The Start of the Big Emotional Wrap Up

I've been gone from my internship for a week now, but it feels forever ago.  I also know I promised a wrap up overview thing.  I can't guarantee I can do it in one shot, but I'll start it now.

The first few weeks of my internship, I was not sure I was going to make it.  I had no idea what I was doing, The Doc wasn't around a lot, and I felt like I was a burden to X and Q.  I hated it, I hated not knowing what I what I was doing or what what the procedure was or what the different parts of the fly was.  I had a lot of posts tagged struggle bus or difficult, and it truly was.  And then there was Day 12.  Day 12 was not a good day, no one was in the lab, I had no idea how to get in, and I was too afraid to ask anyone.  I went back to my apartment, saw I had an email from The Doc saying she was out of town and wanted me to do something, and then I had a breakdown on the phone with my mom.  That day I was ready to pack up and leave.  But here's a TMI before I get my monthly burden I tend to get uncharacteristically over-emotional about something irrational/pointless/minor/not exactly important, and the next day guess what I got.  Whether that break down was real or hormonal is a mystery.  I do know I went back in and did what was required of me, and learned how to get in from C.  My internship did not improve until both X and Q were out of the lab on vacation, which is kind of sad to say but true.  I was forced to learn things on my own and figure out fly anatomy on my own.

I came into my own then.  I was pretty boss at

(to be continued because I have other things I have to do)

My Presentation

I can't figure out how to post the video.  And I would figure it out but I'm too tired and my sister is sleeping in my bed and her bed is full of crap and my dad is sleeping on the couch and I don't know where to sleep.  And I should start writing the big review of everything post soon.

Day Sixty-one (late)

I didn't get a chance to write this one in North Carolina, I'm home now and extremely tired.  I was going to post my presentation but it looks like my dad recorded four videos or something and I don't want to deal with it now.  I will post betterer later.

Day Sixty

I had to give my presentation early today.  I had no idea I was doing it, I was told this morning.  I thought it went well.  And tomorrow is my last day and I am so sad.  I sad good bye to Q who will not be here tomorrow.  I wish I could say good bye to X in person but he will get a holler.  I am trying to finish a painting I started for The Doc, I'm having trouble figuring out wing venation.  Also I don't think I'll be able to post tomorrow, I may do one of those queue a post things, but we'll see.  I don't want to go to bed late tonight and I don't want to write another post.  A post tomorrow or Saturday at least.

Day Fifty-nine

Early post today \ (because I'm procrastinating)!  Today has been good, but not as good as my Monday was.  No day will top Monday (because it was awesome).  But today was pleasant enough.  Even better because my crack, Toddlers and Tiaras, is on.  I sorted through stuff we collected from the stairwells, and then spent the rest of the day looking at a bee fly.  I also worked on the paper a bit.  Tomorrow me and The Doc are getting lunch with some of her colleagues, and then Q and a group that has been looking at tardigrades are doing some talks. And what the frick someone just gave their six year old coffee because she was getting tired.  I'm giving my talk on Friday.  If I can get my dad to record it, I might be posting it here at some point.  I really can't believe my last day is the day after tomorrow.  I don't want to go, I love it here so much.  :(

Day Fifty-Eight

I don't feel like writing so I'm just going to post Steam Powered Giraffe songs because they're an amazing band.

Rhianna-Diamonds cover 

Electricity Is In My Soul

Fire Fire (David aka The Spine sings it, I'm in love with his voice and prefer this version of the song) 

Walter Robotics Rap 

And here is the link to their youtube channel, in case you want to listen more: Steam Powered Giraffe's channel :D

Day Fifty-Seven

So I think I said oddly personal Monday yesterday.  So I've been thinking about relationships lately, like dating-type relationships.  I had never cared that I have never been in one, nor had I expressed an super-duper desire to be in one.  Recently though, like as of this summer it kind of made me more aware of the fact I'm single since everyone in my lab (for the most part) is wifed up.

I like using the term wifed up when I think about people in relationships, no matter the gender of the partners (male/male, female/female, male/female, etc.)  That's just want I do so deal.  Also this is gonna be a huge tangent.  So I don't exactly see the point in human relationships long term.  Sort of.  Monogamy is not that common in the animal world, most animals have multiple partners or just one for the breeding season and then changing it up the next.  Multiple partners creates sperm competition, meaning that the best sperm will be the baby daddy.  "Best" offspring and all that jazz.  Which is kind if why I don't understand why people look down on polygamists, at least from a biological stand point.  Usually courtship periods don't last too long either.  That's why people confuse me.  They date for eight years and then get married (and may or may not have kids before then) .  That seems kind of pointless to me.  Why not get married sooner?  Like dating for eight years is basically married?  And how long do you have to be with someone to know that they're the one?  A week? A month?  A year?  Ten years?  That's what I don't get.

So anyway I kind of want to be in a relationship, just for the experience.  I'm slightly jealous of some people around me (the HBB sister, my sister) who have boyses in their life.  I just want one, and then if it doesn't work out then I really don't need to be in another for awhile I think.

Sunday Sunday Sunday

I spent Saturday night watch HBB (Honey boo boo) and her family.  This family melts my heart.  They love each other so much, and care.  The most touching part of one of the episodes was Sugar Bear proposing to Mama.  He was so obviously nervous and scared (he had been denied thrice before) and he was just trying to present the best argument.  Besides finding Mama really attractive and loving her a lot, Sugar wanted to marry her to give the girls some stability (Alana is his daughter but her sisters aren't) and a strong father figure.  I was pissed that Mama was not taking it as seriously as Sugar who was wearing his funeral shirt.  In the end, Mama agreed to a commitment ceremony (she's afraid of marriage, Sugar's been married twice before and her family has been through divorce, plus she's never been married before) but she was been calling it a wedding.  I'm glad for them.  Sugar loves Mama so much, and even when Mama shuts down his advances, he comes back stronger.  I know a lot of people think that the show is horrible and the family is trash and bla bla bla.  But honestly, they're a kick ass family.  Sure, they have a different life style but they love, support, and enjoy each other's company.  They're probably a lot better than a lot of families today.  I love them because they're so...organic.  Nothing feels forced or staged, and how they are on TV feels like that's how they are in real life.  I think Monday may be a weirdly personal Monday if I don't have a lot to say.  

