I apologize for being a bad blogger the past couple months... I have been living on an island with limited internet so blogging got pushed to the wayside.

Now that I am back with stronger internet expect more blogging to come upon you!

With that being said, I leave you with a picture of some really old mayonnaise (my guess 50 years old) that I found while hiking on the island. 

What is this?

 

Just Crazy Kites!

Throwback of the Moment

Don't remember the first moment I heard this song but growing up, I would have it stuck in my head periodically. Finally heard it for the first time in a long time on the radio last night. 

1,2,3,4 (Sumpin' New)- Coolio (1995)

I was a happy camper!

I went to a college party this past weekend. Was talking to a senior at this particular university. I told him how old I was, 24, he told me that I was "like, twice his age." 

So either he was a really young senior in college, or he was trying to emphasize the fact that I shouldn't have been there.

 Thanks man!

P.S. As we continued talking, I was emphasizing something I was saying with my hands and he proceeded to take my drink and started to drink it. I then asked him what he was doing, his response was that he thought I was offering it to him. Yea... after that, I knew I wasn't supposed to be in college anymore and let him finish off the drink. 

An upset elephant seal.

(Everyone was a safe distance away from the animal when video was taken and the animal was not harassed in any way)

 Which one looks like more fun?

In animal rehab, you are not supposed to pick favorites, but I did and here she is being released into the wild.

GOOD DAY!

A view from my window

You may have heard the phrase, stop and smell the roses,  at some point in your lifetime. Well, as a "marine biologist," myself and some of my colleagues do this a little differently. To examine the little things in life and to take a breath, we might head to the local docks and stop, lay on our belly, and observe the invertebrates.

When doing this,  you can see a whole new world controlled mostly by invertebrates. 

                          

     

When looking at these photos, from one eventful dock session, there were organisms from at least 5 different phylums and some of them were other parts of the world. These pictures don't give it justice on how many organisms there are living in the area. This picture barely covers a square foot, imagine how much there are when looking at the dock as a whole! 

While exploring, we found a huge sea anemone, Anthopleura Xanthogrammica...

...as well as a river otter.

Isn't exploring fun?

Throwback of the Moment

Here is a song that is making me want to dance like the ladies in the background:

Get Ready- The Temptations (1966)

ENJOY!

On the 101 in Nor Cal, like far Nor Cal, there is a special place called Confusion Hill. It is 5 dollar tourist stop and one gets to go through a interactive area which includes a house where GRAVITY DOES NOT EXIST, at least not obviously.

These photos do not do it justice. But you can walk on the walls with ease, water flows up him, as well as golf balls. This is a FANTASTIC PLACE!

I tried to you my B.S. degree (that whole year of physics) but the only theory that I came up with was that they dug into the hill. The trick is a posted sign said that the building was built slanted on the hill and nothing was moved to build it, which disproves my theory. 

It was a fun time had by all and I will probably do it again because common, who doesn't like walking on walls. 

Confusion Hill is Fun for Everyone!

This past Friday, I attended Outside Lands in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. I was super excited because I got to see two of my favorite artists Beck and the Foo Fighters. I have been listening to these musicians since the age of 6. The music of the both of these groups of artist contains more then one person and many instruments playing one song, as many of you know. With the Foo Fighters over, my friend and I decided to stick around to listen to Justice, who I had missed at Coachella and was interested and seeing preform. I got there expecting a lot of people being at Neil Young and Crazy Horse but found myself at this.

I apologize for the crummy photo

With the cross under the man known as Justice, and everyone moving their arms and bodies to the music or pumping neon crosses into the air, it felt like I had entered a cult. I don't have anything against electronic dance music or dub step (sorry I don't know enough information on what to clarify Justice as) or people who enjoy it, but it personally doesn't do much for me. After awhile, all I end up hearing is the continuous bass line. Another thing that bothers me is what makes the one DJ not just press play during his set. I understand that  a good or professional DJ should be similar to a band, if they are a great performer they get into their music and try to make it special at each preformance. I just feel that it is easier for one DJ person to just press play when they are not working with others during a performance.  At least Daft Punk has two people collaborating together. I don't know what I am trying to get at but it is something that I think about when ever I hear that continuous bass line. Again, I don't have anything against this music or people who like it because on occasion, I of course like to dance to it. I just have a hard time understanding the hype surrounding it.

I am open to the idea of being more educated about it!

As of today, August 7th 2012, I have reached 100 VIEWS in 2 weeks... 

I know, blog superstardom here I come!

(But really, if I ever hit 1000, I would be amazed.) 

Here is a cute animal photo that I took for your viewing pleasure as a thank you:

Growing up in a big city, I missed out on a lot of small town things... one of the things being country fairs.  Yesterday, I had the pleasure in attending one and I heard and saw things that I never experienced before.


