If you live in an area with coyotes (and that's a good portion of my f-list) please, please read this...

( Coexisting With Coyotes )

I encourage anyone who wants to to pass this on (hell, just copy/paste if ya like) in your own journal, via MySpace, wherever. This is information that everyone living with coyotes should know!

HAHAHAHAHA! This person totally just illustrated why I mock SeaWorld's education department. What the hell are they teaching those kids these days?!

http://www.micechat.com/forums/showpost.php?p=660461&postcount=28

Killer whales don't have countershading? WTF?!

To the ho that sits next to me in Conservation Bio:
Please shut up. Just shut up. For once in your life. The whole class is sick of hearing the idiotic drivel that comes out of your mouth. You whine about everything. You sit and talk to the person behind you and pass notes to them like you're still in third grade. You wear flip flops on a hike, and complain about how you will get your nice pants dirty, when clearly you were too dumb to think ahead and wear clothes that were good for, y'know, HIKING. So please do us all a favor and stop coming to class, before we have to gang up on you and beat you. Kthnxbye.

Okay, now that that's out of the way... I finally wisened up today in lab, and just brought the Excedrin Migraine bottle with me to class. I popped a couple as soon as I felt a headache starting to come on (yes, right there in the middle of the trail), and it's okay so far... we'll see how it feels later tonight. We were out hiking in Torrey Pines. Again. That's four Torrey Pines field trips in three semesters now. It wouldn't be so bad if they'd pick a different trail! NO MORE PARRY GROVE TRAIL, PLEASE!

Buuuuuutt... there were DOLPHINS this time! Whee! Simo's husband (who used to manage that park) was going off about the same bark beetle and wildfire lectures I've heard a million times over. Personally, I had a LOT more fun watching the 3 bottlenose dolphins foraging and playing in the cove in the distance. No one else noticed them for a VERY long time, and I wasn't about to interrupt. But they were cute! We ran into them again later, too, when they seemed to be just resting/logging. And of course, that's the one time I didn't bring my camera to lab. *headdesk* I think the world conspires against me to keep me from getting wild dolphin photos. At the old Marineland site last December, I only had my 18-55mm lens with me, this time I didn't have my camera at all, and last time I went on a whale watch cruise, we saw NOTHING. :P Anyways, Torrey Pines is sort of a whale/dolphin hotspot, so it'd be nice to go there more often to go looking for them. But they freakin' charge $6 for a day use fee. Grrr. I suppose I could always use one of the free lots and hike in - it'd just be a LONG, uphill walk to the trailheads.

Been playing Pharaoh a lot. I haven't played that in ages - it wasn't even installed on this computer, and I've had this one for a year and a half now. Anyways, I upped the difficulty level from what I've done in the past, and haven't been doing TOO badly. Although I got pwn3d by the Pharaoh's army last night after I ran out of money. Doh!

I also had a REALLY weird dream last night. I don't remember much of it, but I remember that I was walking around my old neighborhood up in Washington, walking my dog, when I came across a site where they were filming Stargate. Dr. Jackson was playing some intergalactic SkeeBall game, and I spent forever talking to one of the crew about the strategies involved in SkeeBall. Dr. Weir was there, too, at some negotiation dinner event, but she had LONG hair (like, halfway down her back) and it was weird. :P I think I need to lay off the caffeine before bed.

I would also like to state, for the record, that when I got tacos at Taco Bell on the way home today, they put a spork in my bag. As if a spork will help me eat tacos.

Whee! I just got back from spending the morning at a restoration project down at Border Field State Park. It was really fun! It was set up right along the border fence, with groups working on either side. So while we were planting in the US, we could look over at the kids planting in Mexico. THAT was cool. :)

We were there to supervise kids planting native plants at the event. There was a killdeer nest with eggs in the middle of the planting area, and we were trying to stay clear of it so that she'd sit on her eggs and not let them get too cold. And of course, just to make my life confusing, I was the one that ended up with the section with the killdeer nest. :P So I spent the morning with two park rangers, frantically trying to do all those plants so we wouldn't have the public hanging around the nest. In the process, I managed to get a blister the size of Manhattan on my palm, and set my other hand down on a really spiky bush that hurt me. :P And somehow I ended up being reccommended for a Cal State Parks internship. My professor was talking with the ranger who's hiring interns (a friend of hers), telling him he needed to hire me. :P Woo!

I had a blast, though! Later in the program I got a big group of kids from Tijuana. They were great! Their teacher said the reason they came over to the US side of the event is because she wanted the kids to see that the environment doesn't change at the border, and also give the kids a chance to practice their English and to gain confidence in speaking it. They were really fun! They really got into the work.

How do I always manage to turn on the TV in the middle of the walk-off part of Zoolander? :P

Interview! Tuesday morning! I just really hope that I don't run into the same problems with my availability between now and the end of finals. *curses the fact that she's getting into a highly competitive line of work*

I will forgo the GW rant, since it's pretty much all been covered in everyone else's LJs. :P

In honor of Earth Day:
Yoinked from _disco_dollie_:
What's your ecological footprint?
Food: 4.4 acres
Mobility: 4.4 acres
Shelter: 2 acres
Goods/Services: 5.9 acres
Total footprint: 17 acres
In comparison, the average ecological footprint in your country is 24 acres per person.
Worldwide, there exist 4.5 biologically productive acres per person.
If everyone lived like you, we would need 3.8 planets.

And a few environmental education links that I think are particularly good. Put Earth Day to use, and learn the facts on the environment around us!

Dimming the Sun: Website of a REALLY good, eye-opening PBS special on global warming and the lesser-known but potentially more devastating global dimming.

Mexican Gray Wolf Reintroduction: Learn about the plight of the rarest subspecies of gray wolf!

A History of the Kaibab Deer: Learn from this real-life example what happens to an ecosystem where humans remove the top predators!

Issues Affecting the Southern Resident Orcas: Learn about the threat of extirpation facing one of the most famous populations of killer whales in the world.

Taiji Dolphin Campaign: Video of some of the most atrocious torture committed against dolphins as a part of the annual drive fisheries in Japan. Incredible horrible, but SUCH an eye-opener. WARNING: GRAPHIC PHOTOS AND VIDEOS