Greetings from Los Angeles!
Letting my inner bird nerd out at an aquatic bird rescue centre in Los Angeles, where I’m volunteering for two weeks.
Midway
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Ban the Foam, Maine Edition
What happens when you eat ice cream too late in the evening? Well…blogging happens. This post is just shy of a month overdue, so I guess it was high-time for a sugar-fueled session. Here we go… Recently, I joined up with the Surfrider Foundation, but more specifically, the Maine Chapter. Surfrider has many campaigns aimed…
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Lessons Learned
OK, readers, I’m back to it. That plastic thing: walking, talking, doing the plastic-free lifestyle. There have been some bumps in the road and a few detours in the past few months but no worries! Here we are, mid-August and things are great. So let’s dive in! Let’s talk about teaching. No, let’s not talk…
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The Photo Seen ‘Round the World
The Internet is amazing. Need proof? Have a look at this photo: OK…what’s the big deal? Last summer, while on Midway, fellow FWS volunteer Liz was walking through our usual albatross plots, checking to see who was still there. We banded a number of fledgling Laysan Albatross and continued to check their nest sites to…
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Sick. Twisted.
Sometime in the not-too-distant past, I watched a clip from the documentary “Earthlings”. I never got to the whole movie, mostly because after watching the trailer, I had seen enough. I felt sick, disgusted, sad, angry, light-headed… it was pretty bad. I’m by no means a fanatic, but it’s hard not to get upset when…
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Talkin’ Trash
Back in January, when 2013 was still a brand new year, all shiny and fresh, I was driving to Pawling Central School, to give my first post-Midway talk about plastic. Readers of this blog will recall that in my last post, I wrote briefly about Skyping with a couple of 7th grade science classes from…
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Midway Street View!
[googlemaps https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=embed&hl=en&geocode=&q=Midway+Atoll&aq=&sll=37.6,-95.665&sspn=59.835084,135.263672&t=h&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Midway+Island&ll=28.210076,-177.37611&spn=0.029964,0.041226&layer=c&cbll=28.213461,-177.375001&panoid=pyHus1pW9T2JOb19YPu44Q&cbp=12,154.4,,0,0&output=svembed&w=425&h=350] See that cute little duplex? That’s where I lived on Midway. Say whaaaaat?! Yeah! I kid you not. The side with the random blue boogie board was home to all of Midway’s eager volunteers and we loved that place oh-so-much. Thanks to the power of Google, now you guys can see the island…
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Kickstart A Sea Change
Let me start by saying that this post probably wouldn’t be happening if I wasn’t on Midway right now. Why? Well, simply put…I wouldn’t have an attachment to this place. It sounds strange, but it’s because of all the things that have happened during this last month or so that I’m able to write this…
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Plastic Slap In the Face
Oh, the irony: smiling, happy faces stamped on plastic bottle caps don’t belong in the belly of a baby albatross. They shouldn’t exist in the first place!
This is what insanity looks like.
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Midway Reality Check
Hey all! Three weeks in and I’m still surprised at how fast/slow/weird the time acts here. Some days feel like they’re never going to end and other times, I’m still trying to figure out how it got to be Friday already. Every day is an adventure and brings something new! The highlight of this week…
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What Does 50lbs of Luggage Look Like?
The world may never know. But this is what ~35lbs looks like! I know what you’re thinking. “Ryan, you’re going away for 4 months! Surely you need more than that?” It turns out, even this might be too much! Let’s review the facts: I’m going to Midway. A very small island in the middle of…