Barely making it...

So Cannibals...the new route I'm working. It's hard. A lot harder than hanging on to jugs for long enough to call it .12d. Yep - there's real rock climbing on it. Like with your feet and stuff. Anyway I went up there Friday afternoon and then this morning. I gave myself 2.5 hours to get home before I got picked up to go to the airport for a flight to Seattle. Unfortunately there was a massive accident on the portion where east-bound traffic is in the west-bound lane, and that was a huge clusterfuck and I wasn't sure if I'd catch my flight. I got home with half an hour to pack, eat, and not shower. So now I'm dirty from climbing.

I'm also looking at the program for the AFS conference in Seattle - I'm pretty excited and extremely overwhelmed. It is HUGE. I think there are hundreds of presenters, dozens of special symposia, and some interesting socials. Tonight I think I'll make it in time to go to this huge sustainable seafood welcome banquet. This NatGeo chef Barton Seaver is apparently spearheading a big to-do:

"Join us for a sustainable seafood extravaganza that reflects the variety and abundance of Pacific Northwest and Alaskan seafood, with menus reflecting the famed sustainable recipes of National Geographic Fellow, Chef Barton Seaver. Come for great food and beverages, lots of conversation with friends, and a fun-filled session of Swing Dance (including instructions!!). Why swing dancing?  Well, can you keep a secret? (((We’re preparing for a Wednesday night  AFS Swing Fish Flash Mob…aka Splash Mob… to be held at the Westlake Center PRIOR TO the Wednesday Night Social…shhhhhh)))  This Welcome Social isn’t one you’ll want to miss. It will be a fun way to dive straight into a fantastic AFS conference in Seattle."


I doubt I'll be swing-dancing. Unless J-Katz is there because he's so cute. But that's neither here nor there. Monday there are a few talks I'll go to, Tuesday morning some more, then I'm working the satellite info booth Tuesday afternoon (CV builder), and Tuesday night there are 2 big socials. The first one is the genetics subsection which my advisor will be at...so I kind of have to go. Also they are closing down the Seattle Aquarium for students only for 2 hours...should be awesome:

"The whole aquarium will be exclusively set for students only from 5:30 to 7:30 PM.  The Career Fair will be hosted from 5:30 to 7:30 for students and later at 7:30 to 8:30 for AFS general attendees.  This night is proudly co-hosted by the AFS Student Subsection and HTI.  Bring your appetite early in the evening for a free student-only dinner and freely tour Seattle’s world-class aquarium.  In the background, HTI will show real-time demos of the latest in acoustic telemetry and hydroacoustic echo sounding technology in the aquarium tanks to watch while everyone enjoys one great Seattle night.  Come for the connections, to hang out with fellow students, for the great food, the live local music, and to watch the diversity of aquatic life in the Pacific Northwest"


Wednesday there's an entire symposium on conservation genetics and genomics, and my collaborator on the delta smelt project is speaking...Wednesday afternoon I'm getting picked up by a friend of a friend to go to Little Si - never been there. Plus James managed to find out (how does he do that?) that I'm going so he'll be along as well. Jesus word travels fast in the climbing community.

Thursday I'm talking about Conservation Genetics of the Owens pupfish in a special symposium on using genetic tools to for conservation programs ...should be a fairly breezy talk, I've given most of it before and it's in pretty good shape. Plus everyone loves pupfish. I could probably show a bunch of pupfish photos and everyone would just lazily sit back with silly grins on their faces. I feel sorry for my roommate Mariah who has to talk about the extraordinarily political subject of reintroducing chinook to the San Joaquin River. Not jealous.

Then I fly home and spend Friday in bed not talking to anybody. These events completely overwhelm me. Just looking at the program has made me say "holy shit." and "oh my god" out loud to myself (in the airport) several times. This conference is gigantic. Totally high-rolling it at the Sheraton downtown as well. There are so many talks I wont' get a chance to see...talks that have less to do with my research and more to do with my personal interest, especially now that it's piqued by teaching my fisheries class. I want to hear about out addiction to stocking...how to keep teaching about fisheries exciting, another labmate's talk on analyzing the stomach contents of predatory fish to determine what they are eating, yet another guy who's been helping me out with fish sampling is also talking. Too bad I don't have the stomach to sit through talk after talk without getting extremely antsy.

