couple of great vacations, plus I've had another few weekends away with friends. I did some stuff and worked on some projects around the house, but of course, I didn't finish everything I wanted to. I did do a lot of Sitting Around and Relaxing, which was nice. So nice, in fact, that I will do as much of that today as I can. This coming semester will be busy. It will be a few weeks before I know just how crazy things will be, and if I'll have any free time between now and December, but I'll hope for the best! Wish me luck :) 24 August 07 Last week, one of my long-standing dreams came true - I was able to dive with great white sharks!   We spent three days at Guadalupe Island, off the western coast of the Baja peninsula, cage diving with white sharks. To me, the best part of the whole trip was being about 30' below the surface of the water, sitting on the top edge of the cage, and having five white sharks swim around me without any barrier between us. The experience was both amazing and awe-inspiring, and was completely worth the 18 hour sea voyage to get there. I wrote up a travel journal, if you'd like to read that. Otherwise, you can just go to the photos. 10 August 07 More questions, this time from Mr. Psymbiotic. (If you want me to ask you questions, just leave a pointless comment and you'll get five questions in return.) 1) What is your best memory of any Burning Man you've ever been to (actually, I think I might know the answer to this one ;>)? You mean, besides having Frederick ask me to marry him? ;) Actually that whole night, Burn Night 2005, was just wonderful. We were running around, having fun with a great group of friends, and it is just such a wonderful memory. 2) What is your favorite country that you have visited so far? Hmm, that's tough. I like Germany enough that I would love to live there for a time. I've just felt very comfortable and at home there every time I've been. But Fiji was also a wonderful place with incredible diving, and I did not want to leave when I was there. Of course, I felt the same way about Costa Rica. I don't think I can give you just one answer to this :) 3) What would you say was the most over requested song when you were a DJ? That's a toss-up between Headhunter (which was a great song when it came out in 1988, but didn't need to be played every week at every club), and that horrible Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove by Dead Can Dance (which I never liked, but for some reason many people did). 4) What restaurant has the best burritos in SF? Years ago, when I lived on 22nd & Guerrero, it used to be the place on Mission at 22nd, but I can't remember the name. Although there's now a place on Valencia between 16th and 17th that makes a damn fine burrito (and of course I don't know its name either). 5) How, if at all, has married life changed you? I think the way it's changed me is that it has allowed me to admit to myself how much I love being in a good (the right) relationship. And not only that, I think being in this relationship has done wonders for my mental health. Even though our life isn't really different now from before we were married, there is some little switch in my mind that flipped which just made everything seem more secure afterwards, and that was very good for me. 9 August 07 I like question memes. Sometimes I can't think about what to write here, so having someone ask me questions gets around all of that. The rules of this one are slightly different - if you'd like me to ask you questions, reply with a pointless comment and you'll get five questions in return. These questions are from Mr. Jorm: 1) I, personally, despise eggs. I think they are slimy turds wrapped in a hard shell. So, my first question is: eggs: worst thing ever, or just plain horrid? If those are my two choices, I will choose "just plain horrid." I will reserve "worst thing ever" for stuff like silkworm pupas. (Honestly, how could a person ever put something like that in their mouth? I dont' even want to touch them with my hand.) 2) Based on your knowledge of animals, who would win in a three way fight between bobcats, buffalo, and alligators? (Bear in mind, there is an answer to this). Bobcats can be balls of clawed fury, but they're usually less than 40 pounds, so I'd say they'd be out by the start of the second round. Buffalo (I assume you mean the American bison) weigh between one-half and one ton, have sharp horns and hooves, and a thick mane that is hard to bite through. They stand five feet or more at the shoulder, although their head is considerably closer to the ground. Alligators get to over a dozen feet in length and are solid muscle. I've handled a couple of small (no more than 3') gators and it took all my strength to hold on to them when they struggled. They have sharp teeth that are designed to grab and *hold*, plus their tail is a formidable weapon. If the fight were in the water, the alligator would win. They're so agile in the water, while the buffalo would be struggling in an unfamiliar environment. On land, that's tough to say, but I'd have to guess the buffalo. I don't think the gator could do any damage grabbing onto the buffalo's head/neck because of the mane, and I'm not sure he could get ahold of the nose. Meanwhile, the buffalo may be able to trample or gore the alligator. (What is the answer?) 3) Queen or David Bowie? Hmm, Queen does have some great songs (Bohemian Rhapsody comes to mind), but Bowie was probably more influential, particularly in the genres I listen to most often. Bowie does have some crappy stuff (Fame, Let's Dance), but Queen's We Will Rock You is even worse. Based on that, I think I'd have to pick Bowie. 