So this weekend it was rainy so you couldn't do much outside. Instead on Saturday I watched 3 rugby games in a row at a pub downtown (some random Welsh guy convinced me I had to stay for the Lions vs. South Africa game, which didn't start until 1:00). Accordingly I was a bit tired on Sunday but went off to the local museum to catch up on my maori culture and natural history.




Here's a picture of a stuffed albatros (those birds are scary huge). Scary too, you can see how terrified Neil (Nathalie's boyfriend) is.

Here's an adorable little native gecko (one of the few live exhibits):



This week looks like it'll be mostly work, although I will be off to the south island starting on Sunday!

Sorry about taking so long to update, I've been busy settling in and I feel bad about updating at work and interweb outside of work is expensive!

Thankfully I've been getting into my work quickly, my host already has me analyzing data. Here's my office (or half an office anyways):




In my neverending search for kiwis- enjoy the dollar coin (did you know there are no coins smaller than 10 cents here? Everything gets rounded, it's awesome).




More later...

Well tomorrow I move onto Auckland. It's been a whirlwind couple of days. I visited NIWA (an aquaculture facility), Te Papa (the national museum), the Royal Society, the nanotech lab at a local university, and a bird reserve. I'm exhausted. A few pics for your enjoyment:

A view of the bay:



Sea cucumbers from NIWA (apparently a delicacy in Japan):



The ever present kiwi:



A pair of gloves made from a mix of an australian possum (an invasive pest species here) and New Zealand wool:

Yesterday after a couple of grueling flights (20+ hours with transfers and such) I finally made it to NZ. Right now I'm in Wellington, the capital, for a meet and greet with the other EAPSI students. While here we get to tour the capital and meet the brass from the Royal Society of New Zealand (who are footing our living expenses while we're here). Today is a trip to the aquarium and a museum (Te Papa), as well as a Maori (local indigenous people) cultural experience. For my pictures today. Here are views of the capital out my window. As you can tell, it's pretty rainy here, also windy and cold.

Well this is it, in just a few hours I will be on a plane with the eventual destination of New Zealand. The thought of being away for 8 weeks is exciting and terrifying at the same time. I will try and update periodically with pictures, we'll see how it goes...

After weeks of only male flowers one of my squash plants produced a female flower, oh happy day! I took a q-tip to it so here's hoping I get an actual vegetable out of it. It also looks like there's another female flower that will be opening tomorrow so I'll get to repeat this happy process :) In other good news, after 4 days of trying one of my formerly silent frogs produced a usable call. This is really good considering he was about to be shipped back to his owner in a few days.

I sent some of my LJ Idol entries in to be considered for the book they're going to publish. I wonder if anything will come of it...

I can't believe I'm leaving for New Zealand in less than 2 weeks. I have so much to do before then and after I get there and after I get back... The next 6 months are going to be crazy as I try to get the most out of this trip, defend and teach this class in the fall. I am feeling generally more optimistic lately though. The conference went well and I met quite a few people. My presentation was well attended and the reactions uniformly positive. I have an application in for 3 different jobs and will also be looking down in NZ. I'm done collecting my breeding data, now I'm just collecting frog calls as a side project. The finish line is in sight...

Not starting off to be a great day. Woke up with a headache, couldn't get the printer to work so I took a day off from froggie research. I have a new set of subjects, I should post pictures.... Anyways, there's a lot I hoped to accomplish today, let's see how it goes. Time for exciting to do list entry!

Write JCP editor
Write SEABA abstract
Submit SEABA abstract
Make chili in crockpot
Read Tech paper
Start laundry
Send out staff survey
Dust off komodo paper
Write up flamingo methods
Discussant?
schedule physical therapy
cookies
walk

edit: woot 80% goal reached!




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Nothing to see here, just posting these guys so I can keep track of them carry on :) ...





