| New blog |
[Apr. 21st, 2010|02:21 pm] |
I love you livejournal, but I wanted to start something new for people to read that wasn't my somewhat private livejournal.
The new blog will consist of my adventures with this summer's field season in North Carolina and Tennessee working with bats. yay! and also adventures for the bike tour that Matt and I will be on after this.
http://batsnbikes.wordpress.com/ |
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| 3rd Annual Thanks For Nothing pizza potluck |
[Nov. 16th, 2009|05:17 pm] |
in detroit this year. my place. 1533 Merrick St. Detroit.
Nov 28, Saturday, 6pm
Join us for the 3rd Annual Thanks for Nothing Pizza Potluck hosted by Jay & Vanessa. (in Detroit this year)
We supply pizzas, lots of dough. You bring the toppings or an entire pie if you wish! And/or bring beverages of your choice.
Pizza creations have ranged from your traditional Thanksgiving foods all piled onto one pizza to cookie and crazy icecream pizzas. So get creative with your toppings and themed pizzas.
I'll be making my yearly Biscuits n Crazy and also Mac n Cheez pizzas, both vegan of course! Plus a couple of new additions.
Vegan foods are highly appreciated but not required. A Gluten free dough option will also be provided!
Come party! |
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| A plan to let go. |
[Oct. 28th, 2009|11:10 am] |
I've always been a bit of a planner. well more than a bit. I get nervous when my slingshot planner isn't at my side. But now I'm going to plan to let go. And completely letting go will begin in approximately one year. See? See how much I plan. This is year from now, and I'm already planning. But this is something worthy of planning for- the biggest adventure yet.
An adventure where I'll feel every moment, and my legs will take me where I need to go. But first, first I need to let go, my belongs. and my furry companions, my dearest ones. Matthew will go on this adventure with me though. But unfortunately the ones that purr and bark must be in better homes because I will have no home.
Only a tent and a sleeping bag, and of course the bike that will take me to wherever we want to go. No deadlines. No return date. No return place. |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 28th, 2009|11:19 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | car, poor | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | kaki king | ] |
literally scraped together every last dollar I had and borrowed $11 from Matt to replace my car window that was smashed out. I was that person that deposited $3 in my bank account so I could get out the $17 in there from an ATM.
break into my car, steal nothing because there was nothing to steal and now I'm out almost $200 that I didn't even have to spend in the first place. push those bills back further. worse than stealing from the poor- make the poor pay for things they can't afford. |
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| Michigan Humane Society: Mega March! |
[Sep. 16th, 2009|04:47 pm] |
Hey everyone- Fennel and I will be walking in the Mega March for Animals in just over a week. I'm raising funds to help animals in need. Please help to contribute whatever you can. Thanks in advance!
For more info/ to donate click here: Mega March for Animals
p.s. I'd take Taqi too but we all know how much she likes to yell at the other dogs. |
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| 39th NASBR |
[Sep. 10th, 2009|11:34 pm] |
haven't updated, because where would I begin?
a whirlwind. but all in all, happiness to be home. my financial situation is the worst it's been and the only reason this upsets me is that I don't want it to effect the health of the animals I care for. guilty of being poor.
This summer made me realize how easy it is to tear apart ecosystems. Sign here, do whatever you want. Make lots of money. Get paid to destroy what keeps you alive. MAKE A KILLING. If you want to help anything it's crawling through a mess of forms, waiting for approvals, explaining yourself.
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That was a "restored draft" from sometime last week. I gave up on that update.
There is a lot to say but I no longer want to say it all. What I need to focus on is the fact that I still haven't finished my thesis. Seriously, what the fuck? Starting Monday, I'm going to start getting comfortable in the Detroit library. I WILL graduate in Dec '09. I think a lot of what is holding me back is not being happy with my project as a whole... well, honestly, there's a lot holding me back. But I just want to finish it and move on.
And on the topic of moving on-- with school and such. I wasn't going to be able to attend the 39th Annual North American Symposium on Bat Research. I missed the abstract submission deadline, too. There was no way I'd be able to afford to go out to the conference in Portland. These conferences are a BIG DEAL to me. Well, today, my boss asked why I wasn't going. I told him why (couldn't do it financially), and since it has to do with my job as well, OBC is sending me. I almost cried sitting there in his office.
So I've already registered and bought my plane ticket. Matt is going to try to come out there with me as well and do some music stuff. This would be extra rad. I'm full of excitement and and am so unbelievably thankful.
and on the topic of work... I need to sleep. |
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| June & July part 2 of 3 |
[Aug. 3rd, 2009|10:50 am] |
You've been tracking bats all day, walking through meadows of poison ivy. You've never seen this much before. The high points are clear of the ivy, but they are clear of everything and the sun beats down hard. 90+ degrees. Your energy is up though, because you managed to find at least one of the bat's trees. Your out of time for tracking that day. We have to meet the others at the boat dock. They've been taking gear across the once river turned lake thanks to the handful of dams. We call it an island, but it's not. It's just that the best way to get there is by boat. You arrive exhausted but excited for our adventures. Throw your pack in the boat, the others respond to your greeting with a faint look at you, and not a word. Their faces red, their boots covered in mud, their morning has worn them down. Cross the water, the breeze is refreshing, for a moment it erases the morning and you almost feel as if you are starting fresh, but the next thing you know you are lifting your pack with your camping gear and hoisting two 10' aluminum polls over your shoulder.
