And then I ran over my wallet

Well Tiana came down this weekend and that was great, and the time came on Sunday night to drive her up to the Providence train station, so we left as it was getting dark and stopped to get some gas a few exits down in N. Stonington. I got out with my wallet and cell phone (bad plan), paid with my credit card, got confused about the nozzles, put my wallet and cell phone on the back of the Focus I was driving, put gas in the car, capped the gas tank, and drove off.

Oops.

Got to Providence, couldn't find my phone, asked Tiana to call it, but there was no ring. Couldn't find my wallet. Immediately remembered what must have happened. Dropped off Tiana, drove back to N. Stonington. Asked at the desk: no wallet or phone. Searched the pump: no wallet or phone. Searched the trash: no wallet or phone. Searched the road: no wallet or phone. Searched the on-ramp and 1/8 mi. of highway: no wallet or phone.

Drove up on the highway to the next exit. Nothing. Looped back around and did it again: ran over black thing. Looped around again and pulled over near black thing: Found wallet! in two pieces! Then I searched around and found my cell phone in two pieces and no battery to be seen. Luckily those two pieces were the back of the battery compartment and the rest of the phone. All in all, i'm damn lucky and will never do it again.

But my wallet feels so soft now after being run over a few times.

An Inconvenient Truth

I just finished watching Al Gore's documentary on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth.

Relatively speaking, I've had a lot of education on global warming. I could explain most of what Gore presents in his film to a neighbor, friend or my cat. Could you?

The film was an outstandingly clear representation of the facts and scientific theories surrounding carbon emissions and their consequences. I thoroughly advise any of you who have not seen this film to see it, and I hope you do. I'm sure many of us can just do what we're told and don't need the understanding, but it's obvious only few of us are doing anything at all. So as far as I'm concerned, knowledge is power, and power and empowered people lead to action and change. So maybe more knowledge could help.

Not only that, there are still many people who still doubt that global warming, in any significant way, is happening. Of those that acknowledge that it's happening, many don't really believe that we're the cause of the all time CO2 highs and abnormal temperature fluctuations. They think that man could never have the scale of impact that it's being said we're having on the Earth. I mean cuz obviously, the atmosphere's really BIG.

THE CONCEPT THAT ANTHROPOGENIC ACTIVITY IS CAUSING GLOBAL WARMING IS NO LONGER A QUESTION IN THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY.

It's that simple. It was, and rightfully was, up for debate in the past, but today it is clear. Not only is it clear, but it is overwhelmingly clear. In fact, it's so clear that the theory of global warming has become one of those theories - like evolution, relativity, and a few others - that have so much supporting evidence that their only weakness is that they are labeled theories.

Scientists don't test facts, they test theories so no matter how correct a theory is, it will be called a theory, but it is essential that all you non-science folk separate this out from the colloquial use of the word theory.

So I am DONE listening to people tell my why they think it isn't happening, and I'm DONE listening to people explain to me that we just couldn't possibly be the root of all this. I'd be happy to help you better understand the situation, and I'd be happy to answer any questions that I can, but I cannot sit there and tolerate people I know refuse to face the way ALL the evidence is pointing. I'm all for open minded scientific thought, but quite frankly, that's just not relevant to the topic of whether this all is really the case. There may be subtleties and unexpected aspects of the issue, but that's not one of them.

I've included a graph showing this stark reality. Aside from that last point at 2100 (which actually is a very educated prediction), that graph is ALL fact. Take a look at how high that last CO2 point in 1994 is compared with the natural fluctuations (brown) for thousands of years. And that was THIRTEEN years ago.

General update and a buffalo

Well the days are going by. I guess that's a good thing? I sent my résumé, aspiration statement and final Cornell transcript to the PC.

I ordered Shoes, hat, sleeping bag, sheet, folding knife, santoku knife, leatherman, 2 cheap watches, travel speakers, journal, planner, and some other things recently. I can't wait for the shopping to be over. I mean I know i probably "need" all these things considering I didn't even own a sleeping bag, but it just feels like i'm focusing on stuff stuff stuff which is exactly what I don't want to be the case. It should be almost over though. Only a couple more particular things and then beyond that it'll just be taking care of my spare glasses/sunglasses and some toiletries type things like soap, Purell, etc etc. And now I can put a lot of the stuff that I do own up for sale on eBay and the like, to help lessen the net amt. of stuff I have.

Tiana says she's going to take time off between Memorial Day and that next weekend - making it possible for me to see her from the 25th of May till the 4th when I go. Seems like not that long of a time but it'll be eons compared with how often i see her now. I miss the good old days where summer was like one constant sleep-over. Still have sleep-overs? hell ya we still have sleep-overs. : )

I went over to the Banisters' house tonight for dinner, which was quite nice. Alan Banister was my science teacher at Pine Point School 8th and 9th grade, and remains a great friend and someone I look up to quite a bit. His wife, Patience, was my field hockey / lacrosse coach way back in the day, and she is one of the most kind, gentle people I know. I'd include a picture, but to be honnest, I don't think i have a picture of either of them. Maybe i'll get you guys to let me take one before I go - to go in my enormous photo album : )

So naturally it's time for more gratuitous wildlife pictures from Kenya. Did I mention I love my camera? This is a close up on a Cape Buffalo (Syncerus caffer). One of the "big five" and very impressive. Very impressive in twos, and rather overwhelming in a large herd that makes a solid wall on the horizon.

