SURF Experiences Summer 2011

This has been a fantastic month for my project, a good month for me (had a great Birthday on the 29^th) and I hope it has been for everyone else too. With that said the project continues to be a great experience. Thus far and looking very far forward even beyond summer. This project has brought a variety of things to my attention, including projects that I can do separately and as continuations throughout this year and further.  On to the posts below: 

(Backlog and catching up to speed)

My project in brief is about how changes to the interest rate of time deposits impact the demand of the certificates of deposit from financial institutions through elasticity. The literature required for the project has ranged greatly, although the literature in use can in general  be summarized to Elasticity (Supply and Demand studies), Time deposits, Currency studies, and a variety of  studies of goods (Commodities, inferior, superior). In addition much other literature was required for other regards (double checks and possible concerns) with the project.  The literature review has been extremely useful in nearly every way it could have been.

(Exert from Interm Report: By develop a literature review I’m referring to using sources available to find research and literature related to the project. Then reading to make sure that the literature found is relevant and understandable; followed by cataloging the articles with excel, and including brief summary of particular information in the article to quickly find articles. When gathering a lot of literature different articles may have very similar names, since a lot of the literature is going to be intertwined and or related, which is why cataloging the articles is important. After gathering and going through the literature then checking to making sure the literature review covers the key information in the article, such as how their project was done, the formulas used, sample used, and much more. Then using the information as an advantage to improve, add value, and save time on my own project. Then the final step of the literature review is writing the literature review, by putting all the useful information together making it readable, understandable and has a constant flow of the information.)

More recent

The data due to the massive size of (the file containing) observations and information has taken longer than expected to go through organize and then even longer to get results. (Referring to the hours it takes to open certain files and from hours on up to days to run the files with programs.) On the better side the model has been developed, although is still subject to possible changes.  The results from the current model have been very interesting and show the potential that there are important happenings with the market of time deposits that can be looked into through the elasticity. The current results have provided a lot of information that has furthered the project and work. There is still a list of things that are heading towards completions. 

The things currently being worked on and finished are running the data, using the data, getting more statistics from the data and interpreting the results that have already come through and been gathered. After all the information is gathered and interpreted and there are a lot of checks as this is still another lengthy part of the project.  Overall the project is going well and on track. Even though there is a lengthy-ness to working with the data, working with the data and interpreting it is a part that I enjoy very much. Also soon I should have a computer that will be able to work with the data in a timelier manner (there isn’t a computer on campus remotely fast enough to work with the data for: technical reasons).

Thank you for reading (or scrolling down to read this),

-Neil

I am sitting in the school, where I just realized that they have internet, and thinking about how quick this summer is going. It seems like just yesterday that I was packing my car for the great journey to Land O’ Lakes and now I only have 2 weeks left to go until dance is over. I am really proud of how smoothly the second session is running.  All of the dancers get along, have fun in class, and love to ask a lot of questions. It makes class that much more enjoyable! Last Thursday night, Barb and I headed to the reservation in Lac du Flambeau to participate in a powwow. I think I danced just as much as the actual dancers. I learned no much not only about their dances and regalia, but also how every dance has a story and how it relates to their overall culture. Well I must peace out. Class starts in 10 minutes! Until next time! Hope everyone is well!

Greetings Readers!

I have learned from this experience so far that I am terrible at blogging, so I intend to remove that from my list of future career options.
Right now, I am in the process of reading and coding hundreds and hundreds of articles about the various politicians upon whom I have chosen to do my research.  Along the way, I have encountered a few unexpected road-blocks in the process:

• Bristol Palin: Much of my research centers around Sarah Palin’s claims that she is treated unfairly by the media. In fact, she frequently refers to them as the “lame stream media,” which is part of how we were inspired to investigate just what kind of coverage different figures receive from different news sources.  During the 2008 campaign, Bristol’s pregnancy fueled a national discussion on teen pregnancy, abstinence and raised questions about Governor Palin’s ability to lead.  During that time, much of the press attention given to Bristol was the result of her mother seeking political office.  Since that time, Bristol has become a media figure in her own right, appearing on “Dancing with the Stars” and releasing a book.  The media coverage in these situations has little to do with Palin and is thus not all that relevant to the research.  In sorting through the articles, we deemed that any article about Bristol that refers to Sarah Palin only in regards to being Bristol’s mother would be excluded from the statistics, but that any articles about Bristol detailing her relationship with her mother or discussing her mother’s political ambitions would be included.
• Media Attention: While I did expect to see some variation in the amount of coverage given to the different figures, I did not expect it to be so wildly noticeable.  Both Palin and Clinton appear in print much more frequently than their male counterparts, which must be taken into consideration when drawing conclusions about the statistics.
• Grammatical and Title Differences: In my literature review, I spent some time looking at the different ways men and women are treated in regards to how they are referred.  In terms of generic pronouns, all men are referred to as “Mr,” while women have multiple of these titles from which to choose.  It is also important to look at the frequency with which these figures are referred to by political office instead of simple generic pronouns.  I initially expected that Hillary Clinton would likely be referred to by her title more frequently than Sarah Palin.  What I am instead discovering is that, not only is Hillary referred to as “Senator” very infrequently, she is very frequently referred to as “Mrs. Clinton,” while Palin, who is again not frequently referred to as “Governor,” is often called, “Ms. Palin,” removing her husband from the equation.  In referring to Hillary Clinton as “Mrs. Clinton,” it is impossible to forget that she is married to a former President, and may detract from the fact that she is a former U.S. Senator and current Secretary of State.
• John Kerry: Kerry, while continuing to serve as a US Senator, appeared very little in the news media, even immediately following his defeat in the 2004 Presidential election.

What I am beginning to envision my final project as is more of a discovery of a gender bias in news media than a bias that is solely against Sarah Palin.  While the statistics do point to different treatment for Palin, they also suggest that Hillary Clinton is no stranger to this different level of scrutiny and treatment by the press.  Palin and Clinton both appear in the “Style” sections of the newspapers where fashion critics assess their ability to dress themselves, apply makeup, and use accessories, while neither Romney nor Kerry appear in this section of the newspaper.  While there is something to be said about how little variation there is in the clothing worn by these male political figures, it also seems irrelevant to either a national election or to reflections of either Palin or Clinton as individuals whether their wardrobes met what was expected of them.  An article referring to both Clinton and Palin was entitled “Politics and Pantsuits.”

I also realized very early in my research that I would have to compile separate data for articles appearing in opinion sections of these papers versus articles appearing in the sections of the paper meant to report strictly on news and am, at this point, curious to see whether or not there is as strong a presence of gender or party-based bias in hard news as there could be in opinion articles.  While there may appear to be a bias in editorial writing, it is just that, editorial, and meant to be a reflection of the opinion of the individual writing the piece.  That being said, if an editorial page only runs (or mostly runs) negative editorials about an individual, perhaps the hiring or publishing processes themselves are inherently biased.

I’m home, well fed, and up with the times ( I watched the new Harry Potter first thing when I got home).  This is my final post from my journal but I will post at least one more as a reflection in a few days to a week.  Basically once I get some down time from family and work.  I would like to thank everyone for the positive response that I’ve received and also to thank everyone that donated money to allow me to go.  Also I’d like to thank you for dealing with my non proof read posts, I’m sure they were rife with unintended words and grammar infractions.  I’ve learned so much and have grown not only as a musician, but as a person as well.  I hope that you all enjoyed reading my daily happenings as much as I enjoyed living them.