Day Fifty-five

So I'm not sure what posting is going to be like this week.  Since my housing ends today, and my dad is working in the area, I'll be staying at his hotel this week.  I don't know the wifi situation, if it is pay for wifi...I'll try to do some short posts while I'm at work during my lunch break or before I leave or if I get to work early.  Any way, I'm pretty much packed up.  I have a bunch of stuff on my bed that needs to end up in a bag or something, and there is some trash to be taken out, but other than that, my dad just needs to get here before four.  I guess I'll finish getting my stuff together before my dad gets here, hopefully there will be a post tomorrow (I probably could just do an automated post thing but we'll see).

Day Fifty-four

So X wasn't in today, apparently he is sick.  And since he goes on vacation next week, I never got a chance to say good bye in person. :( Unless he doesn't go on vacation next week, which I doubt.  I can still get in contact with him, but still I'd prefer to say goodbye in person.  I might have found another potentially interesting thing but it is too early to tell.  I also forgot what I was going to say here.  I went out with The Doc and some other scientists and that was fun.  I really need to begin packing more since my dad is coming tomorrow at four.  Side note, sometimes I wish my head would not concoct elaborate alternate realities of what could happen based on events that happened in real life (hopefully this makes sense).  I guess I'm off to do dishes or pack or watch Scrubs clips.  Probably the last one.

Day Fifty-three

Right now I am eating peaches and knock off cool whip.  All my clothes are packed, and the next challenge will be my desk.  I move out Saturday and will stay in a hotel for a week with my dad while he's working.  And then next weekend I leave. :(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((  I can't believe that my time here is ending, I'm going to miss it so much.  I finished my presentation, so I guess I'll memorize it (I already kind of have it down) and practice the powerpoint.  The paper is at a stand still atm, so there is not much else I can do.  There is a vial of Malagasy bee flies that I really want to go through, even though I have an idea of what's in it.  X hasn't been here for the past two days, and I think he's going on vacation next week.  I hope he'll be here tomorrow so I can say good bye to him.  That's it for here for now.

Day Fifty-two (laaaate)

I forgot to post, my bad.  Day was normal, worked on paper/presentation.  Finished the art thing I was working on.  I'll be sure to post tonight.

Day Fifty-one

Currently I'm drawing a fly.  And it looks great.  The wing veination is being annoying.  Today was more of the same.  Q emailed his latin teacher to help us with something.  And I must go back to drawing.

Day Fifty

So it looks like I've been at my internship for fifty days.  I can't believe how fast fifty days have flown by.  And every time I think of my dad coming to move me out this weekend, and then leaving next weekend I make a pout-y face.  Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii don't want to leave.  I don't want to go home and work a freelance job that I hate and tell my friends about what I have done and have them not appreciate it as much I do (don't get me wrong, they'll be happy that I did it and got the experience, but they'll never know how much it meant to me, they aren't science-y) and tell my family who won't understand (none of them are science people).  I can't wait to hang out with my friends, but at the same time I really love working in the lab.  Today was good, X and I worked on the paper.  It really is coming along well, if we pay for it to be open access on the website we're publishing it on, I'll throw the link up on the blog.  I'll miss X a lot, we get along really well and he's fun to talk to. I'll miss The Doc too, she is incredibly nice and helpful, plus she's always encouraging us to work hard and do what we think is best for the paper.  I'll miss Q a little bit, he was gone for awhile so we aren't that close but if I ever had a what insect is the question, he was great at answering them.  I'll also miss C, we didn't really start talking until later in my time here, but she's sassy and knows a lot about spiders which is really cool.  I'll  miss The Doc's Boss, he's a really crazy guy (competed in a unicycle trial last week) and he's helpful and fun to talk to about things.  I'll even miss The Doc's Boss's Assistant, we don't really talk too much, but she's always polite/cordial to me, plus she is interested in loons, which is really cool.  I just listed all the people I'm in contact with.  I guess I'll be missing everyone.  Hopefully I won't tear up or anything on my last day (next Friday).

Sunday Stills

Makin it rain sloths

Another Saturday

Siiiiiiiiigh next Saturday I move out.  And the Saturday after that I go back home.  SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGH.  I wish I could stay here longer, but that's not gonna happen.  As I said before there will be a huge post of feelz and all that jazz.  Today I saw the dinosaurs and motion exhibit at the museum and it was awesome.  The dinosaurs are made of metal and you get to interact with them.  Seriously giant metal dinosaur puppets.  And some of them roar.  Seriously so awesome.  I wish I could have taken pictures but that was not allowed.  I also went to the history museum.  It was okay, science museum is tons better.  Tomorrow I think I'm going to go to work and sort through the insects X and collected in the stairwells.  I want to spend time in the lab before I leave.  :'(

Day Forty-seven (late)

Sorry for the late post, my apartment mate and I were talking.  Today was good, I toured the capital of Raleigh, went on a secret field trip, and looked at fly genitals.  Now I'm really tired and I'm gonna go to bed.

Day Forty-six

Next Saturday I move out, and the Saturday after that I leave Raleigh.  I am so incredibly bummed.  I will post a better reflection/feelzy post when I leave, so I'll save the details for then. I just love it here so much and I've met so many great people and I feel like the work I'm doing now is so important.  I don't want to go back home and work at a job that has nothing to do with my interests.  Siiiiiiiiiiigh.  I also don't know how I'm going to go back and do my research at school either.  The flies have really grown on me.  But I'm sure I'll get back into the bird groove.  Any way, I have to finish up a presentation. Tata.

Day Forty-five

Today was great but I am watching Breaking Dawn to see how horrible-er it is instead of writing a post.

Day Forty-Four

Currently talking on the phone with my sister.  She is doing a program at Stony Brook where she learns about medical related things and what not.  Our career goals are so different.  She is so noble in what she wants to do in the future, which is bio-medical engineering  to study the kidney and heart, and making herbicides.  And maybe bone marrow research.  So noble. So helping the society and money making.  Meanwhile I want to study things that will probably benefit a small group of people and animals if I want to do conversation.  She knows what she wants to do after college (2 years masters, 5 years working, then PhD).  I don't know if I need to get a masters or if I can go straight into PhD or if I should take time off to work and pay off loans then higher education.  She may have her life planned out but I'm better at not procrastinating. BWHAHA.