Why are you wearing shorts? You never wear shorts, but you assumed the trail would be relatively clear and not covered in some sort of nettle. Plus you were told the trail was incredibly muddy. The mud is higher than your boots. It suctions your foot as it sinks in, as you try to pull your one foot out, the other is sinking in further. You balance the polls as you weave through the trail, over fallen trees, freeing yourself from mud you get stuck in berry brambles. After a mile or so, and a couple of creek crossings, dropping the netting gear down at the junction, you set up your tent further down one fork of the trail and across a creek. Tie your food up away from the bears. There is no one else around. Just the 5 of you. Incredible. But your legs start to burn. Try to cool them by jumping in the creek. It feels good for only a moment. It's too late, the next morning after netting, you'll awake to your legs covered in a rash. A mixture of poison ivy, other plant rashes, mosquito bites, chigger bites....and other unknowns. But for now, the sun is getting lower and we have nets to set up. 7 of them. You volunteer to do the creek nets, the water feels soothing. The nets are up, with only a bit of delay. An aggressive bear. It crosses Dylan's path, so close he can smell the bear. The bear huffs and growls. Dylan yells and smacks things together to scare the bear off. The bear is hesitant at first, only after some time does he stomp away. We catch our Indiana bat. This means tracking in the morning after carrying everything off of the "island." Next month, you'll be back to do it all over again. Just three of you, plus hiking a few miles out to do a plot.
Do a plot? The second half of summer we add more things to do. Keep netting, tracking, but now go to all of those trees you found and measure, identify, record key characteristics and count the trees within a 17.8m radius. Plus each tree your crew has found, you must do a random plot for. You have your UTM coordinates for the location and you must hike to those coordinates. Sort of like a treasure hunt, except instead of gold you get a dead tree and some other surprises along the way. It's like you are in Goonies, all sorts of obstacles. So replace gold with minimum wage and people trying to kill you with hornets trying to kill you. Oh and replace Baby Ruths with protein bars. Ok, so maybe it's not really like the Goonies at all, but it's an adventure.
...to be continued |
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| June & July. |
[Aug. 1st, 2009|03:03 pm] |
From pines to palms, mountains to beaches, waterfalls to waves. My scabs fade to scars. The past two months I found myself in a place where there are more trees than people. Now I find myself in a place where cement homes are painted in pastels. Hello Englewood, Florida. Only minutes away from the ocean, after 2 days I have gained back my energy to explore. Ocean adventures soon to follow. Everglades are on my Sunday agenda. I'm visiting my dad here, and on Wednesday Matthew and I will start our adventures back to Michigan in my smooth 98 Volvo S70 GLT.
Jump back.
It's not easy finding a 7 gram bat in a National Forest. First you have to catch the bat. Jamming 4-12 meter net across a creek, a trail or a dirt road is a good start. Up your odds by setting up a few of these and checking them every 8 minutes from 20:45 to 0:30 or later. Sometimes the bears delay you. or thunderstorms. or rocky terrain. Some nights, 0 bats. Other nights 20+ bats. Some nights 0 endangered Indiana Bats. Other nights when you are short on help, you'll catch 17 of them.
Now you have the bat and need a way to track it. First though- identify. sex. reproductive state. age. weigh. measure. tissue sample. hair sample. wing condition. white nose syndrome??? ID band. key species: Indiana and Northern Long-eared Bats. Apply transmitter! It gets glued to the back. Usually they keep it on for a few days before they wiggle it off.
Sometime after midnight, take the nets down, pack things up. Drive back to base. Or on a perfect night, climb in your tent. Unperfect night, drive the Tail of the Dragon at 1am. Nothing says motion sickness like 318 curves in 11 miles in an F-250. Keys please!
wash off poison ivy oils. check for ticks. you probably have at least one lurking. yup.
fall asleep to the songs of the frogs, the creek, the whip-poor-wills, a thunderstorm. pure relaxation.
Wake up to new chigger bites. new things to scratch. Breakfast-- oatmeal or granola with fruit. pack lunch- pbj, food bars, apple, nuts. lots of water.
receiver, antenna, topo maps, compass, gps. camera, rain jacket, dry bag. and more. Listen to the sounds of static in the back of the Tacoma. Listen for that beep, our bat. Keep holding that arm up high, back and forth on either side of the forest with the antenna. beep. beep. Was that it? Hit the side of the truck. She halts to a stop. Listen carefully, again. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. Out of the truck. Which way is stronger? North v. South. East v. West. inbetween. Find the degrees. Find our location. Find that on a map. draw a line. Wish that you could just follow that line and find her. But you see a drain, and lots of ridges bouncing our signal. We need more points. Drive or hike to high points. Narrow forest roads. Trees have fallen across the way. Try to triangulate. Climb to the top of a ridge. Great. Sounds like she's on the other ridge. Climb down and then up the other one. BEEP. BEEP. the signal is stronger. The thunder is also closer. Was that lightening? No worries, it's not like you have a huge metal rod in your hand. oh, wait. How far away is the trail? Let's just keep going, it's gotta be just up this ridge. Looks like we are at the top, no wait, it goes further up. Still no bat, no tree. Keep hiking.
