A Year to Come

Golly it's been a while since I last posted.  A lot has happened since then, namely finishing up the semester, getting a cave diving certification, and having family visit for Christmas.  Now I'm up in South Carolina with some family to bring in the new year.  I'm not going to say much more because I need to pack and get back to family.  Hopefully I'll get to post more later about the life I've been living.  No promises though: I'm really busy living it.

Let's do it 2013!

Time Keeps on Slippin'

Wow, more than a month since my last post!!  Yikes!  Sorry world.

A ton has happened since then, notably going to Texas for Thanksgiving with Christina.  I had an absolute blast (also meeting up with James too!) and I'm thrilled that I went.  I am still exhausted and am not going to try to write out what happened, but here's a quick overview:

Tuesday night: flew in, met one of Christina's friends and her (Christina's) dog
Wednesday: went for a walk, met up with James for lunch then met another of Christina's friends and brother, then went out to dinner with her family
Thursday: walked/jogged around a gorgeous lake with her family before going to her grandmother's house for Thanksgiving dinner and games, then went home for a movie (sleep)
Friday: saw Life of Pi, got a massage, went to dinner with a large group of Christina's family friends, went back home for a big party
Saturday: early lunch with a few of Christina's friends, a tour of her high school, wedding at a ranch, then straight to what was left of Christina's 5-year high school reunion (it was really late at that point)
Sunday: church, then flew back to Miami

I met about a hundred thousand people over the past 6 days and it was great.  That being said, I enjoy being home and I enjoy sleep.  Goodnight.

Sometimes I Get a Feeling (2)

A while back I talked about people seeming to avoid me.  Apparently people read my blog.  To address this topic, I am not mentally or logistically prepared to take on loads of visitors.  The post was a result of a few people nearby who haven't made much of an effort to see me, specifically to grab lunch or go out or something else equally simple.  I hope that I didn't give the impression that I want everyone I know to fly to Miami and stay with me for a week at a time.  Even with a house, I don't have the beds, schedule, or hosting prowess to have such visitors.  I hope this doesn't come off the wrong way but at the same time, I would hate to have the world show up at my doorstep expecting me to be a host.  If you want to visit me, just let me know and we can try sorting something out.

Pants on Fire

I have been reminded why I don't like politics.  It's a game that involves coercion, deception, money, and lies.  I do not endorse such games.  This and seemingly all presidential races just turn into two men and their respective cohorts scheming up ways to bend and twist the truth and often to outright lie in order to make a point.  The worst part is that it works.  More people hear these lies and take them as fact than do the people who actually see the statements for the lies that they are.  This only works to perpetuate the strategy.  It's part of the political game and both sides play by those rules because if they don't then they don't stand a chance.  It's a cruel and vile game of which I want to have no part.  Unfortunately, I don't have too much of a choice.  In reality, there are 6 presidential candidates according to my trusty Wikipedia research but realistically, it only comes down to two men.  One has been running the country for the past 4 years and as far as I've heard he hasn't lived up to a lot of promises he made.  The other is making a lot of promises that many people don't seem to understand or think will work for lack of details.  Both are dropping lies about the other and the other's position so who the heck am I to believe anymore???

Obama already has 47% of the vote absolutely no matter what he does.  My impression is that Obama supporters are like many Mac users.  Once they get one, they suddenly think that it's the greatest thing since sliced bread and no matter how many times they have to go to the Apple store to get it fixed, they still insist that nothing on Earth competes with it.  Obama supporters are convinced that he can do no wrong and any word against him is a fallacy.  Romney has a more difficult role: the other 40-some percent of the country is convinced that Obama has mortally wounded this nation and another 4 years of him would surely be the end of the world as we know it.  No matter what either one of them says, they're still guaranteed that percentage and both of them are well aware of it.  The last little sliver of the voting population, like me, are the ones who are really going to decide the fate of this election.  Again, the candidates are well aware of this.  So what do they both do to reach us?  They prey on our apathy and ignorance by deceiving us.  They tell us about how the other candidate is a horrible monster who doesn't deserve to run this country.  They tell us about how the US will crumble if the other is elected.  They target our lack of familiarity with the facts and feed us lies to get us to believe what they want us to believe.

I'm sick of it.

I don't know who I'll vote for but being an undecided voter in the biggest swing state in the country, I know my voice is pretty significant and I will vote but good grief is this hard.

Is voting really meant to be this stressful?

Politics Round 3

I heard about but did not see a Romney billboard that was talking about how if you want a world with gay marriage, then vote for Obama.
The advertisement was flawed from the start because that's exactly what half the country wants.  Maybe I'm biased because I have friends and family that are homosexual and I think they are wonderful.  I think that yes, marriage is between a man and a woman but does it need to be exclusively so?  I honestly think not.  I really do think that it's fine for men to love men and women to love women.  I don't believe that it's my place to tell someone that he or she is not allowed to love someone else.  How can anyone control who someone else loves?  Just because I am not gay doesn't mean that no one else is allowed to be and I'm not sure why some people think that that's exactly what it means.

I think this is going to be a tough decision for the election.  It would be nice to be able to pick and choose what to take from each candidate because they both have good ideas of their own and I think that if we took the best of both worlds that this country would flourish.

On a side note, I found out today that middle schoolers don't play real football anymore because we as a country have deemed it unsafe.  They instead play flag football without helmets, without kicking/punting, and only 8 downs to reach the endzone.  The way the game is set up is not very similar to the sport it is trying to mimic.  No I don't like or appreciate football and would not choose to play it but I am saddened that we would step in and bastardize the sport.  If you don't want your kids playing a contact sport, sign them up for cross country, tennis, swimming, track, or even basketball or soccer which do have contact but not in the same way.  If your child wants to play a contact sport and that is his dream, then work with him to play it safely.  Don't go changing the entire sport.  These are the same people that call it bullying when a coach has players run laps and have outlawed it.  I don't know what the goal is here in adolescent athletics, but I'm not a fan of the changes.  I wish George Carlin was still alive with his biting repartee to come up with an edgy, witty stand-up routine about it all.

