A Stormy Day

It's not literally a stormy day, but emotionally it's been a bit a of chaos. Today may have been the official end of my car, Little Blue. Some veterans of this blog (why are you still here even? it's been YEARS without anything) may have read about Little Blue. Real quickly, it's my first car, a 2001 powder blue Prius. Little Blue would not start today.

Not my Little Blue, but one of the siblings.

In the past, Little Blue would be a bit fussy -the starter battery would drain after a few weeks away. I've always been able to fix this with a quick jump from a friend's car. Today that didn't work... and I am terrified. Usually, I would at least see a little flicker, a small red light would come on only to weakly fade after a few seconds. That didn't happen today... and I am terrified.

I want to start a few weeks ago though. I had just gotten back from winter break, and I had parked Little Blue in the pathway behind our house in Brownsville. Getting back after around 3 weeks away, I was expecting the battery to be drained, and it was. With my roommates help, we got it jumped and Little Blue was going fine. I was able to drive Little Blue around for a few days without issue. This past week I hadn't really needed to drive around, but I wasn't too worried. Then we got a second freeze for this winter. (As a short aside, Brownsville, Texas doesn't usually get below 50F. It has done so twice so far this winter.) This time Little Blue literally froze over. It was a shocking sight for Brownsville. Having minimal knowledge about vehicles, I still had come to expect the freeze to mess with the battery - little did I know just how much.

Then we get to today. My roommate and I both really wanted some pizza, and we knew that there was going to be a bit of time before it would be ready for pick-up. So the plan was to order, jump Little Blue, and drive Little Blue to get the pizza and charge the battery. Seemed like a solid plan. He pulls his truck over and we go about the usual. Red clamp, red clamp, black clamp, black clamp. He turns on his truck and...

Nothing...

No lights...

No sounds...

Not a whisper...

Just ... nothing...

Little Blue was dead...

We tried a second time.

A deafening silence came from my once spunky car...

Even still, it doesn't seem entirely real. The first car I ever drove or owned (in a matter of sense) was dead on the street as my friend and I tried frantically to resuscitate it. The shock of the moment comes back to me now as a write this out. A part of me, almost a piece of my identity, may not come back.

I know it's silly to get emotional over a car, but I am. Like losing a pet, it hurts.

Luckily, my adviser here in Brownsville was an automechanic for a few years and has offered to help me get the battery out to check how it's doing. It might be that the battery just needs a bit more juicing than we gave it earlier. I'm hoping that's all. It may come down to needing a new battery, which would be a pain, but manageable. But as with most hardships, my mind wanders to the worst scenario - that the car itself has given up.

My dreams of getting to take Little Blue back to California may be lost to me. Friends that last Little Blue over 2 years ago, may not get to see that bright car again. I hope they do, but reality isn't always generous with personal desires.

As if this wasn't enough, the Fates were still feeling a bit pernicious. We jump ahead. Now leaving with pizza in hand, the wind decides to kick up, nearly toppling the remaining half-pizza out of hand and splashing me with Dr. Pepper from my other. Feeling a bit down already, and as we drive out of the parking lot, a pot hole decides I wasn't wet enough and gives me an extra splash of Dr. Pepper. No, I didn't spill it, but it was a bit more emotionally taxing than what I needed at the moment.

I sit here now with tomorrow looming over me. I don't know what's to become of my vehicle of 10+ years.

I'm scared.

UPDATE:

Last week a friend of mine helped remove the battery from Little Blue. With the battery in hand, I went over to AutoZone to see if I could get it charged. It was truly dead, so I bought a new battery. After installing the new battery, Little Blue is humming along just fine. As it turns out, that old battery was only supposed to last around 5 years (well, that was the warranty period), but it lasted nearly 10.

I Really Did Try to do Work Today

I've been away for nearly a month what with holiday travel and such. I got up this morning, confident I was going to do some work, there was a plan end everything - no such luck. What went wrong? I had forgotten just what day it was.

I got back from break late last week and when I got back there were some things that needed to be taken care of,  the basic clean-up sort of things and a few PhD applications to finish. One roommate was gone, the other preparing for his own trip, so I had the weekend for myself. It was a nice way to get back into the swing of things.

