Ebb and Flow
Life's whirlwind, but this semester is moving along quicker than I can remember any semester doing throughout my entire (second) college career. Midterms are next week already and thinking about that just makes me blink stupidly and wonder where the time went.
Various updates:
I have something going on with my right heel. Yesterday walking around campus it started to hurt, but I didn't think much of it. This morning I got out of bed and could barely walk. Hobbled about the house, thought about not going to class, then thought better of it and limped my way out the door. It's gotten better as the day's gone on, but it's still painful enough to walk that I've got permagrimace on my face as I've been moving around campus. First thought was heel spur, but heel spurs are largely related to plantar fasciitis and I've never had foot problems my entire life. Obviously walking around campus can't be helped, but I'm going to be extra careful with it the next couple of days.
Haven't updated on Boo's feather situation in quite a while. He still has the collar on and still chafes about it, especially when new feathers are coming in (since he can't preen any of them himself - it drives him nuts). I've been spending extra time with him helping break open the new feather shafts to help him out, but I can't really keep up. Growth-wise, the yanked feathers grew back first with no down, and the down has finally now just started to come back in. I actually removed the collar 2-3 weeks ago just as a trial run to see how he'd do. He sat on my hand for a moment seemingly stunned that he didn't have this thing around his neck anymore, then started to preen like a madman (bird?), cleaning up new feathers I hadn't even seen despite my best attempts. Unfortunately, a few minutes into this he started ripping out little bits of feather even as he sat on my hand. This more than ever leads me to believe there's something psychological going on, rather than boredom or situational stress. Soo, just to give his feathers the opportunity to come back in completely I put the collar back on. A new molt started last week though and he's got a ton of pin feathers again, so I'm going to have to remove the collar again soon for another frenzied preening session.
As a sort of fallout from discussions about undergrad research with my bio professor, I've been invited on a research trip to Taiwan in June next year. The research is on mating and sperm competition in orb weaver spiders. All expenses are paid via grant money, plus an additional stipend. It's been confirmed I won't have to learn Chinese (as we'll be working with all English-speaking people), but I'll probably try to pick up some anyway. This is extremely goddamn exciting - I feel like my life has been very small and circumscribed for quite some time now and I'm eager to break out of that.
Various updates:
I have something going on with my right heel. Yesterday walking around campus it started to hurt, but I didn't think much of it. This morning I got out of bed and could barely walk. Hobbled about the house, thought about not going to class, then thought better of it and limped my way out the door. It's gotten better as the day's gone on, but it's still painful enough to walk that I've got permagrimace on my face as I've been moving around campus. First thought was heel spur, but heel spurs are largely related to plantar fasciitis and I've never had foot problems my entire life. Obviously walking around campus can't be helped, but I'm going to be extra careful with it the next couple of days.
Haven't updated on Boo's feather situation in quite a while. He still has the collar on and still chafes about it, especially when new feathers are coming in (since he can't preen any of them himself - it drives him nuts). I've been spending extra time with him helping break open the new feather shafts to help him out, but I can't really keep up. Growth-wise, the yanked feathers grew back first with no down, and the down has finally now just started to come back in. I actually removed the collar 2-3 weeks ago just as a trial run to see how he'd do. He sat on my hand for a moment seemingly stunned that he didn't have this thing around his neck anymore, then started to preen like a madman (bird?), cleaning up new feathers I hadn't even seen despite my best attempts. Unfortunately, a few minutes into this he started ripping out little bits of feather even as he sat on my hand. This more than ever leads me to believe there's something psychological going on, rather than boredom or situational stress. Soo, just to give his feathers the opportunity to come back in completely I put the collar back on. A new molt started last week though and he's got a ton of pin feathers again, so I'm going to have to remove the collar again soon for another frenzied preening session.
As a sort of fallout from discussions about undergrad research with my bio professor, I've been invited on a research trip to Taiwan in June next year. The research is on mating and sperm competition in orb weaver spiders. All expenses are paid via grant money, plus an additional stipend. It's been confirmed I won't have to learn Chinese (as we'll be working with all English-speaking people), but I'll probably try to pick up some anyway. This is extremely goddamn exciting - I feel like my life has been very small and circumscribed for quite some time now and I'm eager to break out of that.