I have some important things to talk about today.

Watch this video.



I know I already posted it, but I think it's something that people need to keep in mind during this time of year. Just out of curiosity, since there are so many people from around the world here, what is the garbage and recycling industry like where you live? I live in Portland, Oregon in the United States of America. Though I have been to many other places, I have not lived in many others*. I realize that where I live, things are very "green". Portland is big on recycling and environmentalism. We have weekly garbage and recycling pickups and most public garbage cans also have recycling cans available. We have a 0.05 cent deposit on all carbonated beverage containers to encourage recycling. Even the grocery stores have compostable "plastic" containers for deli food, etc. Is it easy to access recycling where you live? Or is it easier to put everything in the garbage?

Do you celebrate Christmas? If so, what would you like as gifts and do you ask for it? If not, do you have holidays you celebrate and what are they for? I personally would not celebrate Christmas if my family didn't. But they do, and I get Christmas off work so I should go visit them. I wish that it could be less about gifts and more about spending time with eachother and eating delicious food. I suppose now that my sisters are getting older it is becoming less and less like the former. I am the oldest of five girls. I bet you didn't know that. I guess I don't talk about myself much here.

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Para mis amigos hispanohablantes:

Que es la Navidad como para ustedes? Quieren muchos regalos? Que piensan de la Navidad en los Estados Unidos?

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If I could speak any other languages, I would ask in them, too. But I only know a tiny bit of French and a few words in some others.

Today I am going to see a play about R. Buckminster Fuller with Erica and we are going to eat amazing Lebanese food. I love middle eastern food. I could eat it forever.




I saw this painting in a gallery here in Portland many years ago. I fell in love with it but never knew or forgot the name of the artist. Yesterday I accidentally ran across it on the internet. Vladmir Kush is the artist. His other work is amazing as well. Right now I am working on a painting of a lobster and have plans for an elephant after that. Now that school is out, I will have more time for artistic endeavors.



Here is me feeding some geese.

I don't have a dumb old wishlist, but if anyone wants to get me anything for Christmas, donate!!

OHS

AnimalAid

Xerces

CatHouse

RA

NC

EDF

FarmSactuary

WCS

Thanks! And have a happy whatever!

*I went to Paris, France in 2004. They have plenty of garbage cans on the street and huge recycling bins. Years later, I traveled to Bogota, Colombia. They have piles of garbage bags on the streets which are then torn open by homeless dogs and people. Yet Paris smells like shit.

I found this video the other day and I think people should watch it, especially in light of upcoming holidays.



It's interesting, I promise, I know it's kind of long. I think she does a great job of explaining the process and the politics.

The other day I was bored so I made a bunch of avatars of myself. They kind of look like me. Some of them I added freckles and tattoos to in post production.

And this is the real, current me for comparison.





1,2,3 and work, school, work, school, work, school...

Have I ever told you guys about this amazing creature we have living on this very planet? Our planet Earth? You see them all the time, but you might not know how cool they are. I like them so much, I got a tattoo of one a couple years ago.



And I dressed as one for Hallween last year. This is the best photo I have.



If you haven't guessed already, I am talking about ants.

Here are some interesting facts that you may not know:

The sense of smell of an ant is just as good as a dog's.

Ants can lift an object up to fifty times their body-weight and carry it over their heads. They don't do this with their feet, but with their mouths.

A leaf-cutter ant queen mates only once - just before establishing a new colony. She can then keep the sperm viable for up to 15 years and produce as many as 300 million offspring.

Ants are the longest living insect. Workers, on the average, live about one year. In some species they can live for four to five years. Some queens live longer than 20 years.

In the Amazon rainforest, ants and termites make up nearly a third of the total animal biomass.

Ants love nothing better than to protect, groom and even raise aphids, scale bugs and bark lice. They want the "milk" that they excrete which is called honeydew. Ants will also protect them, carrying them around in their jaws similar to a mother cat and her kittens.

Oh, and I have photo evidence of the above statement, taken from my own garden.



There is so much more, but I don't want to bore you. So here are some videos for the short attention spanned;






One of my dreams is to someday travel to the Amazon rainforest to study insects and other invertebrates. First I am going to get my BA in Environmental science, which may or may not lead me to the rainforest, but I might someday go back to school and pursue a degree in entomology.

