This is exactly how I'm feeling lately. The law of attraction is very real thing. A little more than a year ago I made list of things that I would like to have happen and low and behold if they didn't.
The University of Missouri - St. Louis Newsletter came out today and it included a feature of my recent exploits as a blogger for the Scientific American Blog Network. If you haven't checked out the new science blogging network, then please do so. It is awesome and I'm in the company of many other awesome online science communicators. And also 'sign up' that way you can leave comments.
And I also got some really, REALLY exciting news: I have a post-doctoral research position with the awesome and amazing Dr. Alex Ophir at Oklahoma State University. Alex & I go waay back, researching voles and social behavior. He's started this awesomesauce research endeavor the Giant Pouched African Rats (of Tanzania) and the questions were right down my alley. I was like, "Hey Alex, you know I'm all about the individual differences, behavioral variation, maze running, field biology, and mammalogy?" So some wands were waved papers by deans and administrators were signed and he gave me the news Monday night when I arrived at the Animal Behavior Society/International Ethological Conference. I'm still flying high.
Details of everything will come. In the meantime, check out the recent posts from the conference at the Scientific American blog.
I had a chance to visit the very beautiful island nation of Barbados on behalf of Outdoor Afro. While I partook in Barbados food, hosptitality, culture and scenery for my friend and kindred outdoor spirit Rue of Outdoor Afro (and blogged all about it), I also couldn't help myself and took in the beautiful nature. I'll be highlighting my wonderful nature and wildlife encounters of the Caribbean Island.
Today, I feature the beautiful landscapes photos of the islands. I think the pictures give a good sense of not only the naturl beauty of the country but give you a big picture view of the ecology of the island, too.
Dusk - view from the patio of the hotel. That's the Caribbean sea in the distance with various palm trees all around.
Sailing out on the Caribbean sea. That's the island nation of Barbados in the distance.
Beach view. Crystal blue waters of the Caribbean sea.
Row of tall palm trees along the driveway of a former Sugar Plantation. Barbados was once a colony of the United Kingdom and the entire island was basically a series of big sugar plantations.
Though sugar isn't the main export anymore, the legacy of the sugar plantation is not lost. This was once a sugar plantation, with a small sugar mill towwe in the distance on the left. This land now is being developed for residental propoerties. Notice the wide open flat landscape.
Narrow shot of a gully. The island is only 14 miles long by 21 miles wide, but there are hundreds of miles of gullies - series of small inland streams, sloughs, and water ways. Lots of diverse species of plant, birds, amphians, reptiles and insects call these gullies home. There are some species that exist no other place on earth. But no snakes. Barbados has no snakes (they were all removed/extripated by the colonists long, long ago)
View from the hilly region of Barbados called the Scotland district. That's the Altantic Ocean in the far distance.
Scotland district, Atlantic Ocean in the background.
Standing in that spot from the previous picture. Don't let anyone fool you. People become scientists (biologists, ecologists, geologists) so that we can travel to beautiful places like this and do research. Aren't you ready to become a scientist, too now?
Geological formation from when Barbados was 'pushed out of the sea'. Barbados is a sandstone/coral island - connected to the seafloor, not a volcanic island.
Beach view of the East side of the island
Beach view of the East side of island, Atlantic Ocean. Notice the plastic trash deposited on the beach. I walked past hat plastic laundry detergent bottle (and thousands of pieces like it) on my brief visit to that beach. No telling how far that plastic traveled before getting washed up on the beach. Learn more about plastic trash in the ocean at my friend's blog. She's doing her dissertation research on the impact of this very issue, link here.
Send me far, far away...only for a little while. I'm trying it again*, entering a Quark Expedition Contest to Blog my Way to the North Pole, this time. No thanks to climate change, the polar regions of our world are shrinking. The Arctic regions, also known as the North Pole, are the most endangered of the two.
I would love the chance to be your daily blogging correspondent to show and tell you about this majestic ecosystem.
My appeal essay is titled: Following in Matthew Henson's footsteps. If I win, then that's exactly what I will be doing, following in the footsteps of one of the world's greatest explorers, Matthew Henson. He is known as the first African-American to reach the North Pole, along with 12 others including Robert Peary.
