Burning Brightly

I just got finished watching the first segment of the PBS program The National Parks: America's Best Idea. It's a fantastic and beautiful documentary of the the formation and early history of the U.S. National Park system. Watching it really got me thinking about how, while I do work as an environmental consultant, I've fallen out of touch with nature somewhat with nature in these past few years. I need to go back to the wilderness, I realize, and in a very bad way. I've been trying to buy a house lately, but a house is only ephemeral. The wilderness is the only place that I'll ever truly feel at home.

I highly recommend the series. At first I thought that I was in just for pretty scenery, but it turned out to be a lot more educational and thought-provoking than I'd imagined. I actually cried in parts. I'm not ashamed; is there anything more worth crying for?

Last night, I came across a really eye-opening video called "Money as Debt" in five parts. I don't think I've ever said this before, but seriously, EVERYONE needs to know what's in this video. Hardly anyone does. It explains how the monetary system in practically the entire world is inherently corrupt and unsustainable. Okay, I know this is probably not a huge shock to you, but this video explains HOW it works. It also explains why the system must, sooner or later, damage society, ravage the environment, and sooner or later, come crashing down on itself.

Seriously, it's pretty heavy stuff, but watch it. Very few people know this stuff, and you need to know.

Tonight I sat on the sand at Rehoboth Beach, watching the waves roll in, feeling uncomfortably out of sync with my companions of the day. The ocean spoke to me, though, and mended my vexed mind.

I am spending this entire week by the beach, playing my part in a wetland restoration monitoring project. It does feel good to be part of it, at least when I'm convinced that I'm actually doing something good for our beautiful planet. I am pleased with the work that we accomplished today. But what happened tonight led me to doubts.

After work, the four of us checked into our hotel, got changed, and went out for dinner. I was the only vegetarian there, and the only one not drinking alcohol (I rarely drink.) It was a touch awkward, especially because my coworker Becky got drunk and teased me about not joining in the imbibement. I was relieved to find that we all agreed to visit the Rehoboth boardwark afterwards. I had visions of enjoying skeeball and putt-putt and riding the ferris wheel. To my dismay, however, the other three found a bar almost immediately, and decided to continue drinking. Having had enough of that already, I politely told them that I would go off to do my own thing and meet up with them again at a later time.

In my wandering, I found skeeball, putt-putt, and the rides already closed for the night. The video games had little pull with me. I wandered onto the darkened beach, sat down on the sand, and watched the frothy waves pour in. At first, I found it difficult to concentrate, and the water did little to ease my sense of alienation. But eventually, the ocean began to speak to me in the way that it always has, and gradually, I began to feel at home again.

Sometimes I find it difficult to believe that the others have the deep sense of connection to nature that I often feel. Perhaps they find other ways of expressing it, or they keep it secret. Perhaps I just hold too much prejudice against people who drink. But I hope that they feel it, at least sometimes. I admit that I also don't connect to raw nature as often as I feel I should. There are a lot of things I don't know. But I do know that the ocean spoke to me tonight, and I'm strangely glad that the events of the evening drove me to commune with the sea on my own. This evening had a little spot of time in it that was magical to me. It won't be soon forgotten.

I have gotten soo into sailing, hooked really.  I'm currently shopping for a house so It's gonna be a little while before I can afford to move up to a bigger sailboat, but I've already done a lot of looking to see what I'd like.  My requirements are as follows:

* Two sails (no 'catboats')
* Seats 4-5
* Has a cabin
* Has a porta-potty
* Trailerable with a compact car (1500 lbs is the rated tow capacity of a new Toyota Matrix.  I'm thinking Matrix, Scion xB, or a small SUV like RAV4 / Escape for my next car)
* Set up and launch within 45 minutes max
* Sleeps 2
* Can sit up inside comfortably
* Decent performance (at least average)
* Able to add a boom tent for additional space on overnights
* Should not be UGLY


I did a lot of searching and have whittled the list down to 5:

O'day Mariner (19 ft, 1400 lbs incl. trailer):



Macgregor Venture 21 (21', ~1175 lbs + trailer)



Precision 18 (18', 1500lbs incl. trailer):



Montgomery 17 (17', 1600 lbs incl. trailer):



O'day 20 (20', 1600lbs incl trailer):


These are my favorites after many hours of whittling down lists.  I'm not buying a new boat anytime real soon, this is mostly a bookmark for future reference.  Someday a boat like this will be mine.  ^.^  

I took Nessie and crossed the Delaware River by myself yesterday - and back again!  The trip was about 2 miles each way... more like 3 on the outward leg cause of all the zigzagging.  It was a rough, gusty day too, but I made it okay and only took on about 20 gallons of water in the process *snickers*.    Hooray, I am getting better at sailing!    I put in at Pennsville, NJ and beached up in Battery Park in New Castle.  I had a crowd of onlookers staring in disbelief as I set back off from the park, and received several comments of  "That's crazy!" and "I couldn't do that."  I'm very comfortable around water, though, always have been, and my skills are definitely improving.

