online JOURNAL

23 September 08
Recent readings, in an attempt to find out more about the pet food industry:

Pet Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine - Marion Nestle - Nestle is a respected professor of Nutrition and has written several books on human nutrition and the food industry (a couple of which, in particular, I'd love to read). Here she takes on the daunting task of unravelling what happened with the pet food disaster of 2007, where thousands of cats and dogs died because of kidney failure caused by the illegal addition of melamine into the pet food supply.

There are a lot of problems with pet food. While this book only looks at facts directly connected with the melamine tragedy, it brings up many more questions, including issues with the source of protein in pet foods, problems with the safety of foods imported from China (reiterated in the recent problem of melamine-tainted infant formula imported from that country), and the fact that in the U.S. the pet food and human food industry are very closely tied together.

The melamine tragedy really was a case of the "Chihuahua in the coal mine," and should be a wake-up call to everyone, not only pet owners. Now I wish someone would write a book informing the general public of what goes on in the pet food industry in general, because that is something I really want to know. Highly recommended.

23 September 08
You wouldn't expect that rehabilitating seals would have anything to do with cleaning products or pet food, but working at The Marine Mammal Center has taught me otherwise.

TMMC sees a lot of dead animals. Sometimes they're DOA, other times they die or are euthanized during treatment. Those dead bodies eventually need to be disposed of, and the reality of the situation is that we don't have a little sea lion cemetery out in the back 40; the bodies are hauled off to a local tallow processing plant. While I was previously aware of the existence of such places, once I realized where the bodies were going I did a little bit of research to attempt to learn more about what typically happens in tallow/rendering plants.

Tallow companies deal with dead animals, anything from household pets to livestock. The former (along with other small animals, such as roadkill) are sometimes cremated. The latter (and basically any large animals, including deer) are rendered. Rendering is a generic term for the extraction of the desired product from the animal carcass, whether it be the fat, bone, or protein. One way this is done is to boil the carcass, which separates the fat (tallow) from the meat (protein).

Once the desired products have been isolated they can then proceed towards their final destinations. Tallow often ends up in soaps, and animal protein often ends up in pet food. I don't have a problem with this in theory as it is just a way of recycling what would otherwise be wasted. However, it's not quite as "clean" as this. The rendering plant has no idea of the health of the animals being processed, nor do you know what type(s) of animals are ending up in a given product - it's not just healthy farm animals.

At TMMC we see animals with a variety of illnesses: cancer, bacterial diseases (leptospirosis, salmonella, etc.), parasites, industrial chemicals (PCBs, etc.), and more. All carcasses are transported to the rendering facility, and sick animals are not differentiated from animals that died of, say, injury. I do not know if our animals are cremated or if they are rendered into other products, but I'm guessing that such a facility wouldn't "waste" tons of fat and protein (aka profit).

Working at the Mammal Center has made me really appreciate the "Contains no animal products" blurb on soaps and shampoos. Needless to say, I make sure to buy those now. I have also become much more picky about the cat food I buy. When your pet food lists "Meat" as an ingredient (as opposed to specifying "beef," "lamb," "chicken," etc.) there is a good chance that the manufacturer has no idea what animal it came from, and you just may not want to know.

22 September 08
My life continues to be busy. So busy, in fact, that I ended up dropping the one class I was taking as I could not commit the mental energy needed to do well. (I am in school to learn, rather than simply to rack up units or get a degree, so it is more important to me that I do well than it is just to get through the class.) It was a relief to have those two days a week free again, but at the same time I am looking forward to eventually learning a whole lot about fish!

Most of my busyness revolves around home renovations. We are nearing the end of one major renovation; after five months without a proper kitchen we are just this |_| close to having a completely fabulous sparkling *new* kitchen!

It's good that I actually enjoy the home renovation process because we are kicking off another, even bigger, project. It's amazing, even when you are working with a good general contractor, how busy one can be with a renovation, hence the fact that I had no time for school. I especially like the design process, where we draw up floorplans on graph paper, pick out nice finishes and fabrics from the stores, and a few months later the house magically looks like the drawings!

That being said, it's time to break out the sketch pad.

8 September 08
Recent Readings - Dead bodies and processed food:

Twinkie, Deconstructed - Steve Ettlinger - If you've ever wondered why "processed food" is called that, then this is the book for you. The author looks at each one of the ~30 ingredients that make up Twinkies, and traces them back to their origins. You learn about the scale on which commercial food companies operate, and the hurdles individual ingredients go through before they even make it to the bakery. Two-thirds of the ingredients found in Twinkies aren't even found outside of commercial kitchens. While this book may not be an exhaustive list of all processed food ingredients, but it's certainly enough to make you want to do all your own cooking.