X and I also were very productive today.  I saw a talk about fish in the Mekong River.  It was a good day.

Day Forty-Three

So my friend and I saw a drag show in March, the day before Easter.  We were both over the moon because 1) Most drag shows are held at venues were you had to be 21+, and we're both 19  2) We each had a favorite queen that was to be performing and 3) We both were going together.  It was amazing, the queens were all stunning, talented, beautiful, awesome, etc.  We got into the city okay, we ate food that was good, and found the venue.  I even hailed a taxi for the first time (because I made my friend ask if there was assigned seating).  The only hitch was we didn't know to transfer trains on the way back home, but my dad picked us up from the station we ended up at.  The reason I'm bringing this up if because I'm watching the show again on youtube.  Me and my friend were pretty far from the stage (far enough where we couldn't really see facial expressions).  I wish we were close to the stage in the standing room place.  The queens are even better close up.  I'm glad people filmed it so I can enjoy it over and over again.

Today was a good day. X and I worked on the paper we're co-authoring and we think we could get the first draft done by the end of the week.  Then we finished collecting in the stairwells, where we were treated to quite a surprise.  We both expected not to find anything else as we went up.  Instead we found a lot of pill bugs!  Even on the fourth floor stairwell.  There were also some giant spiders (dead), a couple of decently alive spiders, and some egg sacs.  We didn't even get all the pill bugs from the fourth floor, because there were just too many.  Hopefully The Doc finds it interesting as we do.  Tomorrow we're going to collect in the other stairwell to see if there just as many pill bugs and spiders there.

Sunday Sass

So me and the FAM (first apartment mate) watched Twilight tonight.  We watched because it is a movie we rag on all the time, but neither of us had ever seen, so we decided to fix that.  Let me say that Twilight was terrible and worse than I ever though.  My main problem with it was the Bella was an idiot.  She did so many stupid things that endangered her own life that it lead me to wonder if she had a brain in her head or what.  She ignores the advice she gives, ignores logic, and goes and does the stupidest things without thinking (like in the seen where she goes to James, she could have told someone to come and wait outside or something).  Edward seems to have multiple personalities, slipping between nice guy, aloof teen, and asshole.  Several times me and FAM were yelling the right thing to do at them, but we knew they couldn't hear us.  Also I have to say Kristen Stewart's acting was much worse than I expected.  She needs to take a class about breathing through her nose and using facial expressions.  Rob Psomething had stupid hair that was too big and gave him a giant forehead.  Taylor Lautner and Billy Burke were probably the best, Taylor because he did not have a lot of lines to mess up, and Billy because the character of Charlie was just ridiculous.  We want to watch all the movies in the saga, but it was so hard to get through this one.  Seriously, there wasn't a plot until the last 45 minutes of a movie that's over 2 hours long.  I don't know how we'll survive any more, but I hope we can.

Sixth Saturday

I live on bad reality TV.  And mostly reality shows on TLC.  If I could put Toddlers and Tiaras on a sandwich and eat it up, I would every day, all day.  Put some Breaking Amish mayo and anything with the word gypsy lettuce and I'm set.  I will generally watch anything on TLC (excluding Hoarding, Buried Alive, side note I thought it was Hoarders: Buried Alive until I looked at TLC's website, side side note since when doesn't buried have two r's in it?).  If I had to pick two shows I could only sustain myself on  watch, it would be Toddlers and Tiaras and My Strange Addiction.  Let me explain why I didn't pick Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, because I love her.  I don't see Honey Boo Boo as trash actually.  The family seems so genuine and obviously loves one another a lot.  I just find them extremely funny and watching their lives is like learning about a new culture.  Honey Boo Boo is like chocolate, great to eat but you can't live off it.  Toddlers and Tiaras on the other hand, that's a meal.

When I think of Toddlers and Tiaras, I make this noise (btw this is a link to a Louis CK video, he's NSFW but amazingly funny).  That show is mashed potatoes, gravy, peas, and meat loaf.  A whole delicious meal that I could eat every single day.

And I will continue this later, I really need to do work. >.> *Sigh* responsibilities.

Day 40 (laaaaate)

I guess I'm going to blogger hell, for the past 39 days I've written a post everyday even if it was only a couple of sentences.  And then last night I completely forgot to do it.  It had to happen eventually, but I thought I wouldn't.  Any way, yesterday were great.  X and I hung out at State while on a secret mission (not really but it sounds cooler).  Then we went back to the NRC where we tried to do some lab work.  Then we decided to go do some field work that The Doc told me and C about (I don't think I've mentioned C before, but she's The Doc's other intern who works on a different project about).  That field work was to go into the stairwell of the museum and collect whatever bugs we found down there.  It was fun for the first five minutes.  We worked a little longer, and then caught a science talk.  After the talk, C joined us in our insect hunt.  We caught a lot of spiders, which C is an expert in, and got a lot of dead bugs.  We didn't finish (we had to return the id we were using) but we don't think we're going to find a lot more insects as we go up.  The reasoning is that the stairs we first collected on were in an area without a lot of foot traffic and were at the ground level by doors. The stairs we need to continue on are further from any doors to the outside and probably have more foot traffic.  After that, we went back to the lab and did some work.  When I got back from work I made toad in a hole, and even though i burned the bread pretty good, it was great.  Me and my apartment mate (the first one, not the new one) talked for a couple hours about TV and movies.  There are also plans to maybe watch Twilight this weekend and point out everything wrong with it.  And that was my yesterday, sorry for the late post.

Day Thirty-Nine

Looked at fly.  Start collaborative effort paper.  Tomorrow should be a longer post.

Day Thirty-Eight

And a short post.  Today was mostly a research stuff kind of day.  Me and X will be collaborating on something, and I'm excited for it.  Too lazy to write, sorry bout it.

