Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Katie Pavlis' LiveJournal:

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Monday, February 26th, 2007
11:44 am	Celebrity Look-alikes So I saw on Facebook that some of my friends had done this celebrity look-alike thing. It's kinda funny. So I decided to post mine here. Hmmm... Katie Couric... really? interesting. Things are going well... I'm going to a substitute teacher orientation on Wednesday... and yeah... so then I'll have a job. I'm trying to figure out a way to go visit my friend Lauren in Baltimore at some point in March... and probably go see Ann and Rob while I'm there. I also need to get back to the EFRC at some point... but it's been cold and I haven't wanted to go. Maybe I'll just go and visit... Thalia had mentioned wanting to go sometime... and I'm totally down with that. Thalia... Let me know when you're free and feeling better. Also I hear that there is a bellydance thing going on Friday... I think i'll try to head over to that since I haven't seen the bellydance folks in a while. THose are my plans for the week to come. Current Mood: mellow (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, February 16th, 2007
4:54 pm	Ugh... Stressed to the Bone It's been a really long time since I've posted anything.... I haven't really been up to anything new... my life is pretty boring... and yet I'm super stressed out. I've been applying to graduate school. I've finished my part of the applications... several weeks ago actually... and now I'm just trying to get my recommenders to get their letters in. Ellen the prof @ IU I worked with has been great as has one of my profs from Guelph... but one old prof of mine specifically has been a real pain in the ass... and has been causing me stress. He didn't get one of the recommendations in which caused my application to UC Davis to be rejected. Good thing most of the others have later deadlines and I think I may still be able to get everything in. This whole process has taught me a lot... If I don't get in anywhere... which with the way I've been feeling lately may be likely... I'll definitely know what to do better next year. I've got to be way more organized... start earlier and do more research and talking with people. And as if this wasn't enough to stress me out... I also have to look for a job. I'm sick of watching the bank account slowly... or not so slowly shrink... it' much nicer when it grows. So... I've just got one big UGH. Current Mood: stressed Current Music: The Shins: Wincing the Night Away (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, December 3rd, 2006
11:22 am	So it Begins So I quit my job and since then have been working on applications for Graduate school. Most of them are due in early February but some are due in early January. I hoping to get them all done fairly early so I don't have to worry about it anymore. Last weekend for Thanksgiving I was in Philly visiting Ann and Rob at their new house So it's what is called a "twin" and Ann and Rob's is the green half on the right. It's a really nice house. We helped paint mostly. It was a good time. After we got home my mom had surgery on her foot and she's now in a cast and can't walk. So now I have to be her legs and fetch things for her and do housework. It's ok though... I don't mind too much. Although I'll be glad when it's over. One last picture... I just like this one... it's me and one of the cougars at the Rescue Center named Autumn. Hope all is well with everyone. Current Mood: calm Current Music: Great Outdoors (watching the movie) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, November 18th, 2006
2:32 pm	It's been a while Wow... so I barely post anymore... But now I don't have an excuse... I'm not nearly as busy. Although that does mean I'm not gonna have nearly as much going on in my life. Last Thursday was my last day of work at the Exotic Feline Rescue Center! Whoo-Hoo!! I'm still gonna volunteer there cause I love the cats, they're so sweet and cute... for the most part... I just hated my boss... and as a volunteer I'll have less responsibility and maybe less interaction with him... so it will be good. I can't wait to go back though... mainly cause they just got three new baby tigers!!! Two of them are only about 4-5 months old... They came my last day. So cute... I wish I had brought my camera... but I will when I go back. This weekend I took a trip up to Guelph. I'm staying with two different friends. There isn't much to do around here... but it's ok cause I get to hang out with my friends and not worry about school. I also was forced to do a little more research and what not for grad school apps. I've pretty much finished one application and have started one or two more. Hopefully all will go well... we'll see come March or so I guess. AHHH! THinking about it too much stresses me out a little. Everything will be fine. I hope. Just recently like within the last couple days I've decided I actually like coffee... with enough milk and fake sugar. It's pretty bad. I don't want to get addicted or anything... but I've been drinking quite a bit... hmmmm... I haven't decided how I feel about it yet. Well.. If I'm going to be a grad student I guess I have to learn to drink coffee right? Maybe. I don't know. Anyway... enough rambling. Oh yeah. I also can't wait until Wednesday when I get to take a trip to Philly with my parents and Poseiden!! (Ann's big doberman) I think most of the time I'm gonna have to end up sharing the back seat with Po... but that's ok... he's a cuddle-bug. Eek!! So excited to see my sis again!!!!! Can't wait!!!! Hooray! Ok.. now I'm done. Current Mood: bouncy (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 10th, 2006