Politics Round 2

I don't know why I'm watching this because this is completely unlike me but here it is:

Notes on the Presidential Debate:

National Debt:
Romney: Cut spending on everything that he doesn't want to have to borrow money from China from.  Keep taxes low in order to have more people being put to work because they can afford the taxes.
Obama: Making excuses for the debt he came into.  Talked about the deficit cuts he made but he doubled the national debt after 4 years when he promised to instead cut it in half.

Then Christina called and talked to me for a while...

Education:
Romney: Local and state are most involved but Federal has the ability to get involved.  Let the parents and children decide what schools to go to.  He's not going to cut education funding.
Obama: Students need federal support.  Forgive student loans.

Romney claims he'll collaborate with the government and work together with everyone meeting with everyone on a regular basis.
Obama says he'll listen to take ideas from Repub or Dem as long as it benefits the middle class. 

Closing:
Obama: talking about how nice things have been the past 4 years and wants to continue doing the same thing for the good of the country.  Everyone gets a "fair shot" and "fair share" and "everyone's playing by the rules."  He says he's kept the promise to the middle class.
Romney: Concerned about the future of the country saying how big of an election it is.  Promises to get income up again.  Says he'll help create 12 million new jobs.  Many will lose health insurance, but will cut the cost of healthcare.  He will help medicare.  He will "not cut our commitment to our military."


In terms of the deficit, I think Obama will not fix it.  It's getting worse and it will continue to get worse.  As for that and everything else Romney said, he has a lot of big plans but if he's elected he's going to have to make them get through Congress and House if he wants them to be put in place.  If they don't agree with him, then all his plans are lost.  He can promise all he wants but his plans are going to need to be passed in order for any of his promises are going to be upheld.  Romney was much more prepared and on point than Obama but perhaps that was just a matter of Obama having an off-night.  Romney's plans seemed to make more sense but part of that could have been a product of his better presence on the podium.  Overall from this debate, I'd say Romney 1, Obama 0.

This was just one debate and I was distracted for some of it and missed a good portion of the beginning.  I certainly can't base a decision on that alone.  Well, there's still time to figure it out.

On a side note, the moderator was kind of entertaining because he couldn't hardly get a word in.

Diving Symposium

Golden Gate Bridge

 This will be short because it's well after 1am and I have to be at work by 8:30 tomorrow.

I spent last week in Monterey, California at a symposium for the American Academy of Underwater Sciences (AAUS).  They are the organization that sets the standards for scientific diving.  It was interesting to see my first annual AAUS symposium and to see coastal central California.  It really was beautiful out there even though the pictures might not entirely show it.

Steep Streets of San Francisco

Kelp on the Beach!

The symposium was successful in the sense that I was able to see the other Diving Safety Officers (DSOs) from other universities.  The chance to network was very helpful because I now have faces to put with names and diving programs.  It might take a few years to really get it but I'll eventually get to the point where I personally know the DSOs from the universities that we are getting some students from as well as to where we're sending some divers once they finish at UM.

Monterey, California

I learned while there how special our program is.  In talking to people from other programs, it made me have an even greater appreciation for ours.  Our gear is top of the line, we have a big pool, year-round diving that is easily accessible, 2 full-time motivated dive officers, extensive courses, the list goes on.  My opinion of our program being one of the best is now much more based on actual experience instead of bias.

I have already begun working on a presentation for the next symposium in Curacao.  It outlines our training highlighting specifically some of our unique and cutting-edge techniques.  I am proud of the scientific diving program I work for and I am extraordinarily thankful for being able to be a part of it.  There is often a feeling of frustration when trying to explain my job to people because there is only a small fraction of people who actually understand what I do and to everyone else who doesn't quite understand, my job description doesn't quite describe what I do.  It's a frustration that is largely unnecessary since others' impressions of what I do don't matter but I still feel it from time to time.  Maybe I'm just developing an ego because I do honestly think that our program is better than most others and I believe from the bottom of my heart that my opinion is virtually unbiased

Is it really a bad thing to be proud of my work and to believe that we are doing the best we can do in the diving program?  My feelings are internalized and I'm not going around telling other DSOs that I think our program is better but is it really a bad thing just to think it?  I sure hope not because it's too late and I can't help it.  I think I'm overall personally humble and modest but apparently part of me wants to throw modesty to the wind and have more recognition and respect in the professional world.

Politics

Politics.  I hate it.  I have never understood, appreciated, or been interested in politics at any level.  However, the election is coming up soon and I feel that it is my responsibility to exercise my right to vote.  I have never affiliated with a political party before which at this stage is beneficial because I'm not swayed one way or another based on blind loyalty to one party or another.

One issue that I see recurring on news and campaigns is taxation.  One side claims that I should pay more taxes while the other side is telling me that rich people should give me a break and pay some of my share for me.  Both candidates are saying that their system of taxation is fair so who am I supposed to believe?

Taxation was created in the US on a percentage system.  Everyone is required to pay back a certain percentage of whatever he or she makes.  The rich pay hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars more than I pay in taxes to the government while the poor pay much less than I do.  The percentage system was put in place to account for the rich making more money than the middle and lower classes.  They already pay tons more than we pay.  If I work my butt off my whole life and earn a fortune, I don't want to be responsible for paying more than my slice of the pie.  With that system, we're going to turn into the European Union where everyone calls on Germany to bail them out.  How can we expect to keep calling upon the upper class to bail everyone else out?  If we keep taking their money, sooner or later there won't be an upper class left and who will save us then?  Whose money will we take once we exhaust all of their savings?