An update on the dogs. Read previous entry for more information. I finally got a call from the Humane Society yesterday. He apologized for not getting back to me sooner, he is assigned to sixty cases right now. Sixty cases!? Really? That is so sad. I told him what I had seen and heard, he gave me his email address so I could send him the photos I took. He said he would check it out. Hopefully it is taken seriously. Poor dogs. I'll let you guys know how things turn out.

In other news, Erica and I went and got tattoos on Halloween for $31. She got an owl.



Tomorrow, President Obama!!!!!!!!!!



How exciting is that?

I am so angry. Animal abuse is NOT okay. No, I am not talking about the fish set, I thought that was lovely. I am talking about my neighbors and their dogs. They have a large number of pit bulls, separated into kennels by wire fencing. Part of that fencing forms the back border of our garden, so we can see right into their yard. These dogs are chained to the dirt ground by big heavy chains with weights around their necks. They don't appear to have proper food and water, are NEVER taken out of their kennels and are always barking and whining. Evidence points to possible dog fighting, some are injured and there is a tire hanging from a tree. My other neighbors and I have made several reports to the Humane Society and Animal control and nothing appears to have been done. Animal control came out, looked into their yard and only saw two dogs, and apparently that means there is no problem. So today I went into my garden with a ladder, fought my way through the bramble bushes and climbed a ladder to the top of a shed and took some photos.

I sent these to animal control along with a detailed description of the situation. I'm sort of pissed that nothing has happened yet. I guess they might have to do an investigation which takes time, but it's been over a month and it's just getting worse.

Anyway, to lift your spirits after reading that, a caterpillar on my sleeve.



Oh, and to bring things down again, I should remind you all that plastic is bad.

I just bought this.



Because I am tired of taking the bus. Because now I can ride with my friends. Well, when I get a helmet, that is. In lieu of a helmet, I bought these.



Because I am tired of having wet, cold feet every winter. And they are super cute.

I can't spend any more money for a while.

Look what I painted!!!



It's a Northern Bald Ibis.

Thanks for the happy birthdays everyone!!!! Thanks to anyone who donated to charity on my behalf.

And now I have actual candid photos of myself taken by other people. Normally I am the one with the camera, so most of my photos are taken by myself.












I know, I am always with the animals. I wish I was with them as much as it appears I am. These are from my trip to Bend, OR.

My birthday is coming up in 16 days. As you may notice, I have no wishlist. I don't want any crap. Unless you want to buy me a plane ticket to a foreign country, a new lens for my camera, a tattoo or a moped, then I don't want any gifts. So, in lieu of that, I give you a list of charities and non profits that you should donate to. Even a dollar will help. And even if you wouldn't have bought me a gift had I posted a wishlist, you should donate anyway because it's a good thing to do.

Oregon Humane Society

Animal Aid

Xerces

Cat House on the Kings

Rainforest Alliance

The Nature Conservancy

Environmental Defense Fund

Farm Sanctuary

Wildlife Conservation Society

Please let me know if you donate. I would like to see if this actually works. I want to see how many people I can get to do it. Thanks!

A couple weeks ago, I went to the Tualatin Hills Nature Park. It was so pretty there. See?











And here I am feeding some geese on the waterfront.





I love nature! I am a biophiliac.

This morning I was awakened by a loud crashing sound. At 8am, after not getting to sleep until after 2am. The crashing sound was accompanied by a preceding flash of light. This, my friends, was an electrical storm. We had a smaller one the previous night. These sorts of storms are a rare occurrence in this area so when it happens I get very excited, But not so much when it wakes me up in the middle of my sleep. I wish I could have been excited about it. At one point I felt the thunder shake the house. Pretty intense. Both times I traveled to Colombia, during the many flights I took to get there and back, I saw an electrical storm from the airplane window. Those are crazy. There are multiple flashes of lighting every second. It's like this huge bundle of clouds and flashing light. Supposedly while I was gone in Colombia, there was a massive storm in Portland, like the thunder was setting of car alarms. I am sad I missed it, but whatever, I was in South America. What's better than that?