Thanks again and best wishes

-Ryan

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Day 38

Today I will get the rare opportunity to travel backwards though time.  In fact I get to experience what basically everyone asks for at one point in their life more hours in a day.  My day today will be 31 hours.  As this blog is about my travels you will not get my full day today as I will be done traveling by 5pm (Chicago time), exactly 18 hours after my day started.  The three of us who stayed together in a hotel room had 3 separate wake up calls starting at 5am (Rome time) and then one ever hour after that.  I made sure that the only thing that I had to do when I woke up was to pack my bathroom materials and then go.  It meant that I was up later than I wanted to but that was probably a good thing because, as I was extra tired, I was able to sleep almost 4 hours on the plane which means that I began my time correction on the plane.(I was wide awake by 8am Chicago time after my nap. So it worked out well.)  However, before I get to the plane ride I got to add one final chapter to my already bountiful compilation of this trip’s “Travel Travesties!”  The first shuttle left the hotel at 7am, I arrived 25 min early so as to make sure that I did not miss this bus. (a good thing too because luggage room filled up fast.)  I arrived at the terminal around 715 almost 3 hours before my plane had to leave (the number they recommend.  As the shuttle was coming in I saw that terminal 1 held my airline and in huge letters stated “INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS”.  I thought “great there is no way I miss that.  The line to check in was very very long and took me a good hour and a moved at a pace that would make my stepfather look like The Flash (for those unfamiliar with my stepfather I will inform you that he jogs at the speed of snail, Women with strollers have passed him).  An hour and a half later I arrived at the check-in counter only to see the cheery eyed desk worker’s expression switch to concerned and apologetic.  This “INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT” terminal check-in point which was of my airline was not for international flights going to the US.  She said she was sorry and that I had better run to terminal 3 as my flight now left in an hour and a half.  I did indeed run to terminal number three, a good 8 min away (every min felt like an hour and added 5lbs of stress to my heart),  and luckily found the small area far against the wall devoted to U.S. flights and advertised almost nowhere, huzzah.  The line was shorter but would have probably taken a good 45 min to wait through.  There was a man on the same flight as me who had arrived moments before me after experiencing the same difficulty and I was about to try and jump to the priority check-in lane to see if they could open it up for us when a desk worker came down the line to make sure that everyone on the 10am flight to Chicago was checked in.  We quickly told her no and she took us to our own private station where we were checked in, well he was and I got half way and was told that I needed to go to the ticketing counter to pay for my second checked bag and that she couldn’t do it there for a reason that I did not understand.  The ticket counter had no line but the lady behind it must have previously worked for the DMV.  I came up to her about a min after she answered a random persons question on where to go and the conversation appeared to have ended so I made my presence known.  I was received with a glare and “just a moment gesture” confused I waited a moment as she stared at him and then tried again.  She then snapped at me that she knew I was in a hurry but that I had to wait; I wanted to say “wait for what? For you to finish admiring the back of this mans head?” but instead I apologized and waited until she become content that the conversation between them was over, a good 3 min.  Finally, she was free to deal with me and I explained to her what I needed and about half way through she picked up a phone call which lasted another 3-5 min, great!  I thought it was odd how I can’t interrupt a nonexistent conversation but a person on the phone can interrupt me.  Once she had finished she took my info and my credit card and began entering it into the computer.  She had this wonderful 2 finger poke technique which really sped things along.  Not to mention she had to keep hitting the arrow buttons backward to fix what I assume were mistypes, which blows my mind as she only had to think about one finger on her left hand and on finger on her right.  She began making confused faces after 5 min and I was interrupted by another phone call which took another 3-5min.  By this time it was all I could do to keep a mask of patience and pleasantness when all I wanted to do was to ask her to just tell me what need to be typed in so I could finally move on to checking my bag.  Finally after she filled out 2 receipts (because she filled the first one out wrong) and after printing 2 forms (because she had typed in the wrong information) I was all set and I got to receive the information and receipts after she received a 3^rd phone call, if I had a cell phone and was smart I would have just called the desk after the 1^st call and I’m sure I would have been out of there will plenty of time to spare.  Finally I had everything set and paid for and after a quick stop at the check-in counter from before I was given my boarding passes and was told that she had sent my other bag along already because if she hadn’t it would not have made it to the plane.  I thanked her and got on my way.  Security was surprisingly quick and I had 45 min before my plane left.  There was a final passport checkpoint that I had to cross and wouldn’t you know it, the line I was directed to was the one that people in the fast lane got to jump into.  This was especially fun when a vehicle full of  old ladies pulled up and the man behind the counter took 2 min straining his neck to examine the women a good 40 ft away from him.  I passed though quickly and ran to my gate, only stopping briefly to pick up peanut M&Ms because I did not have time to grab breakfast.  I arrived at my gate with 25 min to spare and found that almost no one had boarded, in fact they had gotten quite delayed for some reason.  I counted my blessing and found 2 friendly faces in the crowd.  One was a lovely soprano from the program who lives in Cincinnati and the other was the relived face of Brian Leeper.  I told them about my adventure and shared a few laughs.   We were all boarded by 10 and took off a good 30 min late but I was just glad to be done with the stressful part.  The plane flight went well.  As I said before I slept for  a good third of the trip, watched a few crappy in-flight movies for another third, and read for the final portion.  We had 2 meals served.  The first was a very tasty lunch with a braised beef with potatoes and peas.  The second was, I think, supposed to be a square of pizza but it looked more like garlic toast topped with baby vomit.  I ate it anyway because I was hungry and it tasted like a mixture of green beans, unsalted bread, and soap. (My Italian neighbor and I exchanged equally disgusted looks.  The coffee which came after was only better by a small margin and only because I dumped sugar into it.  The grounds had been so burnt that it tasted vaguely like it had been brewed with an old cigarette in the grounds.  Oh well, food is food and caffeine was the important part.  Before we began our decent into Chicago I got up and chatted with Megan (the lovely soprano) about her time in Rome.  I headed back to my seat as the seatbelt sign was lit up and I was ecstatic to see the familiar ground beneath me.  I was not looking forward to the rest of my flights and layovers from Chicago to Detroit and then to Milwaukee, finally arriving at 8pm (I had asked Delta if they could just end it in Chicago and they said they could but it would cost me $300 more dollars!), and became optimistic at a possible change of plans.  This optimism came from the newly gained knowledge that I would have to receive my baggage and recheck it after this flight.  My thought was ok screw them I’ll just leave my seats unused and take a bus to Milwaukee.  This is exactly what I am currently doing.  My father is enroute to pick me up and I am miles away from my home town, life is good.  I think I may try to see Harry Potter tonight before I make my rounds to see family tomorrow and then it’s back to work on Tuesday.  This trip has been absolutely wonderful and I’ve learned so much! I will miss all the new people that I’ve had the pleasure of working with but I’m sure I will work with many of them in the near future.  I’m more excited to keep at my practicing and growing my voice.  This is the final day of my journal and I hope that I one day get to continue my travels in Italy.  So long for now!

