May (by hexapoda_)
This has been a very eventful month!
My biggest, most exciting news is that I am working in a lab (info here http://web.pdx.edu/~smasta/) and it’s awesome! I’m still training right now, but I am learning how to pin spiders, take photos of them with a microscope (white light and ultraviolet light), anesthetizing them and taking readings with a spectrometer. Next week I will be learning how to remove and process the epigyna and palps (essentially the genitals) of spiders so that I can draw them via microscope. The best way to ID a spider to species is by the genitals, and I’ll be learning how to do that as well. We are mostly working with crab spiders right now, but the lab also works with jumping spiders and orb weavers. Also, yesterday my professor asked if I would like to be on the payroll, yay!
We have gone on several field trips in my invertebrate zoology class. We went to Catherine Creek, Washington, Oceanside, Oregon and we did a wildlife survey at Forest Park in Portland. It was all super fun! I never get to go on so many adventures. I took many photos at each, I have posted a few but still have a ton more. They will have to wait, though, I have so much homework and studying to do.
In non-geeky, non-science news and the seemingly opposite part of my personality, I have done some modeling this month. I shot with Rich Burroughs (http://richburroughs.com/), who shoots Polaroids of girls and they are very dreamy and beautiful. I got some of those back and will post a couple. We are shooting again in July! And then I shot with Dwam (http://www.flickr.com/photos/dwam/) and P-Mod (http://www.flickr.com/photos/p-mod/) who are amazing, lovely and talented photographers from France who are doing a road trip down the west coast. We had so much fun, I jumped in puddles and learned how to say “squirrel” in French (écureuil).
