catching up to do ... but not there yet!

So I have been off the radar quite literally for a while -- swamped and then escaped down to baja for a short while ... I'll post stories and pics soon though for now all you need to know is that it was a fabulous trip!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Felt **ALIVE** like I have not in a while ... now scrambling to get thigns done on the work front... well it can't be xmas every day now can it?

Thus - on the more real life front, items below straight from the SEASPAN listserv...

EUROPE’S APPETITE FOR SEAFOOD PROPELS ILLEGAL TRADE
The illegal trade of fish is thriving in Europe. Over recent years, Europe has become the world’s largest market for fish. To support this growing appetite, it must import 60 percent of its stock. This demand has led to an increase in illegal trading. According to the World Wildlife Fund for Nature, up to half of the fish sold in Europe are illegally caught or imported. The price has also risen, doubling and tripling due to surging demand, scarce availability, and recent fishing quotas imposed by the European Union in a desperate effort to save native species. In an attempt to control this situation, the European Union “is exploring the idea of requiring officials at its ports to check with officials from countries where boats are registered to make sure they are legal and have fishing rights.”

Source: Elisabeth Rosenthal, the New York Times 15 January, 2008

UNTIL ALL THE FISH ARE GONE: EDITORIAL AND ARTICLE
The World Trade Organization is negotiating new trade rules that would reduce subsidies for the world’s fishing fleets. These fleets receive subsides of approximately $35 billion annually for expenses such as boat building, equipment, and fuel. The hope is that by reducing or eliminating these subsidies, fleets would shrink in size, and destructive practices such as bottom trawling would become uneconomic. This action is illuminated by two recent New York Times’ articles: “Europe Takes Africa’s Fish, and Boatloads of Migrants Follow,” and “Europe’s Appetite for Seafood Propels Illegal Trade.” Both articles discuss the environmental, economic, and human consequences of the illegal industrial fishing.

Source: The New York Times, 21 January, 2008

Related Articles:
Sharon LaFraniere, Europe take's Africa's fish, The New York Times, 14 January, 2008

CUBA BANS MARINE TURTLE HUNT
Cuba recently banned the hunting of marine turtles endangered in the Caribbean. The ban, which took effect the weekend of 26 January, will last “until it is scientifically proven that the species is recovering,” according to Elisa Garcia the Cuban Fisheries Ministry's Director of Regulations.

Source: Reuters, 23 January, 2008

Free Rice

just one word for the day -- go to the following website www.freerice.com
it's fun and it helps feed people ...

in Halifax

-3 degrees!!! Yep that's the temperature outside right now at 9h30 am. Rather fresh like I like to say .. but the sun is filtering through the clouds and the light is absolutely gorgeous.
I've been here for a week - my oh my it doesn't feel that way at all!! - visiting my friend Marta who is a post doc here with Heike Lotze at Dalhousie university. The two of us met when she came for a short stint to UBC 4 years ago, whilst she was still working on her PhD. It's been wonderful wonderful to get to spend some time with her - and to have each other for company whilst we work 'til the wee hours of the night. Marta is a little machine -- very inspiring when lots of work needs to be done ;o)
However, we did take Tuesday off as Boris and Heike had invited us to their lovely house by the sea for dinner. It's an absolutely stunning place - in a little community of about 40 people, right by the water, it's quiet, idyllic, peaceful and yet you can see nature unfolding it's beautiful wildness right around you. The day before I arrived the tail of a hurricane had been sweeping through sending 15, yes FIFTEEN, meter waves crashing against the seashore!
After a week of working until 1 am we also took saturday off - which was a real treat!!! ...went into town and the market -- I LOVED it, it's located in a an old brewery and has so so much character, little stands of people selling cheese, right next to stand of people selling scarves, or ham or fruit of postcards! Full of visitors and regulars gently elbowing their way around... irish music playing at this corner, an incredible violinist practising at the other end. We sat on the steps in front of him for a while, his music delight to our ears... whilst eating a cinnamon bun that was rather tasty!!
On the way home we stopped in multiple small shops - getting inspiration for various xmas presents...
...and in the evening we went 'round to one of marta's friends' house, Diego and Allison - incredibly warm hosts and aquaria fans. They have truly stunning tanks -- 2 saltwater ones and 3 freshwater ones! The incredible thing about the saltwater ones is that they do not use any filtration equipment at all!!! and the corals look SUPER healthy - i was seriously amased -- trick of the trade - as few fish as possible ;o)

Diego is from Mexico - and his parents were visiting - so we got an amasing treat: mole. Absolutely fantastically delicious!!!
ahhhhhhhhhh life is good I tell ya!

