Words written, words said, words heard and words read.

It is sometimes very interesting the power of words. It has the ability to build up and break down, it can leave you feeling like your mind just opened up a new city complex with added parking and at other times you are lost in a jungle of unknown things closing in on you sapping the very glimmer of that known space you hold on to. Words, nothing but little squiggles on paper or in this digital age on the screen. How is it that these almost insignificant parts of our very existence can have such a great impact on us?

Words like Love, Hate, Loneliness, Passion have such strong emotional ties with the human race that sometimes the very words themselves become unable to describe. Take the word "Love". What does this really mean? We say that we love someone from the 'bottom of our hearts', but all you are going to find there is blood and guts.

What is love anyway? There are actions that we associate with love. But are the actions what the word describes? We say its a feeling. A way of describing how a person feels toward someone or something. But then what is this "feeling"that we are describing? Are we just using one word to replace the other.

What is a 'feeling'? To quote the wikipedia article on this "Feeling is the nominalization of "to feel" ". How does a word encapsulate what a feeling is? We often use words to describe feelings that in the first place we cannot themselves describe. Words are often seen as symbols that carry a message. When you understand the meaning you are rewarded with a bit of information that may or may not both lead you to the retrieval of the information stored in the next set of squiggly symbols and sometimes to a message that is greater than the sum of all the parts.

Words such funny things. They say so much but at the same time so little. A word in context can convey information and out of context simply be another squiggle or sound that passes along with time like water under a bridge.

Just another day

Finally got my printer set up and have most of my gear stored away. I have been looking through some of the images I made over the past couple weeks and I think there are a few that have potential. And now that I have things setup I should be doing a bit more printing than what I have been doing.

Its amazing sometimes how time flies. Its july already and the summer is rolling on its way. Sometimes I feel like I get much accomplished and at other times it amazes me how little gets done even though I am staying busy. I have been wanting to sit out in the sun and read a book for the past couple days but so far have not found the time for it.

But not all time is spent in work. I spent the evening driving the boat and tending it while several of my colleagues went diving this afternoon. Not the most difficult of tasks and I always enjoy time spent on the water. Well, the evening draws on and I still need to finish reading and preparing for tomorrow. A few more hours till I get to rest my head.

Summer escapades

Its been a while since I last published anything and now that I have some time I feel compelled to do so. Summer on the coast, being out here has been a opportunity to relax and also spend time in refection of things scientific and philosophical.

Over the last week or so I have had the opportunity to experience some of the best that the Washington coast has to offer. Warm sunny days, clear cool nights, days filled with exploration and discovery. Looking out over the Puget sound the sight and sounds of waves crashing on the beach while in the background songs of sparrows echo over the sounds of the wind whistling in the pines do give a feeling a relaxation and solitude.

I also have been quite privileged to visit some extraordinary places. Yesterday my class went out to Protection Island. This is a National Wildlife Refuge which however is closed to the general public. I had the opportunity to go on the island and take part in an annual census counting the nest sites for the Glaucous winged gull. It was quite the interesting experience walking among the colony counting the nest sites. I was able to see a number of nests with eggs, a few with chicks already hatched and a few with the eggs just in the process of hatching.

And while there were many upsides to this event there was the downside as well. Gulls tend to fly above you as you walk through the colony and as they do sometimes you become the recipient of white or greenish grey - depending on the gulls diet - substances that in the warm sun does dry relatively fast. However the experience as a whole was more valuable and fun that this distraction did not mar the overall enjoyment.

Once again this afternoon I am expecting to head out on a boat to do some additional counting as part of the class. Not a bad way to spend the summer.