Visit the Kelpforest (pt. 2)

Poll? What Poll?

Anneelise asked, "Are you hiding marbles from me?"


What makes you think I'm hiding them?

These are actually a lot more iridescent that they look here.

Here's a few more for you:



Ok, I cheated. These last three aren't mine, they're from other people's yards; and the middle ones aren't even marbles.

Amazing. This house, or more properly, its garden, is featured in Sunset magazine this month. Well, only a one page article, but it's in my neighborhood, a mere two blocks away from me. We walked by it this morning. I've always liked the landscaping because it's full of kangaroo paws, which the hummingbirds love.


From Sunset Magazine.

This is the actual house. The lawn belongs to the neighbor. It actually looks kind of out of place here. The house across the street was remodeled to look Tudor English.

This is something we did during a training class we had yesterday, as part of trying to develop resilience to change. Part of becoming resilient is knowing yourself, so get a pencil and paper and...

...draw a pig.

Seriously.

This is fun.

Don't scroll down until you've drawn your pig!


















Done yet?












Ok scroll some more....















This is your pig personality profile.

1. If your pig is drawn on the top half of the paper, you are positive and optimistic.


2. If your pig is drawn on the bottom half of the paper, you are pessimistic and negative.


3. Facing left... You believe in tradition and are friendly.


4. Face on...You are direct and play devil's advocate.


5. Facing right...You are active, innovative, and can't remember dates


6. Many details...You are cautious analytical, and tend to be distrustful


7. Few details... You are naive, and are risk taking


8. Four legs showing.. You are secure stubborn and stick to your ideals


9. Fewer than four legs showing...You are insecure, or going through a change of life


10. The bigger the ears... the better a listener


11. If you drew a tail... the longer the tail the better the quality of your love life

Here's my pig.


Draw your own conclusions. Comments I got were, "How long have you been an artist?" (huh?) "You're trying to make the rest of us look bad." and "We came to the conclusion that your pig is scary."

Don't ask me why it's a razorback.

...and here I am sitting in the office with no one around - it's DPs turn to do docks this morning, but we had some confusion as to whether she could make it in this morning. VT had spoken to her before I left yesterday, then when I got home John told me she had phoned my house and said she couldn't make it. I phoned and left a message for her, but then I took the kids to the park for a bit and completely forgot about it. If she phoned back and talked to Dad or something I might not have gotten it. So I arrived at a little after 6 am and so did she. Ah well, so I'm here two hours early. Quiet and I can get something done. Ha. She brought along her copy of the Batman: The Dark Knight Returns for me to look at. I've seen it before, but that's some good stuff.

Over the weekend, I went to the used bookstore to find a copy of Stranger in a Strange Land, my book group's selection for this month. They didn't have it - you'd think a book that's that old they'd have at least a few copies of, but maybe people hang on to them. They had very little Heinlein at all really. I'm not a huge Heinlein fan actually - I have a hard time with the way he portays women, even though I know most of his books were written in a different era. In some of his later books, I could tell he was really trying to change some of his attitudes, but it wasn't really working very well. I did find a few favorites that I already have copies of, and bought them to release later.

Three of them, I released yesterday. Startide Rising by David Brin, I knew I wanted to release somewhere near the ocean, so after I spent all morning at the docks, I decied to take a little lunch break at Point Fermin Park. The ravens were having a good time chasing each other through the trees and catching the wind rising from the bluff. As I walked over toward the lighthouse, I heard some high pitched screeching from the trees near the little amphitheatre that was distinctly unravenlike. I peered up through the branches and noticed some small parrots perched there. I pulled out my camera and tried to take a picture of them. They did not like having something pointed at them, and the whole flock of them took off, circled around the park screeching madly, and came to rest on the other side of the same tree. I did manage snap them this time, but alas, the zoom on my camera is not very good, and the lighting, backlit through the leaves, was not so great either. They were completely green with purple red on their faces and pale bills - I'm going to have to find a parrot book to look them up. They don't look like the Nanday conures I've seen in my neighborhood or the mitered conures that are colonizing Long Beach.

As I was standing there looking up, I heard several loud cracks and a metallic bang behind me. I turned around to see that a large branch had just broken off the Moreton Bay fig behind me and fallen onto the benches of the amphitheatre. The branch was about 10' long and 4" around the large end. I'm glad I wasn't standing under that tree, staring stupidly up into it.