Then this morning, I woke up had already gotten a few things prepared to do work: collected some lab materials that needed to be moved, found a few more PhD openings, even made some strawberry syrup. So I collected all my things, because as said, I had plans: gonna finish moving materials, see a professor, do some stats, etc.

I walk over to campus and see a bit of a shock - not hardly any vehicles in the parking lot. It's a Monday. Winter break is over. Where are all the students? Teachers? Maintenance? Nowhere. Then, halfway through the parking lot, it dawns on me - Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday.

How the heck did I manage to forget that!? I even knew about it from the night before, reading articles about President Targaryian's recent comments on "not America" countries. News media ablaze about how the comments were racist, and just before MLK day, how did I forget it?

Oh well, still managed some work today. For the most part though, I just finished watching The Punisher and played games online with some friends.The day may not have gone as planned, but it all worked out anyways.

New Beginnings

Attempt number 3 here to actual start up a blog and keep going with it. This time though I'm splitting things up a bit. I'll be running three separate spaces: a general blog (this one), a blog concerning my work (Efting About), and one regarding targeted topics with a look at the actual data (Hox Talks). If you're interested in any of that, go check them out at the links provided.

So for this blog space, it will stay fairly general. I may post about a book or movie that I saw recently, some random thought I had, or maybe some smaller and more opinionated looks at topics from Hox Talks.Who knows.

Little Blue

Everyone will always remember their first car. Some may get to say that their first car was some sports car, maybe a Mustang, perhaps a truck I don't know. I do know that I will always remember my first vehicle as well. I drive a 2003 powder blue Toyota Prius, known among my friends as 'Little Blue'.

When I began driving my parents wanted me to drive a large vehicle; my mother especially because they are safer. But at the time the only vehicle my parents had that was large was the 4x4 half ton truck; I hated that thing and still do to this day. Occasionally I will have to drive that monstrous beast and I feel completely out of control with it. The truck just wasn't for me... The only other option my parents had for me was the old Prius. AND I LOVED IT! It's small, great turning radius, and has a great mileage. The positives my parents saw in it were that it was old and so if it got damaged it wouldn't be quite as big a deal. 

A total badass drives this car!

I started to drive myself to school in junior year of high school and since then the Prius and I have gone on great adventures. One of the early memories of driving in it was one day after school my friend Jesse wanted to hang out so I told him I could just drive to his place and we could have a great time. We get in the car and I instantly turn on Billy Joel's Uptown Girl, roll down the windows, and we start driving through campus singing! So what if we got stares, we didn't care how gay it looked. Two guys in a powder blue prius singing Billy Joel, sounds like a good time to me! 

Little Blue enjoyed itself very much here.

Over this past summer Little Blue also got a good work out. Every week I would have to go down to Davis for one of my research positions, meaning about2 hours of driving that day. Along with that Charlie came in to town and we spent a day down in San Francisco; that's about 2 hours of driving each way. Later that same weekend we had to go down to San Jose to help my brother and dad move in to their new apartment. So Little Blue was loaded with stuff and got 2 more hours of straight driving. After getting back I find out that I have to meet my dad to get him some stuff he forgot, so there is another hour long journey to meet him half way, BRING IT! And Little Blue stuck through it ALL! 

And now I have brought it with me to college. Little Blue has seen so much of my life; but through all the ups and downs it was still there, as reliable as ever. I'm able to just jump in, put on some music and have a great time in that car. I think all of my friends that have gotten a ride in Little Blue could each give their own great story about riding in there, it's just full of good times.

The Great Migration has begun again!

The reason I began to think of writing about Little Blue is because it recently had another great mile stone; yesterday it went on it's first dirt road! It may be a small car but that doesn't mean it can't drive on rocks! It performed fabulously (aside from the cd player skipping every few seconds...). It now gets to come out with me on Salamander hunting trips and get all sorts of dirty. So what if it isn't a sports car, it will always be my first car and favourite car.

A Long Long Time Ago...

     So it has been a while... It's the start of a new school year, without any word from me as to my life of the past 6 or so months. Too bad, get over it, I'm back on; at least for this one time. I feel like I'm just going to skip over most of the past few months and get to the more interesting parts.

