2012 Wrap-up

2012 is coming to end and we shall welcome 2013 here in the eastern time zone in 14 hours. The world didn't end on December 21, surprise! Although the Mayans themselves never thought it was the end, just the end of a calendar. So what did 2012 bring? Many things, some good, some bad and some downright ugly.

I started the year with my then engaged friends Dan and Julie at their house in Minneapolis. I traveled back to Texas to finish the final semester of my master's degree. My parents came to San Marcos in May to see me graduate. I was accepted to the University of South Florida to work under a PI (principal investigator/my PhD adviser) on a NSF (National Science Foundation) grant. I was ecstatic but sad to leave Texas. Blake and I moved to Florida with our traveling circus of animals and I started my PhD program. One semester finished! (And like 9 to go). I went back to MN in August for Dan and Julie's wedding. Julie asked me to be a bridesmaid and I am glad that I was able to be a part of their special day.

So besides me becoming a Master and moving to Tampa, what else happened in 2012?

The Giants beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl for the second time in 4 years. And ha ha Eli Manning, you aren't even going to the playoffs this season! Anyway....

One of the most successful female artists of all time, Whitney Houston, died in February.

We saw more horrible mass shootings, including the Aurora, CO movie theater shooting in July and the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting in CT in December. There were other shootings and plenty of gun violence (remember Trayvon Martin) but it seems that after Sandy Hook, a meaningful national conversation on guns and a culture of violence has begun.

There was the 2012 GOP primary season in preparation for the 2012 Presidential Election. What a circus that was! The jokes just write themselves. Each candidate was ahead at one time or another with Mitt Romney coming out on top to face President Obama in November, besting Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain and Rick Perry.

Political dysfunction continued throughout 2012 after the debt ceiling debacle in 2011, which left us with the manufactured fiscal cliff. As of today, it's looks like we are going over.

2012 also saw the continuation on the "war on women" with more restrictive laws passed throughout the states. The contraception mandate in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare) went into affect in August which led Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) to compare the mandate to Pearl Harbor. Yikes. We also had the infamous comments about rape and women's bodies from the likes of Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock, who were (thankfully) defeated in their races for Congress. Whadda know, you can't say crazy things about women and get elected. In related news, Tea Party darlings Joe Walsh and Allen West lost their seats. Will 2013 be the beginning of the end of the Tea Party's influence on the GOP? Let's hope so.

Oh, and the Supreme Court affirmed the Constitutionality of ObamaCare.

Perhaps the biggest political story of 2012 was the re-election of President Barack Obama. It was a crazy fall, with record amounts of money spent, binders full of women and Big Bird. The right was shell-shocked. They really thought Mitt Romney would win. That's what you get for watching Fox News.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton resigned this year, probably because of the attack on the American Consulate in Benghazi which resulted in the death of four Americans, including the ambassador to Libya. It looks like John Kerry will be her successor.

Other political stories include dirty voter suppression tactics, the legalization of Cannabis for recreational use in Washington and Colorado, the defeat of a marriage amendment in Minnesota, voter approval of gay marriage in Maine, Maryland and Washington, the Supreme Court announced that it will hear DOMA and California's Proposition 8 in the spring, and Elizabeth Warren defeated Scott Brown in Massachusetts Senate Race. 

2012 also brought extreme weather, including heat waves, drought, wildfires and super storm Sandy slammed into the East Coast. The elephant in the room became visible. More Americans now recognize that climate change from human activities is real and a big problem. I hope that 2013 will bring political action and bold solutions to one of the biggest threats to humanity.

General David Petraeus resigned amid a scandal involving an extra-martial affair.

2012 was the year of the London summer Olympic Games. The US Women's gymnastics team took home the gold for the first time since Atlanta 1996 and 16 year old Gabby Douglas became the women's all around  gold medal champion. Michael Phelps became the most decorated Olympian ever with 22 medals (including 18 gold) from three games. 17 year old swimmer Missy Franklin also won some gold medals. The US swimmers did well all around, winning several medals in London. Kerri Walsh Jennings and Misty May Treanor won the gold in women's beach volleyball for the third time in a row. Usain Bolt of Jamaica, the fastest man on Earth, won the gold in the 100 and 200 m sprint for the second time, becoming the only person to do so. There were many other exciting sports stories, too many for me to cover here.

The sports world was full of scandals in 2012, including Lance Armstrong being stripped of all his Tour de France victories. The New Orleans Saints found themselves in a scandal over "bounty gate" and the Penn State football program was slapped with a harsh punishment by the NCAA after the child abuse scandal.