Just Wait

If you wait, it will come,
whatever is good for you --
young wings of gulls past
your windows, the darkness
quietly closing its doors
at dawn, breezes across
your face like songs. You
have to wait. All
it takes is being still,
so thoughts can blossom
as they should, so words
can come back home. Just

wait, the way a flame
inside a candle waits.

- Ham Salsich

Found this poem while cleaning out my desk today at my mom's house. Found all sorts of things from the ol' Pine Point days. Salsich used to write poems every morning and this was one of them. He was my English teacher. I still have his cat. His name is Luke and he runs this house.

and other things

Well it's nice to be home again. I think I'm on the verge of getting sick again but that's a normal feeling whenever I go from a situation of high stress to one of no stress. Usually goes away before I get really sick. Had the worst headache today I can remember having though. Went away *just* in time for ballroom.

I got my Otterbox and armband in the mail today and my step-mother and I had fun dunking it and my iPod underwater. And yup, true to its word, no leaks. And just like they say you can use it while it's inside the case just fine. Impressive. Thank you Otterbox! One more thing to check off my to-buy packing list.

Need to update my resumé and write my aspiration statement for the Peace Corps. Should get it done before I go to sleep tonight. Then I have to send them a copy of my transcript and I should be all set for paperwork for a while.

We still don't know what's going to happen with my mom and moving. I think that despite my mom's protests, Jodi and the kids are going to come out in about a week to visit and help with the packing/cleaning effort. Whether my mom has 1 month or three months, it'd be better to get stuff that can get done now, now rather than when I'm out of the country and Jodi et al. are not free.

Bio GRE went OK. I think that the vast majority of what I answered was correct, but I didn't pace myself well enough and ended up rushing the last third of the test which is the experimental section. Not experimental like one section of the general GRE is experimental, but experimental like the section that tests your ability to think about experiments. Not the best section to rush because there's a huge intro to each set of 4 questions and it gets hard to focus. So I just went through the section and answered all the evo/eco/neuro questions and then time was called. Could have been a lot worse. We'll see. Upside is that if I did a lot worse than I expected, I have time to take it again before applying to graduate school. Now to pick up studying for the General Test again.

One thing I don't want to feel when I go to the Peace Corps is out of shape. I'm fine feeling white, fat, foreign, ugly, tall, strange, rich, whatever. But out of shape just's a pain in the butt. So now that I'm home and will be for a while I'll try to be more regular with the exercising. We do have a sweet recumbent bicycle in the other room so there's no excuses.

Tiana's coming home this weekend which is excellent. Just excellent.
Oh yah, that's Tiana. -- >

Bio GRE AAAAHHH

Bio GRE tomorrow morning. Three hours of frantic recall of every area of undergrad biology as a standardized test. I don't really feel like I'm as prepared as I could be, but I guess that's how it'll always feel. Worst case, even if I bomb it or do a lot worse than I should, I can study up and take it when I get back in a couple years. It's totally study-for-able if you've got a Bio degree.

Here's a pic of the style of shoes I got on eBay about a month ago. $25.00 for very gently used Dance Naturals Article 2x in beautiful satin. They're almost $180.00 new. Shweet. Now to break them in owwwww.

Did I mention my backpack is beautiful? Arc'teryx Bora 75

Wish me luck tomorrow morning.

Home again.

Sorry to everyone I didn't make a point of saying good-bye to. My justification is that I will probably be back at the end of the year to help Kath move so I will see you before I end up across the ocean.

I'm home again, gonna spend all today studying for the Bio GRE (tomorrow) and do my taxes finally. If I feel like I know all of biology, I'll go down to the studio and do some ballroom tonight.

My backpack arrived while I was gone and it is GORGEOUS. I got it for $200 on eBay. Some guy had bought one for his wife but it wasn't tall enough for her. Retails for $375. Pretty awesome. Not extended, it's got a volume of 4400 - 4900 cu in.

This'll be my big bag for the PC .

Solar Panel

Well I was able to get an amazing discount on a solar panel through a company that sold it that had RPCV working for them who I got in touch with. The panels are really awesome, they're light, foldable, flexible, and tolerant of warm weather.

Here's the manufacturer's website: I went with the Sunlinq 12 W Solar Panel.

With their accessories and an inverter, I should be able to power all my electronics. Charge the laptop/iPod/batteries for camera, radio, speakers, flashlight, headlamp etc.

I <3 zebra

Not much to report today. Here's more Grevy's Zebra (Equs grevyi) from my class in Kenya .

New Hobby?

Everyone seems to have a thing that they do or want to learn to do that they bring to the Peace Corps and nourish. You know, the guitar-toting hippee and whatnot. Knitting? Too warm. Harmonica? Don't like it. The only two serious extracurriculars that I do are violin and dancesport. My extremely old violin's not coming with me to Africa and I wonder if ballroom-esque movement is culturally acceptable in Burkina Faso.

So what's something smallish, portable, and mentally challenging that would improve with time that I could learn?

Darts? Chess? Underwater basket weaving? lol

But what?