     The relentless grind of school work has begun again as another year of my life is spent towards the precious activity of acquiring information. Chemistry is continuing to ruin many young lives including my own. I am now in a class taught by the infamous Dorte Madsen; more commonly known as the chemistry witch. After hearing numerous horror stories of this woman I have decided that the best course of action is to completely avoid lectures and study at my apartment (information soon to come). With that I now only go to campus at noon, except for Tuesdays. Tuesdays are my Hell days. Nothing good can ever come from a Tuesday this quarter. Chem lab 8 to noon, then comp sci lecture for an hour and a half, and finishing up with Bio lab 2-5. Nothing good can ever come of this!!! Back to classes now. Bio 2B is going to be a rather simplistic course I feel; it has to deal with Evolution and Ecology... this is my major... I haven't learned much at all from lectures so far. Finishing up my classes there is the second in the computer science minor courses, ECS 40. This class is all about programming in C++, so you know it's getting serious now!

   That's all for now, don't feel like writing that much this time.

To Begin a New

Auburn, California

As I write this I make my way back to Davis, my home away from home. As I look out the window in the car I watch as familiar sites pass me by, things I have watched change during the last 15 years every day of school. I look back on those days and reflect on nostalgic memories of high school and middle school, teachers of the past, and friends that have been lost to time. During this last break, I was again busy doing other things in preparations for the future, applying to internships and research opportunities, but I am glad I was still able to find some time to go back to at least one of these people for lunch. Sadly,  I fear that this won’t occur as much as I would like it to, there are so many people to catch up with, and time keeps getting eaten away at as I aim towards my future goals.

Why I’m in this mood I’m not entirely sure, perhaps it’s because of the events of this break, or more likely just a realization of all the time that has passed.  What makes it even more impactful is knowing that I may be gone all of Summer as well, unable to visit those of my past as I continue my life experiences doing some research internship away from home. Naturally I want to go through with an internship; it’s just unfortunate that I won’t be seeing many people, if any.

Chytrid fungus has caused the extinctions of numerous
anurans throughout the world. Current theory is that the
 fungushardens the skin making respiration more difficult.

Some other time I may write about the past when in another reminiscing mood, but as for now I’m excited to get back to my classes and anxious to hear back about the applications I have sent out. As many know the main one I look forward to is the possible opportunity in Yosemite working on a herpetology survey program. Over this break though I applied to many more; there is one on butterflies with a professor from Davis, a fly research project, and my second favorite one working with Jonah Piovia-Scott in the field dealing with the chytrid fungus that are endangering anurans (frogs and toads). In the beginning of the year I had talked to Jonah to help with his project, but he then led me to Christopher Searcy who is in charge of the Tiger Salamander research. So I look forward to helping Jonah this time around. These are about half of the research projects I applied to, but they are my top choices currently.

SO CUTE!!!

On to the classes I look forward to for this last quarter. Mostly biology based classes, so that makes this already the best quarter yet. Earlier today I also found out that I will have my introduction bio class with my orientation roommate Kent. This will be the first time I see him since orientation, and I look forward to talking to him again, I had a good time with him. It’s fun to look at the people whom you will share a class with. I also found out that my old chemistry lab partner will be in my Wildlife class. Another fun thing about this class concerns the essays that we have to write. Each essay is about a field trip we take to some local environmental site. One has to be to the Davis arboretum, easy, already have walked through it completely. The second one is cool though. We have 5 options, one of which is Jepson Prairie where I do salamander research. I already know all I need for that essay and more. As for the Life in the Oceans class, I already sent out a message in the chat room (first message) to find more EEB majors in that class (it is an EVE class after all). I do know that there are least three of us EEBers; Charlie, Tyler, and I. If we can find more, we shall be able to build the EEB clan and triumph in the glory of evolution and ecology!

And now I arrive back in Davis at the end of it all. So here is the end of this entry. Good bye!    

Out and About

So these past few days in Bodega Bay have been enjoyable, some more so than others. Amazingly it's been fairly good weather during the day allowing us to venture out to the bay, nights have been brutal though. Every night so far I've been woken up by the rain, and sometimes by weird dreams. Now to expand on these days in full.