7:05 pm	It's Been a Long Time So it's been a hella long time since I've posted anything on here. I've been pretty busy. I got a job at the Exotic Feline Rescue Center at the end of August. And today.... I quit. I'd been thinking about it for a while. I decided to take this year off of school to focus on applying to graduate schools and getting more work/research experience. I've realized that working that job was not accomplishing either of those goals. So I quit. It took a while to work up the courage to tell them. But I did today and I'll just be working there until they find a replacement for me. I'm such a coward... I was so afraid to quit. I swear it always takes me 10 times longer to do anything like that. I can't ever tell people how I really feel cause I just don't want to make anyone angry or upset... or make myself angry or upset. But I worked up the courage and did it. And it wasn't bad at all. So that was nice. Also... I went "trick or treating" today on live journal. Here are my results. My LiveJournal Trick-or-Treat Haul pavlikat goes trick-or-treating, dressed up as Cat Attack Victim. annie_cat tricks you! You get a rotten egg. ashtoninspace gives you 19 white licorice-flavoured pieces of bubblegum. d_c_m gives you 17 red-orange blueberry-flavoured nuggets. fyreflyblue gives you 5 pink raspberry-flavoured gumdrops. joeyweiser gives you 11 tan chocolate-flavoured pieces of taffy. laughing_muse gives you 15 red orange-flavoured gummy worms. mc_masterchef tricks you! You lose 51 pieces of candy! pavlikat ends up with 16 pieces of candy, and a rotten egg. Go trick-or-treating! Username: Another fun meme brought to you by rfreebern. Ann... you suck... you're my sister for god's sake. ha ha... just kidding. Current Mood: distressed (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 6th, 2006
6:42 pm	Deepest Sympathies to Ann Ann: I don't know what to say. Buddha was such a great dog! You couldn't ask for a better dog than him. I wish I could be there with you during this hard time. You have had SUCH A HARD month and a half. It's never easy losing a pet, because in our family along with many other a pet is MORE than a pet... it's a member of the family. Although the time we had with Buddha wasn't nearly enough, at least we had that time. We'll plant a plant in his memory alongside Wijic and Precious. Again... I'm SOOOOOO sorry. In LOVING MEMORY Current Mood: gloomy (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, August 19th, 2006
3:31 pm	Michigan, Philly, Baltimore and NYC So I've done a lot of traveling over the last two weeks... and it's been a blast... however, I was so preoccupied with what I was doing that I neglected to take pictures. Why do I always do this? Hopefully my mind stays sharp enough that my memories will suffice. Or I'll just have to visit all my destinations again to take pictures. So I started out last week traveling to Isle Royal National Park in the middle of Lake Superior. It was really pretty... and I got to catch up with all or most of my family on my Dad's side of the family. They're all scientists or mathematicians so they can get into some.... interesting conversations. It's fun though. We did some hiking and some canoeing. My Dad and my cousin Eric were in a canoe together at one point and they decided to jokingly ram my Uncle and other cousin Heather. Well... they hit them somewhat gently but still managed to tip the canoe. It was weird 'cause normally you would think that the canoe would tip AWAY from from where it was hit... but instead it tipped TOWARD where it was hit. I think what happened was there was some over-compensation going on for the hit which caused the canoe to tip. The tip happened near a little island though so my other Uncle who was in a kayak (which is apparently more stable than a canoe?) pulled the water filled canoe and my cousin and uncle to shore... where they dumped out the water and got back in. it was funny... but kinda stressfull. Most of their stuff was recovered since it floated... however, my cousin Heather lost her sweatshirt to the Davy Jones' Locker (Or would it be just his foot locker since it's a lake??? hehe). Everything went really well and was fun until the day we left. The winds were really high and therefore the seas were quite high. Our ferry got delayed because it couldn't leave the harbor at the mainland on time. The waves were 7-11ft high which is pretty large for lake waves! I made the mistake of getting on the boat without a completely full stomach and the beginnings of a head-ache. I didn't think anything of it 'cause I've never really gotten motion sickness before and I had taken a non-drowsy dramamine. I felt fine on the boat for the most part... but I did get a little bit of an upset stomach... so I layed my head down for a lot of the 3hour trip across the lake. Then we didn't get in until much later than we were