I can say this - life will definitely calm down after the conference. I want to focus on my Great Basin projects and teaching, plus my ward is leaving so I'll be collecting delta smelt data by my onesie. Wonder when I'll get a real job.

How to teach evolution

I'm cruxing on the fact that a lot of my students clearly don't understand evolution and natural selection.  Those topics are particularly tough for several reasons:
1. It's political (which is dumb, but people are dumb, so it makes sense)
2. People think that they understand it when they really don't
3. It's a topic that needs to be "sat" with for a long time to really let it sink in
4. It's not something that you can see happen in an instant.

So I'm putting together a series of videos:

First one that I can't embed that is by far the most offensive, and hilarious:

http://youtu.be/KzF5aQ8X-hA

Next up:









Too bad I can't actually show all of this or I'd get fired. Being in a community of academic scientists in Davis has skewed my perception of the world and what people believe, understand, or care about. I try to remind myself of that every day, but I'm still actually surprised when people believe in Jesus and shit.  I can't let my students in on my disbelief and how much of a bubble I live in. It's hard.

I'm not required to teach evolution in my class. In fact I'm not required to teach anything since the class has never been taught before at American River. However on a personal note it's really important to me that people at least understand it, even if they don't believe it. Some of the students understand it, but since there are no prerequisites, a lot of folks have never had to learn evolution, or learned it so long ago that it's out of the window.  So many questions about what I should/can teach. I mean even a quick and dirty talk on evolution and natural selection could be a challenge - people get entire graduate degrees and base their whole careers on understanding it.

Basically this is all I'm thinking about right now. Such an eye-opener.

Pretty song + teaching doubts

My latest song obsession.

I'm in unfamiliar territory lately. What with my ward and my class, I'm not used to being in charge. I don't particularly like it. I'd rather just have a discussion group with people over beer, but instead I have to develop rubrics and grade people, and be a hardass about attendance, etc.  I don't make a very good policewoman.

My typical way of dealing with people is to sit back and observe and then decide how I'm going to act.  I'm not the greatest at asking for what I need. It seems strange that this would translate to a course, and that grading and all that crap would be easy, but it's not.

Another big challenge is my generally sensitive nature. One of the characteristics I like and dislike about myself is that I'm extremely sensitive. Sensitive to body language, expressions, comments, and innuendo.  Combine that with a very observant nature and I'm always trying to read the students for if they're getting it or not, or if they're enjoying themselves or bored or need a break or whatever.  I don't know what that line is of making sure they have a good time and getting the job done.

I can't be less sensitive - it's the nature of the beast. But perhaps I can find a way to cope with it. I accept that they're not all going to want to be there, they're not all going to attend, or participate, or even like me.  That I get...I just need to stop "collecting and analyzing data" when I look at their faces.  Or not stop, but do it less.

I'm so tired and overwhelmed right now.  Hopefully when I get back from my conference things will calm down a little bit.  I do appreciate the challenge and the novelty of teaching. It's apparent after 31 years that I need a lot of action and challenges to stay happy and engaged.  One thing I can say is that I'm definitely engaged right now. I'm so engaged in the work that I'm doing that normal things that I'd mull over just don't fit in after triage. Blessing or curse?

Damn it feels good

I mentioned that I did a couple of .12ds at Column recently, but I finished up a third at Donner today: Bronco.  The other ones were cool, but this one is a lot more meaningful. I worked it a bit last fall and fell at the top twice before it dumped snow.  Last Thursday I went to Donner for the first time since then, worked out the moves again, gave it another go, and vowed to come back.  Jackson and I were pretty lazy over the weekend (plus weekend crowds suck), so we went back up there today and I did it second go.

Total surprise, and it felt SO GOOD.  I haven't felt that good after a send in a long time!  Theres's something to be said for being attached to a route.  I was definitely attached to that one.