In the celebrity world, Justin Timberlake is officially off the market after marrying Jessica Biel in October, Beyonce and Jay-Z reproduced, both Jennifer Aniston and Angelia Jolie got engaged, Katie Holmes divorced Tom Cruise, Jersey Shore star Snooki also reproduced, Britney Spears is on primetime as a judge on The X Factor, and Lindsay Lohan is so last year. Everyone's favorite royal coupe, William and Kate, announced they are expecting a royal baby. Lastly, Kim Kardashian and Kayne West announced yesterday that they are also expecting.

The year's biggest science stories include the tentative discovery of the so-called "God particle" or the Higgs-Boson and the successful landing of the Mars rover Curiosity. There was a record free-fall jump from the edge of space, the closest known planet was discovered in Alpha Centauri B, 4 US space shuttles retired, the world's helium stock is running low, one of Saturn's moons may harbor life and Neil Armstrong died.

"Gangham Style" went viral and became the most watched youtube video of all time, the Pope joined Twitter and for some reason, "Call Me Maybe" was one of the biggest hits of 2012.

Since I can't cover everything, here's a link to CNN's year in review.

Whew! What a year.

Happy New Year! See you in 2013!.

Yes we did

The 2012 election has come to a close and President Obama has been re-elected for a second term. I watched the results roll in to a late-ish hour here on the East Coast. I left the room for about 2 minutes and when I came back, NBC called Ohio for the President. Then it was over.

Elizabeth Warren has been elected to the Senate. Claire McCaskill and Joe Donnelly defeated Todd Akin and Richard Murdock, respectively. Apparently you can't say crazy things about rape and women's bodies and get elected to the Senate.Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) was also elected to the Senate and is the first openly gay woman to serve in that legislative body. Tea Party favorite Allen West (R-FL) has also been defeated. Thank the Universe.

MN has defeated the marriage and voter ID amendments. Excellent. I'm so proud of my home state.

Fat cat millionaires and billionaires spent a pretty penny to ensure Mitt Romney won. But that didn't work out.

Now, we will come together or become more divided?

Time shall bring the answer my fellow Americans.

3 days out

The time for the 2012 election has finally (almost) arrived. I am looking forward to when I won't have to listen to campaign ads that have taken over the airwaves. Since I live in a swing state, the number of advertisements is through the roof! It's common for 6 campaign ads in row on a commercial break. I miss advertisements for useless and unnecessary junk consumer products that drive our economy.

The race is in a dead heat with President Obama holding an edge in key swing states. Pundits say it will all come down to Ohio.

I've learned over the last 4 years that facts mean almost nothing and racism is alive and well in the good ole US of A. I wonder if right-wing landia will implode should President Obama be re-elected. We shall know soon.

Since it's probably not a secret anyway, I'll just come out and say it: I hope Obama gets re-elected. I could have handled John McCain, but plutocrat extraordinaire Mitt "say anything to please the crowd" Romney and Ayn Rand devotee Paul Ryan are just to much for me. Please my fellow Americans, do not let right-wing extremism win the day. Oh, and friends in MN, vote NO on both 2 and 6.

And I hope both Todd Akin (R) and Richard Mourdock (R), senate candidates for Missouri and Indiana, respectively, are defeated. They both have said ridiculous things about women's bodies and rape, so I hope sanity wins, aka voters reject these crazy beliefs about women and biology.

As Tina Fey said, "If I have to listen to one more grey-faced man with a $2 haircut explain to me what rape is, I'm gonna lose my mind!"

Exactly. I suppose the bright side is that this crazy talk exposes the true beliefs of the far-right. Rejection by voters will send a strong message, I hope. This is 2012, not 1950. Let's live in the 21st Century. Can we be done with all this culture war crap? Let's just let gays get married, keep abortion legal and available, support comprehensive sex education and for the love of bacon let's teach evolution in schools.

Oh, and let's start doing something about that pesky human-accelerated climate change.

Alright well I'll leave it at that and be back after the election to comment on the state of our great nation. Hopefully sanity will win out.

Peace!

What a Google search brings

I searched for Blake on Google this evening and it led me to a blog entry by a guy with whom I went on some dates back in my freshman year of college, almost 7 years ago. The blog entry read something like, "I found out on Facebook that Erin has a boyfriend. Congratulations Blake!".

Oh my.

I read through the entries in the preceding dates to see if there was anything else written about me. I shouldn't have looked.

In sum, we went on a few dates and I thought I was interested but it turned out that I wasn't. I should have been honest and just told him that when it got to that point. I was 18 and in retrospect, I didn't handle that situation very well. I had no idea what he was feeling.

