Did I say over nine hundred? I lied. I meant over one thousand.

I'm reminded of a scene from Akira, which, by the way, I should probably see. If nothing else, I've heard that the animation is very good. But anyway, I have seen this one scene from it, where one of the characters is transforming into this huge, monstrous blob thing with weird flesh-blobs coming out every which-way and is growing to insane proportions.

That's what this thesis makes me think of.

Okay, let's see if I can do this crossposting thing, and how I like it.

I wish I could put together a more complicated post right now, but I am friggin' BEAT. Last night we went to see Jonathan Coulton in concert, which was thoroughly AWESOME. I also found myself really enjoying the opening band, Paul and Storm too. They got some really nice banter going with the audience, which made for hilarity. But basically it was a geek out of epic proportions on all fronts. People were waving their lightsaber apps to some of the ballads, some guy was making Wookie noises in the audience, everyone had WAY too much fun making lots of ARR noises during a song about pirates, and JoCo incorporated the Mario theme into one of his songs. And those are just the things I remember off the top of my head. It was kind of awesome, though, when the entire audience started singing along to some of the more well-known songs, like "Still Alive", and screaming(or zombie-mumbling) ALL WE WANT TO DO IS EAT YOUR BRAINS during "Re: Your Brains". Yep. We were at Geek Factor 9.

And then today Eien-chan and I went tromping out to one of the coastal parks in search of a rare species of Dichanthelium, as my advisor had the idea that we might be able to find some there, and it would be kind of awesome if we did, because I can count the number of global populations for this taxon on one hand. For the most part, it was very hot, and very humid, and we must have gone through something like 4 quarts of water between the two of us. And ultimately we didn't find any on this trip, which was disappointing, but not unexpected. But we did find plenty of other Dichanthelium species, and I got some pictures that might be helpful for when I'm making my defense.

I took about ten billion other pictures too, to the end of making a Kingdom100 contribution with them in the form of a photojournal by Alice. I think I've got enough pictures to make a story. That include paparazzi-hating hermit crabs and fiddler crab hordes! We'll see how that goes!

On Saturday I went into the woods with my advisor and one of my classmates, a freshly minted master's student who is getting started on his thesis project, and wanted some help. The project itself is kinda neat, and it was nice to be out in the field when it's NOT blazingly hot. However, this was also my first significant encounter with Smilax.

I'm quite convinced that Smilax is the rose's evil twin brother. It's a thin, green, whippy vine, with big, WICKED thorns. Profuse amounts of thorns. That will claw anything they can get their prickles on. And did I mention they are whippy? And also springy? So if you push one away it's gonna come right BACK in your face, clawing and biting like an irate cat.

The research area was COVERED in the stuff. I realized retrospectively that the reason I wore my Wellingtons that day was not because of standing water (it was bone dry), and not because of bug protection (the ticks should be mostly dead by now). It was for protection against the Smilax that would bite and claw at my legs whenever I stepped in a patch of it. I still managed to get scratched up a bit, even with protection. I think it's the closest thing we've got to a man-eating plant here, because it will GRAB YOUR ANKLES AND NOT LET GO. At one point while fighting to escape a swath of it without falling over an image flashed through my mind: The scene in the original Star Wars movie when Luke gets pulled under the water by the tentacle monster in the trash compactor.

You know, it would be awfully silly if my obituary said that I died fighting a patch of Smilax. Still. Vicious.

Okay! I think it's time to do some trip discussion! And show PICTURES! They're pretty much all from Saturday, as that was my free day, but still. Pictures! And other stuff!

I'm quickly becoming train-savvy, with all this train riding I've been doing. One thing I can recommend for anyone considering taking the train after this last trip--if it's practical, book a ride on a train that has an overnight route. We took the Silver Star route (overnight) on the way up, and the Carolinian route (not overnight) on the way back, and I gotta tell you, the Silver Star route was MUCH nicer, for several reasons. They ran on time (apparently the Carolinian is chronically late--we got home an hour later than we should have this time around), you get more space in your seat (and the seats can lay back like a lounge chair, if that's how you like to ride. The space you getb on the Carolinian is comparable to an airplane), and they were MUCH more organized. On the Carolinian they basically said, "Yeah, find a seat wherever," the result being that I had to sit in the seat in front of Eien-chan, making for a rather lonesome trip. On the Silver Star they arranged people by the number of folks traveling together and where they were going, and assigned seats, so there wasn't a fight to try and get two seats next to each other. As I said, it's not always practical (the reason why we didn't take the Silver Star back was because we wouldn't get home until 9PM and would have to bum around the station for 3 hours waiting for it to pick us up), but when it is, overnight routes are the way to go, I think. And since the price seems to be dictated by how far you travel (at least when comparing overnight to day-routes, as I imagine taking one of the trains that allows you to take your car with you would be more expensive), the price for one over the other is about the same. This has been your train information tip of the day. <3

Getting about in DC was a neat trick, weather-wise. I had kenaz with me when I was at the herbarium, and of course it decided to rain just about all week while we were there, so getting him safely there and back again was a neat trick. As much as I hate wearing ponchos, I found the ones the Smithsonian sold were pretty adequate at keeping the backpack I was carting kenaz in dry, although I looked absolutely ridiculous with it on. I was dubbed the Fearsome Turtle Warrior.

There really isn't much to tell for the majority of the trip, at least on my end. I spent most of my time in the herbarium at the Museum of Natural History, in my own little corner of the grass herbarium, measuring my heart out. As AWESOME as it is to say that I worked at the Smithsonian, and that I went into the BACK ROOMS, it's pretty monotonous work most of the time. I did have more fun than I really should going to the cafeteria to get lunch, though (they had JELLY BELLIES. I love Jelly Bellies). And in the evening, when I finished at about, oh, 7:30 or so, Eien-chan would pick me up and we'd go find dinner at someplace awesome.