Day Thirty-Seven

 I may have found something potentially awesome (I'm not sure if I'm allowed to elaborate further or whatever).  Then X and I went on an adventure to State's library to make a photocopy of a journal entry that could be potentially helpful.  I am so jealous of State's library, it is huge, beautiful, and amazing.  X is also a really nice guy, and funny too.  It is great to work with people that are easy to get along with.  Then a little while after we got back from the library, I went to a meeting with The Doc.  The meeting was for one of her non-bee fly projects.  It was interesting sitting in on a meeting of science people working on a project.  Everyone seemed to alternate between scientific banter/serious talk and scientific banter/less formal talk.  The project is crazy in depth, and some parts went over my head, but I was still in awe.  I also got to meet some people that The Doc knows at State, and they were very friendly.  I have to say one thing, the building/room The Doc's meeting was in was a bit of a tease for me.  They were on the same floor and next to the complex of rooms where I think the guy that worked with my adviser I want to meet is.  I would have loved to explore it more, but that wasn't possible.  If I can confirm him, maybe I'll email him or something to see if he's around so I can meet him.  If I don't chicken out.

I went grocery shopping today too.  It was all about strategy.  I decided I can no longer go to the grocery store by my apartments (I was approached one day for money by a homeless man and I got a little creeped out, and one of my friends saw someone taking a dump by the sign for the store complex) so I went to one on my bus's route.  I managed to get everything and check out in time to get the earlier bus (I made a great tactical decision in using the self check out) and then I booked it to the stop.  I also bought potentially the greatest oreos ever, they have birthday cake filling.  I love them.  I would just eat the filling if I could, but that would be a waste of cookie.  I would buy them again.  I also bought knockoff Captain Crunch because I am cheap.

One of my room mates and I had another great discussion about Lion King.  It made me realize how effed up it really is, from a scientific stand point.  And we talked about other movies too, mostly disney/pixar.  All in all, great day.

Day Thirty-Six

Gaaah, another short post.  Sorry. >.>  I really want to finish a presentation tonight so I really have to work on that.  Short story of the day: X came back from vacation, I looked at my bee flies again, I worked on some presentation stuff, I came home, and found out we got a new room mate.  The end.

Sunday Salacity 2

I'm having a dilemma.  I really want a duck skull.  The skull is beautifully done, the beak is a nice, glossy black color, it has a very chic filigree pattern, and it is already mounted for hanging.  The price is right too, $11 plus $4.50 for shipping.  I haven't seen anything priced  Actually I just went on Etsy (where the skull is) and I saw two three  a bunch of other skulls that I like.  They aren't decorated, but they're intact and cleaned, with a similar price range.  Hot damn, so what do I do?  I love the dead animals, and they're on my birthday wish list.  But I don't know if I'll get them or not, because my family does not have the same dead animal love as I do.  But I need to save for books and food and important stuff.  But I really want a skull to decorate and own.  Dilemmas.  >.>

Fifth Saturday

Too lazy to write, enjoy picture I did for one of their friends for their birthday.

Day Thirty-Three

And today was  more adventures in pulling egg teeth off of baby birds.  Half of the papers I need are written in foreign languages, and of course, they're the ones I can't speak so I'm kind of S.O.L And I can't find any of the papers written in English online.  I found two journals I need, but each journal has three bee flies each.  Actually I hate the way I phrased that, one journal has the description of three flies, and the other the description of three other flies.  So annoying.  Hopefully I'll have better luck with the foreign language papers and google translate if that's how it ends up.  One of my friends told me that at least for German, google translate works okay, so if I need the German paper and can find it, at least I'll be covered for that.  And now I want a soda so hopefully the vending machine is restocked.  If not I will not be a happy camper.

Day Thirty-Two

Tooooooooday was a very frustrating day.  The Madagascar flies are kicking my ass, more accurately finding any paper that mentions what the species are.  I'm hoping to have more luck tomorrow in finding papers.  If not, we'll see what happens from there.  I really could go for some field work right now actually.  I love going out in nature and doing science things.  I know that The Doc wants to do some, so hopefully that will happen.  And now I'm eating cake because I have cake to eat.  I am going to make a powerpoint because I plan on doing a talk or three.  That's all I have to say for now, I'm not really in a writing mood.

Day Thirty-One

Well, it is official, I've been at my internship for a month!  I started June 10th, and now it is July 10th. I can't believe it has only been a month, it feels much longer.  It doesn't seem real that this time in June The Doc gave me a tour of the NRC and let me loose on the museum. It doesn't seem real that at the beginning of my time here I was frustrated and basically unable to identify the simplest bee fly, and now I'm looking at flies from Madagascar that may not even be described!!  There have been ups and downs, but I'm glad I've stuck through it.  I definitely see I have improved a lot, as pointed out by The Doc today.  To hear her say that makes me really proud, she's an expert after all, and I like birds.

Today I looked better at two guides that could be somewhat useful to me.  They both are scans from books, so I can't Ctrl+F the words I'm looking for.  In one, the things that could potentially be useful are written in foreign languages.  The other is in English, but is something like 900 pages long.  Neither has an index in the back, that I can find.  OH!  But in the foreign language one, I can understand one section, or at least parts of it because it is written in Italian.  Finding guides for the Afrotropical/Madagascar flies is like pulling teeth out of a hummingbird, in a word: impossible.  I guess technically improbable because baby hummingbirds probably have an egg tooth.  Still, it is pretty darn hard.

And in other news, my dad and I saw The Heat tonight.  I enjoyed it except for Michael McDonald and Taran Killam.  And that is basically because whenever I see either of them I think of Stewart and Cougar, and Mokiki and Jonathan Cavanaugh san.  And if you don't know who those characters are, click on the links.  I did enjoy seeing them, because I find them both hilarious and I'm glad they're able to do non-comedy roles (their characters in The Heat were pretty serious).  The best part was Sandra Bullock's character swearing for the first time.  It was awkward and hilarious.  Melissa McCarthy did a great job as Detective Mullens, and she was probably my favorite out of the whole cast.  I would recommend seeing it if you don't mind swearing or blood/seeing people get killed (not that many scenes, but some people aren't into it).

