Florida Expedition: September 3-10

Guess who's coming to Florida?

A colleague from Harvard and I will be in North Florida to sample fungi and beetles from the area between September 3 and 10. The magnanimous Diego/James F/todabrilla has consented to put us up at his place for the week, insuring us of good company as well as saving two itinerant and impoverished graduate students the cost of a hotel. With our flight from Boston to Tampa now confirmed and lodging assured, I'll next be turning to securing the permits required to do our collecting legally. Flying into Tampa means that we'll have to make a three hour drive to Tallahassee, but it also saved us a ton of money on the cost of travel.

While our days will be filled with collecting, identifying and preserving specimens, I'm looking forward to seeing some old acquaintances in the evenings as well. I'll need to check into whether I can get access to some resources at Florida State (like a couple of microscopes), and in any case I expect to visit the campus and see a couple of my professors as well as attending a meeting of the Union of Freethinking Students. I'm certain I'll also pass at least one evening at Aladdin's Sheesha Café.

North Florida is one of the country's hottest biodiversity hotspots, renowned for its unique ecosystems and endemic species. Even though I spent five years investigating them on my own, it will be a whole new experience seeing them through eyes that have learned a great deal more about fungi and Coleoptera over the course of the past year. I must admit that it will be good to see the many venomous snakes that make field work in the area that much more exciting, too.

I could do without the Confederate flags, of course, but one doesn't see too many in the swamps and forests, anyhow.

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Darwin Day Celebrations at Florida State University

With all the bad, sad news from Florida and FSU these days, it's nice to post something positive once in awhile. Here's a plug for a couple of events scheduled at Florida State University in celebration of Charles Darwin's upcoming 199^th birthday.

First, members of FSU's Union of Freethinking Students will be reading from Darwin's works on Friday, February 8 from 10 AM until 3 PM on the quad in front of Strozier Library:

Cruise on by … the 2nd Annual…

PUBLIC, OUTDOOR READING OF DARWIN’S WORKS!

WHEN: Friday, February 8th, 2008, 10am – 3pm

WHERE: In front of Strozier Library on the grassy nole

AKA: The place where the Evangelical Gentleman now preaches

Presented by:

The Union of Freethinking Students

Wishing you a Happy Darwin Day!!!

On February 9, the Center for Inquiry will be presenting a day-long event at the FSU College of Medicine from 9:00 AM until 4:00 PM. Speakers include Eugenie Scott, Sir Harold Kroto and Michael Ruse and there are even activities for the kiddies. How often do children get the opportunity to play with buckeyballs under the supervision of a Nobel-winning chemist?

With all of the Creationist nonsense and the slashing of higher education budgets that have been going on in Florida in the past few months, it's good to know that events like these are going on. I wish I could be at both of them; I'm a past UFS member and put together the first Darwin Day event sponsored by the group. Economics and responsibilities will be keeping me in Massachusetts this year, though.

If you're in the vicinity of Tallahassee, please try and make it to one or both of these events. It's a good opportunity to show support for science and science education and maybe learn something new while you're at it.

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Last UFS Meeting

I attended my last meeting of the Union of Freethinking Students at Aladdin's last night. The topic for the salon was art: what it is, what it's for, etc. Each of us was to bring something we considered an important or controversial work and explain it in these terms. My own specimen was a photograph of Cosimo Cavallaro's My Sweet Lord, the "chocolate Jesus" that stirred up so much controversy this past spring and had William Donahue of the Catholic Defense League in in such a snit. As my personal definition of "art" is any juxtaposition of elements created with the intention of eliciting in a viewer a response not necessitating intellectual interpretation (although one may take place after that initial response), My Sweet Lord was one of the better examples I could think of. Just watch what it did to Donahue in the linked video! Nothing intellectual there.

Others brought their own items as well. MiBu brought a coffee table book of the works of Jackson Pollock; BrMa brought a paperback of The Neverending Story for the illustration on its cover; Andrew/Alex had a couple of books, including Thomas More's Utopia; etc. As usual, ideas and opinions varied, which is exactly why we have these discussions. BrMa tends to be very strict in his attempts at defining what amount to subjective ideas and experiences, for example, while mine tend to be more experiential. It's been nice having this weekly forum to debate and argue for a couple of hours, then come away with one or more altered points of view. It's been a big part of my past three years here. I may even attempt to start a chapter of the organization at my new university if I have the time.

When I went up to pay my tab, it was Nidal who took it. He asked me where LL was (we usually come as a unit) and we talked for a bit. He looked like he was going to cry when I told him that we'd be gone after next week and he wished us "Salah." He also told me that we'd "never find a place like his," which is possibly true. LL and I are planning to go back for a last visit a week from today. I'm sure that'll be emotional... so will it be art?

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Preparations

Today, my last outstanding invoice from eBay sales will be paid. In total, I've raised about $4K from sales of my book collection. I only wound up selling about a quarter of it; eBay is just too time-consuming. I may sell more of it once we get to Worcester, though. I do have some motivation for doing that until my stipend starts; the temp agencies I signed up with got me all of 3.5 days of work which paid all of $250. There just isn't much of that kind of work here, I suppose. I may still apply at a couple of them once we get settled in our new place, though.

We had one couple take a look at our bedroom set. Not the brightest folks; the woman's response was that it "looked much smaller in the pictures." Huh? So another person is coming to look tonight. She's just moved here and has no furniture yet, so it's a good prospect. Aside from a few book cases and a couple of computer desks, which will go on Craig's List in the next couple of days, everything is taken care of. We've even got some help loading the truck, which we'll be picking up a week from Saturday. I'm taking the car in for its tune-up tomorrow, and once I get it back I'll get the tired and brakes done, too. If all goes well, we'll be hitting the road early in the morning a week from Sunday.

Tonight, I'm going to my last UFS meeting at Aladdin's. It will probably be my last time there. That place will be one of the things I'll miss about Tallahassee. It's been a default hangout and second home for LL and I since it used to be Sheesha Nights. There's apparently a good-sized Lebanese community where we're going, though, so we'll likely be able to find a new place somewhat like it to call our own.

We've still got a good deal of packing to do, but since today is LL's last day at work we should have plenty of time to finish.

Hard to believe that our five years in Florida is almost over. I'm looking forward to colorful autumns and cold winters again. I don't think I've ever fully acclimated to the weather here, and I know I can live without the swarms of mosquitoes. Nonetheless, I'm going to miss the biodiversity here. The only solution, i suppose, is to work hard, find grant money, and get myself back to Trinidad!

I'm already having wonderful fantasies about taking LL for breakfast (and cheesecake!) at Junior's (the original one in Flatbush). I have great memories of the baskets of mini-danishes that come with breakfast there, in the same way that good restaurants give you a basket of bread with dinner. I haven't been back there in nearly 20 years now — since 1989 or 1990, I think. Aside from everything right in Boston, having relatively easy access to NYC is a big plus. LL and I have never been to the American Museum of Natural History together. You know, I can still remember the smell of the fossil exhibits like it was just yesterday. That museum literally reeks of history.

And I wonder... where in Greenwich Village does Rocky Horror play at midnight these days? I hear that the Waverly is long gone, but I can't imagine that there isn't a showing there somewhere!

Nine days left here in North Florida. Yes, the whole moving thing is stressful... but it will soon be behind us, and I think things are going to get better for us than they've been while we've lived here. Tallahassee is an alright town for what it offers, but it's a bit isolating. There aren't any big cultural centers near here. I think I'm at a point in life where I'm ready to trade some nature in for some culture for a few years... when I'm not helping out with research. It's all very exciting. LL and I really are counting the days. Could you tell?

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