I am in the process of translating the interviews and it takes time and patience. As I mentioned before, the interviews were made in their people’s houses, which now that I am translating into English. I found some information that passes through unnoticed the first time. For example, one of the interviews said, “my son was told that I went to “quebrar cania” maybe it is an local expression to say that they went to work.

The story of this family is very interesting. I could see some issues in the family because of the parents absent. The family consists of the mother, father, a daughter and a son. The grandmother also lives in the same house.

Firstly, the father came to the United States later on the mother came too. The father went for a visit, but he came back to the U.S. again. After that visit, Noela got pregnant. When his son was one-year and a half, Noela came to the U.S. Her husband, Angel, did not know his son until he went back home five years later. Their daughter was 8-years old when they left. She is 15-years old and is pregnant. Angel and Noela left their two children with the grandmother.

In the paragraph below I summarized what Noela said. This family experience is one of many that are heard in Oaxaca.

Noela

5 years in Columbus Ohio we spent,

Our two children with grandma we left.

To any school I did not attend.

To read and write I knew a bit.

To do laundry by hand I knew pretty well,

To make tamales I learnt to sell,

Obliged to leave my country I was.

When I interviewed the grandmother, she has a strong character but also a positive attitude. You can tell when you read this other paragraph below. When I asked the grandmother a question about her feelings when her son and her daughter-in-law left, she said “nothing,” “I felt nothing.” I was expecting a sort of touching answer, but she was stoic in her response. What was I supposed to do? I kept asking questions and this is what she said:

Grandmother

Nothing I felt when they left,

Decided to work they went,

In charge of the “chamacos” (kids) I was,

No changes, no nothing I felt

Take care of my “chamacos” they said.

Sickness showed up sometimes,

To the doctor the children went.

Gisela Sanchez-Lopez

I’m spending my final hours in a wonderful Holiday Inn with some great friends.  Rome was beautiful and my beard has officially been shaved (Yes Gustavo it’s gone! )  I can’t wait to see my family, friends, and my wonderful Christine! Buona Notte!

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Day 37

It only makes sense to start this entry officially on day 37.  I say this because it’s had to divide the days when you don’t actually go to bed.  I think the general consensus among my friends last night was to feed me drinks and keep me at the café, as I have this habit of being responsible and getting sleep.  I never allowed myself to get ‘drunk’ but I had a drink in hand most of the night/morning, thanks to some friends.  Around 3:30 am there was a group which wanted to go find the swimming hole for an early morning swim.  It was dark and chilly out so a few of us found an excuse to make it back into the bar before the group left and purposely distracted ourselves which brought the women back in and put an end to the quest for a swim.  I had a great chat with Denis Jessie in which he talked more on where he felt my vocal issues were really being created.  He was drunk but he gave me a lot to think about.  He said that he hears my potential but that I need to get out of my own way and not to bring my intellectual self on stage but to bring my performer/actor.   He went on for many more minutes but as I said earlier I was left with much food for thought.  The bar closed around 430 and so I sat and chatted with the remaining 3 people for another hour or so.  I had chosen to not to go to bed for a few reasons.  First was my roommates had gone to bed late and we have a tendency to sleep through our alarms, having one person awake to ensure that we all wake up for the bus is important.  Second was that one hour of sleep would have made me more tired than was worth it and I knew that I could get 4 hours of sleep on the bus.  I made it home to find that Benjamin James had woken up to his alarm, a first in a long time, and that we were well on track to getting out on time.  We ate the rest of the cereal and eggs for breakfast.  Rachel did not wake up to her alarm and it took many knocks to get her up.  We finished packing and cleaning and made it down to the buses with plenty of time.  The buses had problems packing in our suitcases and we suspect that some people had bought a second while being here.  The buses were packed full of students and, until the driver turned on the air system, the air was thick and smelled like a mixture of a bar and sweaty gymnasium; Many people were still drunk and despite me getting no sleep I appeared to have more energy than most.  I took the time on the bus to sleep and made it most of the way.  After a stop just over half way we made it to Rome by 1pm.  I met with Rachael and a baritone friend Michael Burton and we decided to follow a group of staff to their hotel just outside of Rome.  Neither of us had made reservations and the price seemed good.  It was quite a trek to our destination and we had to take a train and a shuttle to finally get there.  A room was 109 euro plus 3 per extra person which seemed a bit steep but the benefits well outweighed the price and by the time we split it 3 ways it was just a cheap as a crappy hotel in down town Rome.  We are staying in a Holiday Inn which has shuttles to the airport in the morning and has a nice pool and 2 wonderful soft queen sized beds.  It took all my effort to not just stay on them all day.  It feels great to be back on beds in which I can’t feel the ground beneath me and still have support.  The room is as spacious as a room in the states (which is surprising to find in Europe) we have one hour of free wifi and the normal amenities one expects to find.  Unfortunately, it took longer than I expected to make it here and I won’t be able to see much of Rome.  It is probably for the better because my muscles are quite sore from my hike yesterday. We took a shuttle bus to the middle of Rome from our Hotel at 7:45 pm.  What an amazing city.  Visually this is my favorite.  The only problem is that they have high metal fences everywhere because they want you to pay to go into it.  It was already too late to get into anything so we just made a large circle and saw the coliseum, the Circus Maximus, and the Roman Forum.  We got a great final dinner and had the best bruschetta of my life!  It was getting late and we all are tired from yesterday.  We hailed a taxi to get back and now I bid you all goodnight.  I will be in the states within 24 hours!

This is my final post from Italy.  We leave for Rome tomorrow and then Sunday I’m on a plane home.  It’s been so amazing here!  I cant wait to share ALL of my stories.  See you in the states!

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Day 36

I woke up not an hour later as I planned.  In fact I woke up when I was supposed to already be at the top (5:15), the sun was about to rise and I was an unhappy camper.  I woke up Ben who had also slept through the alarm and he responded with a curse.  I tossed and turned until I was able to fall back asleep.  I woke up on my own grit at what I thought was 815 when the alarm was supposed to go off but, this time, the alarm didn’t go off and it was 9.  The land lords were supposed to be here any minute.  I quickly tidied up and waited for them to arrive.  Around 9:30 I gave up and began making breakfast.  We have 9 eggs left and not much time to eat them.  So we played the game “let’s use up everything we can in our fridge”.  This resulted in the best breakfast I’ve had in over 5 weeks.  Breakfast was a 2 egg omelet with amazing cheese we bought (think blu cheese meets sharp cheddar) and diced mushrooms.  We had about 2 Tbls of butter so I threw it into a small pan chopped up the final mushroom and zucchini to have some sautéed veggies on top of the eggs.  With this I used the final tea packet and enjoyed the morning.  The landlords never came and we had to leave for the closing meeting of the program.  I received my certificate of attendance for Italian classes, a dvd of Rigoletto, and any poster that had my name on it.  I had decided at 9 that I was going to climb to the Maioletto or die trying.  After the meeting I had 4 hours to get to the top and back which is theoretically exactly what it takes.  I quickly grabbed some food for the trip and 2 large bottles of water and began what turned out to be an amazing trip.  I ran into Michel Jones on the way and invited him along (he had mentioned that he wanted to make it up there except 330AM sounded terrible).  We decided in the interest of time to take a taxi to where the road ends, basically to the base of the mountain.  We paid the cabbie and began our trek.  I was immediately glad that we took a taxi to the base because it was uphill all the way there and it only got worse.  We started our journey on the road which soon turned to gravel road and then narrowed to a dirt path.  There were no signs and for a while I was getting nervous that we were just following a water path up.  We eventually saw little laminated signs which had arrows telling us we had “chosen” the expert path up.  I had been warned of this and was really looking forward to a good hike.  The path was only large enough for one person to walk on, sometimes less than shoulder width apart.  It was overgrown in some places and had an occasional fallen tree which you had to climb over or find a way around.  The only hint of ascension, besides the constant incline, was the occasional reveal of the hills and houses below through a gap in the canopy.  The path got thinner and less defined as we climbed and the incline sometimes became so close to a 90° angle that ropes were anchored to the hill to assist the climb and to prevent hikers from falling backwards, which would have been most certainly a near fatal experience.  It was great to use the trek and really get to know Michael better, he was great company and at we were laughing pretty much the whole way up.  Finally after a set of 4 ropes, one after each other, we broke though the tree line and were left breathless; not too hard a feat considering how far we had just come but had I full rested lungs they would have been just as empty in this moment.  It actually took us a good minute or two to pry our eyes from the horizon and realize that our climb was over; there were the remains of a tower right in front of us the whole time.  We then had to climb over a wooden fence to get off the expert path, which had it been at the bottom would have served a great warning for what lied ahead.  At this point for us we just looked at it and had a great laugh.  We climbed into what would have been the keep and got a panoramic view of the local scenery and even a clear view to the ocean.  The castle/fort had been filled in mostly for safety and so we were at the highest point.  This emptiness made me feel like king of the hill.  There was an amazing breeze which did wonders to cool us off.  Within the fort what wasn’t filled in was buried by the previous crumbling caused by the earthquake.  After some adventurous walking on the keep walls we jumped another wooden fence and wiggled our way through an arrow slit/window and got to explore some of the inside.  It was pretty much just another chamber of a different guard tower but fun none the less.  After we squeezed back out and climbed up to the keep we sat on the edge of the wall and ate a light lunch.  We regrettably had to begin our journey home after lunch as I was called at 430 for a cue to cue of the opera scene concert tonight.  We got a (cute) local to take our picture before we left and passed up the fence that we had to step over to get back on the expert trail.  After realizing that this was too easy we backtracked to come out the way we came.  Down was easier and faster, though my knees and ankles disagreed.  It was a much longer walk back because we didn’t have a taxi to take us back but it was down hill and it allowed us to admire the scenery.  We took a “shortcut” to avoid walking all the way to the bridge on the other side of town and took a small respite at the river because we made good time.  My feet were so happy to be out of my hot shoes and socks.  Each step on the smooth river rocks felt like a massage loosening up my tired feet, which became really happy after a wade in the shallow river.  We spotted a swimming hole where the water would gather and current slow to nothing and after some convincing on Michael’s part I agreed to jump in.  I was in pants so I shed them and just swam in my skivvies, which the 3 local sunbathing ladies seemed to enjoy.  Unfortunately we couldn’t stay long and after only 2 min we left the refreshing waters of the river and after a quick dry off and change began our trip back.  What I thought would be a faster way just ended up being a dead end so we began to head toward that bridge anyway.  Unlike Venice this ‘shortcut’ only cost me 10 min and was well worth it because that swim was the icing to an already amazing trip.  I arrived to my scene call 15 min late and no one had missed me, in fact they had been set back and I still had to wait for 5 min until we began.  We flew though the 20 scenes just doing bows and then scene changes.  Right after many of us went to Jollies (a nice restaurant here) for one final meal in Novafeltria.  I had some great pizza and made it to my 7pm call with plenty of time.  The scenes concert started by 8 and went for 2.5 hours.  I was happy with my performance and I think everyone else was too.  It was sad giving my final performance but also exciting.  I’ve had a great time here and will chew over what I’ve learned for many more months.  That’s it for now I’m sure I’ll have after party stories for my next post. Goodnight

The picture is to come later as I forgot my cable.  See you all soon

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Day 34

Rain spoiled my plan so my day didn’t start until the sun was already up.  I learned that if you plan to get up very early and don’t you can end up with 12 hours of sleep and still be up before noon.  Despite the day not starting as I planned it ended up being a great day.  I had plenty of time to wake up and enjoy one of my final 2 bags of tea.  Breakfast was cereal and milk with some soft bread to spread jam upon.  After breakfast I went to watch another master class.  I’ve actually begun to really pick up some key elements through watching these that are already helping me in my solo practice time.  After the class I was called for a 4.5 hour scene dress rehearsal for tonight’s opera scene concert.  The scenes being performed today will also get to be performed on Friday but this give some of the more prepared scenes the extra performance time, which is nice considering the amount of time put into them.  Lucky for me not only were both my scenes being performed today but there were 2 of the first 3 in the program.  This allowed me to leave this marathon rehearsal within an hour of it starting.  I took the extra time to hunt down ingredients for tonight’s dinner.  I was determined to make sloppy joes; however the needed ingredients aren’t so common place in Italy as they are in the U.S. (no manwich here, not as if I use it in the first place) Finding the ground beef was easy as was the onion and even ketchup, it’s the final 3 ingredients which caused me some trouble: Mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and barbeque sauce.  I made a trek across town to the larger food store, as the one near me did not have either of those three, and sure enough I found Mustard (though it was honey mustard), and Worcestershire sauce(3 euros for a very small bottle!!), as well as the ketchup and buns.  I actually left w/o the mustard because I only needed a table spoon and suspected that I could borrow it from a student in the program.  Now the problem was, where the heck can I find barbeque sauce in Italy!  There are specialty stores that are peppered around Novafeltria where they have odd imported items and special foods so I decided to check there.  However, I couldn’t get this done until after 4:30 as all the small shops are closed between 1 and 4:30pm.  I made my way to some of my friends apts and after asking around 8 people I found someone who was willing to give me their mustard.  I sat and chatted until 4:30 and then went on my way to find the final ingredient, or something close enough to substitute it with.  On my 3^rd specialty store I found just what I was looking for (well mostly).  There right next to the Huntz ketchup was a small jar that said barbeque salsa!  Salsa it may be but barbeque is barbeque.  I bought it for 4 euros and then stopped by a produce vendor to buy the onion.  I went to an hour of another master class and left early to make dinner and, after a brief chase around town for the onion that I set down somewhere (I just ended up buying another), my adventure had ended.  After tweaking the ingredients and a few taste tests I found that I couldn’t tell the difference between this one and mine back home. (well minus the cost of this one)  The concert went really well and I was happy with my performance.   I celebrated with gelato and stayed up until 3 chatting with friends at Grand Italia (I drank mostly tea tonight as I perform for a master class tomorrow) It was a great day and my hike to Maioletto is rescheduled to Friday at 330 am.  I said I would do it before I left and I plan to!   Goodnight!

My apologies for taking so long for my first blog entry! However, I do have some nice pictures to share with you from the infamous Field Museum located in Chicago. (Which I highly recommend to visit if you need something fun to do this summer- whether you like science or not!)

We started the day off early today- of course the great traffic of Chicago delayed us a little. Rex and I got to go “behind the scenes” at the museum with the guidance of Bill Simpson, who is in charge of all the fossil vertebrate collections. We were lead to a room with rows of tall cabinets full of fossils of numerous reptiles. The one we were interested in was the collection labeled: Richards Spur, OK.

These past couple weeks I have been delving into science journals published on the Richards Spur locality in Oklahoma, which is a sight of great preservation of terrestrial vertebrate species before the Permian mass extinction (which wiped out 70% of terrestrial life). In the next few moments in the reptilian fossil room, we were surprised at what we found. It is true that the Richards Spur locality is an area of outstanding preservation of these fossils, but we didn’t know on what scale. The Field Museum had loads and loads of cataloged data, as well as uncataloged (below).

We began counting some of the uncataloged fossils, but it would take years and years to sort through some of the sediment to uncover these tiny fossils. In paleo, fossil elements are counted in two ways: NISP (number of individual species) and MNI (minimum number of individuals). Lets say you have 1 right femur, 2 skulls, and 3 vertebrae that you find in a quarry. Your NISP would be the total of all elements, which in this case is 6. This technique assumes there were 6 total individuals that were found. The next technique called MNI, would say there were a total of 2 individuals found. This is because you could assume the femur and vertebrae are all from the same species, but there obviously can’t be two skulls for one specimen. This is the data we hoped to collect from the collections that the Field Museum held. We decided that dealing with the cataloged specimens would be our focus.

Below is a picture of a skull and articulated foot from a small reptile that dwelled during the Permian in Oklahoma called the Captorhinus.

More museums to visit and a trip to Oklahoma is planned in August to get more data on creatures like this little guy!

Of course, I had to conclude with a picture of me and the creature of my choice…Sue!

Since the last time I blogged about my SURF project, many changes have occurred in the Whitewater Creek watershed.  I finally have some pictures of site locations.  Some of the images may not be as clear as the originals; the originals were taken with a Nikon D3100.  The first picture was taken at Bluff Creek on County Highway P.  In the late 1970s through the 1990s the WDNR and private contractors started stream restoration on the creek by adding riprap, logs, and current deflectors to enhance the stream and make it more turbulent.  Along with physical stream restoration; brown trout, brook trout, and rainbow trout were planted in the stream in two locations.  Over the years the WDNR and wildlife clubs (e.g. Trout Unlimited) classify Bluff Creek as a Class 1 and Class 2 trout stream.

Typically what I see at Bluff Creek when I’m collecting data is a cool stream with dissolved oxygen increasing further downstream.  When I sampled on July 19 my dissolved oxygen was 5.76 mg/L or 55.3% saturated.  On May 24 dissolved oxygen was much higher: 10.53 and 99.9% saturated.  Why the decrease in dissolved oxygen?  Submersed plants are more active during the summer and require more dissolved oxygen.  Low flow also plays a pivotal role in the amount of dissolved oxygen.

This is the same location on July 19.  More aquatic vegetation has taken hold downstream from the riffle downstream of the County Highway P bridge.  I apologize for my amateur photography skills, the first picture of Bluff Creek does not show downstream vegetation.  Along with vegetative growth, water levels have decreased since May.  The second picture better displays the vegetation downstream and the bank on the upper right hand side, next to the exposed tree trunk.  In May that same gravel on the bank was covered with water.

The second location on my 12 sampling sites is in Natureland County Park.  The temperature is similar to Bluff Creek; however, the clarity in the Whitewater Creek headwaters decreases.  Fine grain sediment (silt and clay) are found in Natureland Park, lately sediment and organic matter are entrained in the water column. In May water levels were slightly below bankfull and vegetation cover did not exceed knee high.  On June 19th water levels only dropped slightly in comparison to May.  Clarity levels have dropped slightly, one reason is due to the increase in vegetative cover.  Riparian vegetation has increased to chest high making this access at this reach slightly difficult (without trampling riparian vegetation).  Dissolved oxygen has decreased slightly over the past two months.  pH has remained steady in both the headwaters and Bluff Creek.  On warmer days, the pH increases with the rising temperature.

The Whitewater Creek headwaters only travel a short distance only to stand still in Whitewater Lake.  I  have not started sampling the various locations for water quality in the lake; however, my usual sampling location at the spillway has slowed to a trickle.  When starting this research project, I would have never guessed the heat index to reach into the 100s; I also would have never imagined that precipitation or lack their of could shut off the valve to Rice Lake.  Well, I should have learned never to take mother nature for granted.  The first photograph was taken in May; water flowed into the small pond at the base of the spill way.  Starting July 19th I can no longer  collected data at the Whitewater Lake spillway because their is not enough water flowing from Whitewater Lake into Rice Lake.  When I approached the sampling location this morning this is what I saw.  No carp trying to make their way into the lake, only a trickle of water.  I am in the works of determining the staff gauge height at which water will no longer topple the spillway.  The Whitewater Lake Management District keeps records of gauge height at this location and possibly the Rice Lake spillway.  The same situation has occurred at the Rice Lake spillway.  My hope is this weekend Southeastern Wisconsin will have nice gentle rain to increase the water level in the lakes so I can continue to sample at Whitewater and Rice Lake spillways.

Rice Lake spillway May 2011

Rice Lake spillway July 2011

Water levels around the watershed are at or near base flow.

Clover Vally Rd May 2011

Clover Valley Rd July 2011

The flowing well on Clover Valley Rd is only a few meters away from the sampling location above (Clover Valley Ditch).  Water flows year round, offering residences an alternative to heavily treated city water or bottled water.  Don’t worry, nitrate levels are well below the EPA’s safe drinking water recommendations.

Whitewater-Bluff State Natural Area at Millis Rd. May 2011

Millis Rd July 2011

Twin Culvert at Willis Ray Rd May 2011

Twin Culvert at Willis Ray Rd July 2011

Trippe Lake spillway May 2011

Trippe Lake spillway July 2011

Cravath Spillway May 2011

North Street (Cravath spillway) July 2011

Water Treatment ditch May 2011

Water Treatment ditch July 2011

Fremont Street Bridge May 2011

Fremont Street Bridge July 2011

Cold Springs May 2011

Cold Springs July 2011