What I think is fair is everyone stepping up and pitching in their portion, even if this means the majority of our country (myself included) pay a little bit more.  Where that money is spent is a whole other issue.

In other news, I'm going to California on Sunday!  It is for the American Academy of Underwater Sciences and I'm quite excited about it.  It will be interesting to see how other programs are run.  Plus it will be nice to go to Monterrey for my first time.

Deflation

For my job (Yes, as a teacher.  I never though I would say those words.), I am creating modules that are computer-based for our students to complete while we are out of town.  The task is very straightforward and generally involves opening an already existing powerpoint presentation that has been used for years to teach the class, making it more interesting, record the audio of myself presenting it slide by slide, then write up a 10 question quiz at the end to make sure they understood all the material.  It's more involved and glorified than that but if you strip it all down to the bare bones, that's essentially what I'm doing.  Yes, it is straightforward.  However, it is extraordinarily more time consuming than it sounds.  For a 12 minute presentation, I put about 15-20 hours of work into it.  I have just completed my third and fourth presentations and I'm pretty satisfied with them.  They have all the information in a good powerpoint layout without too many words, sprinkled with photos, splashed with humor, narrated in a very interested and engaging tone, and takes the place of a long lecture.

It has finally come back around to me that students have completely disregarded the presentation and have just skipped to the quiz.  They can take it a few times so I imagine that they just re-take it, learning which are the right answers along the way, until they pass it.  I really shouldn't care, but the hardest part for me is all of the work that I've put into it gets completely disregarded.  I put all of my free time into making these modules as educational, interesting, engaging, and entertaining as I possibly can, and then it turns out to be for nothing.  It's a deflating feeling.

I don't like what it feels like but in time, I'll get over it.  I don't want my happiness to be dependent on what other people do or don't do.  If my students already know it all, then there's no problem with them skipping everything.  If they don't know it all, it will show up on the midterm and final exams.  I am proud of my work and I enjoyed putting forth so much effort to make what I've made.  That's far more important than whether anyone else appreciates it or not.

Kick It Up A Notch

Photo: www.infobarrel.com

In December I'm going to take a cave diving course.  I can't wait!  This is one of the types of diving that I've been looking forward to for a long long time and it just so happened that a spot opened up in a course that I only need to pay for about a third of the cost of a typical cave course.  I'm not wishing my time away between now and then but I am REALLY looking forward to it.

Looking Back

Olin Hall was pretty much my home for 4 years.  Math, Astronomy, Physics.

So here I am at 1am when, instead of sleeping, I'm here on the internet.  Often I would consider what I do on the internet at this hour wasting time by checking emails that never come, browsing music, surfing Wikipedia, updating facebook, etc.  Tonight I was about to go to bed when I ran into a facebook group that I was invited to join.  It was made for my graduating class at Denison and the idea, at least in the short term, is to update everyone on what we're doing.  It brought a wave of nostalgia crashing over me.  Sure Ohio isn't my favorite state, but boy do I love Denison University.  I have a lot of loyalty to the University of Miami, but Denison to me has a much more special place in my heart.  Since graduating, I've only been back for 2-3 days which was to visit for graduation in 2010.  I'm still in touch with a handful of people from Denison, some on a regular basis and others I'll talk to every year or so.  By and large, there's no one from Denison with whom I would consider myself in good communication.  I have a history of not keeping up with people.  My whole life I've had this issue.  However, that's not the topic of the night tonight.  Tonight, I'm simply trying to express that I miss college life.  I miss being an undergrad at Denison.  I miss the friends, the close proximity, the schedule, the opportunities, the clubs, the knowledge to gain, the scenery, the friendliness of the school and surrounding town, the professors, and really having a defined role in all of it.  My mind is just drifting through memories of my time there in no particular order.  I'm thinking of my work with the Physics department, the concerts I played, my freshman year dorm, spending time in the observatory, track meets, roommates, dining halls, classes, and then much more specific experiences.  I poured all of my effort into doing my best during those years and because I was so fiercely devoted to giving it my all, I am now all the more attached to it.  Denison will forever be my alma mater no matter where I go or what I do.

Music Revival

I finally got a couple marine science grad students together to play some trios with me!  One is a violinist and the other plays the cello.  We have another violinist in the mix but she's in Texas right now so we'll have to wait for her to get back.  We're meeting up next Thursday evening at my house to play together and I can't wait!  The last time I played music with anyone else was December of 2010: over a year and a half ago.  From the day I picked up a viola until now, today literally marks the longest amount of time that has passed since I have played music with anyone else.  It's not the longest amount of time since I've played alone, but definitely since I've played in a group.  Crazy.

Pulley Ridge

Hi Friends,

Mike and Casey goofing around on decompression.

I'm now safely back in Miami after a fortnight's adventure at sea was cut short by 3 days due to the impending tropical storm/hurricane Isaac that was coming in from the Caribbean.  Overall it was a successful trip and it is the first of about 5 trips that I will be taking for this project.  As I might have said before, the capacity to which I was a part of the team was as the support diver for the rebreather dives.  The way I work as a support diver is by getting the team in their gear which includes a rebreather, lift bags, reels of line, clips, hoses, 3 extra stage deco bottles they clip onto their left sides (see the photo from the last post), and collection tools.  Each of the four divers has the configuration slightly different so although the beginning phase was slow, I was setting them all up in a flash by the end of it.

Rebreather team

I honestly don't really know much about the science that was going on during this research cruise.  I do know that the rebreather team, other than the three dives it took to set up the instruments on the moorings as mentioned a couple posts back, were diving to collect samples of specific fish, corals, sponges, and algae.