Some of you may remember that I mentioned a wetland area that me and my company were getting ready to restore.  I'm happy to say we're done and it turned out nicely!  It's amazing the amount and different types of wildlife that have suddenly showed up.  Chris, our wetlands architect, really knows what he's doing, and everyone put in a lot of work on this job.  Enjoy the pics. ^.^

Before:


After:

So I recieved my final grade for my Capstone project (A+) and for Physical Oceanography (C+, which I am bummed about, but it's still passing!  Don't even get me started on why I got that grade).  I verified everything with my academic advisor, finished all the final paperwork, picked up my transcript from U of Delaware, and FedEx'ed it out to California this morning.  Interestingly, the name of my major got changed recently.  I was alarmed at first, but actually, I like it now.  The wording on my diploma will be a lot less confusing than it would have been before.

I'm soooo happy to finally say I'm done.  Though the amount of red tape is just crazy!  My diploma comes in February.

It will read:

Bachelor of Science
Environmental Science, Technology, and Policy
Concentration in Marine and Coastal Ecology
California State University, Monterey Bay

Thank you everyone who's provided support and encouragement these past few years.  You know who you are, and I love you.

 - Tek

I just took my Oceanography final.  It was truly heinous... I'm pretty sure it's the most difficult final exam I've ever taken.  I think I got about 60-70%, point-wise on it, despite having studied for about 20 hours for it.  (!)    He's going to have to grade that one on a curve, sheesh.

Final grades for the course will be posted no later than Monday.  Maaaaybe tomorrow, the prof says. If I have a C or better for the course, I send my transcript back to California and I graduate.   If I have a B or better, my employer reimburses me the $1300 I paid to take this course, too.

I *think* I have a B or B+.  The professor was good, but the course material was tough!   It was a graduate-level course, and the fact that I forgot a lot of the calculus I ever learned didn't help.

I've NEVER been this nervous in my life.


*crosses fingers*

So, I ran some tweaks and sent my Capstone video in.  Here's the final version for those interested:

Windows Media Player version - 71mb

QuickTime version - 213mb


The Windows Media version is much smaller, AND better quality.  Go figure.  XD


I've got one final to study for and take, then I'm DONE!

Ciao!  Time for bed.

Hi everyone,

I just finished my capstone presentation video.  If you folks would be so kind as to look it over before I send it in to my prof, I'd be grateful for that.

HQ AVI download - 57 mb

And by the way, I'm graduating next week!  Yay!

Really, it is.

For those who watched the VP debate last night, I have this lovely and ABSOLUTELY TRUE flow chart I found on Daily Kos to share with you...

So I'm in this Oceanography class, and last week, he gave a class assignment to study the causes and effects of storm surge in Lewes, Delaware, with a focus on information that would be useful to city officials who need to make evacuation decisions ahead of a potential hurricane.   And we were assigned to make and give a presentation tomorrow morning on the topic, as if we were presenting to the Lewes City Council.

So I just got this email from the prof, and this is the night before, that WE ARE going to present this to the Lewes City Council!

But not tomorrow.  Tomorrow's just the practice run, then on Thursday, we present to the City Council.  Thank goodness for small favors, eh?

I spent basically the whole day taking the feedback I'd gotten on Draft 1 and turning it into Draft 2 of my capstone paper.  The beasty is now 57 pages total.  I'm feeling good about the state of this paper; it's *probably* good enough to turn in right now.  Due date is Monday!

Between now and then, I'd requesting my friends who are particularly knowledgeable in the biological sciences - that's you, archteryx , anjel_kitty ( and Reweth, who doesn't have LJ ) to please give it a look over.   Anyone who's a real grammar nut is also welcome to chime in.  I do beleive that it's about ready to turn in now.  Do you agree?

Capstone Draft 2: MS Word format / RTF format (large)


Thank you so much for your help!

Many thanks to those who've been helping me with polishing of my capstone report.  I'm still planning to sumbit it on Monday.

Those of you who are planning to help with review of the first draft I posted up a few days ago, but haven't started yet, please hold off a little.  I've gotten some feedback, and am planning to put up a second draft tomorrow morning.

EDIT: Make that afternoon.  I'm about 2-3 hours from finishing draft 2 (1:50pm Saturday).

EDIT: Make that evening!  8:12 pm and I just finished it.  See next post! ^^

Thanks!

I really wish this was a joke.  I don't know whether to laugh or cry.  There's a fursuiter trying to get his 15 minutes of fame on the weather news directly in the path of Hurricane Ike right now.



I'm wondering if the fursuiter is one of these two furries who live on Galveston Island and are refusing to leave despite the fact that nearly the entire island is going to be underwater in a few hours:

Question:  What is Tek doing tomorrow?
Answer:  He's travelling to a salt marsh centered at approximately 38°34'29.15"N 75° 4'24.42"W and digging holes all day!

Question: Why is he doing this?
Answer: Guess!   And he'll tell you later!

Question: Does he like it?
Answer:  Hell yes!  He's saving the planet!