Cool Stuff from the First Half of Winter Term

It's been a while - almost two weeks, and so I have some catching up to do. I want to just hit the highlights.

Okay, the coolest thing in the last two weeks is probably the fact that I dissected a squid in my bio lab. I didn't know that much about squid, but have always been intrigued by them and the octopus. I'm not sure exactly what it is - the way they move, their colors, the ink, their arms, the fact that they are supposed to have such huge capacity for learning and memory, their huge brains or what. Maybe it goes back to that story I heard about a captured octopus at Camp Orkila, that made its way into my poem, "I Am Not Your Touch Tank Sea Star and how impressed I was by its struggle for escape and freedom, or maybe it was the (sometimes crazy) guests on Coast to Coast AM (a radio show that explores the paranormal) who claimed that giant squid are psychic. Or maybe it was the time in India when a few of us were talking about spirit animals, and Willa Rose was saying what she thought everyone's animal would be and said octopus for me and I had been about to say the same thing, though I wasn't quite sure why. Or maybe it was a combination of all of the above. Whatever it is, I feel drawn towards the cephalopods.

Little did I know cuttlefish, another type of cephalopod, is just amazingly cool. Check out Kings of Camoulflage on PBS for this episode of NOVA about what they call "the brainiest, most bizarre animals in the ocean." You can watch the full hour episode of NOVA from Hulu, here. They had me at three hearts and blue blood. SO WEIRDLY COOL. Check it out. They also have some quirky mating tricks and there is a part in the program where they do paternity tests on cuttlefish!

So, back to the squid - dissecting it was cool, although there is no color once its preserved. Inside it, I saw the stomach, the branchial hearts, the mouth and radula, the esophagus (which was kinda stringy to the touch). Then we had to dissect the eye. Now, I do not get squeamish about most things, but stuff done to eyes freaks me out. I can watch all kinds of fake surgery or disgusting medical conditions on TV, but I just can't watch stuff being done to eyes. So I was a little freaked out but also excited to examine the squid eye, and surprisingly wasn't really grossed out at all as I was worried I might be. My lab assistant totally rocks and she actually cut the eye out, and it was goopy, but just soooo cool to look at. I could really see the iris, the pupil with the lens underneath, and the optic ganglion was hanging off the back. Then we had to actually cut up the eye to see things clearer. At that point it was a bit too small for me to see certain parts of the eye, but I got to hold the lens (which was a very hard sphere) in my hand. THAT was cool.

That's another thing about cephalopods, they have what is called "camera eyes" like we do. It's said to be a trait with convergent evolution - an adaptation that rose independently in different lineages that was not shared by their common ancestor. We had to draw the squid eye and I cheated a little by using the diagram to aid my drawing, but I think that's okay because the point was I knew where the different parts of the eye were. I got a little carried away with the drawings in general. I drew an extra picture of the eye before dissection, b/c I could see some parts of that really well. And in the drawing of the body, I drew things we didn't need to because it was just soooo fascinating to look at. I drew the tentacles and the suckers.

One thing I have found is, even though I am not a good artist and really have no talent when it comes to drawing, it is satisfying to me and so even when labs are really frustrating to me, if they involve drawing that frustration is quelled.

Two days after that lab was my birthday party, which was awesome and included such a wide variety of people who I knew from different parts of life, and we ate calamari. Squid is tasty as well as an awesome animal.

I do have to say, I start to wonder if I'm some sort of sicko for enjoying dissection so much. Whatever gets you really interested in learning, right?


So, the first half of this quarter was dedicated to evolutionary processes and animal diversification. It wasn't as difficult as last quarter and we weren't covering as much material as quickly, so the pace for winter term is a lot less frenetic. I kinda missed first term - really enjoyed how challenging it was and the material itself. I miss the enzymes and the processes we had to learn about, and the genetic and DNA material, but I have also really enjoyed the weird, quirky things we learned the first half of this quarter as well.

It's not just the cephalopods. Nudibranchs (also, like the cephalopods, a type of mollusc), actually eat the poisonous part of jellies (and other cnidarians) without getting stung and incorporate it into themselves, making them toxic and brilliantly colored. And birds, contrary to what one might think, are most closely related to dinosaurs. And the mating dances of jumping spiders are complex and memorable. Of course, I loved learning about the echinoderms (the sea stars, sea cucumbers, urchins, etc). They have a cool water vascular system. And turtles are cool.

We also covered protists a little bit, mostly to discuss why that name doesn't work anymore with recent data, but in the reading I was just astounded. I had no idea so many diseases came from protists, including malaria and giardia, two things I definitely became more aware of by traveling in India, african sleeping sickness, red tide, chagas, dysentery, and the list goes on. It makes me want to learn more about protists.


That part of the quarter is over and now we are moving on to plants. I think it's going to be cool. No dissections for the next few weeks, but I like plants and love trees so I think it'll be interesting, and probably challenging as we really go into the form and function of plant life. We also have a plant press project to do where we have to collect six different types of plants and dry them out (not an easy task in the Pacific Northwest!) and then preserve them. Looking forward to it.


In music class we have moved on to musical theater, and I have to say I am not so thrilled with it. We have to come up with a song to sing, by next week, and honestly it makes me want to bang my head against a wall. I am just hating it right now. That is sooooo not the kind of music I listen to and I am having so much trouble finding a song. I mean I can find sheet music I'm sure, but to find a song I can actually do, shit, I'm getting nowhere.