Today we may brave the crazy cold and go explore a little bit when we take a break later this afternoon - Peggy's cove maybe.
Stay tuned ;o)

what it feels like in the tumble dryer

...this is exactly how I feel -- like I've been spun around and around and around and 'roud again... not really knowing where up nor down is... but slowly I am finding back onto my own two feet... the other day i said in an email to a friend of mine - i am trying to slowly move myself back into the eye of the storm.
the epiphany i had whilst caught in the storm and being tumbled around ... and whilst reading eat, pray, love by Elizabeth Gilbert (a book you HAVE TO read by the way) is that sometimes (that is relatively often these days) I've got my little control issues... i guess particularly as a scientist when you run experiments or play around with models, sure there is a certain amount of uncertainty that you have to content yourself with - but often you're the one in control... and studying in a place with so many strong personalities around 'control' is something important... but admitting deep within yourself that it's ok *NOT* to be in control and letting go is just as important ... and so i am smiling at myself as i know this but actually doing it is a whole other thing!!! ... and yet, it's just like in climbing where when you let go of the wall no matter how hard your brain is telling you don't do it, you know you ain't going to fall very far ... letting go in this instance is just as counter intuitive on some levels yet i also know nothing is really going to happen!!!

So i've moved to halifax for the next 2 weeks -- to focus on work and find my centre of balance again. I need to get a draft of my third chapter together - and it's been a real headache, to the point where it's had be up at night... the last couple of weeks have been relatively productive though so i am hoping to continue riding that wave. Plus my friend marta is here and she's got just as much insane amounts of work to get through so we can motivate each other and take breaks together :o) ... and she understands these crazy ecopath models better than i do so i hope to absorb some of those extra beams for sure and incorporate them solidly into my brain!!!!

the turtles are calling ;o)

wow nelly -- the work life does seem to have sucked me up... although part of the last three weeks have been :o) as I had visitors for part of them - the last 2 weeks have certainly seen me more or less hiding in a hole and working away... the last 2 weeks have been rather tough on my morale I must admit. Aspects of work and just a whole bunch of other curve balls thrown at me ... and this feeling that you somehow landed yourself in a pool a little too deep for you to be able to safely swim either to the side or to the shallow end. Perseverance here though is the key ... so i am sticking to it, trying to stay focused and disciplined and getting enough rest and exercise to keep my endorphin levels as high as possible!!!

I am about to escape to get a bit of fresh air-- and fresh it is! - only 7 degrees, but I thought I'd post a couple of pictures from a hike I did when my friend Mike was visiting and Cara, a friend of the family was still in Vancouver as well - out to Eagle Bluffs. It was absolutely spectacular and fantastic - the day was perfect weather wise too, bright sunshine, blue sky, you get to walk through bits that are open, passing by numerous little lakes with orange trees pondering their own reflections...and then a whole stretch through the forest ... before coming out to a steep cliff with an absolute STUNNING view of Vancouver and Mount Baker to the south in the distance, whilst out west you could see the edged contours of Vancouver island sticking out black from the water. That hike definitely belongs to one of the most incredible hikes I've done since moving here.

As for work -- well, TAing (mostly marking assignments and exams) has been taking up quite a bit of my time ... reading what the students have been writing & their attitudes makes me wonder sometimes what the school system has become...
Then i need to hand in a draft of the write up of my Caribbean model results by the first week of November. It's making me nervous as - although I've got most of it together, there are so many things I feel are out of control or I don't know about or simply haven't had a chance, still, to wrap my head around. Hence, I've decided to take myself out to Halifax so i could spend some time with my friend Marta and have her inculcate some her Ecopath wisdom to me!!! I'm looking forward to it ... I think if I am absolutely honest with myself, I've terrified myself more than necessary by this model; and I simply need to jump with both feet and immerse myself in it. I am actually looking forward to it! As Dwight Moore taught us at a workshop I recently attended ("getting on track with your thesis") that would put me at developmental level D3 - i.e. I have moderate capacity but HIGH (to variable) motivation!
and here I go - back to my mediation functions - in other words describing how sea turtle cropping influences predator prey interactions in seagrass beds!