The first thing I attended was a RODEO! I have always wanted to go to one and I finally had the chance too, and let me tell you, I feel a little bit more American after attending it.

The opening ceremony started with a chariot made out of horse shoes and a parade of horse and riders holding flags of the sponsors of the event. After a couple trots around the arena, everyone stopped in the middle and the American Flags came out.  An announcement was then made, "Please stand for the best song in the world!" A woman came out of the chariot to sing the National Anthem.

After the "best song in the world" was sung, the events began!

There was a rodeo clown, which made sure to keep the small crowd entertained. After he broke his nose from a bull smashing into his "clown barrel," I thought of this guy's past and that MTV should develop a new show, "True Life: I Am a Rodeo Clown"

After one of the bull bucks, the Bull decided he was tired and laid down for 15 mins. I congratulated the bull for sticking it to the man and doing what he wanted. The rodeo clown did some great impromptu entertainment during this time.

One of the last events was the Calf Scramble, which the whole week when hearing the ad on the radio, I thought it was the Cat Scramble. I was wrong. But it was  kinda cute seeing a bunch of kids chasing calfs and trying to grab ribbons off the calf's tails. Don't worry they made sure to tell the 3-10 year olds not to get too close to the calsa or they would get kicked. 

After the 3.5 hours at the radio sitting in foggy coldness, trying to comprehend how they make these animals do this and if the animals get angry, we took some time to walk around the Fair. 

Yes, this was a prize for any age to win.
If this isn't American, then I don't know what is. 

I didn't go on any of the rides, because when you have been on the sleek, non rusty, non clanky that Magic Mountain has to offer...

these ride look like they would fall apart.

In the end, I don't think I will go to rodeo again and that I feel more american.

 I hope you all enjoyed my run down of a small town county fair!

Quote of the Day

"Junior, you better not sit on that toilet without me!" -mom to son

Throwback of the Moment

You know those songs from your younger days that just put you in a good mood and make you want to dance...

Well here is my throwback of the moment:

Pass the Courvoisier Part II By Busta Rhymes feat. P. Diddy and Pharrell

Stay tuned for more Throwbacks of the Moment.

I had an interesting interaction with an 8 year old boy today...

The boy was asking me a lot of questions about the seals and sea lions, while his relatives were playing in the park. He explained what he liked about the animals and then told me facts about other animals. He told me that he liked to play out side and ride is bike. I responded with "NICE." Then, looked down at himself and said, "I don't get skinny though." My heart broke inside. I then said, "It looks like you got muscle to me. Do you have fun doing it?" He answered, "Yes." I told him that's all that mattered and then asked him what his favorite animal was.

He answered:

http://www.glenofscotland.com/2010/08/mating-call.html

He liked how they pounded their chest to scare people away.

Today, there was a Release Party! We released 3 Harbor Seal Pups and 1 Northern Elephant Seal.

Here is some cuteness from the release.

The harbor seals

                                                                               The Elephant Seal

 

  

A couple months back, I worked at a sea turtle hospital in Florida and we had a Kemp's Ridley Turtle, "Johnnie," come in. She was considered "famous" because she somehow floated up to the Netherlands and then was sent to Portugal before coming to our facility and she was fitted with a satellite transmitter.


When recently looking up her tracking device, I found this on her website...

"As Johnnie approached Grand Isle, she encountered an oil spill near the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port. The oil spill story and photos are online. http://blog.skytruth.org/2011/03/gulf-spill-not-so-fast-problem-at-loop.html http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/rkistner/gulf_oil_source_found_but_slic.html http://media.nola.com/2010_gulf_oil_spill/photo/map-oil-032311jpg-ac481095c236d2b1.jpg" http://www.seaturtle.org/tracking/index.shtml?tag_id=113650

It is crazy to think that with all the time and work it takes to rehabilitate an animal, somethings are destined to happen

This is what I got to rescue today...

                           

A Salmon Shark

So I am currently interning at marine mammal rehabilitation facility, where I am working with this Steller Sea Lion. Though he looks super cute and nice, this 100 lbs critter has sharp teeth with bacteria.

One morning, this man got out of his pen and while herding him back into it, I some how got stuck on the wrong side of the animal without a board. In those next 5 seconds, I found myself getting chased by this beast of an animal. Sea lions and other otariidaes have the ability to walk on all fours, so this animal can move as fast as a small sized dog basically. So yes, I was scared.

As some of you know, I got bit by a seal recently and had to go on antibiotics to not get the infamous "SEAL FINGER." But sadly, it was some not scary endangered Steller Sea Lion that had already chased me. This is the one that got me.

A harbor seal pup who is under 30 lbs but I might get a scar out of the deal.