Abandoned

It seems as though there is a party being thrown for me (and the other 3 volunteers) every single night between now and when I leave Midway in a week.  You all know what that means...SEVEN NIGHTS OF RAGE!  God that sounds awesome.  Raging is such a fun activity.  If you are reading this, I assume you participate in raging events regularly.  If you do not, may I recommend that you go sit down, look deep inside yourself, and think about your life.  Unless you have a pre-existing health condition which prohibits raging, I'm pretty sure you should be doing it as often as possible.  If you don't believe me, just ask any person who has attended graduate school at Duke University.  They will tell you the same thing, and they are the upper echelon of the future of our great nation.  That being said, I'll never forgive any of those same Dukies for leaving me all alone on a desert island with nobody left to really rage with (see photo below).  Mahalo.

Yep, this is how I feel.

Here's a trick I learned in photography class last night.  use water in your photos.  Water droplets turn photographs into art.  It's just the same as black & white.

Shocky Rorebirds

I went out and took breathtaking photographs of some of our wintering shorebirds today.  Currently on island are some incredibly famous and influential people.  Sylvia Earle, who is the planet's greatest female oceanographer, is here with me.  If you want to know who she is, click this: 


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Earle 


There is also a mural artist here named Wyland who is apparently hella famous.  He did something for the Olympics I think.  Now he's supposed to paint one here, but I haven't seen any brushes come out yet.  Here's Wyland:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyland


Well, it's time for dinner.  Then I'll be attending a talk by an awesome photographer, whom I may showcase on tomorrow's TPAD.  After that, raging.  It's another Chugach Band performance tonight, and the whiskey will flow.

Wandering Tattler.  You can tell by the nasal grooves and apparently the scaling on the bird's tarsi (legs).  Breathtaking.

Ruddy Turnstone.  Look at it glisten.

I Wear My Sunglasses At Night

Hella hella rage.  Midway New Year is awesome.  Did you know that we are the last people in the whole world to bring in the new year?  We rule.  So, the night started of with about four or five games of Bingo. I promptly lost all five.  Then the band rocked out for several hours after that.  I drank gin, tequila, beer, and champagne.  I danced and sang and played hecka guitar.  I played pool, ping-pong, pinball, shuffleboard, and foosball.  So many activities.  I also took a portrait of every person at the party while they wore my sunglasses.  It's a pretty good album.  Watch for it on FB.

Three loser Bingo cards.

Hella winner rage machines.  That's me in the middle with my arms up.

Goonies With Hats

I spent most of today helping Scott remove the data logger tags from goonies that have been wearing them for the last year.  Scott has been tracking seabirds for years and is the guy who discovered the Sooty Shearwater migration route.  Super interesting stuff.  The method for getting these tags off is a bit different from our normal routine, so I took some photos while we worked.


In about an hour, the New Year's Eve festivities will begin.  Dinner, Bingo, and the fabulous Chugach Band will be the agenda for tonight.  I plan on raging to the fullest extent of my abilities.  It's still 2011!  Kegstands!

This is the cute, outdoorsy look.  

We keep a few Short-tailed Albatross out in the garage.  One of them is quite the baseball fan.

Take A Knee

Christmas was a great success.  My Sam and my Mommy both sent hella hella good Christmas packages. I got an exact replica of the pink NWTF hat from the Farallones, and also my stocking that I've had since I was born.  So sick. Thank you guys.  Aside from being hungover and opening presents, I also went snorkeling, did a Christmas Bird Count, and raged/rocked out with A1, Eck, and the Thai gangstas.  So fun.  Merry Christmas again.  

It looks like I photoshopped a photo of myself taking a knee and fist-pumping.

Eck, flashin his Benjamins.

I Wish Starbuck Rolled With My Crew

Apparently Kara Thrace (call sign Starbuck) is leading Humankind to utter destruction, even though everyone thinks she's leading them to fame and glory on Earth.  This is of course only the story from an old man in a bathtub last night on BSG, so who knows... Today was obviously another chill day.  I wasn't even Albatrossbitten, so life is good.  There is a plane tomorrow bringing about 15 people out to count ALL of the albatross on Island.  It seems like a big job, I know.  Last year they counted nearly a million.  Can you believe that?  Anyway, there will probably be a little shindig at Captain Brooks tonight, so it's looking like light breezes out of the NW, partly cloudy, with a slight chance of Rage.  Here's some stuff that happened today:

This is my crew, from left to right: Nik Aspy, Ann Humphrey, Karen Guglielmone.  Watch your back or they will frack you up.

This may be the rarest bird on Midway currently.  Mallard is another one of those birds that really surprised me by being out here.

Long Live The King

Today is the Thai King's birthday.  This means that I was up till the wee hours raging hecka hard with all the Thai rage-aholics.  It was awesome.  I heard stories of shootings, shipwrecks, floods, and women.  These guys have seen it all.  The entire time, Ek (The Most Stylish Of All Thais) was forcing silver bullets and banquet beers down everyone's throats.  Earlier in the day I got photos of some previously unpublished species.

Black-footed Albatross pair.  These birds constantly are cuddling.  They really love each other, just like people.

White-tailed Tropicbird.  One of the most elusive birds on Island.

Thai People Are Good At Pool And Ping Pong

Last night was John Hanna's retirement party.  He has been the project manager out here for a long time and he's leaving on the next plane I guess.  There was a huge rager, feast, and pool tournament to celebrate.  Super fun.  I also went birding and tuna fishing earlier in the day (we hooked two big lunkers, but they both got away).  I'm hungover so I'm keeping this short.  Mahalo.

Brown Booby, boobying.

A few of the guys fusballing.  Mali, official judge.

Where Is The Rage?

We continued setting up our albatross plots yesterday.  It was fun.  I got to ride my bike past the Golden Goony again.  Which was hella fun.  We were disappointed later when we tried to tune in to The Hangover 2 on the projector in our living room, but were rejected by Technology.  LIP.  I drank a whopping two beers yesterday evening, which is probably my Island High count so far (yes I feel cowardly).  Tonight is rumored to be an epic Ping Pong Battle over at the All Hands Club.  The All Hands Club is cool.  It's kind of like the Farallones Social Club, but with pool tables, ping pong, a bar, Foosball, pinball, bathrooms, etc.  Maybe I'll get the camera out and demand that people sit for black and white portraits.  Here are some more birds.  I have yet to take a single photo of a non-bird, seal, or turtle.

One of 423 Pacific Golden-plovers that call Midway home.
 

Ruddy Turnstone.  Showing nicely.

Lucy

Lucy is the name of a skeleton that is thought to represent one of Man's earliest ancestors.  It is also a warbler.  i saw one yesterday in San Francisco.  Fully legitimate.  Later in the evening, it was happy hour at a martini bar.  Rage.

The very elusive Lucy's Warbler at Ferry.

Sam with JennyB (The hottest blogger in the City).  You can check out Jenny's 100%vegan blog here:  

http://theeffervescentvegan.blogspot.com/

You're Welcome.