Me on deco, photo credit Casey

Yes, the cruise was a success all things considered.  Sure we had to go home 3 days early and cut our productivity, but for the time we were out there we were working very hard and very well together.

I got home Saturday evening and spent that night and all day Sunday with Christina at home taking shelter from Tropical Storm Isaac as we were hit with rain.  She had work today but when she got there they told everyone to go home after an hour or two because it was too rough to take any boats out and a little too dicey to be taking down all the hurricane shutters yet.  So... she came back home to me and we're spending time together by finishing a movie we started yesterday, making dinner, learning more salsa moves, and now reading.  Well, she's reading while I'm posting this update.

We had up to 10 silky sharks at a time.

Work is going to kick off tomorrow in full swing.  As I've mentioned, we're teaching two classes this semester (same course but 2 different sections) so it will be much more demanding than ever before.  Tomorrow the students are not having their pool session tomorrow since we need to go over a few lecture sessions before we can get them in the water so the whole day will be spent getting everything situated for the semester ahead such as packing everything away from the cruise and figuring out space for all of the new gear that we had to purchase to accommodate the double enrollment.

Sharks all around us!

The semester ahead will be busy so I hope I find time here and there to keep everyone updated!

Quick Update

Casey and the shark.

I'm really tired so this is going to be short.  On the dive today (which remember, I'm only a support diver so I'm not seeing the bottom) we saw a 6-7ft silky shark and a pair of adult dolphins.  They came and went throughout the decompression, never seeing the shark and dolphins at the same time.  It was the first time I ever heard dolphins communicating underwater.  A very cool experience.  Things are going well and I'm having a great experience.

Out to Sea

Research Vessel F. G. Walton Smith

I’m back out to sea for work yet again, for the last time for many months to come.  We came on board Tuesday the 14^th at 6:30am.  The Walton Smith was under way less than an hour later.  Tuesday was spent getting familiar with the boat, watching a required UNOLS video, going through a boat orientation, having science meetings, and setting up our gear.  It was a slow day and I was very tired for most of it.  Yesterday was the first diving operation.  I’ll spare the details but a couple enormous weights are dropped and 2 rebreather divers descend to 180ft (50+m) to attach some instruments to them and connect a line between the two weights.  They will send up a buoy when they are on decompression which is the cue for me to descend and meet them at 100ft (30m).  I take information from the divers about their well-being and the decompression schedule, ascend and relay the information to the boat, then drop back down to be with the divers for the remainder of their ascent.  The dive I completed yesterday was to 98ft for 61 minutes.

By the end of the day yesterday we set up the second site with the two massive weights and the plan was to complete the dives on them this morning.  Everything was set and the divers entered the water on time.  Within 5 minutes, they surfaced with a current that was unbeatable even with torpedo-like scooters with which to fight it.

We are now in transit to Pulley ridge where we will set up the third and final mooring site and do a dive there.  By sunset, another part of the project will start up that involves me to dive to about 30ft (10m) to set up what is called a light trap.  It’s an apparatus that involves a net and a flashlight that will be set up at sunset and retrieved at sunrise to trap larval fish.

Hopefully we will be able to make everything happen according to plans from here on out!

A Taste of an Update

A couple quick things before I drift off to sleep:

Christina is great.  We spent most of the day together today starting out by going to Panera then a bakery then after walking around for a bit we came back home, she left for a little while, then picked me up after dinner to hang out with friends before coming home to briefly practice salsa.  We've been learning salsa moves over the internet.  She knows how to salsa while I have no clue.  We put in a couple hours a couple weeks ago and tonight we managed to recover all that we had learned and even start learning a new move.  I must say, we look good.

Photo: www.halcyon.net

Pending an official notification from RSMAS, I have been moved full-time to the dive office now.  There are a lot of changes that are taking place there this semester in addition to my move.  For the first time in the school's history, we are running two courses in the same semester and as a result we are expanding our inventory.  Instead of getting the standard backplate and wing, Halcyon has agreed to provide us with a custom orange and green version of their standard setup, which is shown here.  It will probably make more sense once we get the new systems in and I can take a picture of them and post it here.  Until then, either use your imagination or if that fails, just forget I said anything for a month until they come in and I can post a new photo.  The bottom line is that a diving program using Halcyon gear is already unprecedented.  Once we have custom orange and green wings, we're moving into a league of our own in terms of gear inventory.  Other changes are taking place but it's too late to list them.  I'll explain in full detail once information is made public.  Until then, hang tight.

Sometimes I get a Feeling

Do you ever have the feeling that you extend genuine invitations to people to visit and not only do they never visit but they never even respond back even after it turns out they were nearby?  I have plenty to keep me busy without visitors but I do sometimes get the feeling people are avoiding me.

...Just like I'm avoiding my blog.  I'm serious, I'm going to work on it and be better.  I've been out in the field and a lot has been happening with my job.  I won't post anything about that until it's official though.

I'm driving 5 hours with Christina this weekend to visit some of her relatives and I'm very excited about it.  As with everything else, I'll post about it later (but this time I have no choice since it hasn't happened yet).

Stay sunny!

Breaking In

What would field work be without a few hurdles?

I’m down in the lower FL Keys helping with a PhD student’s project on bicolor damselfish.  The hardest part about the work is that we are collecting live samples.  In other words, I’m fishing.  …with aquarium nets.  …on scuba gear.  …chasing spry little fish from 1-6cm all over the reef.  Obviously there is some difficulty there but we’re using a strong anesthetic to help us sedate the fish.  It’s still difficult but without it there would be no hope of catching any.  There have been other issues such as equipment breaking, not having what we need, weather not cooperating, etc but for the most part we have been able to anticipate most of those problems.