originally supposed to so we only drove for an hour to find a motel to stay the night in. The next morning we got up early and drove the rest of the 12 hours home. We got home just in time for Ann's good-bye Hafla (middle eastern dance party). She was at our house with all of her friends getting ready to dance. I was asked to run the sound... which I had never really done before... but it was all prepared to all I had to do was put in the CD on top of the pile and cue it to the right track... not that hard. IT was fun. Then on Saturday... it was kinda uneventful. Ann danced at Gencon... and I just sat around the house until she got back into town... then I went over to her house and hung out with her, Joey, Thalia and Eric. I think we watched a movie? I can't really remember... damn that was a long time ago it seems. Sunday was the big move... we had a billion people to help Ann and Rob which was nice cause it cut down on stress... but I think it made most of us feel like we weren't helping most of the time. But I think we all put in about an even amount of work. Once we were all packed we headed on down to road to New Stanton, PA where we spent the night. Monday we slept in a little bit and got to have somewhat tasty waffles at the free breakfest at the hotel. Then on down the road and we enterd the PA turnpike... in which my parents decided to go hella slow. But they had a trailor... so that was their excuse. Plus there was a lot of traffic and construction which didn't facilitate the moving fast. We finally got to the apt. around 3 or so and after waiting for a long time for Ann and Rob to sign the lease we got to move stuff in. Tuesday I woke up hella early to drive (or get a ride from my Dad rather) to Wilminton, DE to catch a bus to Baltimore to visit my friend Lauren who's going to MICA (Maryland Insitute college of Art??? i don't know) for her M.FA. We walked around a bit and went to the National Aquarium and then went and ate Gelato... mmmmm... gelato... it wasn't as good as Angel Sweet in AZ but it was tasty nonetheless. Wednesday we woke up early... yet again and headed to The Big Apple. We took a chinatown bus which is like 10x cheaper than the greyhound bus... if any of you ever travel along the east coast... TAKE THE CHINATOWN EXPRESS (http://www.chinatown-bus.com/fung-wah-flyer.htm) it goes to lots of cities and is way cheaper. Little shady... but it's a bus right? Then Lauren and i walked around Chinatown a bit... caught the subway to Brooklyn and ate lunch with our friend Laura. After that we went back to her place to drop off our stuff and hang out with her boyfriend (and another friend of ours) Ben. Then we went to Central Park and walked around while we waited until 8pm to go see AVE Q!!!!!!!!!! Ave Q is this great musical that is performed mostily with puppets. Everyone should see this musical... it's hilarious. I really enjoyed it. I already knew all the music thanks to Nicki!!! who I worked with last year... but I still thoroughly enjoyed it.... however I wanted a litte more character and plot development... I felt like they could have done a lot more... but they do have limited time I guess. Anyway.. it was a blast... and after the show we went back to Brooklyn and went to a local pub which had a nice outside patio. It was great! Next morning we woke up kinda late... said good-bye to Laura somewhat in a sleepy haze as she left for work... and eventually Ben got up and we made breakfest. Then I realized while talking to Ben that I probably wouldn't want to leave NYC at 6:30 during Rush Hour traffic... cause that would mean not getting to Philly until 9:30 at the earliest. I didn't want to do that to my sister and parents since they had to wait and pick me up... plus that would mean getting in late and getting up early... not a nice combination. So I jumped on an earlier bus back to Philly and got in around 5:20 instead. However, that did mean I had to miss out on the MET (museum not opera) I got to see it and walk inside the entrance but Ididn't actually look at anything... I'm sure I'll go back to NYC though so it's ok. Then my parents and I drove home on Friday and that's pretty much it. I promise the next time I update it won't be so long. I'll try not to put it off so much. Current Mood: mellow (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, July 17th, 2006
2:25 pm	Back Home Again in Indiana! Let's see, let's see. What has happened since last I wrote. I'm not sure if I've made a post since I got back from Alaska. I don't think I have. So this last week has been nice... no responsibilities is always fun. I think it might get kinda old kinda fast. I'm in the process of looking for jobs. I'll take a feild job if I can find one... but it seems that most of the jobs I'm finding are ones I'm not qualified for (ie must have MS or PhD), not interested in (Fisheries and plants) or require me to know GIS which I totally don't at all. Therefore I've decided I may just stay in B-town for the fall. I've got a bunch of stuff to do around here anyway, and I may be able to take some seminars and stuff on GIS to get ahead on that sort of thing. As for Employment i was thinking about possibly doing some substitute teaching and trying to volunteer (or hopefully get a job) at the Exotic Feline Rescue Center. Then I'm also