Day Thirty

And I forgot that I write my blog every day.  I need to go bed because I sleep through my alarms.  Today was good. I drank iced coffee without milk for the first time.   I looked at things from Madagascar.  I saw weird insect that Q told me was a wasp and then I figured out what kind of wasp it was.  I looked at flies.  My dad is here. It is nice to see him.  We got Mexican food.  It was great.  The End.

Day Twenty-Nine

Today I started looking at bee flies from Madagascar.  The fun thing about bee flies from Madagascar is that you have to use your imagination to figure them out.  They are not very well documented and that is pretty obvious.  Finding anything about Madagascar bee flies on (awkward gap filler y'all) 

google scholar/google/jstore/science direct/etc. is like pulling teeth.  I found a couple of dichotomous keys for South Africa, but they were pretty confusing/scattered.  It was a super fun day of eenie-meenie-minie ANTHRANCINAE.  Identifying the geron were pretty easy, they don't have the M2 vein and it is pretty distinct.  They also tend to be on the small side too, I think the biggest (at least in Chile/Argentina) is only 0.7 cm.  The great thing about these bee flies though is their lack of description.  There is a high chance that someone will find a new species of bee fly from this region (or India, because we have flies from there too).  I seriously hope I discover a new species, that is something on my bucket list and it would be kick ass to cross it off.  

Sunday Stills

The turtles that are on the same floor as my lab.

Bee fly eye close up 

A bee mimic 

The fishies!  I really like the french angel fish the best.

A poison dart frog.

An acrocanthosaurus skull, the terror of the South. 

Fourth Saturday

The topic of today's post is dead animals!


I knew I wanted to stuff dead birds the minute I heard my (future) adviser mention it during a presentation he gave during my freshmen seminar.  I didn't actually start until the spring semester of my sophmore year.  My adviser* who knew how to prepare study skins, made our** GA learn how to prepare study skins, and he taught us.  I remember my first bird, a juvenille white throated sparrow...it was terrible.  The meticulous notes I took while our GA did not serve me any good.  I was too heavy handed and tore many holes in the sides, managed to cut a leg off, and removed the tail when I was trying to remove the viscera sac.  I was so stressed out but somehow it was salvaged thanks to some strategizing with the GA.  After that bird, it got better.  I took everything very slowly, and tried to not use my scalpel whenever possible.  Sometimes I stuffed with my friends and sometimes I stuffed by myself.  Although it was nice to chat with friends, nothing beat stuffing alone.  Whenever I stuffed by myself, it was magical.  I would start log onto my Pandora and usually play some opera while I gathered my supplies.

Nothing beat the sound of beautiful singers while gently scraping away the fascia connecting the skin and muscles.  I just went into a zone where nothing mattered except the bird and breathing through my mouth***.  It was magical.  My favorite part of the whole process is probably scraping everything away and working up to the wings so that the bird is opened up and you can see the body under the feathers.  My least favorite part is sewing up after the cotton is in.  The cotton gets in the way and so do the feathers.  Mammals are a different story, I hate opening them.  Unlike birds, whose feathers grow in tracks and can be easily pushed away, mammal fur is every where and wont separate.  What I do like about mammals is that I can be a little more heavy handed because they have thicker skin.  You also get to peel the pelt away from the body which is totally awesome!!  I just wish that we had armatures to mount the pelts instead of me just using a dowel to stiffen them and stuffing them with cotton.  My boss's boss said he'd introduce me to the study skin/skeleton preppers, so hopefully they can teach me a thing or two that I can bring back and teach my friends.







*My adviser says he is no good at preparing study skins so that's why he didn't teach us.
**My GA taught me and two of my friends.  He was also the GA for the lab I was taking that my adviser taught.
***Some of the birds smelled like raw chicken and it was weird associating something that I eat with the dead bird in front of me.

Day Twenty-Six

Today was a quiet day.  It was just me and The Doc's boss (I think that's what he is considered). I did my bee fly thing.  It was fun until I had to pull more vials.  I could see that they were mostly pthiriine/usiinine, and I didn't want to go through them, they're  annoying to do. Phthiria is the major genus most of the time in the vials, but I can't just throw them in vial and say they're all phthirians.  That would be too easy. There is another fly that is usiinae/phthirinae that is fairly common, geron looks a lot like phthiria (but they don't have the M2 vein) tend to hide in there, and usually some metacosmus which are pretty small and hard to see unless to you through the whole vial.  I tried to select vials that I knew weren't pthiriine/usiinine, but they were few and far between.  I really wanted to start Africa, but I wasn't sure if The Doc wanted me to or not.  So I stuck with South America, which I like a lot.    I also had a fun conversation with The Doc's boss today.  He seems like a pretty cool guy, and I'm going to try talking to him more.  He's a mammals guy, and so I asked him a mammal question.  I wanted to make sure mammals couldn't be brood parasites.  The thought came to me after I finished reading "The Nesting Season" where the last chapters were dedicated to brood parasitism.  I thought no because mammals identify their young by their unique scent/sounds.  And he confirmed my thoughts.  He also said he'd introduce me to the study skin and skeleton preppers after I mentioned I prepare study skins at school.    I'm so excited, I hope I can learn something from them and bring it at school.



 And just for sh*ts and giggles, I'm going to post all the skins I did last semester.

The first bird I did, a juvenille white throated sparrow.  I rushed it and it came out poorly.  I managed to take off a leg and the tail, not to mentioned there were some hole in the sides.  Luckily the wings can cover the holes.

My second bird, an ovenbird.  It came out much better, that only thing I didn't like about it was I placed the  dowel in weird so it kind of shows under the skin.  Other than that everything is intact.

After doing my two birds, I decided to try my hand at mammals.  For some reason, I decided to start naming everything.  This is Christopher Columbus the star nosed mole.  I name him  Christopher Columbus because moles are explorers of the world underground.  I lucked out with him, it turned out he really was a male (I saw the testes after I cut him open).  He has a few bald spots but other than that, he looks good.

This is Horatio, but I call him Ho-Ho because he is a big studly male pigeon.  The only reason I know he's a he is because of his size and the colors on his neck (they're bold and bright).  I put him next to our other pigeon and she was significantly smaller.  By doing Ho-Ho I realized I preferred stuffing big birds.  