Unnatural Death: Confessions of a Medical Examiner - Michael M. Baden, M.D. with Judith Alder Hennessee - Another book about dead bodies and the people that examine them, except this time written by an actual medical examiner. The forensics books I've read to date have all been written by anthropologists who work in a slightly different capacity than medical examiners, who are medical doctors. While a forensic anthropologist is only called in when there is a question about the cause of or circumstances surrounding a death, and is apparently only called in when the body is no longer "fresh," an M.D. or M.E. is required to examine each and every dead body and sign off as to the cause of death. This is an interesting book, and recommended if you are interested in this sort of stuff.

Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Forensic Lab - the Body Farm - Where the Dead Do Tell Tales - Dr. Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson - Here we see a return to forensic anthropology cases, this time as written by the man who completely revitalized the field. Bill Bass worked for about 50 years as an anthropologist and as such consulted on hundreds, if not thousands, of cases. It was he who, after realizing that crime investigators really had no idea what happened in the decay of a body after death and when, created The Body Farm to study this very thing. It is because of his and his student's work that we now can look at a dead body - and the insects, bacteria, and decay associated with it - and can accurately estimate the time of death. This book contains many very interesting case studies, and is highly recommended for people who like reading about this sort of thing.

8 September 08
Recent Readings - Sedaris vs. Burroughs:

When You Are Engulfed In Flames - David Sedaris - His latest selection of autobiographical essays ranging from amusing to downright funny. This is the kind of book where you just want to read "one more chapter" before setting it down for the night. Highly Recommended.

Holidays on Ice - David Sedaris - A collection of six holiday-themed stories. Unfortunately, not all of them are Sedaris' trademark autobiographical essays; several stories are fiction, which is not what I expected, nor what I wanted to read. To top it off, three of the stories (two true, one fiction) were previously printed elsewhere. If you like Sedaris, don't bother with this book.

Barrel Fever - David Sedaris - I was 0 for 2 on Sedaris books this time around. Barrel Fever is another collection of short stories, but three-fourths of the stories are fiction again, and unfortunately I didn't realize this when I bought the book. The four autobiographical essays are fine, but I really wish they had been published separately from the fiction.

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Running with Scissors - Augusten Burroughs - This is Burroughs' first memoir, chronicling his tumultuous and decidedly un-normal childhood. If the stories in here are even half-true then you wonder how he emerged sane enough to become a successful adult. Reading this book is like watching a slow-motion train wreck; you can't put it down. Highly recommended.

Magical Thinking: True Stories - Augusten Burroughs - Short, autobiographical, and often hilarious stories from this ad man-turned-author. Burroughs writes in a style reminiscent of David Sedaris, but its possible that the former may be even better than the latter. Highly recommended.

A Wolf at the Table - Augusten Burroughs - When I first started reading Burroughs I likened him to David Sedaris. After all, they were both gay men who, after a dysfunctional childhood, were now writing humourous autobiographical stories. However, this book is not humourous. It is a sad story of a horrible childhood, and begins to explain why Burroughs' teenage years (chronicled in Running with Scissors) was so bloody messed up. If you enjoyed Burroughs' other books and want to learn more about him as a person, this book is recommended. Just don't expect to be laughing through it.

31 August 08
For the folks at Burning Man, last night was "burn night," where the eponymous man is set alight. Last night was also when friends of ours, who happen to live in Bernal Heights, threw a party called "Bernal Man."

Bernal Man had the prerequisite immolation, just like Burning Man. It was cold, there was plenty of booze, and many people were wearing outfits made of fake fur, just like Burning Man. However, we also had running water and a ten minute trip home, unlike you-know-what. It was wonderful.

Part way through the night I realized that in during my previous trips to Burning Man I had spent time and/or camped with just about everyone at that party. At one point most everyone there had been into BM enough to be a part of one big theme camp or another, yet this year (and last year and next year) we were at home and loving that fact.

I'm not sure if all this means we're getting older, or smarter, or if "it's not the same as it was n years ago"; all I know is I'm happy to not spend tomorrow sitting in traffic.

28 August 08
School started yesterday. I'm not yet ready for the summer to be over, especially when it ends during a rare bout of beautiful weather, but apparently the powers that be do not take weather into account when planning the academic schedule.

