Square Knots & Nails (WIP)

Here's a work in progress I started while I was away, inspired by the fishing culture of Grand Manan.

Today you're going to learn.

So I'll start with a dog update.
The family that visited yesterday will be taking Patience home with them this weekend. Yay for Patience! (A little sad for me, but still it's a happy thing because I know she's going to a good home.)

Alrighty.

So, today I'm going to teach you a little bit about whales.

So here's a quick sketch I did while I was away to get some of the basic anatomy information for whales.

purty, ain't it?

And here's another diagram, with a few more things labeled. (This particular diagram depicts a mystocete (baleen whale):

The top of their head is called their Rostrum.

A whale's tale is called their fluke or their caudal fin (it's also called a caudal fin for fish).

Pectoral fins are their side fins.

Whales may have a dorsal fin (a fin on their back). The North Atlantic Right Whale, for example, does not.

Within the order of Cetacea (whales), there are two suborders: Odontoceti and Mysticeti.

Odontocetes are toothed whales. They have teeth (obviously). Odontocetes have a single blowhole.
The suborder of Odontocetes includes sperm whales, pilot whales, beaked whales, dolphins, porpoises, and others.

Mysticetes are baleen whales. They have baleen (obviously). Baleen is used for filter feeding and is made of the same material as our hair or fingernails. Mystocetes have a double blowhole.
Some baleen whales (not all) also have throat grooves. (These types of whales are called Rorquals). The throat grooves allow for their throats to expand and allow them to take larger gulps.
The suborder of Mysticetes includes blue whales, humpback whales, right whales, bowhead whales, grey whales, and others.

I think that's all for now... maybe I'll come back later and add more when I think of more to add. And maybe I'll add some actual photos too to demonstrate some things further... We'll see.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Trivia question for you all:
What is the largest dolphin?
Highlight for the answer: The Orca is the largest dolphin. Yep. The killer whale is actually a dolphin. 
Or click here.

HOORAY FOR LEARNING!

Adopt A Boxer Rescue

I know I promised a Grand Manan theme for you guys, but I'm kind of going to break it today.
"But you're only 3 days in, Megan! And you're already breaking your promised theme?!"
Yes. Yes I am.
But it's tangentially connected I guess...

So, while I was away on Grand Manan (see, tangentially connected), one of my dogs died. :sadface:
Here's a brief history of Missy's story: http://adoptaboxerrescue.com/availdogs/Avail2006/Avail0610/MissyPA0610.htm

We adopted Missy 6 years ago. When I say that she was the perfect dog, I mean it. She never did anything wrong, ever.

Right before I left for my trip, she got really sick, and the entire time I was away, I had no idea what was going on. I found out when I returned home that she had passed away about a week after I left.

The house seemed empty with out her there. We have another dog, a Shih Tzu (Chloe), but she's a lazy lump and isn't very... active... (but we still love that lazy lump of course). Anyway, it was incredibly weird without Missy. I suppose an 80-pound boxer has a pretty big presence in a home. Who would've thought?

Very quickly, we began looking into another dog. Another boxer to be specific. We had found Missy through Adopt A Boxer Rescue, and my family and I had been fairly active parts of the organization since then. This time though, we thought we'd help in a different way: fostering. Fostering is kind of like an in-between step for dogs. Foster homes take them in when the come to the rescue. Often, very little is known about the dog at that point, and they're far from being ready to be adopted. As a foster home, it's your responsibility to learn about the dog, acclimate them to a new life, train them, ... whatever needs to be done.

We had been looking at a few different dogs in need of a foster home, when someone contacted us saying that there was a dog they new almost nothing about, except that she was a puppy mill momma. We were immediately intrigued as this dog had come from a similar place as Missy. It just felt right. Within a few days, we went to meet the dog, and then brought her home that same day.

This is Patience.

Cute, right?







When we first met Patience, she was terrified of pretty much everything. She wouldn't eat much, she was skeptical of everyone, wasn't really up to letting us pet her...

Patience almost immediately took to me. Within hours, she would wag her tail for me (something we were told could take weeks). She became my shadow and followed me everywhere.

It's been about a month now since we picked her up, and now she's just as sweet as can be. She's a happy, social, sweet dog that is ready for adoption.

Like the idiot I am, I've become very attached to this dog, even though we've known from the beginning that some other family would eventually adopt her. The other day, we found out that a family had applied to adopt Patience. I was upset, and sort of unwilling.

Today the family came to visit, though, which helped me see that it's not so awful that I may not be able to keep this dog for myself. They're a great family, and I find them worthy of this dog.