Say hello to Big Bertha!  She is a broad wing hawk and the second  predatory bird in the collection.   She was a little scary to do because she liked bleeding out of her mouth and nose periodically.  She was really cool because she had a mouse in her esophagus!!  I pulled it out in pieces and it was wicked cool.  

This is Esmeralda, the red squirrel.  I decided Christopher Columbus needed a friend.  I enjoyed stuffing Esmeralda more than Christopher Columbus because she of her skeletal structure.   She had a more defined neck, head, fore/hind limbs, and tail, while Christopher Columbus did not.  She also wanted to be everyone's friend.  Isn't that sweet? 

This, this is was my crowning achievement, Lord Byron Quincy Adams the Third, the male ring necked pheasant.  I saw him in the freezer and KNEW I had to do him.  He was tricky, due to his size and amount of feathers but I loved doing him.  I botched his wings a little bit, I wasn't sure if I had to remove muscle from them or what, and the guide we had didn't tell us how to do it.  I tried my best, but when I left him, he needed a rubber band to keep the wings next to his body.  He looks amazing in person though.

Here is a family portrait, from left to right: Christopher Columbus, botched white throated sparrow, Big Bertha, Lord Byron Quincy Adams the Third, Horatio, the ovenbird, and Esmeralda.  My babies <3 

Day Twenty-Five

Happy Fourth!  I did not go into work today, because the buses don't run on the 4th.  I took advantage of this by sleeping in until 11. It was glorious.  For the most part, I spent my day in the kitchen.  I made sweet potato chips which turned out okay.  I probably will not make them again though. After the chips, I made a cake!   I decided to do one of those flag cakes that are ever so popular for fourth of July.  The cake came out interesting. I should have leveled the batter in the baking pan first, because the cake came out humped.  But it tastes good, which is all that matters.  Frosting it was another challenge.  I used generic Cool Whip and it was fluffier/looser than I would have liked.  I made it work though, and I think it came out really cute.

Tomorrow is back to work to do finish sorting bee flies.  I found more from South America, so I'm in fly heaven!

Day Twenty-Four

So for the Pintester Movement 2.0 , I attempted to re-create Sonja's grocery bag basket (that she originally got from this blog post) last night.  It did not go as planned.  In true Pintester fashion, I did not actually have the necessary ingredients.  I lacked paper grocery bags, I used the next best thing...brown paper lunch  bags!  I mean, they're brown and bags like paper grocery bags so really, what's the big deal?

I cut the bottoms off of the bags, since they were a thicker.  After converting 1.75 inches into centimeters (roughly 4.4 cm if anyone is curious) I measured and marked the bags. It took me about four bags to get the right amount of strips, I think it was 18?  Then I cut them up into strips. And everything went downhill from there.  

As I mentioned before, I did not have the right ingredients for this pin.  That included glue but that didn't matter to me, because I had tape...or so I thought.  I could have sworn I packed tape with me, but after tearing apart my room for half an hour looking for this mythical roll of tape, I came up empty handed.  Thus-ly, I had to get crafty.  For my birthday, I had gotten this kind of crappy top coat that was too thick and kind of sticky.  Well, glue is thick and sticky, right? RIGHT?  So I used the nail polish as glue.  Despite being hella smelly, it worked(ish).

The next problem came when the instructions said to hold the strips into thirds.  HA.  HAHAHA.  Folding paper in a specific style is my weakness.  I just folded the strips so they all looked even enough in width.

Next came the weaving!  It was not such an epic fail.  I wish I had made them a little tighter but it worked.  Then I nail polished the corners together and waited for them to dry.  Some corners needed a little help staying down, so I put my jar'o'coins on top of them to help.

After the corners were dried I was hit by the struggle bus full force.  I had no clue how to incorporate the long strips into the sides.  So, I decided to get some assistants, disappointing chips I will not buy again and peanut M&M's which were not a disappointment.  Gurl's gotta eat.

In hind site, I should have made the long strips longer and folded them too.  Buuuuut the instructions didn't say to, and I didn't think to last night so I tried to weave them in big.  One long strip didn't go around the whole thing, and when I tried to incorporate another one, it just didn't.  The fact that I also didn't really understand how to weave in the long strips also didn't help, despite reading both blog posts.  The thin strips wouldn't stay up, the nail polish was failing, I was frustrated and I needed to get some sleep because I had to get up early to catch my bus.

That there is my finished product.  Can you hear it screaming in pain? I can. I put it out of its misery and laid it to rest in my trash can, but it is still watching me with disgust.  I may re-visit this with tape and the long strips folded thinly, buuuut it probably won't happen. I'm too lazy and I don't want to fold anymore paper.  No mas origami por favor (unless I am told the secret of incorporating the long strips).  

Day Twenty-Three

Today was a normal day.  I looked at bee flies.  I decided I now hate the bee fly of the nearctic dichotomous key  after looking at Chile/Argentina for a week and going back to North American bee flies.  Tomorrow I will put away some identified bee flies and probably explode in the process.  The Doc gave me a bunch of sub-families that I'm in charge of and each sub family has some genera, and some genera are more plentiful than others, and fitting them into the cases in rather annoying.  And frustrating, especially when all the small boxes are gone.  But, I will get through it and the cases will look great.  

In other news, I will be taking part in The Pintester Movement 2.0!  For those of you not familiar with the The Pintester , her name is Sonja Foust and she fails at pins so you don't have to.  She's a very funny writer, and I love reading her blog.  I didn't participate in the first Pinterester Movement, but in 2.0 the participants have to test out a pin that Sonja has done.   I will be attempting this at some point between now and Sunday, probably tonight since I am bored.  I will then write a post about and post it here and it shall be good.  That's all for now, hopefully I'll have a basket to show tomorrow! 

Day Twenty-Two

So I'm watching the Hunchback of Notre Dame (not the Disney version) right now.  I almost decided to stop watching it during the part where Quasi Modo was lashed and the crowd was insulting him.  But I continued on, because I really want to see it through to the end.  I'm enjoying it a lot, other than feeling bad for Quasi Modo.  I know at some point I will start bawling because something happens to him.

