And there weren't even any bears!

So about yesterday.

We went to College Woods for lab to identify and count trees. First he told us all about the different kinds of trees you could find in the area, most of which we didn't actually find ourselves. Then he had us each measure out two four meter-by-four meter squares in the middle of the woods, measure the diameter of each tree in them, and identify it. This wouldn't have been that bad except that your average 4m x 4m plot of woodland has about 30 trees, some of which are quite large in diameter and required multiple people to measure (our biggest was 79 cm in diameter) and all of which like to poke you. Some were hard to identify-- we had to look at my camera pictures and get some help to figure out the red oak-- but about 95% of them were eastern hemlock. I got really sick of hemlocks.

Here are the trees we found:


Also, some pretty shots of the woods:






I need to go there for walks more often. It's not that far from campus.

Bog Blog

So yesterday I went on a field trip in Ecology to Lee Bog. Which is a bog. In Lee, NH. More specifically, a sphagnum bog, protected by the town of Lee.

We got there and first he took us to this little place:


Which I was very proud of myself for knowing that it was a vernal pool, before he even said it. Vernal pools are puddles that always show up in the same spot. I thought the dip at the end of my driveway was a vernal pool, but it turns out it's just a drainage problem.

Then we started our walk. Thankfully it was not a hike. Along the way he pointed out a bazillion white oaks, which are some of the few plants we actually will have to identify for this class. This is a white oak and white oak leaves up close.












I can't remember the name of this next plant, but you can eat the little purply-blue berries. They're very bitter and usually only birds eat them.


This is eastern hemlock. Unlike the hemlock that killed Socrates, this is not poisonous, and is in fact edible. The leaves are, anyway.


This is Lee Bog. It's kind of pretty. The little scraggly evergreen trees are black spruce, which only grows in bogs, at the timberline, and in the tundra. They need it to be rather cold and harsh. Bogs are cold because the water in them is blocked by the vegetation, so it can't circulate.




Notice the other pine trees are kind of scraggly. That's because bog soil doesn't have a lot of nutrients.

This is the sphagnum moss, which is what creates the bog. Rotting sphagnum makes the bog soil jiggle when you poke it with a stick, like jello pudding. Muddy, stinky, freezing cold jello pudding.


The nearby trees are all yellowed because of chlorosis, which means they aren't getting enough nutrients.


Bogs are usually surrounded by plants that do well in tundra environments too. This is reindeer moss, so called because reindeer like to eat it.


We walked through the woods, too, and he pointed out the canopy effect-- plants can't grow because the caonpy takes up all the light.


This is the American Chestnut.


It's almost extinct because humans accidentally introduced a chestnut fungus to the New World that the European and Asian chestnuts were resistant to, but the American one was not. They are incredibly rare; apparently there are only about three or four trees that are known to be breeding and that's only because their root systems are all but immortal, so when the tree dies off from the fungus the roots send up new trees. Which then get attacked by the fungus. Sucks to be an American chestnut.

And this is the pretty foliage on one of the trees by Parsons Hall.

So that was my Tuesday field trip.

"Just because you get inspiration out of it doesn't mean that inspiration went into it." ~Hemingway

I have some things I'm afraid of that are rational. Things like car accidents or getting sick. But I've noticed something-- rational fears aren't the ones people think about all the time. It's the irrational ones that always pop into our heads.

Or maybe we notice them more because they ARE so ridiculous. But either way, I catch myself worrying about irrational things way more than rational ones.

I'm afraid that people can see me through pictures of them. Like, if I have a photo of someone on my desk, they can see me through the eyes of their photo-self. This even applies to magazine covers. Consequently, all the photos in my room face away from my bed, so that the people in them aren't watching me sleeping. If they do face the bed, they face the foot of the bed, where the curtain blocks the view (I have a four-poster bed). I turn magazines over if they have a person on the cover whose eyes I can see-- if their eyes are closed in the picture, they can't see me. One exception to this is my picture of Ryter and me, which sort of vaguely faces my bed, but not the head of it. I try to overcome this fear, as it is rather annoying to have to find just the right location in my room to get dressed in. But I still turn pictures around sometimes.