Another cool thing was that I did it in good style.  I fucked up a few things, hung in there, and then fired the crux.  It felt great.  And NOW (not after the sends at Column), I'm allowing myself to think "wow-I'm really fit right now."  Finally... a little bit of confidence.  I'll take it.  I'll also say this - endurance and ability to recover goes a long way.  I could completely get my heart rate down at every rest, and oh boy do I ever find rests.  Awesome.

New occurrences

So yesterday it occurred to me that I have three jobs. THREE. That's too many jobs. Granted, I don't have to work all three jobs every day, but at least every week.

1. Teaching (I had my first class Saturday)
2. Fish and Wildlife Service (winding down)
3. Graduate student/post-doctoral researcher.

Yes. I am busy. Hence the lack of blogging lately.

So far the teaching is going well, though of course it's too early to tell. The student seem excited and bright and engaged. I'm so informal that one thing I worry about is having them forget who's boss. Gotta be a bit more of a hard-ass I think.

Also I went into the field:

View Larger Map

Gmaps makes it difficult (or I haven't figured out how) to make the route go along dirt roads, but this is the general route.  It was AWESOME. I live for this shit. Meeting biologists and going to random out-of-the way places. Love love love.

Here are some photos:

 Hay Corral Spring on Lockes Ranch

 Crenichthys nevadae (Railroad Valley springfish)

 Lockes Ranch is adjacent to Black Rock Station (not the same as Black Rock City of Burning Man fame)

 Old ranch houses at Green Springs

 More Green Springs

 Railroad Valley springfish in tequila (I need to start bringing ethanol with me everywhere I go)

 We slaughter bass after they slaughter native fishes, then we inspect their stomachs to see what they are eating.

 Fish Creek Springs tui chub

 Shoshone Pond Natural Area, a reserve for the Pahrump poolfish.

 Catching the Pahrump poolfish in a tiny ditch.

Pahrump poolfish  - endangered.

In other news, for the required spray about rock climbing, I've finished two .12ds at Column of the Giants - Contortionist and Spin Doctor - in three weeks...hopefully the crag isn't soft and they are legit and I'm actually feeling fit.  We'll see. I started on a .13a called Hey Ladies that is pretty fun, but chossy and a bit scary (like most of the crag).  Just a couple more days up there, so hopefully I can finish it up before I start going to Donner to finish up some stuff.

Adorable!

I wrote my first email to my students and two have already responded. Check this out:

Wow I am so excited. I have always wanted to work with fish and help sustain them. I am 3 classes from graduation and I feel like I have been waiting my whole life to take this class. and another: Awesome!!! I'm so excited.  This is my first class that is actually toward my major and I'm oozing with enthusiasm. So cute, and it makes me pretty excited. I hope that I can be a good teacher! Oh yeah I sent my project. blah blah blah. I did it 2nd try 2nd day on, which just shows you that I was strong enough but totally botched it the previous like, 7 times.  wtf.

Column column column

I think this is probably one of my first summer sport-climbing seasons ever.  I've been going to Column of the Giants every weekend for the past month or so.  It's such a pile of choss.  It's a pile of choss sitting on a mountain of choss.  But it's OUR pile of choss, so that makes it fun!

It's even chossier than Jailhouse and Gold Wall.

I KNOW!

Damn the problem with not blogging very much is that a lot happens and I don't write about it.  Like my sampling trip to North Fork Cottonwood Creek.  And my very strange hookup with the random hippie guy in Mammoth.  And Ethan and Cuz staying over in Davis after going to a few grad school bbqs with me Thursday night.  They are both so adorable.  It's all good stuff and it's all worth a separate blog post.  Overall the trend has been fun + busy...which I'll take!

random hippie guy in NFCC

I seem to have a new optimism about the people I hang out with lately (and the people I'm meeting and people in general).  I hope that teaching my class (which starts the 20th!) doesn't bring me down.  I'm having fun riding this high as long as I can.

always looking for mushrooms. 

field clothes are so hot.

Now hopefully today I can send one of the three freakin' .12ds that I'm falling at the end of.  I need to finish some routes.