The Long Lab had a great research trip this past month! We successfully deployed two big experiments and conducted a lot of surveys! Big ups to my advisor, Jeremy Long, for coming out with us. That definitely gave me a huge boost in confidence as a leader and a scientist. My lab tech, Wendi White, worked her butt off to get us all prepared for the trip but had to leave early. We missed her but she set up for success, even in her absence.

Props to everyone who came out:

Dr. Jeremy Long (Kick-ass adviser, mentor, rolemodel)

Jan “I taught you everything you know” Walker (Senior PhD student in my labs)

Wendi White (the greatest lab tech ever, looking for a PI so HOLLLAAAA)

Sam Folger (an amazing Long Lab undergraduate researcher)

Anthony “Big T” Truong (goofball, newest Long Lab MS student completing a thesis in sarcasm)

Darbi Berry (My good friend, a geomorphologist, check her out at dirtbabe.com)

Austin Wayne (recent SDSU graduate and newest Long Lab researcher)

William Hoyer (US Navy resource manager at SNI, kick ass collaborator, human wikipedia)

Ooh! that reminds me!

Good News! Long Lab friend and collaborator Bill Hoyer got us permission to film and photograph on the San Nicolas Island. I’m currently combing through footage and putting a story together. My tentative goal is to have a finished video in six-eight weeks, have it approved by the Navy and share with you all! I have not started a script but depending on how it goes this may be a longer video or a series of shorter ones, we’ll see!

more soon!

for now, enjoy this beautiful picture of a tide pool. There are not many things more beautiful than the rocky intertidal.

Hi Y’all!!!

So, It’s almost been three months since I moved up to Davis for the second year of my Doctoral Program. Here’s my review:

The Science: 5/5 Holy cow, UC Davis has some BADASS ecologists. That goes for faculty AND students. Inevitably, conversations always turn into science talk and I have no complaints about that. Also, getting to talk to the researchers whose work I admire is such a cool experience.

The Price: 5/5 Other than tuition, everything is so much cheaper than San Diego (especially rent)!!!

The Scenery: 2.5/5 What’s autumn?? if You’re into trees, leafs, turkeys, and flat land, this is your spot! Unfortunately, I prefer the coast and not a huge fan of seasons, so….

The Food: 0/5 I’m not gonna get into this one. Just know this, there is no good Mexican food at all. People here claim that Thai food is great but I don’t have much of a reference point there.

The People: 8/5 Everyone here is so incredibly nice. No really, like, “why the heck is everyone so nice"? this is kinda sus…” type of nice. The only downside for me is that I don’t have much in common with anybody in terms of hobbies and interests outside of science.

Which leads me to my next point. For as adaptable as I am, I’ve had a difficult time finding my niche in Davis. My first month was super difficult. More culture shock than moving between cities/states/countries before. I’m used to the hood, graffiti, music, lowriders, motorcycles, etc. It took me a while to catch some traction but thanks to my lab mate and friend, Jan, I was able to push through and found my place.

Like always, art was the common ground. The one true universal language. I seek it out, I make it, I find others who love it too. Mixing science and art is the greatest and nothing brings me more joy! Whether art is in the form of music, dance, painting, drawing, or whatever, It always makes me happy.

Fast-forward to now: When people find out I am also a tattoo artist, our fascination with tattoos always makes for good conversation. I recently hosted a few new friends at my house for a “tattoo on fruit” party. It was a great time! I got to show them how to tattoo using fruit and nobody accidentally tattooed themselves (or others). Shoutout to Nick, Nina, Victoria, Tali, Maddie, Sam, Alice and Darien for their awesome work! Heres some pics for your viewing pleasure.

Peace!

Maddie, our only lefty!

Don’t let Nick’s confused face fool you, he’s a natural.

Tali was happy with her results, despite only being able to tattoo THICC lines.

Nick loves his momma.

Victoria tattooed an entire Italian brunch on a tiny orange.

Nina naturally decided to tattoo a forest!

Sam forgot what coast he is on, I guess. hahah.

Darien tattooed her mom’s perfume bottle. aww.

Jeez Maddie, way to make a mess hahaha

FOCUS!

me and snek will haunt your dreams!

I decided to take a class taught by Eric Sanford this fall quarter at UC Davis, and I gotta say, this might be one of my top 5 classes ever taken. The class is called “Science communication through film” which gives me an excuse to use my affinity for art in a different form. I have been working on a short film about the work I am doing in the Long Lab. Basically, if you have visited my projects section, I have turned all of that (plus some results) into a short 3 minute film.

Aside from all the fun i’ve had learning video techniques and video editing, this class made me want to do this more often. I realize there was a big learning curve but as I get better at the technical stuff, I can see it being a much quicker process. I hope to keep it going! first video will be released on December 5th and from then on I will make more as time permits. For now, enjoy this video of a whale shark over a really awesome beat by my homie Tyler of Ty Tunez.

I like to take my days off back-to-back….to-back-to-back-to-back. I know we all do work/life balancing a bit differently but i think what works for me is working nonstop for a while and follow that with a mini vacation. I agree that a work and life balance is necessary to keep our sanity but lately I’ve been chatting with friends and colleagues about their ways of managing busy work lives. Chatting with my buddy Brian yesterday, he mentioned he regrets not picking up a hobby when he was in grad school because he thinks it would have helped with stress management.

What’s the point of all this? I wan’t to draw more! I’d like to get back into tattooing and will make it a point to allocate some time for this! My good friend Thiago wants a copepod tattoo so I think thats the next one I’ll do, once i get the drawing right. I also want to draw more ocean cartoons! do you have any ideas or requests for flora or fauna you’d like to see cartoonified? send them my way.

below is a copepod that needs to be unsquishyfied for a tattoo