My other irrational fear comes up any time I either have weird food cravings, gain weight in my abdominal area, or have my period a little later than I expected. I have this irrational fear that I am pregnant. This would not be irrational were it not for the fact that I am not having sex, thus, pregnancy would be highly unlikely. I suppose it's conceit on my part, clearly, I am saintly enough to deserve the next Immaculate Conception; but still. I fight the urge to take a pregnancy test despite KNOWING I cannot, can NOT be pregnant. When I do finally become sexually active, I will make sure to inform everyone, so that they can buy stock in pregnancy test manufacturers, because I guarantee that no amount of oral contraceptives or condoms will prevent me from peeing on that stick every few mornings.

Does anyone else have any irrational fears?

-----------------------------------------------------

I saw No Reservations with Shrewd tonight. It was a very good movie, and if you like chick flicks you'll like it. If you like chick flicks and cooking, you'll love it. Shrewd adored it; then again, for dinner tonight for just the two of us (my parents have thankfully gone to to the Cape for two weeks and the Brother is in California with his drum corps), she made salmon with cheese polenta topped with tomato and orange pepper sauce, and spinach on the side.

I love it when my sister cooks, she's so much better at it than I am. Plus I always feel like I'm in some schmancy bistro, except the cook eats with me and monopolizes the conversation, and I have to help clean up afterwards.

-----------------------------------------------------

New additions to the blogroll!

The Comics Curmudgeon is a very funny blog about newspaper comics and how ridiculous they are. Check it out.

I've also been reading The Dilbert Blog, which is by Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comics, and is also quite funny but also often philosophical in nature.

And then there's the perennial geek favorite, Wil Wheaton's Blog.

I've also discovered Rock, Paper, Scissors, Gun, a very well-written personal blog that I've been checking out lately.

Then there's two blogs written by medical types, one by a med student called More Cowbell, and the other by a doctor called Doctor Anonymous.

And finally, another personal blog by someone who can actually write, called Living with Multiple Personalities. Check 'em out!

It's okay, I'm a flaming geek too

Thanks to E-Dog's Everything Page I have discovered a Simpsons website where you can make a Simpsons version of yourself. Thus, I created the following image of myself and Ryter:



Then I showed it to him, and he protested that I had "[made my]self hot and [made him] look like a huge flaming geek."

I pointed out that he was a huge flaming geek but decided to redo it anyway. Take two:



Actually, that is a bit closer to his body type, after a bit of photoshop manipulation. The first one makes him look like a leering teen, like he's about to grab my boobs. The second is more "sexy heavy-metal rocker dude" and less "high schooler with a mouth-breathing problem." And I changed myself a bit too. Oh, and yes, this is as close as I will get to posting an actual picture of us...

Still want votes on the new blog layout!

"Bring something up from the back burner."

My sister is to be a bridesmaid at a friend's wedding. This is most likely going to involve a dress. Specifically, Shrewd in a dress. Maybe even heels. And a bridesmaid's dress, at that, which are notoriously bad...

Bwahahahaha! Schadenfreude!

But only because it's Shrewd, and she has a tendency to say my Facebook profile pictures look deformed. Or my face looks deformed. She didn't specify her meaning. After her complaints about my most recent change I was considering just giving up and sketching myself, but I've since had two boys tell me the most recent "deformed" image was perfectly fine, so I stick out my tongue in her general direction and I'll put the new one back up tomorrow.

-----------------------

Chemistry is killing me, but meh. I'm used to it. I'm also dying slowly as a result of my brain slowly liquefying and escaping though my nose. It's also possible that I have a cold, but I find it hard to believe I have this much fluid in my head without some of it being part of my gray matter, dissolving due to the close proximity to Spring Break.

The violent sneezing is no doubt helping the liquefication process, through repeated banging of the brain against the inside of my skull. I normally sneeze an average of 5 times in a row, but if I have a cold it's upped to like ten, and each sneeze brings tears to my eyes and nearly knocks me out of the chair.

I'm sure I look real attractive right now, bleary-eyed and drippy with a big ol' red nose...

And I'm really tired, too, because I haven't been getting enough sleep and I'm sick. I slept through the first half of a lecture today, which wouldn't be so abnormal if it wasn't at 6 pm...

Speaking of that lecture, here's today's Bad Typing Error Of The Day: "Have Faith! If I can do you, anyone can!"

I Am A Romantic Realist

I tend to be grounded when it comes to romance. Sure, I can fall hard... but only for someone I've gotten to know. And once I'm in love, I can be a total romantic goofball... But I'd never admit it to my friends!

Are You Romantic or Realistic?