Very unfriendly cliffs

It Feels Like the Very First Time (By Foreigner), oyster sucking

So Monday we just went for a nice little walk, maybe around 3 miles along a small peninsula. Very sheer cliffs, I was rather terrified of going over them to be honest (I kept inching my way towards the edge to look over, what a fall that would have been). Checked around for some herps, but didn't see any on that day, just a lot of birds. Afterwards we went down to a small little pool nearby the peninsula, it was roped off to cars but we could still walk around. One of th first things I saw when we arrived was a mouse skeleton. The vertebral column was broken in half, so not too bad, the skull though was shredded so it wasn't very appealing to take. The pond was fenced off so we just looked over it. Not too much else to say about it. Finally we went to the UC Davis Bodega Bay research lab. ... It wasn't open to the public... So just a quick look around through the car and we left. Might look into having an internship there sometime, but the housing was not so great though. As we drove away we saw the wind battered buildings solemnly sitting on the hillside. So very decrepit. This day I experimented with a new seafood as well; oysters. I had never had an oyster before, but they weren't too bad. Rather slimy as one might think, but a very light taste to them. The one issue I have with them is the amount of salt, which is to be expected. Given that I would eat oysters again, but more of an appetizer instead of a full entrée. Along with those we got some small additions to the experiment, limpets. Limpets are those little cone shells you see everywhere along the beach or along river banks. They are a type of snail and they are edible. Note: cook them and then cut off the intestines. They taste like calamari and have the similar chewiness about them, but get a bit of the intestine and the taste turns to a very strong bitterness. The next day was soon to come.

This certainly looks welcoming

Tuesday... not so good as far as I'm concerned. It really just started off badly, woke up with a headache from the night before, and it never diminished the entire day. There were two main things that occurred Tuesday, first off went to Fort Ross. While we were there it just so happened that a Russian film crew were starting on a documentary about the fort, so we didn't get to go inside, but it was still nice to see. From there we were able to go down to the shore line. In the bushes I saw a rather large shell, so had to go and check it out. As soon as I do the bushes rustle. AHA a reptile. That was all I could discern from it as these were blackberry bushes with nice large thorns unwelcoming to open hands. I was able to see the scales of the reptile so I knew it was either skink or snake (possibly an alligator lizard), but that was it sadly. As for the shell, I left it there as it turned out to be badly stained by moss.On our way back the second most important thing we saw was a large group of Harbour Seals. Got plenty of good pictures and videos of them. They were fairly off in the distance so couldn't get very close, but still very cute as they waddled themselves on shore. After all that we decided to head to a nice little town nearby called Occidental. If every you should go there remember to go to the Occidental Inn for food. The pizza there was AMAZING!! Plus the town has a very tight community feel. While in there we had numerous people walk in and start talking to each other, hugging and jollity then commenced. Further, all the men sounded like loggers telling stories of seeing the local Sasquwatch (I don't believe in this creature, but hey they can believe what they want). After all of this, still had the headache and it was time to head back to the trailer.

Poor thing lost one of it's legs, oh well it will grow back.

Such a cute little gopher!

Now we are up to today's adventures. After waking up a few times in the night, once to move from couch to bed and others due to rain and dreams, the first thing I notice, MY HEADACHE IS GONE! Oh so happy about that, just knew it was going to be a good day, and indeed it was. The day was spent another small peninsula that went out into the bay. Out at the end was a long line of rocks for wave control. Within the rock cracks I discover numerous starfishes, so that was cool. While climbing around I also frighten a Norwegian Rat among other small rodents. However the best part of the day was when I found a large vertebra. This I kept. Definitely larger than human vertebra, but I couldn't tell if it was a seal, or perhaps a dolphin? I don't really know. So I decide, Hell I'm looking for more. I went all the way out on the rock line and found one more vertebra, whether they are from the same animal, I cannot tell. BUT, these were not the only bones I found on this day. Along with those two vertebrae there was a head of what I assume is a humerus (s it was not human, so large marine mammal. Dolphins don't have femurs and this was larger than the femur of a seal I think). Lastly a rib of a bird probably. Also along this peninsula we happened upon a gopher digging out a little hole for some food. So we know have a video of a cute little gopher scrounging around. For lunch we had some wonderful Dungeness Crab, a very messy meal. And up til now the only other thing we have done was play a rousing game of Aw Shucks. Today was indeed a good day.