4) I have a cat. He's about 8 or 9 years old. Right now, he's very needy - mostly because he no longer has Gnat23 to scritch his ears all the time and doesn't have Mosfet to fight with. I've been thinking about getting another cat to keep him company, but I don't know whether or not this would be a wise idea. I wonder if he's not too old for that. You know more about this stuff than I; what is your opinion? I don't think Simon's too old for a friend, given he's lived the better part of, what, five years? with Mosfet. A kitten might be a bit much, though. And he may find another male to be a challenge. I'd recommend getting a female cat who's at least a few years old, and does like the company of other cats. And introduce them slowly. 5) I have perceived you to be. . . extremely hostile towards children and those who have them. Why do you take this stance? "Extremely hostile" might be a bit, uh, extreme. I'm not fond of children in general, although children as individuals can be okay, once they get old enough that they develop their own personality and you can communicate with them. Babies I don't care for, mostly because they just spew and cry and there is no reasoning with them. I don't know why I've never really liked kids, but I do know that I've felt this way my whole life. I've never wanted to have anything to do with being pregnant, giving birth, or raising a child. Maybe it's hereditary (my biological parents gave me up for adoption). I don't think I dislike people who have children. It's more like I don't understand them, mostly because our wiring is completely different and I could never see myself in that role. I do, however, dislike irresponsible parents. The ones who let their kids misbehave in public, with no regards for those around them. There's no excuse for that. 4 August 07 A few people have asked about my Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro lens, but it's new and I hadn't used it enough to really comment on it. So yesterday I took the lens to the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park to get to know it better. The short story: this lens rocks!   The longer story: I took about 200 photos inside the Conservatory. The frosted glass building nicely diffused the natural light so I did not need to use a flash, yet there was still enough light to take hand-held photos. (And since I did not have a tripod, that was a good thing.) When using the 100mm lens as a true macro, with your subject within a foot or so of the front of the lens, you have an incredibly narrow depth of field. The problem with this is it is almost impossible to focus on your subject with a hand-held camera; you cannot stand still enough to guarantee the photo will stay in focus. I found I had to put the camera into aperture-priority mode and stop it down to f/5.6 or more in order to end up with an acceptable photo. In addition, at such close range, unless you are focusing on a flat plane the autofocus will spend a lot of time searching. For this reason it is better to use manual focus. Once you are able to focus on your subject, the resulting photos are crisp and clear. Working with this crazy depth of field (or lack thereof) puts your photos into a whole new perspective, and is fun to work with. I highly recommend this lens! My favourite photos from the Conservatory. 1 August 07 I have loved taking pictures ever since I acquired my first camera as a kid; it was a Kodak point & shoot that used 126 film, and I got it free with Blue Chip stamps. And I have been a size queen when it comes to focal length ever since I got my first SLR telephoto lens as a teenager. Today I regularly tote around a 70-300mm zoom, and if it wasn't for the fact that the 600mm f/4 costs (and weighs) almost as much as a car, I'd have one of those, too. So I was quite surprised when I got my first true wide-angle lens (16-35mm) last December and fell in love with it! Nowadays I'm shooting on a full-frame sensor digital SLR, so the 16mm end of that lens is just short of being a fish-eye. Critics might not care for the keystoning distortion along the sides, but I've come to love it, and see it as a cool effect:  That super-wideness is excellent for architectural and nature shots, of course, but also for underwater vistas. I've recently dived into underwater photography after a hiatus of a dozen years (I think my old film camera housing is still somewhere in my parents' garage) and that's probably the most difficult type of photography there is. Take the challenges of photography, in general: shot composition, technical details, being in the right place at the right time, etc. Add to that the difficulties inherent in wildlife photography, the viscosity, pressure, and movement of the water (compared to air), and do this all whilst concentrating on keeping safe underwater, and you'll wonder how anyone ever gets any good photographs! In all my years of SLR photography, I've always used zoom lenses. They're just so much more versatile than fixed focal length lenses, and with huge apertures you're not missing out on anything. All that being said, I recently got my first-ever fixed length lens, a 100mm f/2.8 macro. It takes some getting used to because it's annoying to have to reposition yourself to adjust the composition of your photo, but I'll learn to work with it. I assume I'll use it most often when diving, so I can get good close-ups of all those little critters without scaring them away:  I want to get better at photography, but oddly enough, SFSU doesn't have any real courses. (To be honest, they offer Photo 1 and Photo 2 classes. But I've taken Photo 1 elsewhere, and both classes only deal with black & white film photography whereas I want to be able to learn more about digital.) I've thought about setting up a Flickr group where we could critique each others' photos, but I don't know if there's interest in that - would you want to participate? 