gonna be studying for the GRE, getting grad school applications ready, talking to profs, and hopefully taking a road trip in the beginning of Autumn to some of the schools I'm thinking about. So I think I'll be keeping myself pretty busy. Also, Today I decided to give blood. It's something I've been doing a couple times a year since I was 16 or 17. I've had problems several times with getting an upset stomach and a little light headed... but normally it's nothing more than that and a lot of the time I'm totally fine. But today... that was a different story all together. I think this was my worst giving blood experience ever. I thought I was fine... and I was.. little tummy ache... I thought.. yeah... normal. Then my mom and I went to the car (I never give blood alone since I have almost passed out before) and we were driving... still doing fine. We get out of the car (into the 98F heat).... not feeling as great. But I thought... we'll be inside soon... I'll be fine. We get into JoAnn Fabrics and I take a couple more steps... and I realize how bad of an idea shopping would be at the moment. I told me mom and so we went back to the car... or at least tried. The more steps I took the more woozy I got and the more to world spun and the more colors I saw. I got the curb and sat down. I sat there as my mom pulled the car around. It was almost like I was drunk and about to pass out. It was crazy. Once I laid down I felt way better... and recovered quite quickly. So so far today has been kinda eventful. Later I'm going to go pick Ann up so she can pay Ransom (her tattoo artist) a visit. So that will be fun. Current Mood: drained (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, July 6th, 2006
11:09 am	So everything is starting to hatch here... finally. However, that means that there isn't much more work for us to do. We trap birds off the nest and don't want to trap them while they're with their broods... so now that they've all hatched we don't have much more work to do. We took the 4th of July off for the most part. IT was a much needed break. We're gonna try to catch some more birds... mostly the failed breeders with the mobile mistnet technique again. we're hoping that they'll be too distracted by feeding and trying to get fat for their migration to notice the nets. We may also try herding them into some stationary nets... if we can stick the net poles down enough into the ground. Permafrost makes that a tricky task. Anyway, we're only here a couple more days anyway. This morning we're entering the last of our data and going through it a second time to make sure it's all right. Then on Saturday we may actually get to go out with the Environmental Consulting firm (LGL) to do Snow Geese Survey's!!! I'm pretty excited about that. WE'll go out to the island that they stay at and try to count them. So I'll be taking a boat ride out on the Arctic Ocean! I'm hoping that we may see some polar bears out on the ice... from a safe distance of course. I really want to see a polar bear... but I don't know how far out they tend to be and how far out this island is. we'll just have to wait and see I guess. The other day I also got my return flight figured out. I had the tickets and everything but I noticed that because I had two roundtrip tickets I had to go from here to Anchorage to Fairbanks, back to Anchorage and then to Chicago and Indy. It's ridiculous that I had to go to Anchorage twice. I tried to straighten it out when I was at the Anchorage Airport back in May... but the lady there just told me to miss my flight to Fairbanks and that it would be fine... but I thought about it and thought it might cause luggage problems... and that's the last thing I want. So I went to the airport up here and got it all straightened out. The woman here just cut out that trip to fairbanks... so I don't have to go there and don't have to "miss" the flight. Only problem is now I have 7.5 hours in Anchorage. But I'll have at least one of my crew members there with me for part of the trip... so we're gonna catch a cab and paint the town red. It's gonna be fun... but I kinda can't wait to get home. Current Mood: mellow (Comment on this)
Friday, June 30th, 2006
7:14 pm	Not much time So, I don't have a lot of time to write this post... which is unfortunate since so many exciting things have happened to me since my last post! We ran into the bear again a couple of days ago and had to rush out of the field cause we didn't know it was there until someone ran out of their truck and told us it was just down the road. SO of course we packed up and drove down the road to get closer to it. But in a safer position since we were in the car. That same day we also got to see out first acrtic fox kits!!!!! SOOOOOOOo Cute. The other cute thing of the day was Phalarope feet. For one of the Grad Students at Univ. AK Fairbanks we caught 5 Red-necked Phalaropes. They have the coolest cutest feet.... they're very unique... only phalaropes and I think have feet like them... they're lobed it's kinda hard to explain and there aren't good pictures on the internet. But that was fun. The next day was a bunch of rope dragging to look for nests. Not incredibly exciting. However, I got to pull a mosquito out of my roommates EYE! It flew into her eye and got stuck... it was stressfull and scary. Ugh. The mosquitos here are pretty brutal. Some of the worst I've ever seen. THey're in huge swarms that just surround you. They totally suck... no pun intended. I think they only place worse may be the boundry waters in Minnesota. But it's hard to say for sure. So much more has happened but at the moment nothing more comes to mind. SO I guess I'll sign off for now. Until next time. See you soon kids (Witness my triumphant return to Bloomington July 11, 2006). Current Mood: tired (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, June 22nd, 2006