The historical lighthouse is being refurbished and still has a chainlink fence all around it; however a new garden has been planted around it as well, and it looks just gorgeous now that spring is here. The lighthouse no longer functions, having been replaced by an automatic light on a tower, but it's a pretty building nevertheless. I wanted to leave the book at one of the picnic tables next to the bluff in front of it, but one was occupied by an apparently homeless guy listening to a radio (I felt for him, but I had to hold my breathe as I walked by 15' behind), and the others contained smooching couples. I sat on the grass and ate until one pair moved on. I picked up my remaing lunch (I tried the only lunch place on Terminal Island for the first time in a decade, and for a chicken bowl it was damn greasy), moved to the table, and joined by a white-crowned sparrow and a fluffy black feral cat someone had left food for, finished my food, divested myself of the trash, and got a pic of the book to post before I left the book behind on the table. Hope it finds a new friend soon and no one throws it over the cliff.



The other two I took with us when we went to the park. A larger man had arrived at the same time, and we were both admonishing that we couldn't stay long because it would be dark soon. His daughter immediately ran up and said hi to Avalon, and seemed to expect some reply. I responded that she doesn't talk so much (although she does talk quite a bit more to us - very loudly). I put her is the swing for a bit and chatted with the dad. He noticed I had a few books with me and I mentioned that we were going to leave them in the park - to which he asked "They let you do that?" Huh? Is there some law against leaving books in a park? I asked if he liked science fiction, but he declined, saying he was a single parent and only had time to read the bible. Meanwhile, Angus had taken his sandals off and had not had his feet bare for 30 seconds when he stubbed his toe and knocked a big patch of skin off the end of it. I took him to the drinking fountain to wash it off and put his sandals back on.

We left Gordon Dickson's The Right to Arm Bears on the planter around a tree near the Scout Cabin where my brothers always used to have their meetings. I figured it should be right up the alley of at one least one of the kids arriving for a meeting.

Exile's Song by Marion Zimmer Bradley I left sitting on the burl of a pepper tree that I always used to climb when I was a kid. No particular reason, it's just one of my favorite trees. Unfortunately it's been a while since I looked at it - there's a large hole in the bark on one side and the interior looks rotten. I hope it survives, it's a beautiful tree.

We dragged home and I futiley tried to think of something for dinner. I warmed up some frozen vegetables and the kids got turkey dogs - no bun. I think I fell asleep before the kids did.

On Monday, DP called from the docks; she already had a cooler full of samples, and one of our purse seine boats had brought in a very large squid. As they were unloading the boat they originally thought it was a shark because all they could see was a fin. They didn't want it (thinking it would be too tough to eat), and were willing to give it to her. However, it weighed about forty pounds, so she needed an extra cooler. I went over to San Pedro and collected the samples she already had - she still had a squid sample to collect, as well as the big squid. I headed back to the office to start processing the squid she'd already collected.


Here's what she picked up:

(photo by Dianna Porzio)

I was halfway through the sample when she got it back to our lab. I didn't think it was the same as the jumbo squid that often shows up here in warm years, as it was about as long but much heavier, with a very thick mantle. It must have weighed about 40 lbs. However, according to some of our older biologists, this one was likely a mature Dosidicus gigas, the others are likely young ones.

Here it is in our lab:


Close up of its beak, roughly the same size as a macaw's:

(photo by Dianna Porzio)

Everyone in the office had to come down and take a gander at it. We should have charged admission. DP really wanted to look at its organs and try to remove the statoliths. However, until we figure out its ultimate destination, I'd like to keep it intact. We heard today the Orange County Marine Institute Ocean Institute (I guess they must've renamed it) in Dana Point is interested in the squid as a museum specimen for the school kids).

Just recently, someone in a dive club reported interacting with one out at Catalina (where this one was caught). However, from the pictures, it looks pretty dead; its arms are in exactly the same position and there is a large chunk missing from its side.

There's some debate as to whether you'd want to be diving with these critters. Dr. Gilly, a scientist we've worked with to provide Loligo genetic material (our little market squid), has been tagging these big guys in Mexico and says he's been snorkeling with them, however, Paul in our office told me he's heard of divers having chunks taken out of them and that these squid will grab the oars of rowboats.

As fascinating as they are, and as much as I'd like to see them alive, I'm not sure I'd want to swim with these guys. I have a healthy respect for those spiky suckers and that beak.

Article on Dr. Gilly's Humboldt squid research:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/07/0718_030718_jumbosquid.html#main

Gurgled by: señoritafish / 12:57 AM
  0 Bubbles floated to the surface.