31 July 07 Growing up I knew a lot of little girls named "Tammy", "Lisa" and "Debbie". Now I don't know any. Where'd they all go? Conversely, I don't think I knew any "Jennifer" permutations back then, while today I know many. I once had a friend named "Gina". It was weird calling her - "Hello, Gina? This is Gina." 25 July 07 My cat is a weirdo. Well, she's odd for several reasons, but she's recently come up with a new one - she tries to eat my head. I'll be lying (laying?) in bed, sometimes fast asleep, and Kisa will jump on the bed, walk up on my pillow, and bite at my head. I think she's actually chewing my hair, but I feel her teeth scraping against my scalp. Luckily, because cat's mouths are small and my scalp is taut, she can't really grab the skin, but it's still strange. She never does this to Frederick, or to any houseguests. I've been using the same hair products for years, so that shouldn't be the reason. Maybe she's really a zombie cat and she's just looking for tasty brains? 19 July 07 We are going on a short liveaboard boat trip next month, and in preparation for the trip the company has sent us a liability waiver to sign. This document releases the company from responsibility in the case of various incidents, including "piracy, pirates and/or pirate attacks." Hee, I find that amusing. 16 July 07 When was the last time you backed up your computer? If it was more than a week ago then stop reading this and go do a backup RIGHT NOW. The main hard drive in my computer died last Monday. It had been making funny noises for a couple of days prior, then that morning it wouldn't boot at all. Luckily I had backed things up fairly recently, and while I know I lost some stuff I don't think it was very much at all. Thank whatever gods there may be that I had recent backups of my 110 GB of music and my 40GB of photos. At first I was just going to get a new drive for my computer, but then my Consumer Mode kicked on. After all, "Chimera" was over five years old, which is close to 80 in computer years, and heading towards obsolete. So a few hours and a trip to the Apple Store later I came home with this beautiful creature:  Mmm, I'm in love! 15 July 07 So, how're things going? A month and a half ago I decided to stop drinking Diet Coke in the morning. That was fine for awhile, kind of. I had a few DCs left in the house, so I drank those. These we went on vacation and since I do not like the taste of Coca Cola Light (the diet soda they sell outside the US) I didn't have any. But then, after returning home, I realized I really did miss my morning ritual, so I'm back to having one DC a day. Going to the supermarket one morning I saw a Coke delivery guy unloading from his truck in the parking lot. I asked him if had any Black Cherry Vanilla DC on the truck, hoping I could buy some from him. Although he didn't, he did tell me he had heard they were going to be bringing it back, so maybe, hopefully, we'll see it soon! What about that vegetarian thing? That's going much better! Back in November I chose to stop eating meat, and I've been doing a pretty good job of that. When I made that decision I thought I would become "mostly vegetarian," and I figured I would eat meat in restaurants and such when I couldn't find an acceptable vegetarian dish. And that did happen a few times within the first couple of months, particularly when we were in Asia and my meal choices were limited. But the more used to vegetarianism I became, the easier it was to avoid meat altogether. Since returning from Asia in January I believe I've only eaten meat two times - one was on our first wedding anniversary, when we returned to the restaurant where we had our first date (it just so happened it was a steakhouse), and the second was having a slice of bacon about a month ago (I really love bacon). I found I didn't want to do the "mostly vegetarian" thing because that watered it down and made it seem less important; I suppose I was mostly vegetarian for the year or two before I chose to stop eating meat, so it really wouldn't have been a difference. And I've found that I while I miss some aspects of eating meat (for example, I really love the flavour of BBQ) I don't miss the meat itself. Except for bacon. That's the real sacrifice. 13 July 07 Right now I'm in the middle of a three-month summer vacation. Three whole months off from school, wheee! I have a list of things that I want to do during this time - some small things like scheduling appointments, and some larger things like finishing staining the woodwork. I'm now 1.5 months into my summer vacation and you know what I've done from my list? Yup, pretty much nothing. Okay, to be fair, I have done a few things on the list. For example, the third item lists "Roatan" and I seem to have successfully booked (and taken) that trip. But it seems like I always have one excuse or another to avoid working on the list. Face it, I can just be LAZY sometimes. When I'm unemployed and not in school I have a lot of free time on my hands. And when that's the case, I find I start stretching things out to fill the available time. I'll do things slowly and allow myself to get interrupted and distracted. I guess it's my way of making sure I don't end up with too much free time at the end. But what my little pea brain doesn't understand is that if I can get all the "work" done quickly then I'm left with all sorts of "play" time, and I no longer have to worry about getting things done. Harumpf. It seems like the only times I can get things done is when I have too much to do. Because when I don't have enough to do, there's nothing driving me to get it done. I wonder what will happen if I tell myself I want to see how much I can do before next weekend? 