how much do you know about religion?

The Pew research center has a 15 question poll to test religious literacy. Ironically, atheists/agnostic rank among the highest, along with Jews and Mormons.  I thought I'd score poorly, since I'm of the "I have no freakin' clue and I don't care either" boat about religion, but I got 13/15 (I thought one was a trick question...it wasn't).  They have a nice breakdown of the data as a reward when you are done. It took me about 90 seconds to take the quiz.

Take the quiz.

Stuff...you know.

This is awesome.

I don't think I ever mentioned (on the blog) that I got four golfodulcean poison dart frogs at the reptile fair (they are not reptiles, I know...but tomatoes are fruits, even though they've been legally declared vegetables...so this is the culture we live in).

They are completely adorable.  The downside is that when you get pet dart frogs, pet wingless fruit flies are part of the package. Wingless fruit flies are not completely adorable.

I like to watch the frogs eat.  They are voracious buggers - they eat so many flies! I can stare at them for quite a while and watch them hunt.

I probably shouldn't have gotten them, or maybe I should have gotten fish or something instead. You can watch fish all the time because they are always swimming (some hide, but whatever).  The frogs come out of the moss when they are hungry and wait for me to feed them...then they retreat into little "burrows" when they are full. It's kind of funny - they start hopping all over the place when I take the lid off of their container - I think they've been trained to know when they are going to get fed.

My tui chub report is almost done. I finished up the figures today.  Next up is the major revisions that the authors of a journal returned to me.  Then I'll have 2 chapters done. Tui chubs is just a report, but it's written, and if I get that published then I'm done.  It's weird. I feel like I've had an oddly easy phd experience.  Aside from getting sick and falling apart halfway through, it's been a bit of a breeze.  I've had a ton of free time, plenty of time off, I have a job lined up, possible post-doc research lined up, I'll have at least 3 publications, with potential for several more, I've gotten along great with my advisor and my labmates, and I've never had to worry about funding or teach. Plus I really like my research, and the species and systems I work with.  I suppose it doesn't hurt to have broad research interests, but still - I like what I'm doing.

Now the next chapter is going to start pretty soon.  Still unsure of what I'd like to do next.  Maybe travel? I don't really want to go on a long road trip by myself, but that might be what happens.  Not many other people have the kind of time that I have to take vacations. A lot of the ones that do are dirtbags, douchebags, or married, which doesn't leave a lot left over for me.

garden photos

We planted a little more than half the garden last week, and set up the irrigation system.  Now we need to stay on top of the water situation, fix the irrigation system that we set up (this is a learning process), and plant the rest.  Also we should add wood chips to the path down the middle and think about mulching the rows.  The current plant list is: lettuce, chard, broccoli (2 kinds) cabbage, strawberries, parsley, joi choi, green onions and walla walla onions, carrots...and I'm probably forgetting something.

my future house

Own nearly 800 acres in the Owens Valley.

Recent photos

I've been a blogging slacker lately, especially with photos.  So here are some recent ones:

Antioch Dunes trip to find the Lange's Metalmark.  I didn't see any, but a coworker found the first of the season.  Here are 2 photos of the endangered Antioch Dunes evening primrose:

Next up is the trip to Middle Palisade (just the base, sigh):

Finally, our new garden! Vicken and I watered the hell out of it, since the soil is a lot like concrete. We worked some of it, and today we're going to go back and work it for as long as we can stand.  The tentative plan is to make two beds that go down the length of the plot with a walkway in the middle.  Here we go!

Oddly, my Dad is one of the most excited people about my garden.  Though he's a complete motorhead (racing cars, motorcycles, driving fast things in general), he keeps saying that he'd really like to get a garden.  I think it's adorable.  He used to have some big saltwater tanks, so I know he can stick to husbandry.  I think he could do it.  Mom and Dad have been talking about selling their downtown big fancy house and downsizing...maybe they'll have a little bit of land and can have a garden too.

Finally, I'm considering getting some poison dart frogs.  I know, I'm a nerd.  Whatever. they're pretty and I've always wanted them, and the Sacramento Reptile Fair is this weekend.

Climbing news...um...there's a comp Friday that I might go to. Then I think Stacy and I are going to meet up to do all the new boulder problems on Sunday too.  Right now I'm focusing on work and the garden. I have a report due the 30th that is pretty much an entire chapter of my dissertation. Plus it's shoulder season right now...I'm bored with the stuff at elevation, the days are shorter, and it's still too hot for stuff in the valley. Plus I'm kind of over the weekly partner hunt.

By the way, I started watching the show Fringe (via Netflix). It's totally silly (I find myself shouting "COME ON!!!" to the tv, but it's pretty entertaining.

I'm getting a garden

I don't know why it took me so long. My mom and I gardened when I was a kid and we were living on the island...which was the first 18 years of my life. A labmate encouraged me to get a plot on campus, so I'm going on the tour tomorrow to pick out a plot. I think I'm going to get Vicken to share it with me...

Winter crops - carrots, greens, chard, cilantro, onions, garlic, cabbage (meh), peas, beets...

It's a bit of a pain that it's not in my backyard, but the bonus is that there is irrigation and you get a pretty big plot with lots of sun. Until I get a house that can provide that, this is probably the next best thing.

In other goings-on, I went to a "new" bouldering area called Burst on Saturday with Jake and Adam - I don't think it was worth the drive, but it's super pretty up there. Yesterday I went to the Sacramento Farmer's Market (hectic) and bought a lot of stuff - omg it's so cheap there. 80c/lb for tomatoes, 4 red bell peppers for a buck, 1$/lb chilies and sweet peppers.  I got 5lbs of figs for 10 bucks and made fig balsamic preserves and fig jam...hello Christmas gifts.

Could I really leave California?

A take on the Koran burning that I hadn't thought of...

Ok so we can all agree that the fundamentalist preacher and his congregation in Florida are batshit.  But here's a point that I hadn't thought of, and it comes from Pharyngula (linked on the right).  Anyway, here's a link to the post (Setting the Koran on fire, vs. setting personal liberties on fire)  and here's a choice quote:

"And to suggest that some guy burning a book in a remote land will incite more anti-American sentiment is absurd. We've got drones buzzing over Iraq and Afghanistan killing people with a push of a button; we've got an armed force occupying those countries; we have bombed their infrastructure into rubble. We've killed hundreds of thousands of Muslims. And now we're to believe that their love of the West will be suddenly devastated by a video of paper burning on youtube? Get a grip, man."

We are so far removed from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan aren't we.  It's shocking how sheltered we really are.