Maybe it's just me, but...

...this episode of NOVA I'm watching has this very cool dinosaur, which no one can agree on. Was it really a dino? How did it fly? Did it glide? What where the purpose of the back limb feathers? How awesome.


Microraptor ("small thief") is a genus of small, dromaeosaurid dinosaur. About two dozen well-preserved fossil specimens have been recovered from Liaoning, China. They date from the early Cretaceous Period (Barremian stage), 130-125.5 million years ago. Two species have been named, M. zhaoianus and M. gui. It has recently been suggested that all of the specimens belong to a single species, which is properly called M. zhaoianus. Cryptovolans, another four-winged dromaeosaur, may also be a species of Microraptor.^[1]

Like Archaeopteryx, Microraptor provides important evidence about the evolutionary relationship between birds and dinosaurs. Microraptor had long pennaceous feathers that form wing-like surfaces on the arms and tail but also, surprisingly, on the legs. This led Xu (2003) to describe it as a "four winged dinosaur", and to speculate that it may have glided using all four limbs for lift." - Wikipedia

Lichen and mold and fungus, oh my

This isn't my picture, but this does look exactly like some fungus that my project partner and I found in Day Canyon on Friday. It's supposed to grow from July through November, but it's almost April... Anyway, it grows on dead wood, which is where we found it. It looks like shells kind of. Pretty cool, eh?

I also realized that this indeed was where Jon and I first hiked to that one day. It was our forest. At least, it used to be a forest. Once my partner and I reached the gauging station and sat there, I realized I didn't recognize it initially because of the fires and debris flow that destroyed the area. I saw it when it was still a forest. I think it is very cool how I hiked there as a kid and am now studying there as an adult for my biology class.

Huggable

This is a slow loris, a nocturnal primate that hangs out in trees and lives in Asia. They are cute but endangered because people catch them to trade and sell for pets. We learned about them a little in anthro the week before last, and I Googled this picture because they are so cute.

In My Memory

Things I remember from when I was younger.

Watching Pokemon and looking for Ash and Misty hints
The Pokemon soundtrack
M2M
Hoku
Hey Dude
Legends of the Hidden Temple
Reading Ash and Misty romance fics
Taking that leap off the step with Jon
The Secret World of Alex Mack
Playing States on the giant map in fifth grade
That zoo game I made up that my whole class played
The swings
Spice Girls
Pretending to hate Digimon because it was ripping off Pokemon
Speed Wars at lunch in ninth grade
Drying a giant piece of paper with blow dryers in second year Latin
Sidestepping a bus on the way to school and amazing my friends
Making paper in my seventh grade science elective class
Blink 182
That guy Peter in my 10th grade science class who I had a big crush on
Trun of Flunks
9 lbs of tortilla chips for the Roman Banquet 12th grade
Being part of Honor Guard for the 2003 Senior graduation
Silent Ball
Weird Al
The Now! music series
Thinking pupa was funny (it means doll in Latin)
Zelda Gaiden
Being stuck with assigned the reproductive system in NS II
Complimented with a few others by my English III teacher while she gave the class a lecture in responsibility and how she was disappointed with us
Drunk scootering
Walking home after piano class the day before Thanksgiving and playing with my old Nokia
Ms. Serdan watching me play a song and giving me an A on the spot

Simple Things

"I'm torn between what I know and what I dream." - Armin Van Buuren ft. Justine Suissa, "Simple Things" from Shivers.

I was thinking in the shower this morning about stuff like I usually do because it's such a good place to think as long as you're not rushed. That line popped into my head. Then while I was in the classroom I visit to do fieldwork I was scribbling and thinking as their passing period was in progress. I know I need a real job to get by in this life, and I want to be a teacher more than anything else ever, even going to Hyrule or being with Jon as more than just friends. But I also have always said I wanted to be a published writer someday. Both of those are dreams, but the second is impractical and would not be a way to support myself.

That explains the quote, and I felt like just putting that out there so I can remember what I was thinking today.

Off to See the Wizard

I wish that were true. I have a few things I need to ask for...

Actually, I am just off to do fieldwork in the classroom with the teacher I have been assigned to observe. I tell you, if I was still in high school, she is the kind of teacher I would want to have. I hope to be like that and a few others I can think of someday when I'm a teacher.

So You're Standing on a Ledge

Music from my freshmen and sophomore years in high school.

"The Madding Crowd" - Nine Days
"Sarina Paris" - Sarina Paris
"Disc One: All Their Greatest Hits" - Barenaked Ladies
"Two Worlds" and "Movin Melodies" - ATB
"Toxicity" - System of a Down
"Best of Trance Volume 2" - various
"Warning" - Green Day
Shrek soundtrack
"Be Not Nobody" - Vanessa Carlton
"The Spirit Room" - Michelle Branch