We are supposed to really perform the song, at least sound and look sincere while doing it, so I am hoping to find a song I can relate to in some way, but am very skeptical that such a thing exists in musical theater - it is just so not my style, not the kind of stories I identify with, and a genre I'm just completely unfamiliar with. I'm beyond frustrated trying to find something. At least when I've performed or sang songs in front of people before - in a few different situations - I could always pick a song I loved and put some real feeling into it. I am so utterly lost and really beyond complete frustration at this point in the class and I have to perform next week! So I not only have to learn the words and the notes, but also find the sheet music and learn things like, where I come in, how to go along with the accompaniment, etc. I am so beyond frustrated!

It feels like we have no time to find a song. It feels like every other person in our class is all gung ho about musical theater and talking about what shows they loved since they were two (okay it's an exaggeration, obviously) and I still don't know where to start and have no idea wtf I'm going to do and am getting pretty upset just thinking about it. I think the class is inadvertently fostering a deep hatred for musical theater.

I mean, this is the extent of my musical theater exposure: I watched The Sound of Music as a kid, so know (or did know once upon a time) the songs from that, and in high school I was in South Pacific and did stage crew for Wizard of Oz. So I probably could recall bits and pieces from those shows. And I've seen Phantom of the Opera but not so as to remember any of the music. And that's it. And I don't like Rent. So......yeah.

I did go and download The Secret Garden because though I've never seen the musical, I love that story. I remember reading once (in a book that explores the sacred feminine) that The Secret Garden is a great example of a story where the wounded feminine and masculine find healing in each other. I think that's pretty cool.

So yeah, I found a song from that as a possibility, but I think it is too high for my voice. I would say the same for "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," which is the only song I remember from Wizard of Oz, and well, everyone knows that song. I even thought about doing "Edelweis" (sp?) from Sound of Music b/c I so loved that song as a kid and b/c the fact that it's sung by a dude made me think it might actually be in my range but then my teacher played it for me and I don't know if it was some totally different version or what, but it was so high I just pretty much gave up. It's intimidating because so many people in the class can sing really well. And I know my nervousness gets me more than anything, b/c when I am by myself I can hit notes kind of okay but it's like when I get in front of the class, I just can't. At all.

I have a midterm in there tomorrow. A lot of it is anatomy - of the larynx, tongue, ribs and diaphragm, etc. It's funny how much I'd prefer to do that than any of this musical theater stuff. It's like, please give me an anatomy test, b/c that I can do.

And we're not even going to talk about my self-defense class that I started outside of the school one. I don't know if I'm going back or not. Fuck.


Thank god Biology is keeping me engaged and sane and doing something enjoyable! That reminds me I wanted to say a few words about the program I went to in Baltimore (right after my last post) for blind and visually-impaired college students. It was a very inspiring weekend, with interesting speakers and people telling their personal stories (something I love, love, love to no end). And so now I'm looking into how to get involved, most specifically in science-related ways. So I am exploring some programs for blind youth in the sciences and how to get involved with mentoring. I wish I had known about something like that when I was younger, because though I did find a lot of sources of inspiration and encouragement growing up, I never really felt that in the sciences, at all. And now they have blind students working for NASA. So empowering blind students in the sciences is something I really want to get involved in.


Currently Listening:
"School Night" - Ani DiFranco - I LOVE this song, though I do think it's kind of fucked-up that at one part she likens choosing between two lovers to a mother trying to choose which child to rescue from a burning house. That just seems...wrong. At first it turned me off from the song, but I got over it because I really, really love the song. I love her metaphors, the beginning of this song is just pure, classic Ani.

School Night

She went over to his apartment clutching her decision
He said, "Did you come here to tell me goodbye?"
So she built a skyscraper of procrastination
And then she leaned out the 25th floor window of her reply
And she felt like an actress just reading her lines
When finally she said, "Yes, it's really goodbye this time."

Far below was the blacktop and the tiny toy cars
And it all fell so fast and it all fell so far

And she said
You are a miracle but that is not all
You are also a stiff drink and I am on call
You are a party and I am a school night
And I'm looking for my door key but you are my porch light

And you'll never know, dear
Just much I loved you
You'll probably think
This was just my big excuse
But I stand committed
To a love that came before you
And the fact that I adore you
Is but one of my truths

What of the mother whose house is in flames
And both of her children are in their beds crying
And she loves them both with the whole of her heart
But she knows she can only carry one at a time
She's choking on the smoke of unthinkable choices
And she is haunted by the voices of so many desires
And she's bent over from the business of begging forgiveness
While frantically running around putting out fires

But then, what kind of scale
Compares the weight of two beauties
The gravity of duties
Or the ground speed of joy?
Tell me what kind of gauge
Can quantify elation
What kind of equation
Could I possibly employ?

And you'll never know, dear
Just much I loved you
You'll probably think
This was just my big excuse
But I stand committed
To a love that came before you
And the fact that I adore you
Is just one of my truths

And so I, I'm going home
To please the one I so love pleasing
And I don't expect he'll have much sympathy
For my grieving
But I guess this is the price that we pay
For the privilege of living for living for even a day
In a world with so many things worth believing
In