So ... yeah. :)

~~~~~~~~~~

I kind of feel like this blog post really had no point. Because it doesn't really have much of a point. I mostly just rambled. So I'm going to try to give it a bit of a message now.


Let me start with a bit more of the story of our last boxer, Missy.
Missy was a puppy mill momma. She was bred about every six months (as fast and often as they could breed her). By the time we got her, it'd been a while since she'd been bred, yet her belly still had that stretched-out look that a dog that just had puppies has. 6 years later, she still looked like that. People asked us all the time if we had puppies for sale, and we were just like "No, but if you're looking for a dog, we can certainly point you in the right direction!"

Which brings me nicely to the next thing I have to say: ADOPT. Please.

There are so many amazing dogs in need of homes. Rescue. Don't just buy a puppy from the pet store (which come from puppy mills).

And if you're looking for a boxer, I can help you out a little bit there.
I personally believe that boxers are the best dog breed. I think that their personalities can't be matched. (Though, any dog owner will tell you that whatever dog it is that they own is the best breed... But whatever...).
We've had incredible success with Adopt A Boxer Rescue. Check them out.


Yeah... I think that counts as a "reason" for this post.
I feel like I have so much more to say, but ... words ... <sigh>
Oh well. Perhaps I'll have to revisit this some other day.


Happy Monday!

The Whistle

So here's a quick sketch I did one morning at The Whistle (a now-abandoned lighthouse on Grand Manan). There's a little wooden platform that I was sitting on. From there you can see the lighthouse, a bit of forest, and, of course, the ocean. This location is also a great point to observe the tides and currents of the Bay of Fundy. You can see the swirling water and the eddies created by the shape of the bay, and location of the island. It's quite cool. Because of this, The Whistle is also a great spot to see whales from the island.

Originally just a quick pencil sketch, then I inked it with a pen when I got back to my dorm. (Sorry, all I had available at the time was lined paper... And then sorry again for my scanner...)

A picture of the Whistle (sorry; it's from a slightly different perspective, but apparently it's the only picture I took of the Whistle...):

And so it begins...

Hello world.

I’ve once again accepted the “Blog Challenge”, initiated by my friend Stevie (Platonic Interlude & A Few Brilliant Ideas).

In the past, most of the participating blogs had consisted primarily of writing-type posts. I’ve got a lot of very talented friends, and they seem to have a knack for writing. I, however, do not. In the most recent Challenge, I chose a different path and instead posted pictures each day from my trip to Grand Manan, New Brunswick. That’s a little more my speed.

Anyway, writing isn’t exactly my thing. So what can you expect to see here in this upcoming Blog Challenge? I’m glad you asked.

You can probably expect to see more pictures. Some people considered my past Challenge strategy “cheating”: I had pre-set my blog to upload a few pictures every day, and I wasn’t even really doing any work on my blog, which is the real objective behind this challenge (“to inspire blog owners to consistently write”, but I’m going to alter this for my own purpose and say it’s to inspire blog owners to consistently create). So this time, I’m not going to cheat. There will still be pictures, because photography is something I do that I’m proud of, and it’s still something I feel is worthy of sharing. Now though, I’ll choose my pictures much more selectively, I’ll try harder to explain and describe them, and I’ll try to have more of a purpose behind them.

I’ve been working on an album. As of right now, I’ve got some lyrics written, some music written, some general ideas, and a few “seeds” of ideas. I spent 3 weeks on Grand Manan Island, NB, this summer, and it’s beautiful there, so there was inspiration all around me, and a lot was accomplished.

I love to draw, sketch, paint… blah blah blah. You can expect to see some art work here. Once again, there was a lot of inspiration on Grand Manan, so a lot of the beauty and culture from the island has found its way into my work.

And hey, who knows, maybe I’ll even do some more traditional written blog type stuff here too.

So, an average post to this blog could include any of these things, or any combination of these things, or even something else entirely. Who knows?

But something you can definitely expect from me in this upcoming blog challenge: a Grand Manan theme. It was a magical three weeks, and I expect the effects of the island on me will come through my posts in the upcoming weeks.

Enjoy. 

the blog challenge

hey guys .

so , i recently accepted a challenge from a friend ( http://afewbrilliantideas.blogspot.com/ ) . the challenge was to -- you know what , he explained it better :

The Blog Challenge 

January 2012

Attention Fellow Bloggeez,

If you are receiving this message, you can assume two things.

1. I know you.
2. You have a blog.

The reason I have you sent you this message is because I am holding my second Blog Challenge. "What is this blog challenge that you speak of?"

(http://pictures.mastermarf.com/blog/2009/090516-bincat-is-intrigued.jpg

)

I'm glad that you asked!

"The Challenge is a semi-yearly held event held by yours truly. It is a friendly competition between a group of volunteers to attempt to write a post every day for an entire month. I came up with this idea as a way to keep myself writing and to get others to write with me too. The rules are simple: post every single day. There is no word floor, no requirements, just a post every day. Last year my posts varied from one picture to an entire essay. If you interested just let me know via email, comments etc.
The last competition held took place in June."

Assuming you've read that huge block of text you've probably guessed the intent of this email. I want you to join me in my quest to get more people to write! Invite your friends, your family, your cats and dogs, perhaps even your local hobo.

In any case, I'd love to have you all join me in attempting to write a blog regularly.

Long live pudding,

Stevie

( yeah, stevie's a pretty cool dude . . . i guess . . . )

and , well . . . i have trouble not responding to challenges with " challenge accepted " . so . . . here i am . 

i'm going to be posting every day this month . . . . 

( i'm too lazy to even rotate this picture . how am i going to write a blog post every day ?! )

oh god . what have i gotten myself into ?

and then i was like 

"Oh! LOOPHOLE!"

you see, stevie never said i had to write a post ever day . 

and blogger allows you to schedule postings . . . 

( this is comparable to my own trollface . )
( in case you weren't aware . . . )

so , i've scheduled a picture from my summer voyage to whale camp to appear on my blog every day for the next month . this way, when i forget to post something  in the incredibly likely unlikely chance that i happen to forget to post something, i still will ! YAY ! 

no , but i mean the pictures are pretty cool . you may actually enjoy seeing those too . :) 

your'e welcome . 

. . . 

oh ! and happy new years everyone !