Dusty Lake Trip

The Dusty Lake field trip wasn’t nearly as fun as our class’ first two field trips to Olympic National Park and San Juan Island. Desert environment, a ton of mosquitoes and a ton of ants. No cabin this time; everyone pitched a tent outside in the brush minutes after we arrived at the campsite. Everyone except me, that is. The 6-7 person family tent I borrowed from Kristian was missing poles, and of course I didn’t notice this until we were three and a half hours from Seattle because I didn’t realize what components were necessary to pitch a tent. Yes, there’s a dirty joke to be said there.

If I were totally immature I would have identified my oversight as a golden opportunity to make nice with some of the women in my class because really I had nowehere to sleep and there’s no question the mere act of sleeping in each other’s close proximity would undoubtedly fetch me dates and lovin’ for, well…until the end of the quarter, but that’s incredibly foolish. Plus, none of them had room. I ended up bunking with Devon (shown below) in his 2-person tent. Turned out as something of a blessing in disguise because I’d never spoken with Devon at length before this past weekend but he seems to be generally a decent guy. In fact, that’s my wifebeater he’s wearing in the photo.

Check out the Dusty Lake area. I call it Grand Canyon, Jr. because these high rocky walls surround an expansive valley. It’s quite lovely.

Make no mistake, this thing is fucking HUGE.

 

Future Journalists of America

Another weekend, another field trip.

Tomorrow the class is headed out to the aptly-named Dusty Lake. It reminds me of something of the Grand Canyon although I’ve never been to either place. The power of photography, man. We’ll be camping for real this time; the 6-7 adult family tent will accompany me tomorrow. It’s much too big, of course, but it’s the only one I could scare up from among my friends. It’s all good, though…I’ll run a hotel for the class, you know?

I’ve written before about how the UW campus seems to be divided across racial lines. Or at least among the hard-hitters, those students who are active in student organizations and also community and Greek groups. The battle for ASUW office seems to always boil down to the white Greek organizations versus some combination of progressive white students and students of color. I can’t even remember what it was like at Stanford. Certainly not as contentious as it is here, but then again, what power did the Stanford student government really have? I suspect that at Stanford there is an overriding sentiment that the school is run as it ought to be and that it is fair for everyone. The concept of Stanford pride and honor is pitched at all times and perhaps all of that pride and gratefulness clouds students’ imaginations on how to make things better. Not so at UW, though. This student government has cash, power and influence; it is the flagship institution of the Northwest.

Anyway, let me get to the point. One of the students running for the Director of Diversity Efforts position is Miranda, a young woman I’ve interacted with often since starting my job. The campus newspaper ran an “endorsement” for Miranda that was neither challenging, nor supportive, nor informative. In fact, it was just racist trash:

“Miranda Bethay as a candidate is like vanilla: Her responses were very standard and she didn’t make us want to go out and diversify. “When did vanilla get to be such a bad thing?” asked our opinion editor. “When chocolate was invented,” an editorial board member responded. Exactly. We wish we could offer a flavor to the position of diversity efforts, but seeing as Bethay was the only candidate to show up to our forum for an interview, the only choice we can offer is the standard vanilla variety.”

Is this a play on Miranda’s being half-black and half-white? Is her job to make other people want to diversify? And what kind of ignorant crack is this about vanilla and chocolate? I think it is totally inappropriate to even use euphemisms like that for this particular candidate. If the Daily editor missed that when reviewing this piece then he’s a fucking idiot. If he didn’t miss the offensive content, then one must wonder why it was allowed to run. Mind you, this isn’t the humor paper or conservative rag on campus (not that the nature of the paper would have made it acceptable) but rather the widely-circulated, student-funded and presumably unbiased source for news. These are our future journalists, people. The people writing for the Daily, who chose to deliver a backhanded slap to Miranda instead of offering no endorsement, are the ones the public will rely on in the future to deliver facts about politicians so that we can make the best decisions. I wish I could get angrier at this and I wish more people recognized this when they read it…it’s just the sort of unnecessary, “innocent” bullshit that happens every day.

That said, I finally got some photos from the Bachelor Auction. Ignore the dates on the photos; these are from about 3 weeks ago. Did I mention that I went for $20?! Two guys went for less, thankfully for me, but really I could kick anyone’s ass who was at that thing. View, enjoy and have a good weekend!

Twin MCs. These guys ought to go professional.

Myself and lovely Angelita, $20 poorer.

Way to keep that camera above waist-level

Accessorized with phone and rose

I think this dude went for less than me.

This crazy girl spent $170 on this dude. No pressure at all!

Cross my heart.

 

Wed. night

Ice Climber began almost a year ago in the Odegaard Undergraduate Library here at the University of Washington. I’m here again tonight after a bit of studying. It’s always fun to come here. It’s like a fashion show, no kidding. The 18-20 year old young women in here seem to embrace one of two extremes: either pajamas in public (a pet peeve of mine) or full-on, hair styled, make-up’d, skin-flashing tartness. Not that I’m complaining. It’s the guys, too. Right now I’m looking over at a dude wearing that multi-colored, vertical-striped dress shirt that I know I’ve seen in Macy’s for $55. It’s nearly midnight, so he got the hour right, but he forgot he is in the library and not Club Medusa…or wherever kids these days like to party. And this other dude has salt-and-pepper hair but there’s no way it could be natural. How the hell did he do that?!

Anyway, the photos from Black Boy haven’t been sorted out yet. In the meantime, I’m going to put up my notes from last week’s camping trip…a process neglected earlier this week, again, because of the play. So read and N’Joy like non-dairy creamer.

This color is for writing done onsite.
This color is for writing done tonight.

