So I got my reserved books from the library today for next week's beach trip.

No Way Home: The Decline of the World's Great Animal Migrations by David Wilcove
The Ghost With Trembling Wings by Scott Weidensaul (About sightings of bird species that are thought to be extinct.)
The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner (About the finches on the Galapagos Islands)
The Botany of Desire: A Plant's Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan
The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
The Human, the Orchid, and the Octopus: Exploring and Conserving Our Natural World by Jacques Cousteau

What is everyone else reading this summer?

Book meme snagged from everybody.

( books )

Art based on your actual DNA.
DNA 11

Yes please.

A few decades ago, the Red Wolf almost became extinct and in 1980, it was considered extinct in the wild. There are now 270 to 300 red wolves, including 220 in captivity and the rest in the wild -- quite a comeback from the 14 animals making up the original captive breeding population. There are currently 33 facilities nationwide where red wolves are captively bred.

( More about the Red Wolf )

( Red Wolf images )

So, when readmitting me to NCSU, instead of putting me back in my Chemistry (CHA) major, they put me into Chemical Engineering (CHE). Ack!

Sea turtles are found in every ocean except for the Arctic. They are split into the two different families based on their shell type. All species of sea turtles are endangered. The leatherback, Kemp's ridley, and hawksbill turtles are listed as critically endangered. The olive ridley and green turtles are considered endangered, and the loggerhead is a threatened species.

( Flatback )

( Green )

( Hawksbill )

( Kemp's Ridley )

( Leatherback )

( Loggerhead )

( Olive Ridley )

( Baby turtles! )

I finally started work on Monday back at the vet's office that I have worked at since high school (since 2000, ack). So now on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays, I get to be a vet tech and attempt to not tell the people there that I have left vet school to seek more Wildlife friendly eduction.

The bonus is that besides the two vets, the rest of the staff is female and there is inevitably drama at some point every day. Almost all of staff has been there for as long as I have, so I think after nearly a decade together, you just can't be civil all the time after that person does the same annoying thing day after day.

I woke up at 5am and spent the rest of the morning pimping out my dog treats at the farmer's market. I had a decent number buy a bag so that was nifty.

PIMP -> Black Dog White Spot Bakery <- PIMP

One of the ladies who bought some bags commented on my Maori fishhook, which was awesome. I think that she's the first person since I bought it in New Zealand in 2005 to call it by it's real name. Sweet. I would be crushed it I ever lost it. I wear it literally every day.

It's 100F. Time to take the dog for a swim.

Goldfish keychains

What are you people thinking?!!?

After three weeks of my right eye secreting a pale yellow mucous goo, I finally went to get it checked out. Turns out it was a severe type 1 hypersensitivity reaction (or, "allergy" if you didn't suffer through Immunology like I did). Hopefully the two types of eye drops I got will clear it up soon.

In other news, starting this Saturday I'll be selling my dog treats and cupcakes at the farmer's market. I'm terrified that people won't be interested. Just have to see I guess.

I need to start running again. I've been riding 10-13 miles on mom's stationary bike every night, but it's just not the same. I miss my Philadelphia sidewalks.

"We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of wild animals. Remote from universal nature, and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creatures through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate for having taken a form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move unfinished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not out brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth."

- Henry Beston, The Outermost House

I've got a super dog.



( Large flying pictures under the cut. )

Well, I just finished the Physiology final which was on endocrinology, reproduction and lactation. It wasn't too painful since I have had all of the reproduction and lactation information before in various undergraduate courses.

I have one last exam on Thursday in ICVM III, which is the first year introductory course that covers a little bit of everything. It shouldn't be too difficult or taxing to study for. I'm going to be spending most of the time before the exam packing and cleaning since I'm going to try and leave for NC right after the exam if possible.

I'm also seriously considering putting vet school on hold until I can finish the MS in Wildlife program at LSU. I don't actually need a VMD to get the government job that I would like and it would be cheaper and faster to go through the MS approach. It would also be specific in the area of wildlife instead of the VMD, where I have to do extracurricular activities to get wildlife experience. The VMD program is not geared toward wildlife at all besides the two introductory courses in the first year. Even those courses are aimed at people going into small or large clinical practice who may one day have a client bring some wildlife into their clinic.

Hopefully I'll find out if I've been accepted to the MS program soon.

Please assign me five more nerd points.

I just fell in love with Stargate Atlantis.

woot.

It's 2 AM. I'm definitely not going to bed for at least another hour. My alarm is set for 6 AM.

It wouldn't be so bad if I could just crash after the exam in the morning, but I have another final Friday morning that I'll be studying for literally all day and night after the one this coming morning.

By Friday morning, I'll be so hopped up on caffeine, that it'll probably be dangerous.

I expect to sleep all weekend.

Three finals down.
Four finals left.
Nine more days.
Need a job.

I miss Murphy.

17 more days and I'm back in NC for the summer. This is the last week of class and then we have exams until the 22.

I think the undergrads are already done. Ugh.

Also, <3 iron man.

I miss my bunny and now I want to teach him how to bake!

Hmm. The embeded video isn't working.

Link to the rescue!