We hike and hike and hike. Sometimes we find the bat in the tree and can find a couple of trees for her. Sometimes we find ourselves on our knees, rummanging through leaf litter, finding the equivalent of a $100 bill. Sometimes we find nothing except everywhere that she's not.
Off of the trails, over an hour deep into the forest, climbing up ridges, through drains, slope after slope. Crossing creeks, trying to not slip on the rocks. The view from the top. The sights along the way. The fungi, the insects, the trees. the decaying matter. the way the sun filters through the canopy. The stoned vireo proclaiming where he is, asking where you are over and over again. The Pileated Woodpecker laughing at you. Tbe copperhead lurking, equally afraid. you see bear tracks. and bear scat, but they have alredy smelled your scent and are nowhere to be seen. Unless they have been ruined by humans and await your arrival in hopes of your peanut butter and jelly. "Do Not Feed the Bears" it's not a joke. Your sandwhich is their death.
...to be continued |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 21st, 2009|12:34 pm] |
all moved in and settled here in Detroit. Feels good. I love walking the dogs around here. Everyone is so nice and the houses are beautiful. The culture is better here. All the animals are getting along. 3 dogs, 4 cats. They are all so cute!! Andrea is awesome and made things really easy for me to move in so quickly.
Found a vet down here, I can actually walk the dogs to their new vet! They got all the vaccines and had a physical. I suggested they use a muzzle on Fennel, brought it up twice, they didn't. She bit the vet tech. Didn't break the skin, but probably will be bruised. :/
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I've been biking tons lately. It feels so good. The other night Matt and I were biking on Woodward, we were in Ferndale and someone actually called the cops on us to complain that we were biking on the street. I REFUSE to bike on sidewalks. It's dangerous. We were riding two-abreast because we legally can, and riding in the right lane, with lights. Breaking no laws. The cop pulled up to us, but we told him we weren't breaking any laws and he didn't really care what we were doing, just said he got a call. HAHAH people are fucking ignorant when it comes to seeing people on bicycles... ohh the joys of living in a state dominated by the car industry.
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I pick Amanda up from the train station tomorrow. I can't wait to hang out with her all week!!! This week is going to seriously fly by. I need to start my running list of stuff to take. Things to do before I leave, etc So I won't be overwhelmed when the time comes that I have to leave.
You should meet Amanda while she's here. She'll be living with Jay all of June & July. But will be with me the last week of May. My last night is May 29. This is critical mass as well. So it'd be rad to have you ride bikes with us. and/or afterwards go to Xochimilco's in Mexican Town. If you want more details, get at me.
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back to getting things done. |
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| HUGE update |
[May. 5th, 2009|02:35 pm] |
May began with what was probably the best show of the year-- Burning Fight. I finally fulfilled my dream of seeing Trial play. I'm not even going to try to explain how fucking incredible and intense that was. nor can I explain how well the fest went.
Things like this remind me of why I love hardcore. The community is incredible-- there may be some flaws, but all in all people work together and the emotions that come out at a hardcore show leave me breathless.
It made me really happy to go to the show with Jay-- who got me into a lot of the bands and we have spent most of our friendship listening to hardcore and going to shows together, driving to out of state fests together. We've always talked about seeing Trial, and I was happy to have him there experiencing the moment with me.
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Now I am home. I've been without my van for about 3 weeks now.. maybe more. She's done for. The engine died on me on the highway, of course that same morning my phone was shut off for overdue balance. and it was the same night/morning that we got a fucking blizzard. So a bad start with a bad ending. Now it's official, the engine is a done for.
Biking everywhere has been fun/ and frustrating dealing with assholes who tell me to get on the sidewalk. But I'll admit, Michigan wasn't made for biking-- thanks auto industry! The roads, the rain and the angry drivers make me pretty nervous when I bike to work.
Matt's been really helpful with letting me borrow his car when I can't do things on my bike-- pick up fruit for work, etc. I don't know what I'd do with out him.
I'd like to say that I'll never get a car again, but I don't see that happening. However, I'm not going to get another one until I come back from North Carolina in August.
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In other news, I'm marking another tally for moving. I'm getting the fuck out of suburbia hell and back into the city, where I feel comfortable. I'll be moving in with Andrea Cardinal next week in Detroit. Further from work, but Royal Oak just isn't for me. PLUS it'll be cheaper and I'm looking forward to living with Andrea.
I'll only be there for a couple of weeks and then I'm hiding from civilization for 2 months. I'll be maybe only peeking out for dude fest if I can make that happen.
I leave May 30th. May 29th is the next Critical Mass. Amanda will be arriving from Montreal on the 22nd. I'm thinking about having a picnic in a park or something before I head out. Either way, the last day to see me is at Critical Mass, so you should stop making up excuses and be there!
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and now I pack! If you want my new address, email me: kittylitter13[at]gmail[dot]com |
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