The problem that I never expected happened even before getting in the water.  When we got to the hotel (more of a motel/restaurant/dive center) at 9:30pm, we were given a set of keys and told to go to room 24.  Hungry and exhausted, we were surprised when the door opened an inch before being stopped by the chain that can only be locked from the inside.  Perplexed, we returned to the key givers and explained our situation to which we noted a facial expression similar to ours.  Thinking through our options (which included yanking the door open and breaking the chain, at the suggestion of the hotel staff), I decided to break in through the window to which the hotel staff did not object.  Prying the window slats open, I managed to pop the screen out being careful not to knock over the lamp in front of the window.  Weaseling my way up to the window, I slid in head first and face up into the lowest open window panel.  It’s not the first time I’ve gotten into a locked room and I’m sure it won’t be the last, but it was one of the most rewarding.  It turns out that it's a suite with two entrances so the back door we were trying to access had been locked then the previous guests walked out the other door.  The keys the hotel gave us were ineffective on the other door so we weren't sure which door connected through.  At any rate it was a fun little adventure.

Since then, everything has been working smoothly.  The other non-fish collecting news I have is that I bought a 3-piece collapsible spear for shooting lionfish.  The benefit is that it can break down and fit into a small space that I can keep with me on every dive without any hassle at all.  I’m excited to try it out for the first time and I’m sure I’ll have photos to come.

In bed by 11:45, awake by 6am for a long day of research.  Goodnight!

P.S. I’m still behind on posts so keep an eye on my earlier days to see any new posts.

Coming Up

Okay so I'm at work right now but fear not, I'll get some more posts back up.  I still have the rest of the posts from the fish counting cruises to go and also a phenomenal trip up to Mystic.  I'll get caught up but not while I'm at work.  Look for new posts before this date as I will be back-dating them.

On the Way

Wow!  It's been so long that I'm not sure my blog recognizes who I am.  Don't worry, I have a whole bunch of entries that I just need to transcribe from pen and paper onto the computer.  I'll back-date them so keep an eye out.  It might happen tonight but it might also not happen for another couple weeks.  Hopefully sooner than later.

The exciting thing to report is that Christina is joining me in Mystic for three days!  This is sort of old news since she made the decision over a month ago but it's exciting because it's coming up on Friday!  I'll certainly have a lot to report about when that happens.  Until then, stay safe everybody and don't forget to smile at someone today.

22 June - Florida Keys

Today was a very standard typical day.  I didn't see anything too far out of the ordinary even though team 1 spotted and photographed a manta ray.  The only other noteworthy piece of news is that there was a storm that popped up halfway through my lunch break so we spent an hour and a half driving South to outrun it.  We were successful and finished the day strong.

21 June - Florida Keys

We did 5 dives today but the big news is that the Heat won the NBA Championships 4-1 over the OKC Thunder tonight!  It was a 15-point margin after a well-fought game on their home-court.  had they lost this one, they would have fought for the title in OK City for games 6 and 7.

LET'S GO HEAT!

20 June - Florida Keys

Today the conditions were too rough for diving so we stayed dry all day long.  It was decided that conditions up in Key Largo would be better than in Key West so we spent the day puttering our way North in no hurry since we would not be diving until tomorrow regardless of how early we got here.

I spent my time eating, sleeping, reading, talking, reading/sleeping, eating, playing dominos, watching the film The Birdcage, playing euchre, eating, talking on the phone, and then coming to bed (not exactly in  that order).

Hopefully tomorrow will be better conditions for diving and I'll have stories of being in the water instead of sitting on a boat developing cabin fever.  here's to better diving tomorrow!

19 June - Florida Keys

What an unexpected turnout for today.  The first round of diving was full of wind, rain, thunder, lightning, waves, swells, and low visibility.  This made for lots of difficulty getting back onto the boat via the ladder.  Being the last team out of the water for the first round, I was surprised to see the next team in dry clothes.  It turns out they decided to cancel all diving the rest of the day.  I spent the remainder of it eating lunch, reading, napping, watching movies, talking on the phone to Christina, then watching the Heat go up 3-1 against the Thunder in the finals.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day of diving.  I guess I'll find out when I wake up!

18 June - Florida Keys

Well here I am back on the Spree.  Mel is still not my best friend and still has the personality of a ticked off drill sergeant.  I will continue to be nice to her and expect only scowls or complete disregard in return.  This trip is only 7 days, 3 days shy of the last cruise.  The diving is not expected to be world class but at least it's diving.

My dive buddy Katie and team member Amanda both work at Biscayne National Park where Christina works.  I haven't heard anything about Katie but Christina has said good things about Amanda.  The 4th team member, Ben, is the wild card.  He seems pretty cool but time will tell how compatible we are.  Hopefully everything is wonderful.

So here's to another 7 days on the Spree with what is expected to be foul weather.  Let's make thebest of it and have a great time.  Ready?  Go.

8 June - Dry Tortugas

Today was fine.  Nothing out of the ordinary happened.  My wrist is feeling a little better, the dives were uninteresting except for a few nice moments (juvenile jackknife fish, pictured), and I'm looking forward to being home, minus all the yard work that needs to be done.  Two more dives tomorrow will conclude the trip and I'll be back home by about midnight tomorrow night.  Good times.

7 June - Dry Tortugas

Highlights from today: Jean-Ann didn't fill my tank properly last night so when I discovered it this morning I was able to negotiate the nullification/retraction of my beer fine from a couple days ago.

I started reading 1984 again and now I'm 37 pages into it and would like to keep going.

The diving was not interesting at all today.  The Heat won in Boston tonight and will host game 7 for a place to play OK City for the championship.  Unfortunately I'll be riding home from Key West during the entire game.

I still don't think I've found my place on the boat with this crowd but I've had a good experience overall.  I'm looking forward to the last 6 dives, getting home, and coming back out for a week cruise in the Keys in a couple weeks.