I stole the term “backblogging” from the Texas Cooking Woman because that’s what I’m forced to do for this field trip. I have my phone but there is no reception up here in the woods so there will be no audio post. Damn T-Mobile. It’s all good. Practicing writing in the notebook is a good idea.

Four-hour drive to get up here to the Olympic Mountains. Naturally, I’m more interested in my classmates than our surroundings. Everyone here is an up-and-coming naturalist, for sure, but a couple of guys have their own band, one woman is a bartender who looks like a combination of Rachel Dratch and this girl Haane I met in college. Lastly, the three professors along with us are very good-humored. Evidently, they both attended Cal and they’ve been working together for the past 30 years. So, by now, they’ve established a little bit of a rapport. Anytime a grown man can say to another grown man “you stupid son of a bitch” and it’s absolutely no problem between them…well, that’s a sign of true friendship.

It’s ten minutes after twelve and we’ve gotta wake up at 6:30a to go bird-watching so maybe I ought to wrap up. Also, my head is killing me after a margarita, two tequila shots, a Smirnoff Apple and a Lucky Lager. Oh, and Brite Crawlers. How can you top that? Best field trip ever.

Oh, snap! Saw a coupla bald eagles today. One of ’em flying around with a twig! This afternoon, my classmates and I got down and dirty searching for salamanders in a creek. It was cold as FUCK. WhatUpThen is not the outdoor-oriented person, but I certainly didn’t want to stand out or otherwise hold the class back. So I put on my rain gear, raised my Leaf Shield and dove headfirst into the brush, baby! Before long, they’re gonna start calling me Wood Man.

Spirit of the Woods

 

Bit O’ Weekend

Let me first say that last weekend’s class field trip to the Olympic Mountains was, in a word, money. That’s money as in a whole lot of it spent on rain gear, etc., as described in a previous post. It’s money as in the $25 I spent at a Mexican restaurant the first night, the $33 I spent at a steakhouse the second night and an amount spent on beer at the grocery store that I don’t wish to disclose at this time. God, I like to spend money. But, perhaps most importantly, the trip was money in that it was totally valuable, totally enjoyable and I’m totally ready to do it again. Dig?? I got a crash course in forestry, chilled out with some amphibians, met a few very nice people and my cheap equipment survived the excursion.

Unfortunately, the big play is tomorrow and with so much preparation for it I haven’t had time to savor the memory of the weekend. Plus, I have no photos because I can’t seem to figure out how to upload the images from the damn school-loaned camera and it is due back today. They threaten to bar future equipment borrowing for three months if you return your borrowed items late, so it is a choice between no photos for this trip or none for the next three. I envision an electronics tutorial in my near future.

On Tuesday during the day I’ll play host to our performer and this evening I will MC the show, so there’s a ton happening tomorrow that I should probably get to bed. To be quite honest, though, I’m most excited because I get to check out a Chevy Suburban from the university’s motor pool. I’ve never driven an SUV before. I’ve never driven in Seattle before. And if you think I’m turning THAT thing back in a split-second before the motherfucker is due then I don’t know what blog you’ve been reading all this time.

Ho ho! Check it out!! I just figured out the camera! Here are photos. I’m gonna hit the sack. Wish me luck tomorrow!

It’s a newt. Must remember what type before midterms roll around.

It’s a salamander. Ditto on the ID deadline.

Behind Devon, Victoria, myself and that guy on the right is a 200-foot drop.

Even human structures can’t hide the beauty of earthforms.

 

Off to the Woods

Turned on ER for the first time in a while. The show was about halfway through before I realized that the new cast member was Shane West…not Doogie Howser.

First field trip for ESC 351 is this weekend so I’ll be away. I’m set, though. Backpack, shoes, sleeping bag, binoculars and camera so I’ll take a few photos for the archive. Maybe National Geographic will visit Ice Climber and pick me up as a new, hotshot photographer.

 

WhatUpThen the Camper

WhatUpThen has decided to finish off graduate school with a bang. For all of studying and research on science education and forestry and environmental science and environmental justice, I’ve never been camping. In my room you won’t find a folded-up tent, binoculars, a sleeping bag, spiffy New Balance cross-trainers or rain gear. And you sure as hell won’t find a Nalgene bottle. Those things are incredibly obnoxious. Soon you will find most of those things in my apartment, though, because I’ll need them for this monster 8-unit environmental science and resource management class that includes four weekend field trips. One is to San Juan Island and one is to the Olympic Mountains. I can’t remember where the other two trips are and I couldn’t even tell you where the first two are located since WhatUpThen isn’t exactly outdoor-oriented.

But I’m not concerned, and doesn’t it make sense to do this? We want our teachers (and other professionals) to have had experience doing the things they teach to others. One could be the master of X’s and O’s, but how could she (Good job, Stanford women!) coach a basketball team if she hasn’t played on a team? Hmm…what’s another example? Oh yeah…one could join with a political family through marriage and pay attention to national affairs while making movies in Hollywood and becoming a star, but how can you become Governor of California if you’ve never held public office? In fact, how can one even think he is capable of performing the job duties? Maybe they’re not that tough?? Anyway, you get the point. This course is gonna be great and it really is necessary if I’m gonna exhort to students the importance of the natural world.

Incidentally, does anyone reading this have camping gear I can borrow? I’m talking tent, sleeping bag, binoculars, galoshes, a headlamp, a backpack…I don’t even know what else. The way I figure it…I don’t know you and you don’t know me, but if you send me something relatively clean, I’ll send it back to you in June with maybe $20 and a coupla lottery tickets. Can WhatUpThen build community or what?