I have a lot of things going on now and I've been in school so long that, honestly, I'm getting burnt out. But I'm not quite ready to quit altogether, so this semester I signed up for just one class: Biology of Fishes. The more I dive and the more I learn about biology in general, the more I realize what a diversity of anatomy and physiology there is in the watery world, and the more I want to learn about it. Plus, my favourite animals - sharks - are fish. So the class sounded pretty exciting.

Yesterday during the first part of class I was, in fact, excited to be there. A whole classroom of proto-zoologists and marine biologists who liked and wanted to learn about this group of animals! But as we moved into the lab portion of class (which lasted four full hours! on the first day of class!) I started wondering how am I going to find the time for it? Plus, we have about six field trips, most of which are out of town, and some of those will take longer than the allotted class time.

Eek.

21 August 08
True confessions:

- Sometimes, when there's nothing better to do, I watch decorating shows on HGTV. Sometimes for hours.
- I never liked Nine Inch Nails.
- Despite wanting to save paper and not cut down trees and all that fun stuff, magazines are a guilty pleasure of mine.
- I love most animals. At least most vertebrates and cephalopods. But I don't really like humans, apes or monkeys (they look too much like humans), or little dogs.
- I find it hard to resist a good cupcake.

18 August 08
The date for the NOVA special about The Marine Mammal Center has been announced. Here's the official blurb:

Ocean Animal Rescue
November 25, 2008
The world's oceans are in trouble. Warming seas and man-made pollutants are combining to unleash toxic algae blooms that are decimating whales, sea lions and other marine mammals. In a high action film, NOVA explores this crisis through the exploits of Dr. Frances Gulland, a San Francisco veterinarian, and her team, who run the equivalent of a West Coast ER for marine mammals. On a typical day, listless sea lions flop on their sides, too exhausted to lift their heads. Others are agitated. Another chews obsessively on a flipper. They are all victims of a marine neurotoxin made by an organism that feeds on algae. Dr. Gulland is committed to trying to save these sick animals one at a time, but she is also desperately trying to figure out the science behind what's killing them.

(Frances is our rock star head vet; there is a handbook on marine mammal medicine, and she wrote it.)

I was on camera several times during the course of the filming: assisting with an EEG, attempting an (unsuccessful) rescue at Pier 39, and just doing everyday animal care work at the Center. Let's see if I escape the cutting room floor.

And just in case that wasn't enough, on September 1st, in anticipation of their grand re-opening on the 27th, the California Academy of Sciences has an ad campaign running on the MUNI bus shelters in SF. The ads will be promoting their new rain forest exhibit, and the photo they will be using is mine! I'm saving my excitement for when it actually happens, but this is high up on the list of best things that have ever happened to me :D

17 August 08
Hrm, I'm at that point again where it's been a couple of weeks since I've written anything here. Not that I'm at a loss for things to write, but rather, do I want to delve right into heavy topics without at least some sort of conversational foreplay?

I've got some travelling coming up in the next few weeks, but it's not exactly the fun adventure travel we usually do. This Friday we leave for LA (ick) for a birthday celebration with a group of good friends (yay!). Then in a couple of weeks we head out to (wait for it...) lovely Boise, Idaho! Yee-haw. We're going for a family wedding, although that part of it should be fine. It's the being-in-Boise part I'm not thrilled about.

The previous (and only) time I've been to Idaho was when I was about 14 and spent a week on a cousin's cattle ranch. It was wonderful. A week on a 30,000 acre ranch with no people other than various family members around. Lots of critters, and I had a horse that I got to ride whenever I wanted. The previous summer there had been a big drought and many animals perished from lack of water; riding around one afternoon I found a horse skull and a cow skull that I picked up and brought home, thus beginning my lifetime fascination with dead things.

Speaking of dead things, I have an opossum skeleton and a pelican skull + neck vertebrae that I should dig up and clean off so I can add them to my collection.

3 August 08
My vacation last month seemed to cut my summer in half in a way that I didn't expect. For a month and a half, the time between school ending and me going on vacation, I was extremely busy. Just about every day I had errands to run, work to do, and various things keeping me busy; I would go a week or two without a day off. It was nice actually, doing a lot of things and feeling like I accomplished stuff.

However, in the three weeks I've been back from vacation I haven't done much at all. I've been working at the Marine Mammal Center one day a week, plus I've been getting the occasional call to rescue an animal, but other than that my crazy schedule seems to have evaporated. Some lazy time is great, but after too much time with nothing to do I start feeling antsy, like I need to again accomplish things.