Mr. Henson. If I had Photoshop skills, I'd make a duplicate image next to him with my round face. But can't you just see me bundled up like this. Too cool! Literally and figuratively.
*Last year, I entered the Quark Expedition Contest to Blog my way to the South Pole. Thanks to great online supporters like Cynthia from Shimmy in My Spirit, Martin Lindsey from MartyBLOGs, the Blogging While Brown community, and my tweeps from Twitter. I had an amazing showing: 8th place out of 800 entries!
With your support, I could do equally as well again, if not better. Click here to vote.
Cynthia from Shimmy in My Spirit made this card for my Antarctic campaign. Cute, ain't it?
I'll give Quark some props for revising the voting regime. It's alot better than before. You simply register with a valid email and click on the button to vote for me, and you can leave comments, now. I really like that part. You can also vote for 4 additional people. The top 5 finalist are considered by a panel of judges and the winner they select will go on one amazing cruise. I think this method is alot better and more fair than before.
The voting continues until February 15, 2011 12 noon EST. The cruise expedition will take place June 23 - July 7, 2011 and includes visiting Helsinki, Finland and Murmansk, Russia before boarding a huge nuclear powered icebreaker cruise ship. Awesomeness!
So, please help me get there. Vote for me and help me spread the news. I appreciate it.
Tree-lined avenues, well-manicured lawns, and beds of cultivated flowers are the parts of nature many urbanite come to know and love. This is our green space, our comfortable wild oasis. And oasis is really the best way to describe it - a little hint of happiness from the surrounding sea of other.
Here are some nearly forgot-I-had-those-uploaded- pictures from my visit to France last year.
Sycamore trees along the Paris Avenue.
Cultivated and very well-landscaped lawns of Rennes.
More pretty scenes in Rennes. (This park reminded me so much of Tower Grove Park in St. Louis, the part by the Palm House.)
I met some amazing people at the Blogging While Brown Conference and I would be remiss if I did not tell you all about them or at least link to their blogs. But first, a highlight video of the Blogging While Brown.
Ananda Leeke – just a sweet spirit and person, started the conference off on the right note – with yoga. Yes. She led all of us early birds on a Yoga and Stress Relief for Social Media Users session. I had to sit behind the table for the hip-opening exercise because I was wearing a skirt, but it was a great set – learning to live in the moment of right now. Breathing in and out.
The Technology Review Session with Media 2.0 Leaders and InnovatorsCheryl Contee of Jack & Jill Politics, Angela Benton of Black Web 2.0 and Politic 365, and Adam Conner, Facebook – yes, FB itself was a great session. I halted live tweeted and took physical notes.
A few things I learned:
(AC) 300 million of the 400 million Facebook users are non-English Speakers meaning careers in language translation and outreach to non-English global markets is the wave.
(AC) Mobile users are twice as engaged as in Facebook and social media, in general. They can use text messaging to ask people to join Facebook Fan pages and Causes
(AC) Facebook is now one of the top referrals to websites and is a perfect way to engage people in blogs more.
(AC) A click is not just a click anymore. Thanks to Facebook’s set up you can now install a
(AC) Put a FB Like button on your blog. I’m still trying to install this (Help!); it’s not showing up. I really think readers would respond to this. And Facebook can be used to moderate comments. If I keep getting spam comments, I might resort to this.
(AB) If you’re inclined to make a business of blogging, then consider building a network of websites with each one being a type of forum space around special topics.
(CC) SEO is still important but explore the many options available and utilize all the tools available, e.g. Google tools provides keyword search and popular keyword analytics, and don’t neglect up and coming Search Engines Bing and MINT
(CC) If you have a large blog and lots of traffic, consider Wordpress because it is a more sustainable platform for growing.
(CC) Email is going the way of the Dodo. Tweeting, Facebook, and texting are more popular ways for people to stay in touch, especially for younger people.
(CC) The future of Social media is Mobile. There is no digital divide in the Mobile Tech World. Becoming more mobile friendly will be key for bloggers who want to stay ahead of the curve. That’s the new frontier for me, too.
(CC) 25% of the people on Twitter are African-American. Wow! I didn’t realize that.
(CC) Creating more engaging blogs are the future. Recommended tools include Linkwithin – it suggests other related blog posts for readers to read. Also, video is a great way to enhance a blog and it’s always a hit with readers. I really like both of these ideas. I’ll be adding both soon. In fact, I’ve been getting a lot of encouragement to do video and I’ve been testing some out on the Facebook Fan Page. Would love your feedback.
FTC Blog Advertising Guidelines with Stacey Ferguson, Federal Trade Commission, Division of
Advertising Practices was quite informative. Basically, all incidences of sponsorship – money, gifts, free services, anything – must be fully disclosed with a blogger is writing about or even tweeting about something. Incidentally, Stacey is also with Blogalicious – A 3-day conference Celebrating Diversity in Social Media this October in Miami, Florida.
Scott Hanselman – we played Scrabble together and finally got a chance to meet in real life. At the opening reception on Friday he walked right up me and asked me about the Blog Your Way to Antarctica contest. He rocks for an unlimited list of reasons. He presented an AWESOME presentation – 32 Ways to Make Your Blog Suck Less. I’m still working on adding some of the bells and whistles he suggested.
The Business of Blogging: BEYOND Ad Networks was also a great session featuring Donna Maria Coles Johnson and The Nichelle Stephens of Pepsi Inspire. But we end up using Nichelle’s Cupcake Blog as an example to explain business principles that every felt hungry and wanted desperately taste one of her cupcakes…I’m still Jonesing.
I was honored to be a part of session featuring kick butt bloggers/activists Luvvie and Latoya Peterson. These ladies are amazing. Luvvie outlined how much the Red Pump Project has grown in a little over a year, including birthing an HIV/AIDS Awareness program for the gents called Red Tie Project. Rock the Red, everyone. Latoya Peterson just blew me away. Racialicious isn’t just a blog about the intersection of pop culture, race, and sexism. No! It is a thesis.
The Town Hall meeting moderated by Shawn P. Williams, featuring Shirley Franklin – former mayor of Atlanta, Chris Rabb and Jioni Palmer - Communications Director for the Congressional Black Caucus, was an interesting forum indeed. You notice I have no link for Mr. Palmer. He was the recipient of much ire in the room and on Twitter because of his less than eager acceptance of Social Media as a viable tool of engagement with the public for the CBC. Yeah, I was hurling a few tomatoes (symbolic tweets) at him as well. But overall the session was very engaging and informative. The take home message: Social media is a movement and a very important tool for engaging (minority) audiences in the political process.
And no doubt the highlight of the entire meeting was the panel of Break Through Bloggers featuring Baratunde Thurston (he tweet that he liked my talk and I’ve been floating ever since), my Doppelganger Patrice Yursik (you all already know how much I heart her), and Anil Dash (a science policy social media guru who works with AAAS). The panel was moderated by Lola Adesioye. I loved all of what they said!
Some more AMAZING people I met at Blogging While Brown 2010 included:
The Danielles:Wordyless, The Cubicle Chick, and of course the Black Snob (the former 2 ladies plus me made the infamous Danielle’s from STL Trio)
The Danielles from STL (l-r) Me, The Cublicle Chick, and The Black Snob
Another St. Louis Blogger – Glamazini – rocks some amazing natural hair dos and her blog provides hair care insights and book reviews (a recent one of the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot – a book about science and society. I keep feeling like blogging genres keep intersecting and I Love it).
The 3rd Annual Blogging While Brown Conference in Washington, DC, June 18-19, 2010 was a smashing success.
My very first highlight was being confused with Breakthrough Blogger and Black Weblog Award Best Culture Blog Hall of Famer Afrobella. Seriously, two people on separate occasions thought I was her. Dallas South News Blogger, Shawn Williams was even congratulating me for ‘my appearance in Business magazine’ to which I responded, “What? That’s news to me. Oh, you must be confusing me for someone else. That someone is Afrobella – who is THE leading Beauty blogger in Black Blogosphere, if not the entire Blogosphere. Her fabulous blog has landed her writing and review gigs with Vogue (yes) as a contributor to Vogue Black, AOL Black Voices, and American Airlines’ Black Atlas Web site.
Yeah, I don’t mind at all being her Doppelganger. (But actually, I think she and my great friend Darcella Craven could be twins. Incidently, people confuse DC as sisters all of the time.)
