Sure it looks like a Quagga, but does it taste like a Quagga?

The title is a direct quote from Ruedas, my conservation biology professor and one of my favorite teachers of all time.

Well it’s come to my attention that I haven’t posted a blog in two months. Two months…that’s some serious neglect. So what’s going on in the world of Jeff? Well I finished up the term this week. I have to say I liked my classes a lot and I feel like I did pretty well in them. Even if I did let myself get a little under the gun at the end.
Elaine: “So when’s this 10 page research paper due?”
Jeff: “Oh……well….Tuesday.”
Elaine: “This Tuesday?! It’s already Friday!”
Jeff: “Look I’ll get it done…..then I’ll write the other paper for Wednesday and then get my in class presentation good to go for Friday.”
But hey it came together; my paper was pretty damn good. The two classes for those interested in the details were Conservation Biology, and Ecology of Rivers and Streams. Just for kicks I will share some highlights and memorable characters.

First I present the “Loud Guy” from conservation biology.
He was the guy who always had to put in his own two dollars to every conversation. One of those guys who always uses the animal’s scientific name, even if he doesn’t know it. One of those guys who says things like, “oh yeah like the Potamopyrgus antipodaru, I heard those are all over the place in Colorado” on a regular basis. I will present my personal favorite moment.
The guy starts off in class on a tangent about some animal.
Girl next to me turns to me and says: “I don’t think that he knows what animal he’s talking about. He said concolor and I am pretty sure that’s a cougar…..but I think he is trying to talk about a toad.”
Me: “Well….what can you do. Trying to look smart can get squirrelly on you pretty quick.”

Next I present the “The Professor Needs My Approval Girl” from stream ecology.
She was the girl who nodded enthusiastically to every point the teacher made. Without fail she would give some assent, be it just barley audible or through obvious body language.

There was the “Naive Girl” from conservation biology who got manhandled by the teacher on the last day of class when she said that one could “take the conservation lessons learned in the class to poorer nations and educate them on stewardship so they could apply them to their natural resources.” If anyone doesn’t see the inherent stupidity in this statement I can elaborate for you. The professor response was awesome.

One thing these classes did for me was give these weird moments where I actually felt smart. I mean really ahead of the game. Just times when I could see the flaws in the others statements even before the teacher pointed them out. I haven’t ever felt more than average and so those rare moments were I do feel more than that are really surreal for me. Like the time when we picked topics for the in class presentations.

At the front of the room is a list of possible topics. Under invasive species are aquatic plants, or invasive fish species. Both topics catch my eye but while I am deciding a girl comes up to the front.
Girl: “Do you mind if I slip in here and sign up.”
Me: “Oh, by all means, go for it.”
The girl selects aquatic plants and goes back to her seat.
I sing up for invasive fish species and sit down too.
Girl: “What did you sign up for?”
Me: “Invasive fish species, I know a bit about it already. What about you?”
Girl: “Aquatic plants…”
Me: “Oh cool, I almost signed up for that one. It’s a really good topic. The Mediterranean is fairly overrun already, a lot of these plants they can’t even stop. All it takes for the worst one is a plant fragment for it to grow and establish itself.” I was starting to warm to the topic.
Girl: “Really?”
Me: “Yeah….its a pretty big deal.” I had assumed people just generally knew this stuff.
Girl: “Oh….I just chose it ‘cause I thought it would be easy.”
Me: “Yeah, it should be.”
And then that was it and it occurred to me she had asked not because she cared about the topics. She had just wanted to chat with me. “Look”, I thought “talking about ideas and animals I can do. I can do it like a champ. However if it’s small talk you want, some sort of relational beginning, then unfortunately I got nothing. May I suggest the loud guy for that endeavor, sure his jokes are terrible but I can assure you he can do the small talk thing. He likes that.”

Soooo where was I? Oh yeah class was good and now its over until the next term.

Next term; Ecology and Biology of Phytoplankton, and I am pretty excited. Biology of Phytoplankton….can I get a hell yes.