12 July 07 Frederick and I took a little field trip today to do some shopping at the Kwik-E-Mart. I can't say I've ever been a "tourist" at a store before, walking around and taking pictures. But it was fun! The store was pretty crowded with all sorts of other people who were also walking around and taking pictures, and the employees took it all in stride. After paying at the cash register, F even got the clerk to say "Thank you, come again" in the right accent.   The movie opens in a couple of weeks. I think I'll have to go see it in the theatre. The last movie I saw in the theatre was "Return of the King," so it's been awhile. 5 July 07 I just finished reading the first two books in Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City trilogy. I had seen the mini-series a dozen years ago and enjoyed it, so I wanted to read the books and re-experience the stories. It's fun to read something that takes place in your hometown, especially when you've been to different shops and restaurants and such the characters are frequenting. There is a subset of characters in the series who are very into the social scene; that particular (peculiar) scene that for some reason warrants a column in the newspaper. That whole high society thing is something I pay absolutely no attention to, so I forget it features so prominently in some peoples' lives. [TANGENT: These socialites are always wealthy people. I've lost count of the number of (Internet) millionaires I've known, and many of them would be considered wealthy. And I think I'm pretty safe in assuming that, with one exception, I don't think any of them would have any interest whatsoever in becoming a part of the high society scene. So it's not "wealth" that does that to a person, it's probably peer pressure. But I digress.] As I was reading these books I had a sudden realization - this whole "blogging" (ugh, I hate that word) phenomenon is essentially a sort of social column for the rest of society. Parties and events are announced and reviewed, people write about their friends and scan other journals for their own names, and a person's popularity can increase or decrease based on what's been written about them. Online journals/blogs seem to fill the same niche in "normal" society that the newspaper's social column fills in the "hoity-toity" community. I suppose the whole idea of fame and public attention is inherent, at least to urban Westerners. I find it interesting how a group of people has seemingly migrated to a medium that mirrors a scene many either never think about, or possibly even abhor. And I think it's great that despite any real or imagined parallels here, we all have pretty much an equal voice on the 'Net. 4 July 07 A couple of months ago I received an email from a man at the Calgary Zoo. He had seen a photo I took in Thailand of a mother elephant with her baby posted on Flickr, and requested permission to use it in one of the zoo displays. (I gave him an enthusiastic "Yes!") Last night I got home and saw I had another email from him. He was sending me pictures of my photo in use on one of their zoo signs!   Many years ago, in a previous life, I used to do band photography. I've had my photos published in music magazines and newspapers, but none of that was nearly as exciting as this! Receiving these elephant photos really made my day/week/month! 1 July 07 I've finally finished putting up the best photos from our recent trip to Roatan. I took only a handful of photos topside, including a bunch from our seaplane ride around the island. (On our last morning there, Frederick and I went around the island in a seaplane, flying only 200-300 feet above the ground. It was a tiny plane with an open cockpit, and almost felt more like an ultralight than a plane.)   I was hoping to get in a lot of underwater photography this trip, but alas, events conspired against me. First I ended up with a sinus infection which kept me from diving for a couple of days. Once I felt better I took the new 100mm macro lens down and got some fun shots:  I decided I wanted to take some wide-angle shots during that afternoon's boat dives, so after lunch I swapped lenses and sealed up the camera housing. Once on the boat I placed the camera + housing in the fresh water rinse tank, and it was dry and happy. Then later, something happened, possibly as the deckhand was handing me the camera rig after I jumped off the boat. I began descending and was looking at the camera, when to my horror the inside of the housing began filling up with water! The latch holding the lens port to the housing body had come loose. I ascended and handed the camera back to the deckhand, and continued my dive.  It just so happens we have a second underwater camera, so I did take that down on a few dives. That camera is a piece of crap, and using it may be more exasperating than fun. But at least we were able to document the undersea world that we love so much.   | |||
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