Halloween Town

Man, Halloween, that's one hell of a holiday. One of my favorites, I think. You get to run around in costumes and get free candy; what's not to like? I watched The Nightmare Before Christmas the other night and that was grand. Honestly, I'm just happy with anything the Tim Burton has laid his creative touch on.

The Devil's Apple

Found in the hills of the Big Creek Reserve, Big Sur

"Notorious for its toxicity, Jimson Weed is a large flowering plant with the genus Datura and the family Solanaceae. It has long white trumpet-like flowers. Its seeds grow in pods and can be consumed (or its leaves can be smoked) to produce an extremely potent psychoactive effect.

A typical dose is 5 to 7 seeds, but it has been reported effective in as little as 2. An overdose can cause delirium, delusions, paralysis, stupor and death. This is due to its dangerous combination of atropine, scopolamine, and hyoscyamine.

Its effects are said to always trigger a 24 to 48 hour anticholinergic delirium, which basically means the user is incapable of distinguishing fantasy from reality - NOT to be confused with hallucination in which the user may know is false interpretation. Overall, no matter how bizarre things get, the user will still find the twisted reality credible.

Users report when they are not hallucinating, they still are susceptible to abnormal actions which the user perceives as normal, and things the user would never do seem like just an everyday activity: ie. Rearranging furniture into one corner of the room in a very obviously impractical way, but the user, completely aware of what they are doing still does not see it as abnormal and may believe they are doing something useful."

Summer Work: Watersnake Trapping

So after my plans to do bat work this Summer fell through, I asked around my department and found out the Brian Todd was doing field work pretty close to Davis and was looking for volunteers. I was stoked to get out into the field to do just about anything so I jumped on this opportunity. Above is a photo of a baby (1-2 yrs) Nerodia caught in one of the plastic minnow traps we have set out.

This is where I work in Roseville. We have 156 minnow traps set as well as 7 of these larger drift net traps. We check all of them daily to ensure that no animals are stuck in the traps for more than 24 hrs.

This monster was caught in one of our big drift net traps. I fished him out, which was a little nerve racking. Will (left) and Brian (right) just held him so that I could get a photo. Yes, these are wild snakes, and yes, they can bite and will not hesitate to do so when cornered in a trap.

I never pictured myself working with snakes, but this really is awesome!

Fyah! [fire]

Fire dancers from various places.

Interpretive fire dance about the goddess Persephone.

Nick and Adam dual fire poi at the Soular Stage, Whole Earth Festival 2011

Spinners getting ready and lighting up right next to me, I love this photo.

Sara hooping at the Soular Stage at WEF '11

Various fire dancers at Fire U a few weeks ago

Remember to play with fire, kids.

Deer In the Headlights

I shot another self portrait to kill some time yesterday so I wouldn't have to study. I had an idea for this ever since my last organic chem midterm (the overlaying shots are my notes from practicing reactions over and over again). I am really happy with how it turned out and was not expecting it to be this successful.

Ultimately, I wanted to try and capture the fear that gets into students when finals time comes around. At the precise moment the final is handed to you, it is a mixture of feeling like a deer caught in the headlights and acknowledging the idea that it will all be over after this. Just one final push and you get a well deserved break.

The Creepiest Ornament of the Tree

Ever read Stephen Kings It? If so, you know why this is creepy.