6 June - Dry Tortugas

Yes, today was a definite improvement from yesterday.  I decided to start learning the scientific names of the fish, we had great dive sites, Ben saved me from getting yelled at by Mel for having my shorts tied up to dry too close to the life rafts, and I saved Michelle from being swept away by the current.  After the first dive, I grabbed the end of the rope and she somehow ended up behind me and I reached back in just enough time to grab her wrist and pull her back in.

Best of all, my wrist is slightly better and I'm in bed before 9:00.  Now I'll read until I fall asleep.  Only 2 and a half days of diving left and 3 days until I go home and get to see Christina.

5 June - Dry Tortugas

We finished diving early today so now I'm washed, dried, snacked, and waiting for dinner.

It turns out that my wrist is worse today.  I can only put little pressure on it and can't bend it very far.

Today has been the worst day of the cruise.   (I took a nap at this point then had dinner and so now it's much later) It started out with waking up to a dream that Anne Moss was in, reminding me after waking up of how she recently took her life.  I then came upstairs to an average breakfast as I discovered that my wrist is much more hurt than I thought.  It seems to be a mild sprain.  The sun hardly showed itself all morning and only seldom did it appear the rest of the day, of which I was on intern duty meaning I was responsible for helping recover divers all day long.  As I came back from my second dive, in my haste to get lunch, I forgot for the first time to take my first stage regulator off my tank and a group of people publicly called me out on it (forgetting results in owing the crew beers).  Taking it all in stride, I hurried back inside to get lunch.  After about 4 bites, the door opens and Mel in her standard biting, demanding tone hollers in "divers are up and we're lacking in Team 5 interns..."  Of the 5 teams of 4 divers, one is selected each day from each team (in rotation) to have intern duty so there are 5 interns each day.  Instead of asking me to come out and take a break from lunch, she went for the more roundabout approach which really rubbed me the wrong way.  The reason it got to me so much is that it was a buildup of several things.  The worst of all of them, as silly and melodramatic as it may sound, is that I don't feel like I'm closely connecting with people on this trip.  I don't feel like I am quite as qualified to be here as a fish ID specialist.  There are some awesome people on the trip, but I don't feel like I'm really close to any of them.  I'm kind of the odd one out.  It's weird feeling most comfortable here in my teeny bunk behind the cheesy little frog-themed curtain around the bunk instead of being around people, or even diving for that matter.  Honestly I think I'm just being moody and worn out emotionally after 6 full days on board.  This being said though, the Heat loss added insult to injury tonight 90-94 putting them down 2-3 in the series.  Tomorrow is a new day and I will hopefully have a better attitude.  Goodnight.

4 June - Dry Tortugas

The visibility on today's dives went down the hole.  With it, however, did not go the quality of dive sites.  The redeeming factor was the supreme amount of reef relief (topographically speaking).  The sites today had pinnacles, valleys, swim-throughs, walls, plateaus, caverns, etc, enough to rival Shark's Cove in Hawai'i.  The visibility unfortunately did degrade the overall quality of the dive but I still had my favorite dive today.  I think my outlook on diving and quality of dive sites will change when I get back home.  I think I will start to notice fish species and abundance much more automatically than I do now.  A bad site might be redeemed by a rare dog snapper instead of some random big fish.  I'll find out when I get back to diving in Miami.

Two more noteworthy things happened today, neither of which are necessarily good.  First, on the second dive of the day, Oryiey (really not sure how to spell his name) got lost looking at fish.  I finished my count and together with Nathan we found Michelle.  We waited for him then searched for a couple minutes before ascending, with a full 3-minute safety stop.  Sure enough he was at the surface and he had in fact gotten lost but not knowing that gave us a bit of a scare underwater.  The other noteworthy tidbit is that while doing pull-ups (I miss climbing) on a 3"x3" betal beam, my left hand slipped a bit and was pulled in a weird way as I tried to hang on.  The back of my hand below the pinky and ring finger hurt as if I've pulled something.  Hopefully a good night's rest can remedy the situation.  I'll keep posted, but the first step is to sleep and it's already past 11pm.

3 June - Dry Tortugas

It's going on midnight right now so this will be short.  The reason I'm up is because I just finished watching the 4th playoff game of the Heat-Celtics.  Boston won 93-91 in overtime when Wade missed the game-winning buzzer-beater.  Sad times.

As for today, the diving was pretty good.  Not quite as many fish, but there were some big ones like schools of permit and a blacktip shark.  After the last dive today we went snorkeling and saw a nurse shark, permit, dog snapper, and huge barracuda.  I'm still finding my place in this crowd, but it's a great experience.

2 June - Dry Tortugas

I'm beginning to realize how nice it can be to be disconnected from the word for a while.  Sure there are times throughout the day that I wish I could call someone perhaps about a joke or say how something reminded me of them.  Of course I miss family and friends and being with and talking to Christina on a regular basis.  Aside from that, I'm enjoying being out of touch with the rest of the world.  Another thing I am recognizing is the benefit of being alone/having alone time.  I walked all over Fort Jefferson today alone and it was great to go wherever I wanted without considering anyone else.  Allow me to specify however that this is a good thing in moderation.  I enjoyed getting right back to the group after an hour or so and getting right back into fun and games.

1 June - Dry Tortugas

After going to sleep around 9 last night, I felt great waking up at 6:30.  I had breakfast and everything was going well until Mel came bursting through the cabin calmly but deliberately to get the oxygen kit.  It turned out that Dave and Tracy had gotten tangled in their line and shot up from 50ft at the end of a 100ft dive.  We put them both on oxygen and tried to get them to sit still.  They are fine last I checked (some 14 hours after the incident) so that's good.  Apparently they only sat out for one dive before getting back in for another 70+ft dive.
After that incident, another dive team had their float caught in the prop on the descent, my team had our float disappear (but got recovered), and it was 100% overcast all day long with wind and rain for the majority of it.  We've all had better conditions.  Oh, not to mention the Heat lost tonight.