7:36 pm	BIRDS AND MAMMALS! So, I've finally gotten a computer password for up here on the oilfield... so now I can get on the internet without being charged a buttload. However, the catch is that I can't check my email on these computers. For some reason BP has restricted access and will not allow people to check webmail... but you can check hotmail. I don't get it. So I guess my hotmail account would be the better account to send emails to this summer...FYI. So it's a little annoying... but I'll still check my guelph account everyonce in a while when I feel like coughing up a couple bucks. So when I left off on my last entry I think I said I would talk about all the animals I've seen so far on the slope. We've had some really amazing experiences really. I've already talked a little about the birds here... but I must say that being up here I've gained a new appreciation for waterfowl. Some ducks are absolutely stunning. The King Eider for example: They're just beautiful. They're everywhere around here and they're pretty amazing. Less common are Spectacled Eiders which are also really amazing... and from what I hear are endangered... and we've seen quite a few this summer... so it's good to know they're starting to do better! Those two are the most amazing, but I really like Pintails and Long-tailed ( formerly Oldsquaw) ducks too. So... other things I've seen. The first week we were here I saw a bear with a bouy wrapped around it's neck. It was super sad. At first we thought it was playing with a traffic cone since the bouy was bright orange, but then we realized that it had a rope around it's neck and that it was trying to get the bouy off. It took another week before the big game biologists could get up here to dart it and take off the bouy. For that whole week it hung around in exactly the places we wanted to go... so it hindered our work a little bit since we're not allowed to walk out on the Tundra away from the truck when a bear is in the area. But pretty much as soon as the bouy was taken off she left the area. Also in the first week we saw a herd of Musk Ox... they were closer to the road than anyone else that was with us (including one of the head Environmental guys for BP) had ever seen. Further away from the close ones of the herd there were babies!!!! They were super cute... they were frolicking around and jumping. We saw the same herd again about a week and a half or two weeks later and they had even more babies! So we knew that the ones we were watching were less than a week old or so! So much fun! The last exciting mammal encounter we've had is with this pair of arctic foxes. They're super curious. The first really good look we got at one was sitting on a hill just lying there. It didn't run away and let us get within 10m or so of it. Then it began... I guess it was howling. IT was this kinda odd bark howl thing... super cute! Later that night we saw another fox... and we think it may be the mate of the one we saw resting... but it was super bold. It came right up to us while we were doing measurements on a bird and started chewing on our net!! and gloves! It tried to take on of my co-workers gloves but then we chased it off after the people with the super good camera's got pictures (not me... my camera= not conducive to wildlife shots). The same fox came back the next night and harrassed us again in the same manner. we could tell it was the same one cause he had the same pattern of shed and unshed fur as the night before. Arctic foxes look incredibly mangy and dirty when they're shedding they're winter coat... however they're still really cute. Man I love the arctic! Those are the most exciting stories I really have for now I guess. The Caribou are starting to come up here now. Each day we see more and more. From what I hear eventually there will be thousands of them and they may get to be quite a pain in the ass when they cross the road. I don't think I'll mind though. It means I may get close enough for a good picture! Ok. That's about it I guess. I'll close with an Arctic Fox pic... not taken by anyone I know. Current Mood: accomplished (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, June 15th, 2006
