Finals week is almost here

I will never understand how some of the teachers get their jobs at the college I attend. I loosely call them teachers because the name professor to me means they know more than the students. I am in one program that, I swear, the teacher has not touched on anything that I did not learn in HS. At this point I am thinking I should have gotten an online degree then transferred the credits. The only problem with that is that most of them only cover computer courses like an online IT degree and not biology or marine science.

I am hoping that next semester is better than this one was. This time I will be asking other students which teachers to avoid.

Another lonely Thanksgiving

The Holidays, when people have family to visit, except when they don't have family around. That has been my story for the last 5 years. My mother past away 6 years ago, dad 9 years ago and my only sister has been in and out of drug rehab for the last 12 years so she is not what I call a close family member anymore. I guess that is why I divert my energies to wildlife and sea life rescue and rehabilitation.

Speaking of sea life rehab, the sea life rescue in Alaska just released 2 seal pups, named Cupcake and Starburst,......was someone eating at the time they got named,... back into the wild just over a month ago. Last word on their release is that they were doing just fine.

Polar Bears and the melting ice

This photo reminds me of how the melting polar ice caps will be affecting the Polar Bears. The bears need the ice to be able to hunt and rest on the ice and eat their catch. If they can't hunt on the ice they won't be able to gain enough weight to help them survive their hibernation. They can't afford to have a fast weight loss before their hibernation ends because there is nothing around for the to eat before spring.

Sea otters

I really love the antics of Sea Otters. They are the jokers of the sea. One of the best places to watch them from the shore is in the Monterey Bay along the California coastline. Monterey Bay is also the location of the Monerery Bay Aquarium where they have an otter cam located on their website. Michelle Staedler is Monterey Bay Aquarium’s sea otter research coordinator and she is alarmed at the falling otter population. Their numbers are down by 1.3% from 2005, their numbers should be growing.

Otters are no longer hunted, at least legally, so that is not a major factor in their declining numbers. I have a spreadsheet on my notebook computer that I use to track the other major causes of their decline in numbers. Disease and parasites have been playing an important part in their demise. For example sea otters are prey to a parasitic worm that burrows into their intestine. They are also dying of toxoplasmosis which kill brain tissue, causing seizures and disability.

Toxoplasmosis is something I have written about in the past. It is an organism that is found in cat poop. When people flush cat poop or litter down their toilets is when it makes its way to the world's oceans and ends up killing the sea otters.

I would like to see the sea otters survive just a few hundred more years at least. If only the cat owning public were made more aware of the consequences of flushing their cats' poop or litter.

College blues

It is mid-term and I have 3 classes that I think that I should have dumped after the first 2 weeks. One is a writing class that is a prerequisite for another class that I have to take. The teacher is a self proclaimed author. I was fine with that until I found out the only book she ever wrote was a 15 line children's book, and she read it to us in class today! It was written for 6 year olds to read.

My thoughts were, "this women is a college professor!", then I wondered how she got the job.

Next up is a business class. I needed to take the class to simply get class credits and it was either that or accounting .... and I hate accounting. The business class teacher has spent almost the entire class periods so far showing movies on DVD that are interviews with business owners. Other than showing us how successful the business owners have become none of the material is a how-to or even instructional in any way. The teacher has also shown some questionable "how to start your own business" websites on his refurbished laptop that is hooked up to the overhead so we could all see them. So far I have gotten nothing out of the class.

My last boring class is just that, boring. It is my math class. The only reason I got stuck in that class was the fact that I missed one extra problem on the math entrance placement exam and instead of not needing math at all I have to repeat what I already know. So far I have gotten 100% on all tests and it is a breeze but boring.

I hope next semester is better than this one.