chronically ill indeed

As my friend Pablo commented on one of my posts the other day - are 'we' indeed chronically ill? mmm - it's a good question - I do think at least in parts we are. Looking up the definition for chronically it says - Lasting for a long period of time or marked by frequent recurrence, as certain diseases - well there you have it. The harms we have inflicted upon nature (and by extension onto ourselves?!) are definitely for long periods of time. However, somehow because it doesn't directly or immediately affect our health (in our cushy developed world that is) we somehow always foster the hope somehow it'll get fixed.... but look the ozone hole is still there and bog as ever despite the ban on CFCs back in the 90s... we give ourselves too much credit for understanding how this world functions and how we can 'fix' things gone awry. Well the world has an amasing capacity at being uncertain and full of surprises ... and we should think before acting .. rather than do it anyways and then hoping we can fix it later if it goes pear shaped. Just like that saying goes - better safe than sorry....

Speaking of our world being chronically ill ... A federal report shows that loggerhead sea turtle populations are suffering from significant declines - sad story indeed especially when you consider that data from 1989-1998 showed that the number of nesting sites had increased about 4% each year. In an article published in The New York Times reasons for the decline are mainly attributed to commercial fishing ... but it could be a whole slew of reasons and combination of things...

As for illness itself - I've not been feeling all that hot myself these past couple of days ... my body is intensely fighting a war against some bugs that want to take over my immune system for a little while... onset of fall, and the creeping-in cold always kind of throws your body in a bit of loop. So I've been making myself tasty veggie based soups, taking lots of vitamins, inhaling niaouli oil - a natural antiseptic - and getting more sleep than I usually do. Nothing more frustrating than trying to work and producing only blank mind waves.

So I am going back to bed - creating a comfy little corner for myself with a bunch of pillows and taking some scientific reading there with me -- and a cup of hot herbal tea.
If only it'd be that easy to help cure mother nature...

PS - oooh and that second chapter did get handed in to Daniel ... though it still needs some work

Rambles and that second chapter

So after a pretty much sleep deprived week and a terrible headache on Friday day, things started to look up on Friday eve. After collapsing at home for a wee while, I cycled down to the Charlatan, a bar on Commercial Dr. to meet up with a group of friends. I didn't stay long - but they had both guiness and strongbow on tap (yayyyyy - a very rare event here in Vancouver!) so i delighted myself in a black velvet - yum! ...and the bartender was super nice and gave it to me for free!!! Just the perfect way to end a downtrodden week I tell ya!
Saturday morning saw me rise and shine early (well certainly the former, not sure about the latter) as my friend Kate was having her wedding brunch that day. A bus that I picked up downtown then took us on a long ride over to Coquitlam. There are some insanely posh houses over there -- very movie type decor looking though, alcking serious personality or charm. The buffet (at the Coquitlam gold club s'il vous plait) was exquisitely tasty and I got to catch up with a friend of mien from Tasmania I didn't know was going to be attending the wedding! Kate looked beautiful and happy -- and the groom to be seemed very calm and serene!
Long ride on the bus home... and then a fun trip to the climbing gym!
I think i may have gotten myself addicted...
Attendance at a house party in the evening, after a tasty meal-cooking at home ... some typical house tasks on sunday... and then I was headed to the wedding itself. However, as I was about to hop out of my flat and hop on the bus, I got a dsitraught phone call from a friend of mine whose laptop had justd ecided to join the never neverland of computers.... 2 weeks before her thesis submission. Eeeeekkk! I gave her a couple of emergency computer support numbers, crossed my fingers before hopping into Neil's car who very gallantly and kindly offered to drive me to Cecil Green Park house. Despite the gray skies and continuous downpour, nothing could have possibly obscured the couple's day -- they both looked stunning & both looked deeply happy and in love :o) The ceremony was shot and sweet and truly lovely. Tasty food and some touching and funny speeches followed... then some dancing and a very dangerous looking carrying of the newlyweds on chairs!!! careening at top speed around the dance floor! Very funny ... I took this as my high note of the eve and said my adieus.

Sadly my friend's computer was completely toast :o( - and so I spent most of monday madly backing up and synchronizing my computers and drives - you just simply cannot be too safe.
Today I made some progress on producing a decent draft of my second chapter so I can give it to Daniel by tomorrow --- I'll have to get up early though and do some solid work on it to get it to that point though. Somehow it just doesn't flow :o| ...just seriously wish writing came to me easier!!!!
Cara - daughter of a friend of the family - arrived today as well, and will be staying with me until friday. She's wanting to get a feel for the city and see whether she'd consider moving here!

Right - and with that I am off to bed!
Boa noite