News/Blog/Whatever
Archive for February, 2010
Two Weeks of Insanity
Feb 24th
Last week I did two weeks of school compressed into one. Why? might you ask? It is because I am this week at the AGU Ocean Sciences Meeting in Portland, OR (more on this later). One of the more awesome classes I had (last week) was MARS 2053 or General Oceanography Lab 2. As you might be able to guess based on the oceanography bit of that, this lab was on the boat.
Our task was to follow around 6 holy (as in it has holes in it) sock drogues to track the current at different levels of the water column.
There was all manner of marine life out and about (more than I had seen before). This life included and group of sea turtles that the boat had to dodge, a large number of whales, and what appeared to be a booby of some kind (the bird).
I am currently, although a bit slowly, working on the data as part of the laboratory assignment. I am very distracted by the AGU Ocean Sciences Meeting currently.
-Andrew
Hello 2010 Spring Semester!
Feb 9th
OH MAN, I haven’t posted for over 2 weeks, this is embarrassing. My online presence during the first two weeks of school was close to nil, as my friends on the mainland could verify. I was so focused on figuring out my classes and getting organized I really wasn’t thinking about this blog at all. I was trying to get this semester started off right and I think I have. One of the things you need to learn to do in college (or anywhere) is how to set yourself up for success and I want to make sure that was done. Now that I have the grove and swing of things down I think I can spread my attention out to things I enjoy. But first an overview of my classes.
This semester I am taking the following classes: General Oceanography 2, Intro to Communication, General Biology Lab 2, General Oceanography Lab 2, Cross Cultural Psychology, and Biological Oceanography. Lets take a look at some of these classes. General Oceanography is a continuation of the General Oceanography class I took last semester with an emphasis on physical oceanography and biological oceanography. It is taught by two professors who will each teach the section they are most strong in (i.e the physical oceanographer will teach the physical oceanography section and the biological oceanographer will teach the biological oceanography section). Intro to Communication is a “freshman” level class but you will learn that it doesn’t matter when you take the general education classes as long as you take them (except if they are requisites for later classes then you want to take them as soon as possible). General Biology Lab 2 is a class I withdrew from 2 semesters ago, though a rather unfortunate series of events I felt I was unable to complete the class and decided it best to withdraw. This sometimes happens while in college and it is OK. Biological oceanography is an almost graduate level class that focuses on the distribution of life in the ocean and what drives that distribution. Should be a very interesting semester.
I recently went hiking out to the Makapu’u light house with my res hall. We were treated to a special display by a juvenile humpback whale.
I have been recruited to take photos for Da Freakshow so I need to get back into the picture taking mode, as such I will be carrying around my camera on campus and taking photos hopefully of people…
-Andrew