front cover

so here's what i did for the front cover. i tried to a multimedia thingy that incorporates my scientific work, my drawings and my mad photoshop skills.

one of the comments i got was the lower left corner is a bit busy and makes the image confusing.

let me know what you think. i might be able to make a few changes before it gets printed.

GLOBAL WARMING

Global Warming Risks Severe
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70116-0.html?tw=rss.technology

The threat posed by climate change may be greater than previously thought, and global warming is advancing at an unsustainable rate, Prime Minister Tony Blair said in a report published Monday.

The government-commissioned report collates evidence presented at a conference on climate change hosted by Britain's Meteorological Office last year. It says scientists now have "greater clarity and reduced uncertainty" about the impacts of climate change.

In a foreword, Blair said it was clear that "the risks of climate change may well be greater than we thought."

"It is now plain that the emission of greenhouse gases, associated with industrialization and economic growth from a world population that has increased six-fold in 200 years, is causing global warming at a rate that is unsustainable," he wrote.

Over the next century, global warming is expected to raise ocean levels, intensify storms, spread disease to new areas and shift climate zones, possibly making farmlands drier and deserts wetter.

The U.N.-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says temperatures rose by about 1 degree during the 20th century. Computer modeling predicts increases of between 2.5 degrees and 10.4 degrees by the year 2100, depending on how much is dome to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

Scientists have warned of climatic "tipping points" such as the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets melting and the Gulf Stream shutting down.

In the British report, the head of the British Antarctic Survey, Chris Rapley, warned that the huge west Antarctic ice sheet may be starting to disintegrate, an event that could raise sea levels by 16 feet.

Rapley said a previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report playing down worries about the ice sheet's stability should be revised.

"The last IPCC report characterized Antarctica as a slumbering giant in terms of climate change," he wrote. "I would say it is now an awakened giant. There is real concern."

Blair's vow to put climate change at the center of the international agenda during Britain's leadership of the G-8 and the European Union last year met with limited success.

He was unable to overcome the Bush administration's antipathy to the Kyoto climate-change accord — rejected by the U.S. government on the grounds it would damage the economy. British ministers also have acknowledged that Britain is unlikely to meet its own target of cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent by 2010.

best.thing.EVER.

saturday i was in costco (beer and beef run) and i saw three different people walking around with relative newborns. i noticed it, just like i noticed the day was overcast, parking lot was full, or the person in front of me is the slowest.person.ever. nothing special. nothing out of the ordinary.

then when i was walking behind one man with his relative newborn a woman walking in the other direction towards us just made a googly face and said "ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

and i thought, man i have NO such reaction like that. none. it has no effect on me whatsoever.

but then i get to my best friend's house and i think i took 63 pictures in 15 minutes of these guys

*melt*
they follow milk train alot



RASCALS!



they are at the age where they are just these clumsy running little furbears. they don't go around things they try to get their fat little tummies OVER everything. they don't know how to maintain their speed, it's like they run and gain momentum and then they can't keep it all coordinated and end up doing a loopdeloop. or even cuter is when they're doing a little gallop and the hind end is faster than the front and they end up running buttfirst for a second until they crash on themselves.

it's the cutest damn thing ever. i was completely muddy yesterday because i just couldn't help myself and i sat down in the middle of the lawn and they just ATTACK! nibbling my nose and ears and pulling my hair out and leaving tiny muddy footprints all over my shirt and sweats.

best.thing.EVER

Paula Poundstone knows I'm a Marine Biologist

I went to see Paula Poundstone Saturday night and it was awesome. i just love her.

she doesn't really have an act. she just talks and it's hysterical. sometimes she interacts with the audience and it's brilliant. this time, and i don't know how, she asked the audience a question and she heard me from like 2nd level seating.

she was talking about being in Sacramento and only in the last couple of years realizing this is where the state conducts all its business. then she asked if there were any state workers there. and someone closer to her said yes or something and she said what do state workers do and i blurted out (not that loud i thought, or at least not loud enough for HER to hear me...) "they walk around in tennis shoes at lunch time"

and she did hear me.

Paula: what was that? all I heard was a yes and then a mmmmmbbbb bmbmbmb mbmgmgmgmhhhh mmmhhmhm

Crowd is laughing I’m laughing harder because I realize it’s me she’s talking about

Paula: who said yes they’re a state worker?
Silence
Paula (still looking in first level): come on I heard someone say they worked for the state. Is anyone sitting next to the state worker?

Woman seated in front of me: I am!
Paula: well what is she doing?
Woman: she’s laughing really hard
Paula: maam what did you say?
Me: I said “they walk around in tennis shoes at lunch time”
Paula (guffaws and gestures to audience like I’m crazy): and?
Me: well, I just always thought it was odd that they’re hoofing it around the block in white socks and tennis shoes but they’re still wearing dresses and business suits. They don’t even change to go walking.
Paula (exaggerating how flabbergasted she is): THEY DON’T EVEN CHANGE THEIR CLOTHES???!! Well, you know what that means ladies and gentlemen! You gotta get to the capitol before noon to do business because after lunch its one STINKY DOME!
Crowd busts into laughter
Paula: ma’am what do you do for the state?
Me: I don’t work for the state
Paula looks aghast, crowd is laughing.
Paula: well, what do you do ma’am
Me: I’m a grad student
Paula: and what do you study?
Me: Marine Biology
Paula: well, that seems like an excellent career choice for someone in a landlocked city!
Crowd is laughing really hard. And keep in mind I’ve been laughing the whole time she’s been talking too
Me: well, it could come in handy when all the levees break
And some guy says something in the front row and Paula leans down to him and says sternly: I’ll take care of this sir!
Crowd is laughing.
Paula: a marine biologist in a landlocked city! Well, that may just explain Kansas. Imagine all those marine biologists in Kansas with no ocean. Explains everything if you ask me.

Then she moves on to something else but I was so stoked she picked on me and then she would reference it occasionally during the rest of her time on stage. She picked on someone else too and boy did she rip this person harder than she ripped me. It was hysterical. Now I’m going to write to her and tell her I was the marine biologist in sacramento.

PUBLISHED!

well, sort of...

hee

what i thought was small little article takes up two pages of the SOCIETY FOR THE CONSERVATION OF REEF FISHES.

http://www.scrfa.org/server/outreach/newsletter.htm

it must be a good month for me since i'm also being profiled for the SOCIETY FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF CHICANOS AND NATIVE AMERICANS IN SCIENCE. they wanted to profile me because i'm an artist and a scientist and i'll be doing the front cover for the issue. i think that's strictly a print pub so there might not be a web link for it. maybe i'll post it.

unless it sucks of course.

reasons i will stroke out

before i publish my book.

i not only wrote it, i'm illustrating it. i was using pencil drawings and bad photos when i started it. then i did some ink drawings and watercolors and bought a better camera so there's awesome underwater photos. it's been accepted for publication but they've reminded me that it's cheaper to print b/w. which i totally get. so my goal was to do only b/w drawings for the rest of the illustrations. and then i realized WHY i had been doing watercolors.

this took me 2 days. it's all dots. and sorry i had to watermark it. too much theft.



and only after i was 95% done did i realize it was going to be this size

when it was actually in the book, and i need to do about 200 more...

why do i get so anal? when it would totally work in my favor just to knock them out?

aaauuuuuuuuuuggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh