The wet season seems to have officially begun here in the north Pacific. When I arrived on Guam, it was the beginning of the dry season. Of course, you wouldn’t have known that since it rained at least once every day for the first month. For the past week, however, we’ve had more rain than I’ve seen since arriving. What really signified prototypical wet season for me was thunder. Last night was the first time I have actually heard thunder since arriving here. Living on a tropical island, one would think that there would be thunderstorms all the time. Well, that’s not the case here. I think it may be because there’s not much land area here and thunderstorms often feed on convective heat generated by large chunks of warm ground. Despite the lack of satisfying thunderclaps, I have often seen distant lightening here, however, it was never close enough to see a solid bolt in the sky. We got the full show Wednesday night: thunder and lightening close by, though not so close that our hair stood on end.
The event that evening was night searching. Myself, Haldre, and Karen went for a brief search at Andy South (some rarely used land owned by Andersen Air Force Base) with Jason Gibbons, one of our recent trainees who works with Guam’s USDA Wildlife Services. We were accompanied by Lee, Lloyd, and Bruce, some guys who were here together as a panel whose purpose was to review the brown treesnake project. Lee is a laid-back herpetology professor at Texas A&M who reminds me of James Taylor. Bruce is sort of an environmental consultant, although he’s dabbled in a little bit of everything, including acting as overseer of environmental aspects on the construction of the Dalai Lama’s new temple. Lloyd is a very quiet guy who plays a large role in Hawaii’s wildlife program. I believe he works for in Maui, but I’m not sure of his exact position. There was also Mike, the other individual of the panel, who didn’t join us for the search. Mike has a lot of experience in mammal research, much to Andy’s joy.
It was a good search and a few snakes were found (always a plus when the review panel is out there). My search abilities weren’t quite up to par, mainly because I was really tired. Despite having several days off this week, I’m still recovering from the rapid response training. Of course, maybe it’s more the fact that I woke up at 6am yesterday after sleeping in over the previous days. So maybe I’m just lazy. But I think I deserve a little laziness after this training.
Overall, the training was a success and I think all the people involved effectively learned what they needed to. These trainings are always a lot of work: long days and night searches 5 or 6 nights per week. This particular training was more stressful in that Karen and I were running the entire thing on our own, with help from Haldre only when we needed it (she was there for us if necessary, which was great). Also, there were some other issues that I can’t divulge in an open forum like this. Suffice to say, both Karen and I are glad its over. I’m really astounded Haldre used to do these trainings on her own. I know she was completely wiped out and I understand why.
On a completely unrelated subject, I bought some filters for my camera a couple weeks ago. I bought two polarization filters (for two different lenses) and what’s called a graduated neutral-density filter. The polarization filters cut back on glare, block some forms of unwanted light (one of them blocks UV, too), and enhance color. The GND filter uses the same basic concept as those highly fashionable tinted glasses that are clear on the bottom and shaded up top. It has tinting on one side that gradually fades out about halfway down the filter face. The most common situation in which you would use a GND filter is when you’re taking a landscape photo with land, water, etc. in one portion of the frame and sky in the other, but it can be used in any situation where there are two highly contrasting portions within the same frame.
In the landscape example, either the sky or the land portion of the frame often gets exposed incorrectly. Either the sky will be washed out (if the light meter is read to expose the land) or the land will be far too dark (if the light meter is read to properly expose the sky). With such a high contrast difference, the camera can’t properly meter (i.e., adjust the aperture and shutter speed) both portions of the shot and create a happy medium. With the GND filter, you can rotate the shaded portion of the filter over the sky, adjust the camera to properly expose the darker land, and have the entire shot be exposed properly. It’s a pretty basic concept (just shade the bright area) and it works well. The only thing I’ve found on my shots is that I wish the shaded portion extended farther down the filter. Often the upper part of the sky was exposed nicely, but the lower portion before land meets sky was still washed out a bit. This gave the sky a weird, two-toned look (blue up top, whitish-blue on bottom) that, although kind of cool, isn’t natural.
Okay, that was just way too much information about filters. Sorry if that lulled you into a deep coma… I just wanted to explain their purpose for the non-camera savvy. I’d like to get out there and experiment more with the filters to really get a feel for what they can do. At some point this week (once I have access to the high-speed connection at work), I’ll post some of the initial photos I took, all of which I have on CD.
At some point soon, either this coming weekend or the weekend after (I really should find out for sure), I’m going to be participating in another GEARb (Guam Extreme Adventure Race, baby) sprint. I think this one is a little more involved than the last one I did, which ended up being just a long mountain bike ride. That was a lot of fun, don’t get me wrong, it’s just not what I would consider an adventure race. This one involves biking, running, and maybe some swimming, although I’m not exactly sure. That sounds like an ironman triathlon, but it’s not quite that hardcore. According to Haldre, the date for the race was pushed back, which is the main reason I don’t know when it’s occurring. I’m pretty sure there’s a GEAR website (if I didn’t, I meant to post a link for it when I talked about the bike race in one of my previous entries) and that should have all the information. I’m looking forward to it and I plan on biking to and from work as much as I can in order to prepare for it. My partner is going to be a friend named Renee I met through Haldre at the hashes. Renee is a helicopter pilot for the Navy and she’s a cool girl. She’s also in great shape and swims like a fish. If there’s a swimming potion, hopefully I can summon up some of my Dad’s swimming genes so I don’t end up 20 minutes behind her.
I suppose to help prepare for this, and to just avoid being lazy, I should stop watching so many movies. During the past highly uneventful week, I’ve watched way too many films. Part of that is because I discovered Blockbuster’s moviepass deal, which works a lot like Netflix. You pay $30 for three movies, which you can exchange for another 3 movies as many times as you want for a month. If you’re a ridiculous movie junky, you could potentially get three new movies every day (hey, every 6 hours if you wanted) for a month for only that initial price. Another plus is that there’s no due date for anything until the month ends. It’s a great deal if you watch movies a lot and I definitely fall into that category. I’ve seen several movies I’ve wanted to check out for a while, such as House of Sand and Fog, 21 Grams, Monster, Girl with a Pearl Earring, and Dirty Pretty Things (all of which are very uplifting… or not so much). So, maybe they aren’t exactly feel-good flics, but they were all great movies. I would recommend them all (Girl with a Pearl Earring more for it’s cinematography than anything… oh, and Scarlett Johansson), just don’t watch them all in a row, lest you become incredibly depressed.
Hey, I just saw the Magnum P.I. helicopter fly by! Nice. I’ve seen that helicopter a few times before. It’s not the exact same helicopter, of course, but I think it’s the same model with similar colors. Maybe T.C. has decided to move to Guam since all the action is here now. Hell, we’ve got Kurt Kessler, our very own Magnum (as mentioned in one of my entries from a long time ago), so it’s only fitting.
Anyway, enough of that tangent. Right now it’s time to be jealous of Brent and Haldre. Currently the two of them are taking it easy in some beautiful areas of Bali. They left on Friday for a two-week vacation to Bali and Sumatra. For the first three days, they’re staying at this gorgeous place in a fairly remote area of the island. I saw photos of it from the company’s brochure and it’s quite the place: the idyllic tropical hideaway. After that, they’ll be living simply at hostel-type places, which is also a lot of fun. I think they’re in Bali for just a few days and then they’ll take most of the time to explore Sumatra. The latter island is huge, so there’s a lot to explore. Bali, although a beautiful place from what I’ve heard, is much smaller, only about 50 or 60 miles long whereas Sumatra is roughly 1000 miles along its longest stretch. I hope they have a fantastic time and I can’t wait to see the photos from the trip. They may help me determine where I’ll be going over the holidays.
Speaking of which, the first vacation I’ll be taking is over Christmas and New Year’s. I’ll have enough vacation time racked up to take off two weeks (since we have a couple holidays thrown in there), so I’m planning on heading to somewhere in Indonesia. I may have talked about this in a previous entry, so if I did, I apologize. I’m more releasing thoughts about where I’ll be going. Indonesia has been one the primary destinations to which I’ve wanted to travel since I knew I was coming here. I also wanted to check out Papua New Guinea, but the political climate and overall situation there may not allow it. Apparently it’s basically a death wish to go there if you’re a white English-speaking person such as myself. I’m going to look into it more since I’d like to get a better idea of the situation with my own eyes. If I don’t go, I’d like it to be based on legitimate issues of imminent danger, not rumor. Anyway, PNG is likely out of the picture, but I’m thinking of possibly Sulawesi or Sumatra. What I would really love to see are native rainforests, and wildlife, in somewhat pristine condition. Apparently much of Borneo’s rainforests have been decimated and what remains is difficult or expensive to access. From what Haldre mentioned, Sumatra and Sulawesi have much of their native forest still intact.
Nothing is settled yet and soon I’m going to get some books on Indonesia and begin researching. There are innumerable places one can go in that area. I purchased three maps from a local bookstore a couple weeks ago that cover essentially all of Indonesia. They’re really nice USGS topos that also show sea depth, which is cool to check out. I spliced the maps together into this huge beast, now on my wall, that covers the entire archipelago. The thing is ridiculous (at over 10 feet long), but it will be really useful when I’m researching where to go (plus the level of detail at that scale is fantastic). So, if you have any questions on Indonesia geography, just let me know.
Jumping rapidly to the next unrelated topic, I’ve finally posted a drummer-looking-for-band type ad up at a local music (as in instruments) store. I think the odds of actually getting in contact with someone that way are pretty slim seeing that there were several other ads there, the store, although apparently a hot spot for musician-types, is off the beaten path, and I don’t have a car. Now, maybe I shouldn’t have posted that on the ad, but I think it’s important people realize I don’t have a reliable way to personally transport my drums. That is my major downfall in hopes of ever playing somewhere outside my apartment, but that’s how it goes. Of course, people may read the ad thinking I don’t have a car because I’m 14. Hmm, maybe I should make some edits…
I think a better way to do it is to just get out there and talk to any bands playing in the area. I’ve only seen a few, but I know there are several that consistently play at local bars. I’m not necessarily looking to start a band, it would just be nice to jam with some people. That way I could drive my neighbors completely insane with the cacophony of a full band.
Over the next couple months (after which there is another training), I hope to be more consistent in the way I post to this blog. It has been way too long since I made my last entry! I was busy for much of that time, so it makes sense. It’s just much easier to keep everyone informed of what’s going on if I post consistently. In waiting too long, I can’t remember a lot of the funny details to events that happen. It turns into a jumbled mess of thoughts like this posting, which make less sense and aren’t quite as entertaining. So, I’ll try my damnedest (that looks really strange when it’s written out… is that right?) to post once a week. I can’t promise anything, but I’ll do my best.