Trilobite Pachinko

Acorn worm update: It is not the same kind of hemichordate that researchers here had in the lab, so its provenance is being investigated by detailed sectioning.

"Nightlighting" is the charming practice of taking the Labs' two underwater lanterns, hanging them in the water next to the docks until after dark, and lying on your belly watching the animals come to investigate. And, of course, taking pictures.

( Not such big pictures )

Tomorrow: Going out on the boat again in the morning to dredge for animals for my own real live project. Molgula pugetiensis and possibly M. taylori are around here, and it would be, well, more fun than helpful, but still cool to have them on board.

I was SO RIGHT about an obscure topic relating to my project, and the professor's story about finding that out was darkly hilarious.

Earlier this week, I found the first acorn worm ever to be described from Friday Harbor! (This is not a good thing per se; it means they may be able to escape in larval form from the Labs, though they could easily have arrived via ballast too. Still, a winner is me.) It has since been pickled for posterity.

All my ideas came together today, and after talking to the profs they are together still, amended, and extended. This is going to be really fun.

Photos coming soon, as I am now camera-enabled courtesy of the excellent hattifattener.

Feeling a bit down/brain-full/overpeopled tonight, probably just hormones. I did have a really good time forcing sea anemones off their rocks with my fingernails earlier.

In short: Best production ever.

( Long version )

Tomorrow morning: talks on our current/thesis research, so we all know what everyone is doing. The nice part will be having the day off after around 11:15; the 8:30am part is not so nice, though cinnamon rolls are promised at breakfast. [For the afternoon: farmer's market, maybe sculpture park, probably missing Labs lunch, oh well.)

Dinner today was pizza, and I was all set to have PB&J as none of the pizzas available was tomato-free. The PB&J was not set out. A bunch of Caesar salad, cottage cheese, and a boiled egg made a decent meal, but I've felt cold all day and that didn't help a bit. The cafeteria folk expressed distress at my not eating the entree, so I put myself forward dreadfully by adding my food problem to their very short list.

I think people are adjusting to my Relentless Uncoolness. I'm social at meals once in a while, and perfectly friendly in class, so the fact that I am usually buried in a book or trying to hide from humans for a while doesn't seem to be worrying people any more. Although:

. One of the instructors tried to say reassuringly yesterday that it's okay I'm quiet. Yes, I know it is. I think my puzzled look was adequate.

. "That must be a good book! You've been reading it all day." Yes, it's pretty good so far (Miss Pym Disposes, now finished; downbeat and not a surprise to my suspicious mind but excellent), but if it weren't... I'd be reading a different book. And for heaven's sake, the "all day" I'd been reading it was while ten people tried to do DNA extractions with two centrifuges, taking twenty times as long. What else was there to do? Silly person. (Also it was the second book today, which I pointed out, ha ha.)

Possibly I am a little bit on the goofy side due to tiredness. Having fun, though. Fed dissected bivalves to our prawn friends, and learned about the creepy-awesome pedicellariae on the backs of starfish and sea urchins. And saw them! And goaded them to bite the poking instrument!

European centaury, which is adorable and (since non-native) potentially kidnappable to garden by me.

Harvest brodiaea, a shocking spot of blue-violet on the path to an instructor's apartment.

Pink honeysuckle is supposed to be hairy, and this isn't, but there are really no other pink options. The leaves are also a little off. Hmm.

Yerba buena, which grows all over campus and smells deliciously of lemon cough drops.

Good thing the library here had an unclaimed copy of Pojar & Mackinnon.

In animal news, many fine swimming isopods were acquired today, as well as a mighty crab and some cool chitons. Worms, of course, should be inferred.

To ferry dock: 15 minutes

To discover the need for a bicycle pump: 2 minutes

To discover this was a bad idea directly after dinner: 16 minutes

To find an open bookstore: 18 minutes

Other events of note:
. Found a Susan Point sculpture!
. Had to walk the bike for about a block of extreme hill on the way back

Low-tide trip to False Bay this morning -- found many MANY polychaete worms, some nemertean worms, and a couple of hemichordates. Also the more accessible hermit crabs and tiny eels, who like to hide under big pieces of algae. Later in the lab, I successfully identified the larvae in a jellylike egg mass as some kind of gastropod -- not bad for knows-nothing girl. And bryozoans are very cool.
[no photo links due to likely gross-out, esp. on polychaetes for m-pig]

After the interminable hour of talklets from all the researchers here, which were supposed to be limited to 2 minutes but were not, I had to recharge somehow. Here in the absence of privacy, that apparently means connecting with nature in some way, preferably by eating it. I managed to find not only some salmonberries (one was good omg) and dewberries (fabulous as always) but a maple-leafed currant bush, which has the best currants I've ever had. Am now trying to plot propagation.

Tomorrow: out on a boat to dredge up more invertebrates!

Made no progress on anything at the lab today despite beautifully organizing myself and my colleague. Wasted expensive reagents due to equipment failure. Frustrated beyond belief. Headache, hate, nothing accomplished at home either.