One night we went to a Scandanavian place called 'Domku', and that was quite a culinary adventure. I can now say that I've had pickled herring and gravlax, both of which I actually kinda liked. I totally want to incorporate them into the Eighth Kingdom, too. I can see Anika waxing poetic about how she misses buried raw fish. XD I also tried rose petal aquavit, which grew on me after a while. <3

Another night we went to a Malaysian place that was REALLY tasty. I had pearl noodles, which are kinda like thick noodles cut up really small. Difficult to eat with chopsticks, but oh so good. And the last night we were there we went to an AWESOME place in Chinatown that had the most delicious stir-fried seafood, served up in potatoes arranged to look like a bird's next. Totally delicious!

On the subject of the last day, that's when I was able to do some exploring of DC with Eien-chan. And that's where most of the pictures come in too! We ended up going to the National Aquarium, to the Botanic Garden near the Capitol, to Chinatown, and also to Union Station (which, apparently, has an Obama store, devoted entirely to all things presidential, including life-size cardboard cutouts). The National Aquarium was neat, if small compared to, say, the Baltimore Aquarium. Each of the exhibits had specimens from a different national preserve, which I think was a neat way to arrange things.

THEN, we went to the Botanic Garden. <3 <3 <3

( And here come the pictures! )

I'm looking forward to going back in the fall, when I go to see my cousin get hitched. <3

It's bad enough to get one rejection from an agency for funding, but to get TWO, that just makes me feel full of fail. *sigh*

Freakin' researchers with their freakin' exciting and glamorous research on freakin' bioluminescent jellyfish and their freakin' corals and their freakin' blueberries, not letting those of us who are doing freakin' research on freakin' things that aren't glamorous, like wild grass, but are still FREAKIN' IMPORTANT, DARN IT. *muttermutter*

DONE. I am DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE.

Amazingly, I don't think it went ENTIRELY badly. I still think I flubbed up on some of the questions, but it went better than the symposium talk, I think. What really freaked me out was when it came time for my talk and a TON of people came in to listen. Not the author guy, thankfully, but still. A friggin' TON. That's a little scary. On the other hand, SEE, FUNDING PEOPLE? PEOPLE CARE ABOUT THESE GRASSES, EVEN IF YOU DON'T. People said I thought I did well, so I hope that's worth something. ^_^

I also appear to be getting ill. Sore throat, slightly feverish, occasional hintings that whatever's in my throat wants to check out my ears, which would make me VERY CROSS. On the downside, it's suckitude. But on the up side, since I wasn't feeling 100%, it took the edge off of my nerves when I tried to present. Considering how I was wigging out the night before, that's probably not a bad thing.

Ah well, it's DONE. One less thing. 'course, I still have ten thousand things I need to do, and one more presentation for next week that I've barely started, so I've somehow gotta pull that together, but at least this is a dragon that's been thoroughly slain.

Well, another presentation out of the way, at least.

My classmates have said I did well but...I really don't think so. I talked way too fast, because I was nervous (and I was a little bit over time-wise when I was practicing to myself, and wanted to make sure I stayed under the time limit). I had a very hard time fielding questions too. Twice I misunderstood the question and probably sounded like a dope. I think about the only advantage to all of this was that I got some experience, and it's over now.

Didn't win any funding from it either (there was a bit of funding money for the top two presentations). Considering how I did, I'm not really all that surprised. I'm starting to get used to disappointment.

Okay, I'll have the first of the presentations over tomorrow--this one's a poster presentation at the graduate school symposium. I have my poster printed, which would be kinda important to have, so that's ready to go. I really hope it goes smoothly. I'm trying not to fret insanely over it, though. I have plenty of other things to fret over right now. This is gonna be more about experience than anything else. I'm hoping that by the end of all these talks, I'll be able to talk about grass in my sleep. Heck, I probably WILL be, because I'll be wiped by the time the last one's done.

What I AM going to fret, over, is Alabama. I got the schedule in the mail today, and there was my name, slated to be talk #7. Oh gods I'm actually going to be doing this.

Aaaagh agh agh agh. This week beat me black and blue. I have a funding proposal due Sunday at 5PM, which will require me to go down to school and spend a good couple of hours banging my head against the herbarium computer trying to make a statistical program work and not commit technicide. I'm tired and discouraged and will be spending most of spring break just trying to catch up on things.

You know what? This weekend really needs it. When I'm at home this weekend, I will be MAKING SAUCE, DAMNIT. XD

*dance of VICTORY* No, seriously, the music I'm listening to is fun and I'm bouncing a bit in my seat. <3

My finals are done! I really don't know how I did on my plant form and function final. The best I could with it, obviously, but the big question is whether or not it was good enough. Right now I'm going to just try to content myself with the fact that I have gotten THROUGH this semester. Good gods it was a busy one, between projects and papers and trying to beg for funding. Oh, and measuring grass. Lots and lots of measuring grass.

I won't be able to completely turn off like I did as an undergrad during winter break. I've still got more measurements to take, and then I need to actually run an analysis on my data so I can hopefully have something to supplement my funding applications other than "My work is IMPORTANT even though it is GRASS". And I need to write permit reports and apply to present at the ASB convention. Oh JOY.

But at least I don't have school and teaching hanging over my head for the next few weeks. That in and of itself is a relief. I think I will reward myself tonight for getting through it with something I've been wanting for quite a while. <3