Day 24: Missing it

The title today is "missing it" for several reasons.

Number 1:
Today was my day off, but it was too son in my opinion with the addition of just getting all the data back for the pool experiment (all of those water samples were analyzed!). So instead of taking a day off, I spent the day relearning stats and SPSS, and missing the right steps or the right arrangement of data to do the analyses. It's been a long day working through ANOVAs and the assumptions that are linked with it. At least I got to sit in the lounge to the Aurora Dome, a plastic bubble on top of the building that lets you star gaze and watch the aurora when it is 60 below outside, so it was a great view and warmer than my desk in the lab. Still working on the data, but I think I need to call it a night.

Number 2:
Today, four polar bears were sighted... and I missed them all! Three of the bears were found at the coast, lounging in the rocks, looking like rocks, and easily avoidable. One of them was in the fen, which is inland and an unusual place to spot them. 7 of the birders were out in the fen, searching for nests when they spotted the bear about a kilometer off, which is pretty close to see a bear, especially when they were away from the truck. They double-timed it back to the truck while another researcher was driving out for her work in the fen. She was almost there when she heard the chatter that there was a polar bear ahead, and decided to keep going in case she could get the birders in her truck if she was closer than theirs was. She rounded the bend, startling the bear out of a group of willows! It stood there some 10-15 feet away from her truck! But it was the distraction that the birders needed to get safely in their truck. They had good communication, fired some cracker shots at the bear to scare it away, then rode back to CNSC to call it a day - leaving everything, including a laptop behind. Fortunately, no one was hurt, except possibly the ego of one birder who fell and wedged fen mud up the barrel of his shotgun. Scary, but handled well with everyone, including the bear, safe.

Number 3:
One thing I did not miss out on was the firearms safety training, which I passed! I now have a PAL (as soon as the paper work gets processed, which may be a while yet, but close enough)! So... which gun should I buy? The fun ones to take to the firing range are the 22 gauge rim-action since they are the cheapest and other than for polar bear protection, and since I don't hunt, something fun to shoot at a range would be what I'm looking for. Also, I've found out that you can go shooting without a PAL as long as the person you're going with has one. That's not bad at all!

Number 4:
I'm getting a little homesick and missing everyone. This is the longest I've ever been away from home, and I'm not too bad, I just have to make sure to keep busy.

Number 5:
I don't know if it's because I've been here longer now, or if it is something about the new building, but the social dynamics are falling apart. In the old building, there were hangout spots where you could easily find anyone else and see if anyone wants to watch a movie, go for a bike ride, play cards, play pool or just hang out. Now, if you aren't already part of the group - most of the other researchers are here with a group - then you don't know what anyone else is up to. So I don't know what anyone else is up to, even when I sit in the cafeteria or A/V lounge, no one else is around! I only see them at meal times and even then it's a bit rare since a lot of them are in the field for lunch, and I'm running late in the morning or evening so I miss everyone then as well.

Day 22: Safety off

There was mandatory polar bear safety and firearms training today followed by a trip to the shooting range. So to sum up the polar bear part: always look around and be aware of your surroundings so a bear doesn't sneak up on you or you sneak up on a bear. In the instance that you encounter a bear, remain calm, slowly back up while facing the bear and get everyone in the group together - just forget the gear, get into a vehicle and drive away or into a building. If the bear looks like it is going to charge (head down and swinging, shifting weight on its feet) fire a deterrent, starting with non-lethal. If somehow a mother and cub situation happens, be extremely careful because this is the worst case scenario and the mother will fight to the death. But you do the same thing - keep it cool, slowly back away, use the deterrents making sure the bears will move together to the same escape location where there is no one else they can run into.

Now to the fun stuff!

The Red Dragon! A 1981 standard of some maker - I'm not good
at remembering car brands. It was extremely sketchy though!

The firing range with targets set against a sand dune. We shot
from 20 paces.

This is a picture of the first time I ever shot a gun as the recoil
from the 22 gauge pump-action shotgun pushes me back into
Kat's hand and pushes the end of the barrel towards the sky.
I shot a gun!! Kat said I was so giddy and giggly after every shot.
It was awesome! Next I'll be like Cari Byron cutting trees with
a minigun Dillon M134D. So much fun! Now all I have to
do is learn how to sight down the barrel and not raise the gun
in anticipation. 

Last night was summer solstice! We had a Trash Dash to clean up the area of the construction site garbage that was blown into the rocks and trees. Then we were rewarded with a campfire with marshmallows, chips, and, the necessity of every casual science gathering, beer. A great tradition that left me and all my clothes smelling of smoke - which is great since I really don't have that many clothes up here so I have to smell like smoke until I can do laundry again!

To roast the jumbo marshmallows, a technique was involved.
Roast the outer layer over the coals, pull that off leaving a
gooey melty mellow which gets roasted again. The best roasters
managed 5 layers of roasties.

This is around midnight. What isn't seen in this picture is that
the sun was still setting behind me, and still setting when I
went to bed at 1 pm.

Getting Excited!

Me at the mouth of the Churchill River last year. I can't wait to go back!

With my last exam finished and the last assignment handed in, I'm starting to get really excited for the summer! I'm starting out in Waterloo, ON, then will be in Churchill, Manitoba for 2.5 months!

So for the next month, I will be planning out my experiment that I will be conducting up north and getting ready to spend the summer there.

So much to do:

• Take a First Aid Course
• Get my PAL - Rifle license
• Plan out the experiment
• Research everything related to the topic
• Narrow down the research question
• Figure out the methods
• Find out that the methods don't work according to the literature
• Research some more
• Figure out new methods
• Order materials
• Run a trial experiment to see how it all works
• Find out it doesn't work
• Go back to beginning and try to apply what I learned the first time through
• Frantically come up with something to bring with me to Churchill
• Continue adjusting until it seems to be working
• Make it work
• Go to Churchill and run the experiment
• Cross fingers!
• PALS (Paleolimnology Conference) to present Churchill work from last summer
• Add new data
• Re-analyze data
• Discover that the data is saying something completely different than I thought it had been saying
• Slave over powerpoint
• Travel to Montreal
• Present (woohoo!)
• Cross fingers that no one will ask a hard question!
• Prepare the podcast! I'm in Knowledge Integration at UW, which means I get to do a really cool thesis! I've decided to make a podcast about everything I'm doing in Churchill!
• Find a supervisor
• Find money/grant to buy or rent a good mic and recorder
• Figure out how to interview people
• Figure out how to make a podcast
• Get a friend to record some cool music
• And in a simplified version... Be ready to pump out podcasts every week as soon as I get to Churchill! (Yea, I'm optimistic! Or naive!)
• Prepare to go to Churchill
• What to pack?!? Is it winter or summer or...?
• Forget the most essential thing to bring, which is... which is... I can't remember...
• Throw a Polar Bear themed good-bye party