FAQ

Be forewarned that this page is not educational whatsoever so I am taking that as permission to rabble on as much as I want.

Me being silly

• Why did you start a blog?

My blog started as an assignment, one of the college courses I’m taking is called “From Tweet to Blog to Book”: A Study of Online Literature and its Relationship to the Printed Word. A requirement of the class was to create and maintain a blog and this is what I ended up with.  For more information read my “To My Readers” post.

• Good Blogging Practices
    -This is an assignment for the course mentioned above and I'm not to say that I exemplify all of these practices, or in fact any as the case may be, but bare with me.
  
  
  1. It's not all about the audience. Make sure to blog about something you believe in or enjoy doing. If you don't enjoy thinking and writing about whatever your topic happens to be, chances are your blog will probably not last long. Check out Faith in College, don't be afraid to ask hard questions because this blog is all about discussing the things most important to the author and possibly you as well.
  
  
  2. Create a voice that people can recognize and relate to, humor always helps. Kickin’ it in the Kitchen, I may not be a foodie but I just can't stop reading these posts because I love her voice and the way she tells her story.
  
  
  3. Don't give up, your blog is not cut in stone! It okay if things aren't going the way you wanted them to, your blog works for you, it's okay to change. Look at this post from Books, and Other Places I've Been, if she can admit that her blogging voice is not what she wants and that she's trying to change then so can you.
  
  
  4. Pictures, pictures, pictures! Everybody loves pictures, they spice up your post and keep people from nodding off, it can happen to anyone trust me. If you do go the picture route, make sure they're good quality not fuzzy or dark. Try going to Windows to the Sea, this is what I'm talking about, the pictures enhance the story without taking away from it.
  
  
  5. Branch out, don't restrict yourself to one topic even if that seems impossible. Take a look at Ha-Ha-Hollywood, even though it's a movie review blog that's not all it is, it also talks about other blogs, and charts, and sports, and religion, and all sorts of movie related things. If a review blog can be about more than reviewing than you can do anything.
  
  
  6. Try to update regularly, I know it's hard, I'm not great at it either. Books and Other Places I’ve Been is so much better about updating then I am, every time I go there she's got new posts. Don't be afraid to write short post either, you don't have to write an essay for every post.
  
  
  7. Reply to your comments! These people are actually acknowledging that you exist, do them the courtesy of acknowledging them back. Wanderingfaulds does a great job with this, every time I comment I get a reply by the end of the day.
  
  
  8. Don't let your blog suck the life out of you. There is more to life then writing posts so make sure to get away from your computer every so often to have those life experiences that you can blog about later. Check out On Becoming a Sponge to see what it's all about, you don't have to go to far off places to have an adventure.
  
  

  

  Me being epic

• Why is your blog about lizards?

This blog is about lizards because I love them, plain and simple, and I plan to study them throughout my life.

• Why do you like lizards?

I think it has something to do with the fact that I live in Washington (the state not the capital thank you very much, the only state named after a president in fact…I’m sure you can guess one of my pet peeves).  I have never once seen a lizard in Washington…I’m told that they exist and other people have seen them but as my luck would have it I am not one of those people. As I did not grow up with them around I find them fascinating. And they are just amazingly cool.

• When did this love of lizards come about?

It was very anticlimactic, in sixth grand I had to make a PowerPoint presentation just to show that I could and for some strange reason that I don’t remember  I chose to do it about lizards and came to the epiphany that they are nifty little buggers (or very big buggers, it really depends).

• Why do you want to be a biologist, specifically a herpetologist?

I’ve always liked the sciences, my parents are biologist and I grew up surrounded by science. It was a bit of a hard choice between East Asian Studies and Biology, I love Japan and most everything associated with it but in terms of potential careers I went with biology. Herpetology just seemed to be the logical decision after that; my thought process was that if I’ve adored lizards for about nine or so years it’s probably not a phase anymore. It may also be a subtle rebellion from my marine biologist parents…I’ll admit it’s not much of a rebellion but I got sick and tired of marine invertebrates long ago. I’ll still be a biologist and hopefully someday (cross my fingers) a PhD like my dad.

• What do you hope to do as a herpetologist?

My dream job is to be studying some strange lizard alone in an exotic place in the middle of nowhere. You can probably guess that I am very jealous of Jane Goodall. I have a rather pessimistic view point on the human race in general. There’s a reason I chose to study animals and not humans…I like animals better. I should probably tell you now that I am very antisocial, it’s not that I don’t like people it’s just that there are very few people that I know well and like enough for me to rather be around them than be by myself. I think all biologists need to be able to be by themselves for long periods of time, most scientific work is solitary. I also don’t like crowds or large groups of people but I’m getting off topic.

I'll probably never get a high paying job…I mean come on herpetology, nobody really cares much about lizards.  It’ll be nonprofit and university jobs for me I suppose. And with the economy as it is there’s no steady flow of grant money or jobs for anyone, let alone someone who wants to studies lizards. Unfortunately in terms of science careers, everything that pays well is tied to humans, whatever happened to studying for the sake of learning something new without it having to benefit the human race? We are such egotistical animals. To be quite honest it’s very unlikely I’ll actually be able to do the  research that I want, however I am thankful that I’m a single women with no children and supportive parents, I don’t have to worry about someone else depending on me for income so I’m free to take risks if an opportunity arises.  Sorry if I’m a bit of a downer…college final's week is not helping to lighten my pessimistic personality, believe it or not I’m a very cheerful person most of time…I’m what might call a dichotomy.  

• How do your roommates live with you?

By being wonderfully understanding and patient people. They call me the ninja chameleon…because I’m near silent around most people (my poor roommates are not most people and have to listen to me rabble on about whatever TV show I've seen recently), wear mostly black clothes (I just don’t like bright colors, they hurt my eyes and make my twitch), I have a 'ninja survival tips' poster (people love that poster I swear), and as you all know by now I like lizards. Needless to say, I'm quite fond of my nickname.

My roommates and I,
brilliant poem- writer on the right, shrike-lover on the left , and me in the middle.

So…that’s all I have for now, but please ask me questions in the comment’s section. Questions can be about anything I’m not too picky; my life, personality, lizards, classes, college, non-lizard related biology questions, etc.