In other news, work was good today.  I can't believe I've almost been there a month.  I am recognizing the defining traits of each genera more quickly, and I'm not relying on the guide as much, although I did find a helpful wing diagram which explains the submarginal cells.  I'm enjoying what I'm doing and I think The Doc is impressed by my work and that I like identifying things.  I am going to start researching a topic because The Doc wants us to give a talk at some point.  I may have mentioned this before, but I don't remember.  I think I may do mine on insect mimicry or parasitism.  I haven't decided yet, but I'm leaning towards mimicry at this point.

That's all I have to say for now, I'll be sure to write again tomorrow.

Sunday Stills

Rice krispy treats!

Dish'o'bee flies

Fountain I saw when I went exploring

A juvenile leaf hopper

The cute porcupine fish 

Alligator skull and bones

Third Saturday

My legs are tired!  Today I walked around the North/Main campus of NCSU.  I'm glad I wore my nature shoes and not my sandals.  I went to the campus today because I wanted to find a professor there that my advisor worked with.  I came close, I found the building his office is in.  I actually want to talk to him, because we appear to have similar research interests.  Whether or not I'll be courageous enough to say words if I ever meet him is another story.  After finding the building, I went to the library.  And shoot, it is midnight.  I had started this earlier and forgot about it.  Whatever, I'll go on.  I have mixed feelings about the NCSU campus.  The campus is gorgeous, a lot of green space, flowers, places to sit, some art pieces, all the buildings look new or very well maintained.  But, it feels isolated.  My school is right in the city of Scranton.  There are non-campus buildings and people every where.  It does feel like you're on a campus, but it also feels like you're in a city at the same time.  It is a nice feeling that you can go to places other than the campus.  NCSU's campus is not like that.  They're not in the city of Raleigh itself, but just outside it.  Sure, there are local businesses and such, but really where it is all campus.  I don't think I'd like it that much, I don't like to feel like I'm "trapped" on campus.  At the same time though, I kind of wish I got accepted.  They have so many science buildings their, I would die of happiness.  Seeing all the science buildings made me wonder if I made a good choice with Scranton, but ultimately I think I did.  I will definitely be checking out State for grad school though, one of their libraries has an ice cream store in it!  And blablabla faculty with my interests, things that matter, etc.

Day Nineteen

So so so.  I actually paid attention to the clock to allow myself adequate time to write this post.  Except I don't really have anything to say.  Work is normal, I finished my bag from South America, and got them sorted.  I answered some questions and I looked at the downstairs fish.  Since today was fly-day, I decided to leave a little earlier since I finished what I was working on.  Uh...what else...I finished my book, it was on bird reproduction/parenting/parasitism/courtship.  I enjoyed it a lot and it makes me want to study all that jazz with birds even more.  That's all I really have to say, hopefully I will go out and do things this weekend (weather permitting) and will be able to write about them.

Day Eighteen

I did not realize the time! Ten minutes until midnight...crap!  I am playing Minecraft and I got caught up with it.  I'm in creative mode and I'm building an island.  On the top is a cozy looking, simple, cottage/farm kind of deal.  Below in the water is going to be a crazy extravagant home.  I just spent the last ten minutes trying to get one of my sheep to come back and building a fence so they don't kill themselves in the volcano.  Today was good, I did my usual stuff.  A penguin fossil expert came in and I asked about medullary bone.  It was great.  I will try to do a better post tomorrow.  Sorry!

Day Seventeen

Please enjoy this video of genetically modified zebra fish.  I'm too tired to write a post, but I can assure you my day was great.

Day Sixteen

Today I continued South America and I should finish the vial I'm on tomorrow!  The bee flies aren't terribly different but I don't like the guide needed to key them out.  The writer(s) use different names for things from they key I've been using, and not all the names they use to describe the flies are common (ex. they call the alula the squama [I think that's what they're referring to, 90% sure]). I am slowly getting the hang of it, I'm depending more on the descriptions of the genus/species than the key if I can narrow my options down.  I also have been sorting through bee flies that have already been identified for the collection.  There is a lot, the box that has the apolysis is ridiculously full, and I'm considering a second box to put them in.  There are also more geminaria added, they're probably my favorite genus.  They have a very unique eye and black markings on the area between the thorax and the abdomen, and they're pretty looking.  I also like the bombylius genus too, but mostly because they are fluffy.  In other news, I'm going to start looking up topics I can do talks on. I think I might do mimicry in insects or the significance of pollinating insects or the cycle of life in bee flies (if I can find enough info).  I'm kind of leaning towards mimicry, I find it fascinating.  In other news, I made a full meal tonight, and by that I mean vegetable, starch, and protein!  Steak in a bag, cous cous, and steamed spinach.  I over cooked the steak a little I think, I'm not too experienced in cooking steaks and I like my meat on the rarer side, but not rare enough where I get food poisoning and I don't know what to look for so I guess over is better than under.  Steak in a bag is pretty easy to make, since it cooks in a bag in the oven, and it is great on sandwiches too,  #Mealz4Dayz.  Well, that's all I have to say, I'm going to try to make rice krispy treats (hopefully they won't come out too bad).

Day Fifteen

Two weeks already! How the time flies.  Today pretty much went like every other day.  X and I started going through the bee flies we identified and putting them together by tribe.  We also looked at this one bee fly for an hour, because neither of us could make a definite call on what it was.  It looked like a combination of two species, but since that is highly unlikely, we just listened to The Doc's call on it.  I started looking at some bee flies from South America, but I stopped because I had to catch my bus/the key was using weird words.  Hopefully tomorrow I can get my own copy of they key, I used X's after he left.  I also may be going to Atlanta in July if I can get time off, although even if I can go, it is still up in the air because there isn't really any cheap forms of transportation to get me there.  I have mixed feelings about going to Atlanta, on one hand I'll be helping my parents and getting paid, on the other hand I'd rather be interning.  I guess I'll have to wait and see.

Second Sunday Salacity

Because I had to go for an alliteration (salacity is a synonym for wish/desire).

