So my volunteering with ODFW is coming along, it gives me some good real world experience for what I would love to do as well as gets me outside doing the things I love to do, see and study animals!!
I went and did some fish sampling, which consisted of walking up a stream with a backpack electrical charger, where the biologist would shock the water and as the fish float up or try to swim away I would net them and put them in a bucket, once we had enough we would count and measure them. We did this at Ceder Creek which is a run off of the Mckenzie. Took about 4 hours to do all the sampling but it was amazing!
This is a male shiner in his breeding colors, beauitful fish
and this is a 16 inch cutthroat trout
Fish sampling is really important as it gives us an idea of how well the native fish population is doing compared with farm raised fish. In Oregon we only have about 20 percent of Native Trout and Salmon in our rivers (according to the biologist I worked with). That’s pretty bleak.
Doing these types of things really enforces my desire to get into this field so I can help….but thats where the bad news comes in. The biologist I worked with gave me some grim details about the workforce, there are no new jobs being created, but lots of people trying to get in the field, so its very difficult. With that knowledge I am not going to really pursue getting a job with ODFW on a permenant basis, however I do plan on making volunteering for them a hobbie of mine, something I can do to assist our enviorment even if it’s not full time.
I was a little sad about this decision, but volunteering is so much fun and teaches me a lot and I am helping as much as they allow.
Ohh also, I GOT A BOAT!! Granted it’s just an 11′ inflatable with a small electric motor, but its perfect for what we need right now, and allows us to really enjoy the water and fishing.
So there is my update for this month…and I want to say Thank you to my friends and family who always encourage me to do the things I love, without you I wouldn’t ever think I could!
So, you all know I am a gamer right? RIGHT?? but did you also know I read a lot? And when I say a lot, I mean I read 2 books a week if I like them, and have read all the good Anita Blake books, all A. Lee Martinez books (I love his books!) and I am currently on “Dead as a Doornail” in the Sookie Stackhouse books. Also reading women of the underworld, which is great.
So, you can see a trend in the books I read yes? I like horror/sci-fi books, and I love the Sookie Stackhouse books and loved the first season of “True Blood” so given all this, you can see why this video gets me all sorts of excited for the second season of “True Blood” not only do I already know the story, but now I get to see it on our T.V.
Alright, really the only thing I accomplished is applying for school, sending all my transcripts from my high school and the U of U and getting more involved in the ODFW. Soon I hope to start classes and be on my way to getting a degree in Marine Biology, where as Alana informed me, I can look forward to a great career in teaching. (seriously after she said that I looked around and sure enough, most people who get the degree end up teaching due to how hard it is to get work in the field)
Yeah I don’t want to teach but I did speak to ODFW and this is a starting point, once I get that I can do some work that gets me in the door. On top of that I have been fishing a lot more, the 9 has even joined me and Star will come and read, it’s awesome! I expect fishing to take up more of my time, but also gives me the chance to watch the local wildlife and pick up on their behavior, which is a great interest to me.
Our house will go back on the market in a month or two, depending on if the person who currently wants to buy it is able to or not, if it sells it will be such a relief and we can finally put some roots down, everything feels so temporary when you’re living in an apartment and I refuse to do certain things because of it.
My job still feels temporary, even though its good, it pays well and I like my co-workers. I am not sure why it does but it does.
The next few months will be busy, Ryan and I are going to Canada for July 1st, ( I applied for my passport ), We are going to Bend for Fathers day for the weekend, Sept Miguel is getting married and I will be in Utah for that week, August Stars parents will be in Oregon for 2 weeks, and in between all this we have camping, fishing trips and random outings to attend. It still feels so odd to live here, but it accomplished what we wanted, life doesn’t seem to be just passing us by and it feels like there just isn’t enough days to get everything we want to do done…life is good.
Alright, I am well aware it has been awhile since I posted anything, but to be honest, I have a blog to keep my friends who I don’t get to see often up to date on my goings on and what not, and a place I can vent about things. The problem is, I have nothing to vent about, and nothing really has changed much..at least nothing that demands a blog post. Even twitter is suffering as I don’t really see the need to twitter every little thing anymore…the newness is gone and seriously, once it went mainstream I lost interest. Silly I know.