From Wikipedia:

Lightning is an electrical discharge that occurs in a thunderstorm. It can be seen in the form of a bright streak (or bolt) from the sky. Lightning occurs when an electrical charge is built up within a cloud. When a large enough charge is built up, a large discharge will occur and can be seen as lightning. The temperature of a lightning bolt can be five times hotter than the surface of the sun. Although the lightning is extremely hot, the duration is short and 90% of strike victims survive. Contrary to the popular idea that lightning does not strike twice in the same spot, some people have been struck by lightning over three times, and skyscrapers like the Empire State Building have been struck numerous times in the same storm. The loud bang that is heard is the super heated air around the lightning bolt expanding at the speed of sound. Because sound travels slower than light the flash is seen before the bang, although both occur at the same moment.

A few weeks ago while I was doing some research on lightning, I was trying to find slow motion videos of ground to cloud lightning. I did eventually find one, among others that are just as awesome. Take a look.

And that concludes my lesson in nature for the week.







Oh, and please tell me I am going to get the job working for these people. I would be so happy if I did.

This entry is going to be mostly about insects. If you don't know already, I am quite fond of them. First I will introduce you to one of my favorite photographers.

Igor Siwanowicz

Someday I would like to take photos like that. For the time being though, I am stuck with a decent camera and a magnifying attachment for my lens. So I can take photos like this.

Invertebrates are consistently interesting to me. They are so strange and unique. So different from eachother and other animals. Recently a new species of slug was discovered on Wales. This slug is different from normal slugs in that it is carnivorous, blind and nocturnal. Here is a description.

"The nocturnal predator is armed with blade-like teeth for slicing through animal flesh and can measure up to 5 inches (13 centimeters) long when stalking its prey, They engulf the worms piece by piece, One end of the worm will still be alive while the other is being gradually ratcheted into the slug by the teeth."

Or how about the worm that is native to the Pacific Northwest that spits and smells of lilies? That would be the Giant Palouse Earthworm.

"The worm is believed to grow up to 1 m (3 ft) in length. Modern specimens, however, have only been observed up to about half that length. The worm is albino in appearance, and when handled it gives off a scent similar to that of the lily flower. It is reported to be able to spit in self-defense."

And then there is the aphid, which most people are familiar with. But there may be some things you don't know about them. This was taken from several sources and then edited by me to make it easier to understand.

"Aphids are known for having unusual reproductive adaptations. In some species, reproduction is fairly simple. In other aphid species, reproduction can be very complicated with both sexual and asexual forms, creation of eggs or live nymphs and even be associated with switches between woody and herbaceous host plant types at different times of the year.

Many aphids undergo cyclical parthenogenesis (this means birth without fertilization from a male). In the spring and summer, only females are present in the population. The overwintering eggs that hatch in the spring result in females. Reproduction is typically parthenogenetic and viviparous (this means live birth, no eggs). This results in eggs that are genetically identical to their mother. The embryos develop within the mothers' ovarioles, which then give live birth to first instar nymphs (viviparous). Aphids typically live from 20-40 days and thus undergo multiple parthenogenetic, viviparous generations each summer."

Then it gets really weird.

"Ova within a viviparously (live birth) reproducing female start to develop immediately after ovulation, this occurs long before birth. This means that an embryo can exist inside another larger and more mature embryo. In fact a newly born Summer aphid can contain within herself not only the developing embryos of her daughters but also those of her grand-daughters which are developing within her daughters. Parthenogenesis combined with this 'telescoping of generations' give aphids an exceedingly rapid turn-over of generations meaning they can build up immense populations very quickly."

So essentially, some female aphids are born pregnant. They can also grow wings at will if they need to move to another host plant.

Okay, I hope I haven't bored you too much. To satiate the short attention spanned, here is a cool video of the velvet worm. I know it's in Spanish, but it's the best video I can find.





I hope to see the rainforest someday. Well, I have seen it, from an airplane, but I want to be in it. Hopefully I will be meeting Sally in Costa Rica next year.

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I still have no job, but that's okay for now. I am not quite broke yet. Plus, I get to see Erica and Venice more often and that is a good thing.



Chau.