More great news…
The opening reception and game night was sponsored by CTIA and Comcast. It was a great time. I played Scrabble with fellow #BWB bloggers, Scott, Natalie, and Stacy. We all though playing for fun was just fine until we learned the sponsors provided pretty sweet tech prizes to the winner – An Acer Netbook for 1st place. Long story short – I was a beast. I love word games and Scrabble in particular. (Ask any of my friends, one year for my birthday I was given a Scrabble Dictionary. Love!) And guess what happened? I won! Yes, competition was pretty stiff. But I wanted that Netbook. I listed this on my Graduation wishlist and I took this competitive opportunity as a direct sign from the Universe and the Good Lord Above that this was my chance to receive this gift.
But it wasn’t without scandal. I misspell a word – SWIMING. I wrote the word out by hand a million times but spelling it with 2 ms didn’t look right to me either. But my amazing opponents didn’t catch it either, someone at the next table called it out. They gave me guff about it – and rightly so. However, since no one caught it and the word had been played against the decision was to let it stand. Whew! Lucky me and the Netbook was mine, all mine.
The Conference proper was twice as big as last year and I really had a great time. The topics last year were great but in my mind some of them were a little irrelevant to me. Not this year. I was fully engaged the entire time and I really like the addition of the unconference to the mix. Attendees were able to talk further about topics and network. Thank you conference planners – Gina, Shawn, Aminah, Elizabeth, Cheryl, Shalon and everyone else.
It was a great experience! Tomorrow I’ll talk all about my presentation about Science and outreach to under-served audiences.
I have been selected as a panelist/presenter at the 3rd Annual Blogging While Brown Conference. I attended this same conference last year and was initially unsure of what I might gain from the conference, I was pleasantly surprised and was very glad I had attended. I learned some new things about the technology and direction of social media among communities of color. But more importantly, I met some amazing people, some amazingly supportive people. I was feeling as if the Black Blog-o-sphere seemed dominated by pop culture and political commentary, and that blogs about science/nature/education written by people of color seemed overlooked.
Social media (and the real life interactions that come about from it) are just one of many ways to engage people in ideas and actions. The people in that room helped me realize that we could work together, leveraging our strengths (and blog audiences) and helped me achieve some very important goals related to growing my blog. It was at this same time I entered the Blog Your Way to Antarctica Contest. Before I was out fo the Chicago city limits, my newly minted @BWBConference friends were the very first to jump on bandwagon. Thanks to their support (and the support of many, many, more) I was in 8th place (out of nearly 800 contestants)!
I will be participating in the panel: "Beyond Gossip, Hip Hop, Hair, and Politics: Bloggers and Change Agents and Educators". Also on the panel are Luvvie of Awesomely Luvvie and Latoya Peterson of Racialicious.com. We'll each share tips with other bloggers about technology strategies we've employed to use our blogs for initiating major initiatives and awareness campaigns over important issues often not introduced in more popular blogs.
Check out the official Speaker Announcement video on YouTube.
I will be representing for the science/nature/education/outdoor recreation blogs out there! I will discuss using online tools to engage under-represented audiences in STEM and how to enhance scientific literacy and research participation via Citizen Science Projects, Science fairs, etc. Plus, I'm excited to get STEM on the forefront. Blogs about basic yet equally important issues like education and specific to my interests - science education - always seem to be overlooked, especially among blogs authored by people of color. Even when political issues required some better understanding of science, the science is often overlooked in favor of a sensationalized story. I hope to change that.
My goals as a presenter are three-fold:
1) to initiate a dialogue about STEM education in formal and informal settings with other bloggers;
2) encourage communities of color to become more engaged in science/nature activities (online and in real life); and
3) share my strategies of how I managed to become one of the more popular African-American science/nature bloggers on the web.
Registration is open to all. I hope some of you will come out. The line-up of speakers is great. Plus, they are offering a free Beginner's BloggersBootcamp on June 18th. More information about the conference (including the bios of all of the speakers) can be found at the conference website.
Finally, if you're interested in assisting my efforts to attend the conference, then feel free to drop me a line and we can discuss sponsorship options. In the meantime, I appreciate your support of my blog and professional endeavors.