To SD, I apologize for my actions. My behavior was pretty shitty. If I could have done it differently, I would have.

I hope that you are well and that you are happy.

I'm deeply sorry.

Happy birthday rats!

As many of you know, I have kept pet rats for the last 5 years. It has truly been a pleasure and a learning experience to share my life with these lovely little rodents. Over the years, I have been met with varying responses from "Really? That's crazy!" to "EWWWWWW!" to "How cool!" and everything in between. One of my favorites came recently when an insurance agent was over at the house I'm renting to take photos for my renter's insurance application and he asked me, "do you have any dogs?" and I replied with, "no, just cats and rats". The agent then said, "well everybody has rats." I laughed and explained to him that I have pet rats, rats in my house by choice. The look he gave me was priceless.

Last summer, when I discovered that one of my rodent friends (sadly) developed a uterine tumor, I brought home two 9 week old females.

One week later on August 11, 2011, this happened. Phoebe gave birth to 5 rat babies.  It was such a surprise but a wonderful gift from the Universe. As Blake and I walked out of the pet store the week before with my new ratties, Phoebe and Io in tow, I told him that someday I would like to experience having rat babies, but not now. Sometimes you get surprised.

I can't believe that you were ever this small. And that four of you are albino.

And yes, I threw them a birthday party. And by birthday party, I mean giving them an extra special treat, mini chocolate cupcakes from the Publix (grocery store chain) bakery. Your lives are short; I want you to live it well.

Happy birthday Fancy, Tempie, June, Zeus and Splinter! And to Phoebe and Io, who were born sometime in June last year. It's been quite the adventure. I'm glad that I brought your mamma home (even though she bit me several times during her nursing period) and that I was given the opportunity to watch you grow from little hairless pink sausages into adult rats. Here's to your continued health and the (too) short but magnificent time that I get to spend with you. 

And RIP to Maxine, Moo Moo, Marley and Matilda. It was truly a pleasure my Euarchontoglires kin!

Chick-Fil-A and the First Amendment

Hot in the news currently is a now infamous interview of Chick-Fil-A's President Dan Cathy and the contributions of the restaurant to anti-gay groups. Understandably, it has sparked outrage and in the wake of this controversy, the mayor of Boston and a Chicago Alderman (which is a member municipal assembly or council) have vowed to block construction of Chick-Fil-A in their respective cities. Today, I came across this piece on MotherJones.

I don't approve of Dan Cathy's anti-gay stance and I won't be dining at Chick-Fil-A. However, I do not agree with city (or any level) government blocking construction because of Dan Cathy's views. It is a violation of his First Amendment rights. Yes, I realize that his views are bigoted and I think he's wrong. But he has the right to believe it. 

It should be crystal clear to everyone that knows me that I am 100% behind my LGBT friends. I support equality and disapprove of the anti-gay movement entirely. But, we must remember that because we find some speech revolting is not a compelling reason to censor it. Free speech and protecting unpopular views are cornerstones in our democracy. 

I am going to end this short post with a link to a wonderful piece by atheist lesbian blogger Greta Christina because she eloquently says everything that I want to say. 

http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/2011/03/28/fred-phelps-loopholes-in-first-amendment/

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."- Evelyn Beatrice Hall in Friends of Voltaire. 

Did you click on the link to Greta Christina's blog yet? Read it; it's worth your time. 

I'll never look at birds the same way again

I've been absent from the blogging world for over a week mostly due to moving preparation, but I also was given a wonderful opportunity at the end of last week. I went to the central Texas coast with a friend who is also in the MS Wildlife Ecology program at Texas State (where I just graduated). She studies American Oyster Catcher (AMOYC) nest success. I went out on a boat through West Galveston Bay and East Matagorda Bay. Wow! What sights! Not only did I see AMOYC's with chicks but a plethora of water birds and their chicks. If you ever doubt that birds are dinosaurs, just take a look at this pic of pelican chicks.

Dinosaurs! They were so cute!! I also got a kick out of the Royal and Caspian Tern chicks. Tern parents were very angry at the approaching humans.

Another amazing highlight was the Magnificent Frigatebird encounter. A young male attempted to steal a fish from a Laughing Gull about 8 feet above the boat. It was so cool. We saw 5 frigates flying ahead on West Galveston Bay. The beauty and the wonder! I'm thankful for these remarkable gifts from the Universe. To life!

By the way, I hope some you got that the reference for the title of the post. Hint: It involves a movie about non-avian dinosaurs.

Enjoy your Monday!