Saturday, April 28, 2012

Sunny Saturday & Other Rambles

I volunteered this morning, and the horses were being silly and playing around. Super cute! :]
Whilst cleaning out the chicken coop, I found a pigeon that got stuck in there with the chickens! I grabbed it and rescued it from the chickens and set it free again. No, it wasn't the pigeon in the picture above but that was the only picture of a pigeon I had! Haha the pigeon in the picture was one that just wandered into my backyard. 
 After volunteering, I stopped by my friends house to pick something up and got this picture of her dog. I quite liked it!

In other news, Doom had his 22nd birthday this weekend and it was a lot of fun. My other friend has a birthday this weekend and it looks like we'll be getting SUSHI! Yum. This next week coming up is study week and the week after that is finals week, so it looks like I'll be quite busy over the next couple weeks, however I do have many ATC's on the way, and some that I'll be sending to my friend Dogert! So here's your saturday update. :)

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Did you know? [warning: lame useless facts that I somehow love]

Time for some fun facts. :) Hehehe (No, I'm not a geneticist. I just thought these fun facts were neat and worth sharing! That's why I provided links, 'cause I sure can't explain the complexities of these facts.)


Wild-type banana!
  • The bananas sold commercially are triploid because their wild-type diploid counterparts have tough inedible seeds! I had always wondered how bananas were grown as a kid, I mean, it didn't seem like there were really any seeds inside of them, but now I know. Apparently mutant triploid seedless plants are grown from "suckers" that grow at the bottom of the plant, and which are separated and replanted every year, so that you get a bunch of identical plants! If you're deeply interested in bananas, read more 


    Tympanoctomys barrerae
  • There is a species of rodent found in Argentina that is polyploid! The Plains Viscacha Rat is a normal looking rodent, but it turns out that it is tetraploid. Humans are diploid, meaning we have double of every chromosome, however these rats have 4 copies of each chromosome! Polyploidy is more common in plants than animals. There isn't much info about this critter but you can still: Read more!


  • Platypuses have 10 sex chromosomes! Platypuses are monotremes, a group of mammals that split off from modern-day mammals at least 166 million years ago. Therefore, they have retained characteristics of early mammals, such as their egg-laying and milk producing traits. The male platypus is also venomous! It has spurs on his hind legs. Reading about their evolution and genome is pretty interesting. Read more!

Friday, April 20, 2012

Sweet dreams are made of these...

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I keep a dream journal. So I decided to share a few of the little drawings I put in there. These are not from the same entry, they're from multiple entries spanning a few months. And unfortunately, not all of them are so sweet.
I wish I was better at drawing landscapes/environments, maybe I'll give it a shot next time my mind takes me somewhere crazy. >__<  hehe

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Weekend

Volunteered at the therapeutic riding center with a few pre-vet girls, it was good to get to know them more! It also felt good to do some manual labor. My back and arms are soooore! ^~^
There was nummy food afterwords. Tacos! And epic desserts!
Volunteered at the feral cat clinic, it was a lot of fun this time around. Less stressful and more enjoyable overall, plus I got to talk to a guy who just got accepted into vet school! I learned a lot. There were a couple sad cases there; a mother cat gave birth to a dead kitten, it wasn't even fully developed, just a little pink thing with no hair. Then another cat died of a heart problem, apparently its rather common in cats. After I got home I decided to study outside because it was soooo nice and warm out. Plus the doggies really seemed to like it.

Feivel's a goofball. :]


The sun was making Titus super sleepy hehehe.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Happiness

Some things make me so happy...
Music; Death Cab for Cutie, Regina Spektor, Coldplay, Goo Goo Dolls, The Postal Service, Bush, The Killers
Art; watercolors, acrylics, pens, pencils, cameras
The Universe; Carl Sagan, stars, galaxies, infinity, s p  a   c    e, Earth, sunrises, sunsets, plants, animals, biology, mountains and forests and streams and deserts and meadows, James Herriot, evolution, tolerance, logic, beginnings, endings, and all that's in between
The Little Things; tearing up during a commute cause a beautiful song comes on the radio, trying out new things, sushi, road trips, big love, hugs, knowing you're not alone, blueberries, mangoes, sitting outside on a lounge chair just enjoying the sunshine, things that remind you of beautiful beginnings (Closing time, open all the doors and let you out into the world...), coming home to my dogs, the smell of old books, friends, laughing at everything and nothing (like at midnight when someone won't stop singing horrible rap songs in your ear and you're so tired and annoyed that all you can do is laugh, hysterically), Breathless excitement for the future, moving forward, biology textbooks
Oh, and Doom <3 (I know who I want to take me home, I know who I want to take me home, I know who I want to take me home, take me hoooome...)
What makes you happy? :)

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Surprise Tongue-Thingies

So I saw a post on reddit about plica fimbriata. They're just little danglies on the bottom of your tongue. (They may or may not be rare? Not a lot of info on them.) Creepy, amiright? I think its funny that I've had these things all my life and only just discovered them.
Completely random post, nothing else to say here. :)

Monday, April 9, 2012

Spring Break, You will be missed

Oh spring break, your stay was much too short. I already miss you, and I regret that I could not be as carefree as I would have liked, but homework and studying beckoned and that is a call I cannot ignore. I'll miss the first days of bliss and ignorance, pretending like I didn't still have a dramatic end to the semester ahead of me, nor a summer filled with math and science to endure. But overall it was sweet, I do enjoy days with nothing to do but what I want.
Here are some of the things I did over spring break: stayed with Doom (a lot!), watched Invader Zim, ate WAY too much (it was unfortunately that time of the month, don't judge me!), luckily avoided jury duty, volunteered, painted, wrote Doom a letter to be read in 20 years (bahaha, it was a random idea that struck me and I just had to do it), played some Pokemon Soul Silver, watched Game of Thrones second season first episode, found a fascinating pre-veterinary forum that I've been reading and learning a lot about the application process, groomed both my doggies and got them seen at the vet (good news: Titus' weird bump thing is actually a cyst, not anything to worry about, yay! Feivel's still needs to get a biopsy) aaaaand for the blah part of my break: homework and studying. And not nearly enough of it, but hey I'm only human. Soooo... welcome back, semester. And on to putting in my 100%!

Sunday, April 1, 2012

The Dismal Forest

This took much too long. I can't really say I'm exceedingly pleased with the outcome, the reference I chose was gray and foggy, and my rendition of it turned out to be not quite as good as I'd hoped. This is the largest acrylic piece I've ever attempted; I believe it's 24x30 inches. I kept redoing parts and I ended up wasting a lot of paint. I think for my next piece I'll choose a nice open scene... These trees are so darned tricky! 
Doom is threatening to steal it to put in his apartment... I don't feel that its worthy but since I don't really wanna put it up in my room I might just let him have it.
OH, and note to self: NEVER use sharpie to sketch out the painting on the canvas. It bleeds through the acrylics. I've put MULTIPLE layers over the sharpie areas but it still kinda shows.
My brain is numb now. >~<