Bred:       

edit: check Monday

I decided to take a break and go on a dragon breeding spree, wish them luck in their new homes :) Mmm, I threw some stew fixings in the crockpot earlier and the smell is starting to permeate the house. I suppose I should get back to my dissertation now :(




Note to self: check on Saturday

I'm so happy it's Friday, it's been a long week and today I can now indulge in an adult beverage. Today's been a long day as well and it's not over yet, but it's been generally a productive day as well, good for a Friday. So without further adieu, my list of the day:

1. I had a student in office hours today who had missed a class and wanted to catch up on what she missed. The amazing bit was she went through the book and compared it to the outlines I post to see what she could figure out for herself before asking me about the bits that were still missing. /amazed
2. I get to relax tonight
3. I got a blue dino egg, my collection is slowly getting more complete :)

I'm so behind today, I didn't get started on what I needed to get done for tomorrow until, oh, about 6:00 PM. Yikes, at least I made some progress, but I still have probably 3 more hours left to do. No fun for me tonight. I spent way too much time at the zoo running research to take care of everything else. Oh well, at least my subjects are pretty darn cute. That's not me btw, I'm the one taking the picture.






Oh and here are my dragons. Charlie, if one of the splits grows up to be a boy can I name it after you? /evil grin

Still not feeling great, despite having slept far too much last night. I have a lot I need to accomplish today, life goes on. I have about three lectures I need to make on development and a stack of assignments to grade. Oh, and I'm giving a test next week so I should probably be working on that too.

On a happy note I did get two new eggs and two of my old ones hatched  :)

I must admit I've been terribly jealous of jadecat 's dragons, so of course I went off and got some of my own :)

The dragon and the woman are, once again, meandering through the forest. The woman lets out a long sigh. “It seems like everyday we do this again, we walk and walk, and yet we never seem to get anywhere.” She says mournfully. Dragon looks perplexed. “Why would you be so focused on where we’re going? Life is never just about getting places, it’s much more than that. Just think about it for a minute, are you ‘done’ with your children when they leave the nest? Do you pack away your education in a box after you’ve acquired it? Do you put a skill by the wayside because you thought to yourself ‘Well I’ve mastered that, on to other things’?” The dragon snorts softly, “No, of course you don’t. Life is about living, about doing. You are never ‘done’, well not until you’re dead, I guess. And, as I’m sure you remember, as this has long been a platitude for both f our species: ‘life is about the journey, not about the destination’.” The woman smiles at him, “Now you’re waxing philosophical. Every day it seems I find out that we’re a little bit more alike, perhaps we’re not that different after all.”

Dragon stands up, holding a small bunny between two claws. “I’ve been asked here today to talk about equality. I felt this would be a perfect opportunity to clear some things up.”

The dragon puffs out his chest and continues. “I like to think that I subscribe to a literary interpretation of equality, specifically one from Animal Farm.” He holds up a dog-eared book. Clearing his throat, he begins to read, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

“For example,” he points to the bunny. “This fluffy, tiny thing could never be equal to me. It is powerless compared to me, in fact I can and do eat these by the dozens.” The bunny circumspectly pulls out a cell phone, starts whispering into it.

“Thus I proclaim that I am not equal to these creatures, I am in fact superior, and the sooner these lesser beings accept that the sooner we can all get on with our lives.” Bunny, having completed his call hangs limply from the dragons claws looking defeated. Although there is a suspicious gleam in his eyes…

“In fact I don’t even know why equality is even a question; it should be so obvious, even to such simple-minded creatures…”A low rumble fills the air. “What?” the dragon exclaims looking around. A dust cloud appears over the horizon. The dragon’s eyes widen and he drops the bunny in surprise.

Within moments it becomes clear that the dust cloud is nothing other than a veritable hoard of fuzzy, fluffy, adorable bunny rabbits. But what’s this? If one looks closer you can see torches, pitchforks, and sturdy nets among the bunnies. The dragon, flabbergasted, emits a sound closely resembling “eep!” and breaks for the hills.

I'm on my bi-yearly caffeine purge (after a while I just get migraines that don't go away if I just keep drinking it). Anyways, thus the yawn. I'm also trying to finish up my prelims, these are of course at cross purposes /sigh. I just want to go back to bed.

It's been raining for over 24 hours straight now. I wish it would stop long enough for me to go to my meeting, but I don't really mean that. We need the rain bad, stupid drought /shakes fist. Hmm, maybe caffeine and breakfast will lift my spirits.