9:00 pm	OMG So It's been forever since I've updated my livejournal for several reasons. One I've been really busy and it's hard to get internet time... and second i'm too cheap to pay the $0.15 per minute it costs me. One of the girls on the other crew has a wireless card on her labtop and we always say we're going to go over there to use it. But it's always been really slow and my crew leader uses it first to do actual business... so i never get a chance to use it. So I"m stuck paying for the internet at the hotel. So... the first week i was here not much really went on. we all just walked around on the tundra and did some bird watching to try and learn all the local birds. At the end of the week we saw four members of our crew off to Teshukpuk lake. It took them two tries to get there... but they made it all right in the end. Since then we've been hard at work trapping various birds. We've done really well so far and surpassed most people's expectations. One of the birds we are catching, the Buff-breasted Sandpiper is a threatened species... and it was the species we are supposed to catch the most of! Our goal (set by this guy at Fish and Wildlife) was 70 birds. This last week the birds were lekking (a bunch of males displaying to a bunch of females in one area) which made it easier to catch them. They were super distracted cause they were all waving their wings saying "Look at me... I"m sexy, mate with me" IT was really cool to watch. Some people on my crew got really good pictures, but my camera isn't very good for wildlife shots since it doesn't have a good zoom. Eventually I'll get pictures posted i promise. It will probably have to wait until I get home though.. these computers are totally boxed in and you're not allowed to upload or download anything onto them. It's kinda annoying. So sorry all but the pictures will have to wait. Anyone interested in bird trapping (eg Nicki and other MLBS people) you may be interested in how we catch these birds. We broke all the cardinal rules of mistnetting. These nets aren't supposed to touch the ground, you're not supposed to trap in the cold or when it's raining. And we did all of that. We were doing mobile mist-netting... so we kept the nets parallel to the ground instead of perpendicular, and chased the birds around. WE would walk with the nets parallel to the ground, we would have two nets parallel to each other and try to surround the bird. If it flushed we lifted the net perpendicular to try and catch the birds like you would in a normal stationary mistnet but if the birds didn't fly we just dropped the net on them. It was really fun! Much more active and exciting that regular mistnetting and a whole lot better than nest searching... which in what we're doing now. For the rest of the birds we have to catch we're gonna catch them off the nest with a bownet which is kinda like a non-lethal mousetrap. So it's a circular net that you place over the nest, bend back so half the net is pulled back on the other half like the lever of a mousetrap. You stick a pin in to keep it from springing... retreat ~20-30m and wait for the bird to sit on the nest. Once it's totall setteled you pull the string and the trap flips closed trapping the bird... it's over 90% effective. So we just have to find enough nests and they have to make it to a week old and we'll have all the birds we need. So I'm running out of time. I gotta post this now. I'll talk more about some of the other animals I've been seeing up here for my next post. Hopefully sooner rather than later. Current Mood: lethargic (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, May 28th, 2006
6:10 pm	A Week in Fairbanks Alaska So pretty much this whole week I've been in Fairbanks. I arrived at a little after midnight on Wednesday. It was pretty amazing. I left Seattle at about 10pm so it was completely dark. As we went further and further North it got lighter and lighter. By the time we landed it looked like the sun had just gone down. The girl at the reception desk here at the hotel just told a guy that it's the darkest at about 1am which is when I was standing outside the airport waiting for the shuttle to the hotel. And although it was the darkest time of "night" it was still pretty light out. And really pretty since it looked like sunset! I wish I had a picture... but I was too tired to try and deal with that. I got into the hotel a little after 1am and got to sleep around 2 or so. And even though I was extremely tired from not sleeping on the plane I still woke up at around 5am which was 9am IN time. I slept for a little bit longer just because I forced myself to try and finally gave up and got up at around 6am. Since everyone else's planes were arrivng that same day we had all day to run around Fairbanks and explore. So two of the other girls on the crew and I explored the fairly ugly town that is Fairbanks. For having such beautiful country surrounding it, Fairbanks is definitely a bit of an eyesore. But I hear Deadhorse, the oil-field town is even worse. Which makes sense.... I can't imagine that an oil field would be pretty. So Wednesday was spent walking around outside... visiting the visitors center about 3 times, walking along the river and touring art museums and galleries. By about 2pm we were pretty tired of walking and went back to the hotel for a nap. By 4pm everyone in the crew had finally arrived and settled in so we all met with our boss and went out for a bird hike. I saw lots of birds I had never seen before. I was really glad all the other people were there to ID the birds... cause otherwise I would have been totally hopeless. I'm pretty bad at the bird IDing. But I'll get better as the season progresses I hope. Thursday was my first day of training and it was pretty boring. We had to learn about oil-field Safety from 8-3:30. It was supposed to be until 5 but thank god we got out