So on that note here is the only thing I have to say:
So Lunchb0x came to visit me last week. I love that he takes the time to do so, it shows true friendship and that he puts friends and family above all else.
His visit did a few things, and let me go over the least important thing first. I did not go to work or the gym most of the time he was here, we went to the coast, played a lot of WoW and went Kayaking. We also ate like once or twice a day. Now the week before lunchie was here I was sick and did not go to the gym, but I ate accordingly still, meaning 3-4 times a day. I was losing inches off my waist, it was real progress and showed that even though my weight was going up, my waist was shrinking. The one week lunchie was here I gained 2 inches to my waist. 2 inches people!!!!! I went to the gym today and told the story about how I was sick and didnt make it to the gym because of this and his visit, she said “I bet you didn’t gain a pound because you work out so hard normaly” and then I dropped the bomb on her that I gained 2 inches in my waist and she looked shocked and asked how I was eating. I explained that I really didn’t eat and when I did it was large meals. She laughed and said lesson learned then, you need to graze, feed it to get rid of it. I find this highly amusing that after all these years of working out it comes to the fact I just don’t ever eat enough.
Now the more important subject, Lunchies visit reminds me what I left back in Utah, all my close friends who I miss dearly. it use to be I was upset that I left an awesome career, but that seems fairly silly. Leaving my friends behind was the worst of it by far. Now some of them have left Utah on their own as well, so it seems it is the natural order for us to leave, but none the less I miss everyone, and even though he was here for a week I miss him already, it was nice having one of the guys around and I dearly miss the man nights.
But we did go kayaking and lunchie almost died, he fell in and got Hypothermia, stubborn bastard dried off for a few and went right back out, I was worried and called it off after about an hour, but it was still an adventure neither of us will forget anytime soon. I hope one day to lure him to move out here, maybe when the economy is better.
So for the record, I miss you all, those who moved to the east coast and those still in Utah, and I praise the internet gods daily that it is so easy to keep in touch with so many miles between us.
As you may or may not know, ever since I got my Pentax D2000 SLR camera I have been taking a ton of photos, and I am trying to gain the skills to take truly stunning photos. In that light I present a video I saw today that is amazing. Keep in mind this is all real, it is done via time lapse and with a special lens. Would love to do this for the Oregon coast.
*sigh* I spoke to the personal trainer at the gym today and explained how for the past 7 years I have always worked out and never lost my tummy, and asked what I can do to fix this if anything?
I explained I have changed my diet, added more cardio and watch what I eat. She proceeded to tell me that I obviously have a healthy lifestyle, as she sees me in the gym every day, and suggested that I cut wheat out of my diet, at least for 3 days and then monitor how much of it I intake from then on, also that I should have a nice balance of 40/40/20 each meal I eat should have 40% Protein and %40 Carb and %20 of “other stuff” and this balance should help me a lot.
When did wheat become bad for you?? And what the hell is with information on what you should and shouldn’t eat changing every 5 years, how is the normal person suppose to deal with this? I mean, I exercise a lot, I eat in moderation, and eat as healthy as possible, and have had to change what “healthy” has met 3 times now.
Idk, I get so frustrated with this, but each time I say I am done caring about it, I go back to caring about it….
I am venting now, I know. O’well, lets see how well this 40/40/20 works shall we? I bet my wife is going to be pissed that I am not removing the whole wheat I just put in the house out.
Ahh the joys of working in an office where we all have cubicles. I am going to post this here today, and if Lynda happens to see it, she will be warned, otherwise..SUPRISE!
This is what happens when you tell your co-workers you would like some cans.
So my friend politely tried to tell me the other day that I have an alpha male personality, he wasn’t being mean about it or even saying it was a bad thing, but that is how I act. For the most part I imagine he is true and this is also why some people think I am an asshole, I tend to say what I think, question what I am told, and never let anyone make me do something I don’t want too. Now as I get older I try harder and harder to take into account what other people want, how they see me and try to see things from their perspective and better myself as a person who mingles with other people. I am also doing my best to show my appreciation to my friends, time will tell if I succeed.