I am getting back on a regular 3+ times a week gym schedule and that feels good. Because I'm a weirdo early riser I can usually have my workout done and be home by 10:30 or 11am, leaving me the rest of the day to do stuff.

What I really need to do is make a list of all those little things I've been meaning to do but never got around to it, and get around to it. In the meantime, here are some pics of stuff around town:

24 July 08
Sleeping used to be one of my favourite activities. As a kid, I never wanted to get out of bed; on Christmas my mom would have to make me get up to open presents. Especially in my clubbing heyday, sleeping until noon was sheer luxury.

Eventually that changed. I blame it on the time when we had a very uncomfortable (for me) bed - it hurt my back and I couldn't wait to get out of it in the morning. After a year or two of that I started to get used to the idea of mornings, and eventually came to love the fact that I basically had an entire day ahead of me! I could actually get a bunch of stuff done by the time I used to be getting up. Today I consider it "sleeping in" if I sleep past 8am, and I'm often up earlier than that, like it or not.

Much of my travelling takes me to the sub-tropics and tropics, where the nights are almost as long as the days. The sun rises at 5:30 or 6am, and sets by 6:30pm or so. Because our vacation activities are mostly linked to daylight you tend to wake up with the sun. And it's then you begin to realize that the numbers on the clock are arbitrary; without a clock you tend to wake up not long after sunrise, and get tired and ready for bed a couple of hours after sunset. It feels very natural, and if you don't look at the clock, then you don't even realize you got up early.

This message brought to you by the fact I woke up at six this morning, and much to my dismay, couldn't get back to sleep.

20 July 08
Many years ago I thought that I'd live in San Francisco for the rest of my life. Sure, I might spend some amounts of time visiting other places, but SF is, and always has been, my home. There are many reasons for this, but it comes down to a combination of San Francisco being a small big city, the attitudes here, and the proximity to the ocean - things that I have not yet seen duplicated anywhere else.

However, in the last few years that has changed. Frederick and I talk about getting a house in the hills with a few acres of property "sometime in the future." Of course, we haven't yet figured out when "the future" is; is it a year from now? Five years? When we're 70?

I'll always love San Francisco but I really REALLY miss seeing sunshine on a regular basis. I'd love to not be able to see my neighbors, let alone not hear them through the walls. I want lots of room, privacy, and little animals wandering through the backyard. I also want to be a short drive from SF, which will put us either in the mountains of San Mateo or Marin Counties.

I'm not ready to leave yet, but someday I suppose I will.

19 July 08
Hrmpf. I've been home for one week now and the only blue skies I've seen in that time were quickly covered up by clouds blowing over them.

A few weeks ago I was in a (San Francisco) restaurant and noticed a couple of corn dishes on the menu. My thought process went something like, "Hmm, corn. Gee, with these different corn dishes, you'd think it was in season or something. What month is this? June? Oh, it's summer; corn *is* in season."

Seriously, something is wrong when you have no clue it is summertime because the weather outside is the same as it is during the winter. I go through this complaining every summer - someone please tell me why I still live in SF?

17 July 08
Oops, I didn't mean to wait a month between posts. I've just been very busy. One of the things that kept me busy was a dive trip to the Caribbean with a bunch of friends!

Mona, Bahman, Rocky, Dan, Aneel, and Jenny joined Frederick and I for a week at CoCo View Resort on Roatan, a Honduran island in the western Caribbean. We did a lot of diving, saw sharks, and petted dolphins. There were some tasty beverages and relaxing-in-hammocks. Best of all, there was no drama and we're all still friends :)

After many years of diving I finally made my 200th dive on this trip! (My grand total to date is 211 logged dives.) My first dive was in Maui during the summer of 1991, and my 100th was in Monterey during December 2000. It took nine years for my first 100, but seven and a half for my second 100. It took such a long time for me to reach those milestones because there would be years when I didn't have anyone to dive with. Now that Frederick is certified and loving diving, I'm going more often. Since he began diving in April 2006 I have done 76 dives, yay!

I've had some buoyancy issues since I've been taking my camera on dives. The camera set-up is a bit negatively buoyant, which is fine, since I prefer to be negative when taking photos, but I think it throws off my distribution of weight, which makes it more difficult to stay neutrally buoyant while in the water. Add to that the fact that my, uh, own personal buoyancy is greater than it should be and then I end up feeling less than graceful while diving with camera gear. I've already made a commitment to myself to shed some of my own excess buoyancy before my next dive trip, so hopefully I'll be doing better then.

Take a look at more diving photos, and a bunch of shark photos!