early! The training was so pointless I barely remember anything we talked about. Each section ended with a little quiz. The first one was really hard cause we had to look the answers up from the Alaska Safety Handbook... which is really long.... so that quiz took a REALLY long time... The others weren't nearly as bad. They were on environmental safety, warning signs, Protective gear... and boring stuff like that. All in all it was pretty useless I would say, but I had to do it to be allowed on the oil field. Friday i had a meeting with my crew leader and the rest of the AI (Avian Influenza) crew in the morning, and then we went to a really retarded driver's Safety training. I fell asleep during one of the three videos they showed us. I felt like i was in high school again doing driver's ed... but maybe worse, since I already knew how to drive. It was pretty brutal... but again, had to be done. That night we were all invited to a BBQ that was hosted by one of the other scientists participating in this large project. His portion of the project is being done in the National Petroleum Reserve I believe. But I'm not entirely sure. It was really cool meeting those people, but more importantly I got to try Moose for a second time. I had had some third year that i got from a friend and I made stew, but this was a nicely seasoned, BBQed steak!!! Yum! IT was pretty tasty. Saturday we went on a Hike to the Granite Tors. It was about a 30min drive from Fairbanks but I don't know it what direction. IT was nice there. The whole Mountain had recently been burned in a fire so it was neat seeing it in the different phases of regrowth. One of the girls on the crew saw a Porcupine sleeping in a tree. She got really good pictures. Unfortunately my boss and I had been too busy walking and talking so we didn't notice it... and by the time we got back to it on our return hike it had already left :( Oh well. And that brings us to today. Today we packed up the company truck for 4 people to drive up to Deadhorse. I wish I could have gone because it's supposed to be a beautiful drive. Alas, I have to fly. At least I'll be flying during the day so I can hopefully see out the window. Today after they left we went to the Large Animal Research Park here in Fairbanks but it didn't open until tomorrow! One day to early... oh well. We then went back to the Reindeer Farm which some of us had visited on Friday after our drivers training.... I took some pictures of the baby reindeer. They were super cute. Hopefully I'll be able to post those soon. We'll see. And that's it. I'll make another post on my progress through the Alaskan wilderness as soon as I can so the next one hopefully won't be nearly as long. But for now I'm hungry and I'm going to go eat some food! Yum Food. Current Mood: hungry (2 Comments |Comment on this)
4:59 pm	Grand Canyon Ok... so in a little more than a month I hope to actually have some pictures up from the Grand Canyon... but I can't right now... cause I don't have them with me. They're on a CD at home... and I haven't gotten a chance to post them online. So I spent a week in Arizona a couple of weeks ago... and meant to write about the trip before I came up here to AK... but never got around to it. It was a great time. I got to see my brother who I hadn't seen in a very long time. So that's always fun. My Dad, bro and I hiked down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon where it was over 100 degrees F already in late MAY! And then we hiked back up. We did it at a leisurely pace over 3 days. It was pretty great. The only thing about it that was bad was that all the downhill on the first day killed my toes. They kept bashing into the front of my shoes and got severely bruised... my dad thinks I may lose the toenails. we'll see I guess. Then the rest of the week we just hung out in Phoenix, went on a hike to see some birds and other wildlife. All in all it was a great trip! Then I got home and had to start packing almost immediately for Alaska... which i'll talk more about on my next post. Until then! Current Mood: excited (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 10th, 2006
1:16 pm	From One Trip to Another So Tomorrow I leave with the 'Rents to go to Arizona to visit the Bro. I'm pretty excited. We're going to go hike the Grand Canyon... which may be a challenge... but hella fun and cool all at the same time! On our way to the Canyon we're gonna stop in this city called Flagstaff to visit and meet a professor that I'm interested in working with next year as a grad student. I have some questions I wanted to ask him and it's always better to do it in person than via email! Plus this way he'll know who I am when I apply. I just hope I leave a good impression. We'll just have to see. I'll update more once I get back... and I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures too! After I get back from AZ I have like 4-5 days until I leave on my next adventure to the NORTH of AK... or Alaska for those of you not familiar with postal abbreviations. Why is the word abbreviation so long? Ha ha. Old joke I know... I just thought of it though. ANyway, I've gotten my info packet for my AK job and started some stupid online training crap... which is exceedingly boring I must say. But all in all I must say that I'm pretty excited about the whole thing. So Hooray! Ok... I guess I should get some packing done and what not. Later y'all. Current Mood: busy (Comment on this)
