Field Training

There's few things as thrilling as doing archery. I got a major head-rush today when my coach and I went out to the range to do a practice hunter round (4 arrows from marked posts at various distances at 14 targets). Total number points possible: 280 with 5 for the inner-most circle, 4 for the next circle, and 3 for the outermost ring. I pulled a 218/280, which is pretty darned good for someone who's got very little experience with a compound, tends to snap-shoot, is vulnerable to target panic, and forgets that a compound isn't a longbow... and apparently good for someone with a fair amount of experience too! I've had a few critters tell me that I've got the makings of a championship archer... but I'm still a bit skeptical myself about this! Yes, a really great dial-up sight with a magnifier makes it a lot easier aim as well as the let-off on my bow and the high speed (223 feet per second!), but it still takes a lot of work, as I'm very quickly learning. I still have to actually keep my form up, and trust me, a 5 lb set-up is harder to hold up and making sure I have a clean release is a lot tougher than just finger shooting on my recurve.

Above are pictures from the practice range to make sure we're sighted in. I'm taking shots at 60 yards (doable but difficult shot for my Chek-Mate and almost impossible on the Little Hawk) and scoring on each shot. My arrows are the ones with the white and yellow fletch and my coach is shooting black and orange fletch. It's still quite mind-boggling to see what I can do with a bit of training and focus... and some impressive equipment to top it off!

Telcontar, Absolute First Draft

I have finally finished my absolute first non-embarassing draft of Telcontar Restored. There will be many more revisions, as always. This one was definitely a tough one to work on, but overall, I'm pleased with the results, aside from the numerous loose ends from something of this magnitude that always come up. I do have the next story starting to form, which I'm not sure how long it'll take to write. I really feel a strong connection to some of my characters in Telcontar, particularly the Geeksters (Vincent and Ivan) and Tarathorn. And no, there's no Killer Parakeet in this one, although he does get mentioned here and there.

Disclaimer about Telcontar: There may be some stark resemblance to real people that aren't coincidental. This is only in the case of the Caltech professors. The rest of the characters may have bits and pieces of quirks taken from other critters that I thought would be fun to incorporate. This is especially true for the Geeksters, who are inspired from my favorite bands and various people I've hung out with over the years.

A hearty thank-you to everyone who somehow contributed to this story from all the (mis)adventures we've shared, whether in person or from stories and tall-tales. Without all the fascinating and weird critters I've lived/live around or read/heard about, fun stories like Telcontar and Dunheasa would not be possible!

Reminder to self: keeping the same CD on repeat isn't always the brightest of ideas! I now have several Erasure songs stuck in my head!

And now, I've got to make my little journey to the second star to the right and go straight on 'til morning!

Recurring Theme...

I should've learned by now that more than 1-2 cans of Red Bull in a day does weird things to me, but every now and then, I get the urge to see what happens again. This time, I stopped at 3 and I've got insomnia that not even reading Supreme Court opinions could relieve... and my brain feels like it's trying to race with light in a vacuum.

The more I think about my research and all the directions it might go since Nature doesn't always cooperate, the more I realize this is really a life-long adventure and this thing called a PhD is just a brief chapter. And there's just so many ecosystems I want to learn more about -- boreal forests, tundra, steppe, pretty much everything besides urban!

Random picture of the day... Isn't it a beauty? :)

Brain Fluxes

In theory, I should be cranking out more materials for my PhD research proposal and/or cranking out more R code to run split-plot ANOVAs, both balanced and un-balanced designs. In practice, I'm letting a bit of pressure out of my brain so my skull doesn't explode. But on my mind: carbon and water fluxes.

The more I read up on various models for both evapotranspiration and carbon flux, the more I realize that there's a lot of stuff we don't know! The below-ground carbon pool, for example, is a huge mystery that everyone's still trying to figure out. For me, the real fun is in trying to bridge the various scales from individual tree/shrub to the regional (on the order of many square kilometers) and how to get a slick, parsimonious model that I can use across different pine forests. I wasn't too shocked when I found out that there's people all over the place doing what I want to do on different ecosystems, but it is a bit of a kick to the ego knowing that my brain actually falls within 2 or 3 standard deviations in some things!

Not too many people seem to be interested in carbon flux and evapotranspiration simultaneously from what I've seen in the literature, but from what I know, those two are pretty closely linked because of all the plant-soil-atmospheric-who knows what else interactions going on too. Doing a coupled ET-CO2 flux model is probably going to be tedious work because of all the unknowns and all, but I think that's somewhere I might be able to put in my little contributions... at least I hope so. And then there's all these cool new algorithms with artificial neural networks (which I'm still trying to wrap my brain around).

And then as if thoughts of coupled CO2-ET models with hyperspectral remote sensing and integrating plant phenology, LiDAR, and stable isotope analyses weren't enough, my brain's also swimming in daydreams of being one with the ecosystems I intend to study... and not just as a system of some sort, but with the plants, soil, and animals. Admittedly some of the daydreams also involve joining the ranks of various predators and hunting various critters, particularly invasives and anything that needs some help in population control. And then my brain is also tinkering with the idea of competing at some of the larger archery competitions and at least holding my own in them. Let's just hope that I can keep the Ranger in check long enough to make sure I can do what I set out to do!

Part 3... and then some!

As I clean up the second installment of what I've tentatively called the Telcontar series, I'm already starting to think of some stuff for a third installment of the story because I somehow created so many additional opportunities to explore not only the young heroes, but also the worlds they explore. I can't promise any time-frames to post Telcontar Restored because my #1 priority is school and my creative abilities do fluctuate fairly randomly even if there is a fairly strong correlation between creativity and stress levels. I also have a lot of catch-up time for honing in on my outdoors and shooting skills, especially now that I'm starting to integrate techniques from shooting compound into my instinctive traditional shooting. It's really weird how I have a hard time holding my shot on my trusty recurve after taking several shots on my compound, but at the same time, I'm getting to be a bit of a better snap-shooter because of it. I still like to hold my shots on a traditional bow for a count of 3-5, depending on the distance, but being able to shoot as soon as I hit my anchor and still maintain both my form and aim is a very useful skill too, especially if I ever have to do timed competitions or hunt something besides foam and plastic.

Oh and there's a link to an extremely cute video I found on YouTube when I had to take a breather from working on my prospectus and/or homework (especially ecological statistics and plant ecophysiology). There's just something oddly appealing about Erasure videos inspired by fairy tales, mythology, and/or random children's stories.

And now, time for me to continue working on my plans to conquer the world... er... curl up so I can wake up for my early morning experimental design class and endure a long day of seminars.

Effects of Stress...

List of severe stress symptoms that can be cured either with a good pretend-hunt or other solitary outdoor activity away from the general populace... or temporarily relieved with tasteless music videos, excessive use of computer games, destructive hobbies, and/or exercising to severe injury:
- Uncontrolled salivation at inappropriate things
- Visions of bulls-eyes on particularly annoying people like those annoying solicitors who don't understand the concept of "I'm running late to class/meeting/seminar" or those inconsiderate people who wear excessive product in poorly ventilated places... most of the bulls-eyes seem to be centered around lung/heart shots.
- Excessive shedding
- Cut-up tongue from refraining from swearing at the *.* person who almost runs me over when I have right-of-way or the annoying solicitor trying to recruit me into
- Sudden and increased cravings for medium-rare meat on the bone
- Loss of overall competetive edge in class
- General inability to sit still without having to stretch or walk

And now time to try to ignore the effecs of stress long enough to focus on making sure the curve is nice and broken in my favor and learning the material inside-out...