But I did get cherries (Bings!) and peaches and corn, at least.

Some lame one-line and even one-word reviews this time. Ask if you're curious!

( The Mirador, Sarah Monette )
( The Iron Tree, Cecilia Dart-Thornton )
( Empire of Ivory, Naomi Novik )
( Extras, Scott Westerfeld )
( Joy In Our Cause, Carol Emshwiller )
( Phantoms in the Brain, V.S. Ramachandran & Sandra Blakeslee )
( The Stars Compel, Michaela Roessner )
( Cruddy, Lynda Barry )
( The Gecko's Foot, Peter Forbes )
( Rebel Sutra, Shariann Lewitt )
( The Jennifer Morgue, Charles Stross )
( Designing Tessellations, Jinny Beyer )
( Recovery Man, Kristine Kathryn Rusch )
( Horizons, Mary Rosenblum )
( The Floating Island, Elizabeth Haydon )
( Keeping the Moon, Sarah Dessen )
( Dragonhaven, Robin McKinley )
( Ha'Penny, Jo Walton )
( Comics )

Indoor extension cord.
Nails.
Terra cotta pot feet.
Small logs.
Big sticks.
Lead-acid car battery.
Dust and pollen like whoa.
[ETA:] Sword fern.

Today I dissected siliques (maybe 2mm x 12mm) and seeds (about 50 of them fit in previous)
of Arabidopsis. Fun stuff, actually, though one does get a little disoriented after
looking through binocular microscopes for hours on end. (Interspersing games of spider
solitaire helps.)

I hadn't seen plant embryos in person before, so I thought I'd share some of my photos.
None of these actually shows what I want to observe, which is the activity of a particular
transgene, but they're good illustrations of the developmental progression. Also, if you
have ever been twelve, you will snicker at the last one.

( Plant porn! )

Also, the Dirt Empire in the front yard expanded southward today, driving the heathen grass
before it! (That is a botany joke. HA HA.) Photos soon, I hope.

Creepy zombie dog.

Hypericums of varying appeal.

Biggest New Zealand flax ever.

Swallows.

LED throwies.

We've replaced this man's coffee with isopods!

The meme (brought to me by firecat) goes: "The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed." But what Big Read came up with this list?

( Google results, fun, and snark )

Where is this list actually from? I find it, without comment or justification, at the Telegraph. No sign of the "only 6" business.

( I have read rather a lot of these )

The NSF has a standard format for CVs. It can be disheartening to be given one's advisor's CV as a template for one's own -- a page and a half is reduced to half a page, no publications, N/A for several things, am I really doing NO outreach or is it just that I'm still a bit illness-fogged?

But. They probably do not have daffodil seeds:



and I do.

My rotation talk over lunch today went really well -- I had a couple of interesting ideas to add, though I doubt they're going to pursue them very hard. Hopefully I left a good impression despite being sick twice this quarter and getting kind of a slow start. Nice conversation with the PI afterward; I have a committee member if I want one. Finally, a tour of the fish room! I put together my notebook and said goodbye to everyone, which was surprisingly sad considering I haven't spent all that much time there. The sun came out for me a little as I left, though.

Other cheering things: A hummingbird. Senrid in at library, a box from Powells at home. Kitty feeling okay. Delicious juice smoothie. Breathing with my mouth closed.

I am past the gallons-of-snot phase of my illness, and luckily the muscle and joint aches only lasted about half a day. Still too tired to do much. (Raspberries and other helpfulness provided by thoughtful Wim.)

Mostly what I am doing today is legwork for future TA work, since I don't currently have other funding for next fall and winter. The way to TA anything good is to approach the professor(s) before turning in your list of preferences, so they recommend you to the assignment committee. Judging by the number and style of rejections I'm accumulating, it appears that in most cases this happens a year in advance, and where it doesn't the professor still would rather have their own student if said student might be interested. Grr. Not that I hate teaching intro courses, but I'm supposed to do a 400-level one at some point and I was hoping to get it off my list soon.

I'm also working on a quick talk about my stickleback rotation project, to be given tomorrow. And Squeak is at the vet, where her teeth are worse than they thought. Dizzy is okay with her mouth short on teeth, but I still worry a bit.

On vacation. Sick. Ugh. The illness was either brought on by sudden relaxation after the end of the quarter or by my possession of a great many fine YA novels right now.

(Girl Overboard: OH NOES I AM TOO RICH makes me a little grouchy, but otherwise this was excellent.
Suite Scarlett: Adorable, and I see a movie adaptation in its future.
House of Many Ways: A sequel, but an appealing one.
Skin Hunger: Amazing, and I would totally recommend it except that I am about to go mad; it's book one and there's no sign of any others yet.)

I did go last night to see Avenue Q, which was hilarious, and I just watched a marvelous video explaining abiogenesis. Other than that, I really need to go take care of my garden, but I'm not sure how much of my miserable snot-filled head is due to grass pollen, so it's hard to convince myself to actually do it. Much safer to play computer games and nibble cherries.