Friday, April 28th, 2006
1:57 pm	So I started packing my car today. I amazed at how well I can actually pack a car... but how much I can SUCK at Tetris. I mean packing is kinda like 3D tetris... but I guess it's easier since they're all cubes or rectangular prisms rather than, who the hell knows what those shapes are in tetris. The 'rents are currently on there way here to the G-spot (aka Guelph) and I'm just lazing around trying to pack some. I also still have to get together with a couple friends to say my final farewells. I've decided I'm gonna miss the people here... but I'm not gonna miss the town itself... there isn't much to do here. It's actually a pretty boring place. AND Gas has gotten hella expensive. I know it's expensive in the States too... but not as bad as here. I learned in my Natural Resource Policy Class this semester that Canadians pay the "world price" for oil while American's don't because of all the subsidies in place by out government. And to make matters worse the exchange rate has totally gone to SHIT! For us anyway... it's a double-edged sword for these Northerner's. The Loonie was at a record high the other day at 0.89 cents to the US dollar... compare that to what it was when I got here in 2002... it was about 0.66!!! Damn! Seriously, you Damn Canucks need to stop making so much money on your vast diversity of Natural Resources. If only we had won the war of 1812. Oh well. Enough rambling and randomness... I should get some stuff done and maybe talk to some of my friends here instead of sitting around the house all by myself. Current Mood: mischievous (Comment on this)
Saturday, April 22nd, 2006
9:11 pm	Life Goals: Get BSc. in Zoology... Check! So I finished my undergraduate career today!!!! It's kinda weird cause honestly I don't feel any different. I remember the last day of high school be so much more eventful and memorable for some reason. I guess cause of the graduation parties and what not... whereas here we party after every exam period so it's really no different. I don't know. I'm really excited about getting my grades back! I think this is going to be my best semester on record! Which is super exciting! Now I just have to pack and party! My parents are coming next Friday to help me pack up the BIG stuff... aka furniture that won't fit in my car. Anyway, I gotta get this party started so I better get a move on. A party waits for no one. Current Mood: relieved (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, April 10th, 2006
5:12 pm	ARRR I should be savin' this fer Septemberrrr 19th, international talk like a pirate day. But me sister posted her name so I thought i'd giver a whirl. I deed it las' year too but it's always fun to doer again arrrrr. thanks for reminidin' me about it there "Dirty Anne Flint" I guess we truely be related afterall. My pirate name is: Iron Charity Flint A pirate's life isn't easy; it takes a tough person. That's okay with you, though, since you a tough person. Like the rock flint, you're hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you're easily chipped, and sparky. Arr! Get your own pirate name from fidius.org. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, April 9th, 2006
2:35 pm	DONE! So I'm finished with undergraduate classes FOREVER! I had my last class on Friday and it was Spanish. I skipped the last half hour though cause I had to get to my final presentations for my research class. I had to stand in front of this poster I made, which I thought was pretty. And I thought my research was pretty interesting, but not very many people read it :( and I don't know how many people actually graded me on it... so I may be purely at the mercy of my teacher, and I really don't know how I feel about that. Anyway. It's fine. Another cool thing is that I got my haircut, for FREE at this really nice salon in Guelph. Here's a picture. I think it looks nice. The only problem is I'll never get it to look like that on my own. AND the girl who cut my hair cut one piece WAY shorter than the other pieces. It's ony about 4in when the rest of my hair is probably like 12. So it doesn't fit back in a ponytail and sticks out. Grr... but meh. So I guess I better study. AHHHHHHHH! Can't wait to be done done. Two more weeks! Later all Current Mood: anxious (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 29th, 2006
4:58 pm	Grrr I'm starting to get really annoyed with finding a job. So, I FINALLY heard back from the lady in AZ and apparently there funding fell through so she doesn't have enough money to offer me a job, however "I was her first pick" and if someone else decides to drop out she may still have a job for me... or some such BS. Then the guy from Alaska that I had interviewed with told me he would let me know by last Thursday, Friday came around and he said he hadn't decided yet and he would let me know by today. He calls today, and wants to talk more and tells me that he'll make his final decision by tomorrow! Ugh. Seriously. I've been left hangin. This is what I feel like.... Hopefully he'll call tomorrow and say, "Congrats, you're hired, come to Alaska for FREE" We'll see. Current Mood: annoyed (Comment on this)