Summer's end

Okay, yes, I know this order makes no sense whatsoever but here is another thing I dug up from my computer that was written for the blog about a month or so ago (only now I have run out and my next post will have to actually be a real live current one).

I am now a Part II Zoologist. This means I spend much of my time wading through densely written scientific papers, ferrying fish around, squinting at statistics programmes on the computer wondering what the heck my data actually means, but other than the reading load life is really not too bad. It is interesting stuff (the joy of university really is that you get to study what you like), and in my drive to apply for PhDs I am actually reading journals for interest, which in prior experience is only done by the keen nuts who hand in 20 page essays and nod at every obscure theory supervisors mention in passing. Hopefully soon I shall be a nodder too, although I must endeavour to remain seemingly un-keen. But really producing a major dance show and working out the logistics of applying to the states and doing GREs and such are limitations on my maximum potential keenness level. Oh, and my innate laziness.

Summer was great, the fish did me proud, my sister got married another two times, I went diving at Sipadan. It's a pity that the blog wasn't up then because of course I cannot be bothered to write about it now. Oh, but I saw a hammerhead! Well theoretically I saw a hammerhead, in actuality all I saw was a shark's body swimming away from me at high speed, and really a hammerhead body looks like any other shark body... but other people saw its head and I don't care, I shall pretend I did see a hammerhead. The diving in general was simply spectacular -- barracuda point certainly lived up to its name, I just hung there for ages gawping at the huge circling mass, and I actually got bored of nudibranchs at one point. The sheer diversity of crazy things (especially at Mabul island where we lived) was brilliant -- harlequin ghost pipefish and frog anglerfish and everything! I know most of you who read this are non-divers so I shall desist. But fish are pretty! Oh oh and I had a close encounter with a turtle. I had my sister's underwater camera, and I was just doodling along trying to take a picture of some boring fish, when my other sister tapped me on the head. Looked up and there was a little turtle just half a metre away. I snapped -- it lifted itself off the coral -- snapped -- it swam towards me -- snapped -- it kept swimming towards me -- snapped -- it had a good close up look at the shiny strange plastic lens thing -- snapped -- curiosity satisfied, it finned away. The series of photographs is hilarious, of a turtle getting closer and closer and then this completely out of focus photo of a turtle eye, will put the photos up when I can get them off my sister.

And now although I ought to go to sleep I shall quickly do that quiz thing that Qiong deigned to stick me on as an afterthought, although I will remove the last section as I don't actually know 7 other people whose blogs I regularly read!

Seven Things That Scare Me
1. Dark alleyways
2. Cool People, esp. when Drunk in Clubs
3. Losing people I love
4. The Future - exciting, but scary
5. Suddenly finding out I hate research and will have to become a ballet teacher
6. Not ever living in the same country as, well, you know
7. Venerable old men and women on admissions committees

Seven Things That I Like Most
1. People -- friends, boyfriend, family (in no particular order!)
2. My charmed life, in general
3. Living things (I am a biologist for a reason.)
4. Dance
5. Good food, especially of SE Asian/Japanese/Italian varieties
6. Novels about nothing much that you can sink into
7. Long, funny, insightful conversations with anyone (sounds like a personal. yeuch.)

Seven Important Things In My Room
1. Plants (my "tree" - indoor foliage 1m high plant, and two pots of unidentified pretty flowers)
2. Stan and Henry F.
3. Music, means of producing
4. Yes, yes, the laptop and the internet connection
5. My posters and photos -- they make it mine
6. Lots and lots of books
7. Fruit in my fruit basket (!)

Seven Random Facts About Me
1. I like sea slugs
2. When in leadership positions, I appear to be scary without trying
3. My left leg turns out more than my right
4. When I was 7 I stole a pack of smarties from the sundry store
5. I never use short forms in my text messages
6. The better I know people, the more childish I am with them
7. I sleep a lot

Seven Things I Plan To Do Before I Die
1. Go to New York -- this December!
2. See a whale shark (fingers crossed)
3. Be a superwoman. Career and kids and all.
4. Find out something significant nobody has ever known before (i.e. do a PhD!)
5. Go skiing (again)
6. Become a good cook (just because I like eating good food!)
7. Make the world a happier place (haha)

Seven Things I Can Do
1. Dance
2. Multitask
3. Take exams
4. Dive
5. Hit the snooze button every 9 minutes for 2 hours
6. Identify hundreds of fish, inverts and coral (at least at some point in my past)
7. Love

Seven Things I Can't Do
1. Sleep properly in cattle class
2. Wake up when the alarm goes off
3. Turn solid double pirouettes every single time
4. Be a Cool Person
5. Pay attention during statistics lectures
6. Remember to attach files to long emails
7. Grow taller ;)

This is taking too long and I need to be in the library early tomorrow, so that innate laziness will remove the penultimate two sections too. Bleah. :)