Sunday marks my third week here, hard to believe it.  Apart from my second Friday, I've been enjoying myself.  There is one thing I want though, my friends.  I was talking to an acquaintance who has done summer internships before, and I asked him about making friends.  He said don't expect to.  I'm fine with not having friends here, I don't mind being on my own, and 98% of the time I'm happy by myself.  The other 2% is broken down into 1% I don't have anyone to have a weird/inappropriate/inside joke conversations with when the mood strikes (sure there is texting or facebook messaging or phone calls, but nothing beats face to face) and the other 1% is because I need motivation to leave my room, and friends are generally good at making me do fun things (that are legal).  I will have to motivate myself to do things, instead of sitting in my room.  I'll try to plan some things out, there is nothing to do around my apartment, so it looks like I should figure out what I can do in the city.  Hopefully next weekend I will have some adventures to write about.

Second Saturday

Why I like birds 

Let me start this tale with how I got into birds...

When I was younger I didn't really care too much about birds.  I was all about the mammals, especially the carnivores.  I wanted to be a zoo keeper when I was younger but then I didn't.  All I knew was I wanted to do something with mammals.  It wasn't until I got into high school that I even thought seriously about birds. My AP bio teacher was an avid bird watcher, and would talk about it sometimes.  I wanted to impress my teacher, so I decided to take up bird watching.  Turns out I actually liked bird watching a lot, so I stuck with it.  And my interest grew from there.

Now onto why I like birds...

I am reasonably sure that I want to study animal courtship/mating in the future.  I find mating rituals and behaviors fascinating, along with genital form/function and honest signals.  I also think sexual selection and evolution caused by sexual selection the bees knees.  There is no better animal (in my opinion) where all these things I love can be seen, then birds.  Some birds grow elaborate feathers to impress a mate, others mimic any sound to woo, others build, and some dance and sing.  Male birds go to many lengths to impress females, even feeding them to show that they will be good providers for future offspring.   Birds can also be very promiscuous or monogamous or some sort of combination which is fascinating.  Some females are able to select sperm from a specific male they copulated with to fertilize her eggs.   Their nests are interesting too, they can be as simple as a dent in the sound or as complicated as an giant woven apartment shared by many birds.  I don't think I could find a mammal that goes to the lengths that birds do to attract a mate.  I will add more details to this later as there are more and I'd like to get into more specifics.  But I'm lazy and looking at videos of street food vendors.  

Day Twelve

I don't feel like talking about my day.  It did not start out well and although it did get better, I'd rather not reflect on it.  And now I have to go deal with a stupid housing thing, which is the last thing I want to do right now.  I promise a better post for tomorrow.

Please enjoy this vine that I found instead http://vinescope.com/the-life-of-a-raccoon-117.html

Day Eleven

So The Doc wasn't in today, and neither X nor I knew that she wasn't.  I didn't have anything to do really, because I finished the bee flies from the USA yesterday, and was going to ask her what I should do next.  I decided to go through a vial of flies that The Doc told me not to worry about, because based on the size of the flies, would be two different flies.  I decided to do it, for practice.  Just by looking at the vial, I also thought the flies would be apolysis and mythicomyids based on size alone.  Imagine my surprise when there were no bee flies!  Even with my almost two weeks of experience, I knew none of the flies I was looking at were bee flies.  Since I didn't have anything to do, I tried to key out the flies.  Never again unless The Doc is there.  I only managed to identify one fly completely on accident.  I was skimming through the dichotomous key book, when I saw a picture of a fly that looked like one floating in my pteri dish.  Sure enough, it was.  As for the other ones...no amount of google searches yielded results.  On a more interesting note, this man who works for the museum came in to the lab.  He had a bug and didn't know what it was, and asked us to identify it.  I thought it was a leafhopper, but I could not find a picture of one that looked like it.  Then X found picture of nymph leafhoppers that looked just like the man's mystery bug!  We both agreed that it probably was a one, and X emailed him with our thoughts.  And that was my day.  Hopefully The Doc is back tomorrow so I can have something new to do.

Day Ten

So I did field work today.  I have to say I like catching birds better, but I'm glad I got the experience.  To catch flies (what we were interested in) you wave a net around over grassy, bushy, poopy, sappy, leafy, areas.  Then you twist the net so the flies can't escape and try to get them all to the bottom of the net.  Now it gets really interesting, because the mouth aspirator comes into play.  The aspirator is simply a vacuum but you provide the suction.  You suck in one end, and with the other end vacuum the bugs up.  It is trickier than it sounds, because the bugs don't always want to be sucked up.  And spiders also are by catch (and I am not a huge spider fan after seeing the affects of their venom on someone close to me [my Grandpa was bitten on the leg by a spider and it was a nasty looking wound, he is fine now]).  I did take a cool picture of a spider carrying her egg sac though.

I also caught a bee fly!  I think it was from bombyliinae, specifically a bombylius, but I'm not to sure and neither was Q, X, and Jr. Doc (The Doc's grad student).  I don't think we caught any of the flies that Jr. Doc needed, but at least we tried.  Also Jr. Doc told my that chiggers only bite when they're juveniles, and their bites itch so much because they spit a chemical on the skin the changes its shape so it better accommodates their proboscis to drink our blood, and the fact that the skin changed its shape makes it itch!  How cool is that!? That's it for now, I am probably going to fold some laundry and go to bed.  

Day Nine

Same old same old at internship.  I identified a bunch of flies, I just have three more vials to go before I'm done with the USA flies.  I am definitely improving, Q confirmed one fly for me and pointed me in the right direction for another. Tomorrow we're allegedly going somewhere for fieldwork, but I'm not too sure anymore.  It is raining right now, so I don't know if we'll be able to go tomorrow.  In other intern news, I may be giving a talk at the Daily Planet (the globe sculpture/theater I've mentioned before).  I don't know what I'll do it on, I would like to do bee fly reproduction or maybe parasitism, but I'm also kind of interested in the role flies play in the environment, and if flies could fill the role as bees as pollinators if bees go extinct.  I'll figure something out, and I'll talk to The Doc about it.  That's all I have to say for now.  There will be more to write about tomorrow, even if there isn't fieldwork because adventures in cooking real food!