However, the day did have its glows.  The food was great, the sunset was stunning, I found a handful of other euchre players, and the diving was amazing.  The sites today were easily as good as some (not all) of the better spots in Belize but with more fish than Belize.  The 3rd site had pinnacles that were about 20ft high with schools of jacks, snappers, and chub.  The diving here is indeed very good.
I'm fitting in more but still feel like a weak link particularly when it comes to knowing my fish.  I'm going to have to work on that.  It's almost midnight which means it's after bedtime.

31 May - Dry Tortugas

The first full day has been interesting.  There are already some people I don't fit with perfectly and others that I would work with on any project.  It's funny though because I seem to have been wrong about a handful of them.  Some I thought I would struggle to relate to are turning out to have the most in common whereas others I thought would be great to be around don't seem to have as compatible personalities as I thought.  I get along well with everyone but as I'm sure you all know, there's a range: people can fall anywhere on the spectrum.
Overall I would call this first day a success and I'm looking forward to the days to come.

30 - Dry Tortugas

My first research cruise has officially begun.  After a weekend of being sick and not getting much done, today has been a total whirlwind of craziness.

My day began at 5:45 when I awoke to rent a ladder from Home Depot so I could install my motion sensors on my outdoor floodlights.  It doesn't make sense to leave them on for 10 straight days while I'm away so I wanted to get it done before leaving.  I struggled to fit the components into the existing fixture so to make a long story short all I did was replace the bulbs with energy efficient ones and left the 4 by the corner/backyard on.  While up on the ladder, I noticed a serious accumulation of leaves and muck on the roof of the screened porch, likely the culprit of all the leaks I've noticed below.  I decided to clean out the roof of all the debris then decided the grass had already gotten out of hand and needed to be cut so I quickly took care of that.  After showering, paying my cable bill, and finishing up the last of the packing, I headed out to return the ladder, pick up a few things from CVS, fill up my car with gas, and drive to RSMAS for a meeting.  Afterwards, I rushed off to the post office, picked up lunch, returned to RSMAS to eat and fix an inflator hose for the trip.  We got away late but reached Key West by 7pm.

I have been introduced to the crew, several of the divers, and the boat.  After an hour and a half briefing, we were able to take some time before the 11pm departure during which time my carpool (Steve, Nathan, and I) got dinner.

We watched the end of game 2 of the Heat-Celtics playoff game where the Heat won in overtime.

Now I've climbed into my bunk below deck and am being lulled by the slow steady rocking of the boat cutting through the calm waters on a clear night on our way to the Tortugas.  It's been a long time since I've slept on a boat (and Passion, the yacht I sore didn't hardly rock anyway) so it's nice to feel the calming sensation again.  I write this at 12:30 in my bunk tucked away below deck behind my curtain nestled up against the wall under a dim, almost flickering light thinking to myself that I'm finally on another grand adventure.  I'm excited to see what this new experience brings.  As for now, I've earned my sleep.  Goodnight.

Dry Turtles

I meant to post earlier about my upcoming trip.  This is really my last opportunity to put anything before I go.  Tomorrow I leave for the Dry Tortugas, an area about 70 miles west of Key West, accessible by only sky or sea.  I'll be spending a bit of time out there doing what are called Reef Visual Censuses.  I'll be doing working dives about 5 times a day where the entire dive is devoted to surveying the sites by identifying and recording fish species, recording the amount of each species present, minimum, maximum, and average lengths of each species.  The census also includes a plethora of recordings for the benthic habitat: type of substrate, hard/soft coral species, vertical relief, slope, visibility, temperature, cross-sectional area at several heights above the base depth, and a number of other sightings such as trash, lionfish, urchins, conch, etc.  It's going to be a lot of work, but from what I hear of the diving, it's some of the best in nearly the entire Caribbean.  The Dry Tortugas is an area whose regulations are very strictly enforced, thus keeping people out.  Boating, fishing, swimming, and diving are highly restricted and the paperwork required to bring a boat into it keeps most of the world away.  This means that many of the fish that I will see out there have never seen a diver before.  Many of the reefs are potentially unexplored.  I'm anticipating that the amount and the variety of marine life is going to be rivaled only by the Philippines and the Red Sea (of the places I've dived).  Yes, I know my hopes are high.  I don't honestly expect the diving to be as good as either of those two places but I do think it will be the best I've seen since Egypt.

I desperately need some sleep because I'm waking up tomorrow at 5:45 to take care of a long list of tasks that need to be finished before I leave at 1:30.

P.S. there's no internet or cell reception on the boat so you'll have to wait until I'm back to find out how it went.  Peace!

More Moving

Full car load during move-out

Don't worry, I'm not moving.  This time it's Christina.  She's finally getting out of her apartment and away from the landlord who only invokes horrible stories from her about how he tries to rip her off all the time.  Anyway she never has to deal with him again and I'm happy about that.  Getting back to my point, a friend who now lives about a mile away is leaving her room in a shared house for the summer and Christina is subletting her room for the next 3 months.  Since her internship is for 12 months, this first quarter of the year will be beneficial in deciding what she wants in terms of housing (particularly location) for the following 3 quarters, i.e. whether or not the commute is worth relocating away from civilization.

During the process, she is also working full time 8:30-4:30, 5 days a week as well as studying for her comprehensive exam for the masters program.  I came over to help her move and managed to fill her car with nearly her entire apartment (there is a hybrid bicycle under there).  One of her possessions that gave us the most trouble was my Valentine's Day gift to her: a wisteria plant that has grown a surprising amount.  In fact it has shown so much growth that it required us to build a support structure for it out of bamboo and sewing thread.  The only place in the car that it would safely fit was at my feet.