The funny part of this story isn’t that I act like this, it’s that up until I was about 23 I was more the sidekick personality. I had friends who I hung around who constantly degraded me, not to be mean but because that’s what they did. I was the kid who did wacky stupid things and wouldn’t question what people told me, I just did it. Once my “friend” told me I shouldn’t run to lose weight, it would just make me fat my stretching out the fat as I ran…obviously that’s pretty stupid, but at the time I considered this fact. I did lots of really stupid things because my friends told me to do it and they all gave me their approval for being stupid. What ever my friends told me I thought was true, because they wouldn’t lie right?
Looking back, I am not sure what their motive was, they were probably just being young and stupid, I do not think they had malicious intent and hold no hard feelings to them. I no longer even know those friends, even though most of them had been my friends at a very early age. And it’s not like I shunned them from my life, we all just seemed to go seperate ways.
So I find it amusing and a little sad that I have almost no personality traits of myself when I was younger, and I hope that I treat my friends a lot better then I was treated even if I do come off as an asshole or “alpha male” because I measure my success on if I am a good friend, husband and father.
This month I had thought of all these things to blog, and I tell myself I will do it later and then I forget. Today I have lots of thoughts running through my head, but its bad form to post them all in one convoluted post, right? Well if I don’t post them now I won’t do it at all, so forgive me if this offends your senses.
This entire month so far has been full of exploring Oregon. Since I got a new SLR camera I have been taking pictures every time we leave, and even the wife has taken to enjoying photography, our main focus being the coast line, since it’s impossible to be bored there! Sure sure, you can’t really hop in and go snorkling, not unless you have a dry suit and someone out in a boat ready to get you when the currents take you out, but you can still explore the miles and miles of beautiful sandy coast lines, full of birds, sea lions, seals, jelly fish, octopuses etc. It’s seriously endless! And let no one tell you it’s not beautiful here, just look at this sunset!!! The wife took this near newport, it’s stunning!
If you still aren’t convinved take a look at my flickr account or our photo page at http://photo.wineriter.org
On top of photography being high on my hobby list, I am buying plants again, which I am way excited for, both normal house plants and carnivorous and even some Orchids.
What else? Ohh not much, I am just planning on buying a boat! Ok don’t get to excited like I was, the wife has denied my request for a real boat, I am only allowed to get an inflatable, but the options in that range are still pretty nice and it will still have a 15hp engine so I can troll a bit and enjoy the ocean bays when I want.
ok, changing subjects, I often feel bad because everyone is talking about how bad the economy is and how so many people are struggling, yet we are doing so well, our bills are low despite still owning a house in Utah and just buying a car, and as far as we can see both our jobs are stable. *crosses fingers*
Why are we having so much fun and everyone else is suffering? It doesn’t seem right. Sure sure we suffered a lot in the past, I filed bankruptcy and had to to work 2 jobs and the wife had a job and we still had to have a roomate to affored anything, but we learned to manage our money, it took time but we did. Ohh who am I kidding, the wife taught me how to manage our money
But still, it seems this is some of the best parts of our life and it’s happening while so many people are struggling, I can’t help but feel bad. No not for everyone, I feel no sympathy for people who bought those huge houses and didn’t question how they could afford it making as little as they did, they can blame the banks and anyone else the want to but it was their fault. No I feel bad for the people who lose their jobs because the companies are all going under, and this is felt through out the nation, making it difficult to find new work. I don’t know, I just don’t know what to do or how to feel about that…….
Changing subjects again, and yes I know this is now going into 600 words ;) During our drives to the coast we have been coming together as a family, playing games, talking and exploring (we found a glass blowing place that is awesome!) and just really enjoying being a family, something we lacked in our stable life in Utah, I had NO idea this was going to happen but I am so very happy with the way life is….I know, I am waiting for it to all come crashing down myself, but until then I am going to enjoy everything and everyone.
and this is a 16 inch cutthroat trout
Fish sampling is really important as it gives us an idea of how well the native fish population is doing compared with farm raised fish. In Oregon we only have about 20 percent of Native Trout and Salmon in our rivers (according to the biologist I worked with). That’s pretty bleak.
On top of that I have been fishing a lot more, the 9 has even joined me and Star will come and read, it’s awesome! I expect fishing to take up more of my time, but also gives me the chance to watch the local wildlife and pick up on their behavior, which is a great interest to me.