Many thanks to each of you! DNLee demystifyingnature, lettingeveryone experience
When I was in San Francisco I did the tourist-y things. I took the double-decker bus to Fisherman's Wharf, China Town, and the Golden Gate Bridge. I love the Bay. I can see why people bit the bullet and pay the huge costs of living to call The Bay home. I certainly would.
The Bay - the sea and land areas near it is a multi-use area. Once a very important naval base for defense, The City's Naval history is still noticeable. But people also enjoy tour excursions out on the water, visits to Alcatraz, plus recreational water sports. It's an amazing place full of beauty and wildlife.
Then I wonder, how does all of this human activity - this city and its water use and disposal of waste water, these vessels for transportation all coexist with the natural world. No doubt nature takes a hit, but who are the people and agencies responsible for being responsible?
As I was walking along the boardwalk, I came across this interpretive display.
It seems the gentleman mentioned at the bottom of the sign is responsible for Protecting the Bay, Mr. David Hayes - Project Manager.
Sometimes recognizing diversity in natural resource careers isn't so conspicuous, but it's always a great thing to discover...and share.
Today marks the 40th annual celebration of the Earth. Let's celebrate it and let's appreciate it. We've only got one home (planet), let's take care of it. Hope you get to enjoy the Earth Day activities in your area. Get outdoors,pick up litter, recycle, bicylce, hike, walk, bird watch, and find something great to enjoy!
I'm headed to Murray State University (in Kentucky). I've giving my first ever seminar talk. College science departments often have weekly or monthly speakers come and talk about their research. As a grad student, it's a regular thing to see and hear professors from all over the region or nation come and talk about the papers we may be reading. Undergraduates sometimes attend. But as a newly minted PhD this is a big deal to meal. It's like a debutante ball! I'll be giving a talk about my dissertation research - a reacap of my defense talk I gave a little more than a month ago. Plus, I hope to make some great connections.
Yay, for science!
As usual, thanks for your well wishes and support. Everything you contribute helps fund these little science adventures. In this case, gas money to Murray, Kentucky.
I visited the Bay area (San Francisco and Berkeley, California) for the first time year. I LOVED the Bay. I could so live there.
Spring time blooms in Union Square, San Francisco
The color of San Francisco is violet. These blue-violet colored flowers seemed to be everywhere. This picture was taken at Golden Gate Park.
This plant reminds me of the water pickerels in Missouri. Are they related? I'm asking my botany friends.
A very pretty in pink cultivar. Notice the bee?
Berekely
Daisy-type flowers, you know Asteriidae were my favorite flowers. Isn't the purple color just lovely. The bright California sunshine really made the color pop!
Berekely
I just loved this flower when I saw it. Warm tones like dark oranges, yellows and reds are my favorite colors.
Berekely
Staring down the center I seemed to be carried away. I loved low the uniformly yellow-orange flower had a deeper hue in the middle near the anthers and filament. The anthers and petals are the exact same hue. Lovely. My friend Rue, of Outdoor Afro, later told me this is the California Poppy, the state flower of California.
When I have the great fortune to travel from place to place, I take my camera with me and document the local scenes and wildlife. My photojournalism usually starts right out the gate with take off. It's fascinating to me to see a city, my own or a new one, from a few hundred feet above. The structures and natural landscapes are still discernible and the vantage is always breathtaking. It really puts an area in perspective. Usually, I notice how most cities are more green than we can really appreciate. Usually there are patches of woods or prairies or water systems connected together by pencil then traces separately by roads. Mainly because airports are pesky places to live, these areas are usually very nice urban wildlife refuges.
I had a two-stop layover to San Francisco, so my next stop was Salt Lake City, Utah. This is a beautiful city and a chance to see a very different ecosystem as well as a very different geological formation - mountains, the Rocky Mountains to be exact.
I love how this very large urban area (the largest, most populous city in Utah) sits comfortably next to these majestic snow capped mountains. Winter outdoor sports are all the rage here and I bet the wildlife watching (plants and animals) is interesting as well.
I'm imagining how different the urban ecology is here compared to where I live now.
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Hope you enjoyed my travelog from my latest excursion. I have several more trips planned this summer - science presentations and science conferences. You know I'll share with you.
Help me continue to do and share science! Donated money will help me take this adventures on the road, attend meetings and present talks.Thank you,
DNLee