Driving with plants

Moving help came in an unexpected way

From there, we loaded up the car and brought everything back to my house since her friend has not yet left for the summer so the room is unavailable at the moment (she's staying on the couch until the friend has left in about 10 days).  When we made it back to my house and started moving her things inside, Christina spotted a cute little kitten and we've now both fallen in love with it.  We refuse to feed or house it but it is the most precious and playful little thing I've seen in a long time and it's nearly impossible to just walk away.  We haven't named it (at least not yet) and I'm kind of actually hoping that it just disappears.  I am not in any position to have a pet, not with my crazy work schedule where I'm hardly in Miami for half the summer.  I know I can't handle a pet right now but I haven't chased it away from the house with a broom and I don't think I will.  It hasn't been doing any harm by sleeping on my front porch and until it does start causing harm, I don't mind this friendly little visitor.

Recently

The academic year has come to a very sudden end.  I didn't see it approaching but finals week is nearly over by now, marking the end of my second full academic year in Miami, the end of the first full academic year of teaching.  One year ago marked the last time I was a student.  Since kindergarten, the longest streak I've ever had of not being a student was my year abroad (the reason for starting this blog) and in a few months when this summer is over I will have tied that streak though this time it is evident that I'm going to continue the streak.

In the news (of my life)...

I have moved out of my parent's house completely.  All of my remaining belongings are in a pile ready to be picked up by a moving truck and will be here in less than a month.  It's certainly a weird feeling and I do feel significantly grown up.

Christina has started her internship at Biscayne National Park.  It's a year-long internship that's located about 45 minutes to an hour and a half away (depending on traffic).  I'm excited that she's going to be within driving distance for the next 12 months.  I don't know if I mentioned it before but I was concerned that she would end up in an internship that was outside of southern Florida and we would rarely see each other but realistically we'll share each other's company on a fairly regular basis especially since she's living within a mile of me for the entire summer.

For someone who makes a living out of diving, I don't dive all that often these days.  This is why this week is looking so exciting.  Monday: help on a checkout dive.  Tuesday: 2 nitrox dives for our students from this past semester.  Wednesday: dive with.... actually, I forget now.  Thursday: practice dive for the reef surveys I'll be doing over the summer for a few weeks in and beyond the FL Keys.

If you don't count orchestra which was 3 hours a week, I'm playing about as much viola these days as I did back at Denison.  Okay, so maybe that's even still an exaggeration but I play an average of 30 minutes a day, so frequently in fact that I haven't even put my viola in its case for the past 2 weeks.

Swarming Season

For anyone (such as yours truly) unfamiliar with March and April with respect to termites, let the records show that those two months are termite swarming months.  Although I didn't kill any today, I've found and killed about 50 over the past 3 days.  I've found a significant amount of ants outside the house but very few inside yet.  I have come across 2 dead cockroaches, one in the laundry room and one in my bedroom although that one wasn't entirely dead as it turned out.  I have a trivial leak in the Florida room ceiling and fairly serious but inconsequential leaking into the screened-in patio.  They are first world problems, yes.  However, they're still things that demand my attention as well as a long list of other things.  This has been a mentally demanding process, this buying a house thing.

Next weekend I'm flying up to Ohio to flag any furniture of mine in the basement which will be sent down to Miami for the new place.  It is going to be a lot of work sitting around in the basement sifting through two full storage shelves of things ranging from 1st grade writing assignments up through furniture.  At least I'll be able to see my family.

UPDATE: Since posting, the termite count seems to have dropped considerably.  I have only found one in nearly a week.  I know that they're not gone just because I haven't seen them in a while but it is a sign that swarming season is coming or has come to an end.

Life Changes

 It is rather amazing how much has happened since I last updated this blog.  It’s mind-blowing actually.

Screened-in porch

Living room, with view of dining room, Florida room, and bed/bathroom

There’s no sense in beating around it so I’ll just get to the point.  I finally bought a house!  Yes, it is true.  I have officially become a grown-up.  It is a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom single detached home in Coral Gables and it is perfect for me.  I’m including a few pictures that speak for themselves.

It has been a long time coming, or at least it feels that way.  Realistically it’s only been since November since I started searching but it felt like it couldn’t come fast enough.  It has a screened porch out back by the small backyard and then a smattering of trees and bushes in the front yard.  A couple owners ago was very much into horticulture and has a menagerie of plant species throughout the yard among which include a coconut tree and two mango trees.  I’ve spent the past week moving and settling in.  I’m not close to being done despite the few belongings I own, but I’ve been making progress.

Master bedroom

I’ve had the time to settle in but I’ve been keeping busy elsewhere because I don’t want to have my whole life sucked into the house.  Instead, time has been spent rock climbing, diving, seeing friends, and hanging out with Christina a whole lot.  I weeded almost the entire front yard today and trimmed most of the bushes.  There’s one that appears to be taking over some others but it’s spread so much that it’s hard to tell what’s supposed to be there anymore.  I cut it back and maybe in a few weeks I’ll cut it back even more until I can make sense out of what’s going on.

Living room

Kitchen

There are rumors about my job changing for the better but I won’t believe it until I see it.  Everyone gets the impression that the upper administration, since they are non-divers, see the diving program as something they could turn into a money maker.  They don’t see the benefit in giving it a little bit of a leash and letting it expand to the point that people would come to Miami specifically for diving.  Since the two head people of the Business Office have been fired for losing a 7-figure amount of money, there have been committees going through each part of RSMAS collecting information and presenting their suggestions to the dean.  The committee luckily has come to see the importance of the diving program and would like to expand our resources and realize a little more of our potential.  I say I’m not going to believe it until I see it because the administration still has to consider and approve/deny all of the committees’ suggestions.  I’m not hopeful.