Today, I have touched squishy things...
So I was supposed to start my new job today. But then my boss to be tells me late last week that I can't start until April 12th. Which sucks. I missed out on Reno because of this, and I was miffed. But to make up for it, Erich (said boss-to-be, and also a friend) made up for it by taking Sherrie and me (Sherrie is my housemate) on a Nation Science Foundation oceanic reseach vessel today, the Point Sur, to basically tag along and learn stuff.
So we were on the 140ft reseach boat, zipping through 10ft swells, and I was laughing as most of the students on the ship went running for the sides of the boat. Yes, ladies and gentleman, seasickness and its affects on the human stomach. I shouldn't be talking though. I was pretty quesy for the first couple of hours or so, but then I "found my sea legs" as people put it, and was quickly running around the boat making a nuisance of myself.
We basically did two things on the boat (besides feed the fish with our breakfasts), we took deep water samples at 3000ft (and attached decorated styreofoam cups to the equipment so we could see what happens to stuff at the water pressure of 3000 ft. Results: A 6 inch tall cup became 1 inch tall. Fun stuff ^^), and we did some trawling. Trawling is basically dragging a net behind you and seeing what you catch (it's more humane than it sounds, we have special nets). The first time around, we got a ton of krill (the stuff whales eat, basically tiny shrimp), lots of lantern fish, an few little jellyfish of the cute variety, a really random jellyfish that no one recognized, a few squid, and some other goodies. I suprised myself by jumping right in with the scientists, scooping up fish out of the buckets and oogling them before sorting them into water filled beakers. The second time we trawled, it was a different area. We ended up with about 6 or 7 big medua jellyfish (I mean these suckers were about 6 ft long), and a bunch of other random fish, and some shrimp. The fun thing about the medusa jellyfish, was that since we couldn't do anything with them in terms of samples, the scientist just grabbed them out of the pool we had the trawl catch in and tossed them off the side of the boat! They used their bare hands! That made me brave, so I touched one. It's odd, they feel like really soft, smooth plastic. Like a plastic grocery bag filled with water. Lots of fun. ^^
But as usual, the day ended, so now I'm back home, utterly exhausted. We spent 6 or 7 hours in the bay, and it was exciting, wet, and exhausting. So I think I'm going to become a blob and watch tv now...
But I touched squishy things. ^^
So I was supposed to start my new job today. But then my boss to be tells me late last week that I can't start until April 12th. Which sucks. I missed out on Reno because of this, and I was miffed. But to make up for it, Erich (said boss-to-be, and also a friend) made up for it by taking Sherrie and me (Sherrie is my housemate) on a Nation Science Foundation oceanic reseach vessel today, the Point Sur, to basically tag along and learn stuff.
So we were on the 140ft reseach boat, zipping through 10ft swells, and I was laughing as most of the students on the ship went running for the sides of the boat. Yes, ladies and gentleman, seasickness and its affects on the human stomach. I shouldn't be talking though. I was pretty quesy for the first couple of hours or so, but then I "found my sea legs" as people put it, and was quickly running around the boat making a nuisance of myself.
We basically did two things on the boat (besides feed the fish with our breakfasts), we took deep water samples at 3000ft (and attached decorated styreofoam cups to the equipment so we could see what happens to stuff at the water pressure of 3000 ft. Results: A 6 inch tall cup became 1 inch tall. Fun stuff ^^), and we did some trawling. Trawling is basically dragging a net behind you and seeing what you catch (it's more humane than it sounds, we have special nets). The first time around, we got a ton of krill (the stuff whales eat, basically tiny shrimp), lots of lantern fish, an few little jellyfish of the cute variety, a really random jellyfish that no one recognized, a few squid, and some other goodies. I suprised myself by jumping right in with the scientists, scooping up fish out of the buckets and oogling them before sorting them into water filled beakers. The second time we trawled, it was a different area. We ended up with about 6 or 7 big medua jellyfish (I mean these suckers were about 6 ft long), and a bunch of other random fish, and some shrimp. The fun thing about the medusa jellyfish, was that since we couldn't do anything with them in terms of samples, the scientist just grabbed them out of the pool we had the trawl catch in and tossed them off the side of the boat! They used their bare hands! That made me brave, so I touched one. It's odd, they feel like really soft, smooth plastic. Like a plastic grocery bag filled with water. Lots of fun. ^^
But as usual, the day ended, so now I'm back home, utterly exhausted. We spent 6 or 7 hours in the bay, and it was exciting, wet, and exhausting. So I think I'm going to become a blob and watch tv now...
But I touched squishy things. ^^
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