Dmmetler Posted July 12, 2017 Share Posted July 12, 2017 DD12 and I are in the airport to head to the Joint Meeting of Icthyologists and Herpetologists in Austin TX. This is her fourth International conference and her third JMIH. Right now she's mostly commiserating on Twitter with other conference attendees with early flights :). 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegs Posted July 12, 2017 Share Posted July 12, 2017 Surrender now, or prepare to fight! ;) All the best for a stimulating and fulfilling conference. How exciting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lilaclady Posted July 12, 2017 Share Posted July 12, 2017 All the best !!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black-eyed Suzan Posted July 12, 2017 Share Posted July 12, 2017 Although of course I don't actually know her, it's been fun to observe how much she's growing up. I've read your commentary about her conferences since the first one. She's clearly much more comfortable now. :thumbup1: Enjoy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted July 12, 2017 Share Posted July 12, 2017 DS, thinking of your daughter, talked about buying a tuatara this year as the mascot for team NZ. But alas, the Kiwi won. Hope she has a great time!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted July 13, 2017 Author Share Posted July 13, 2017 We're off to a good start. After making it through the flights (and DD squealing at the "we.come JMIH attendees" on the marquee at the airport) and shuttle and checking in at the hotel, (DD was thrilled because she got a room key without my having to request one). We checked in at the conference. This year's t-shirt is super cute. So is the annual poster that SSAR puts out-this year it's a "Texas Longhorned Lizard" (horned lizard with longhorn horns photoshopped onto his head) since UT is the sponsoring University. Today was mostly meetings for the various boards of the participating societies, plus casual socializing in the bar among people wearing a combination of Hawaiian style shirts with frogs and fish on them and t-shirts with various animals, often from past conferences, so DD got a lot of smiles and nods-the senior folks pretty much all know her. The result was that from the Airport on, it was kind of a game of "spot the conference attendee". (The conference has big room banks at three hotels). Since we had time, we walked around the shopping area near the hotel and just explored a bit. (And found frozen yogurt :)). This evening was the president's travelogue-an hour talk on an aspect of non-US Herpetology. This year was biogeography of geckos in the arid zone of Australia, and how genetically different clades correspond to things like different types of rock. Since the speaker had 60 minutes to do a talk that normally she'd have 15 to do, she included a lot of just plain nice photos of Australian animals and geographic features, plus a good amount of humor (for example, photos of all the giant herp sculptures in various parts of Australia). DD definitely isn't a geologist in the making, but the idea that different kinds of rocks can have that much effect on lizards in the same species is pretty neat. DD is definitely an excited, happy, if a bit tired due to the early start this morning kid-but since we're skipping the evening bar hopping, we can head to bed early (and plan to do so). DD also discovered the room is in range of two Pokestops and we can log into Netflix on the TV, so she's pretty happy during dpwntime. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted July 13, 2017 Author Share Posted July 13, 2017 DS, thinking of your daughter, talked about buying a tuatara this year as the mascot for team NZ. But alas, the Kiwi won. Hope she has a great time!!! DD now is the proud owner of a stuffed tuatara that makes genuine tuatara sounds. Her mentor brought her back one from the New Zealand Herpetological Conference in January. :). The kiwi is more well known as NZ, though (most people who see the stuffed tuatara seem to think it's an iguana...) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted July 13, 2017 Author Share Posted July 13, 2017 Day 2-this morning started off with the Plenary-awards, "why you should be active in your professional society and how if helped me in my career" (someone gives that talk every single year), Cornell University's experience with turning a specialized upper division/grad class on Elasmobranch morphology into a MOOC, groups of polyploid single sex salamanders that reproduce via "kleptogenesis"-mating with males of other species and taking bits and pieces of their genes, without actually losing any of their own, what makes a female frog or fish choose a mate (and really neat behavioral studies on this. Turns out that in both cases, the best way to get the girl interested if you're a guy is to have another girl with you..,). This afternoon, Alligator movement patterns, how skinks prepare for the winter, how baby copperheads spread out after they are born, what baby indigo snakes want to eat compared with teen indigos (and the surprising finding that rat snakes are probably immune to copperhead venom-they were supposed to be a non-snake-eating control). We also met the head researcher at the Applied Wildlife Research Lab at the GA Sea Turtle center (her student was doing the alligator talk)-and she not has DD's calendar. Apparently her students came back from PARC talking about DD's social media and outreach campaign. Since that's basically DD's dream job, that's pretty exciting :). The talks that we've been in have been really full,which is a mixed blessing. I also got recognized by someone who wanted to track me down-I'd suggested contacting the regional PARC outreach coordinator for a Science Olympiad coach who wanted help with the Herpetology competition, and he tracked me down to thank me-because they hadn't been able to get any connections into the homeschool community for outreach purposes :). That was cool, too. DD and I made the executive decision to skip the opening reception, which is at a nightclub and features a live band and an open bar. In past years, at least the venue has been interesting (like the TN Aquarium or the Natural History museum at KU). Especially since the busses won't start returning for several hours. So, we're enjoying a local Mexican restaurant and will head back to the hotel. Netflix sounds good about now. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted July 14, 2017 Author Share Posted July 14, 2017 And she's back... Today we started with green turtle diets, followed by industrial melanism in sea snakes (sea snakes in waters with higher levels of contamination are darker colored and shed their skins more often-and, as it turns out, shed heavy metals when they do), followed by water snakes living in cooling ponds from nuclear facilities closed back in the 60's still show higher levels of radiation than snakes from similar ponds. We then took a break and went over to the mall area-which has a lake and nature trails, and found a Fence lizard, red eared slider, and spiny softshell turtle (kind of neat in the middle of an urban area) and found lunch. After lunch, we had sidewinders hunting kangaroo rats (not particularly successfully), spatial estimations of rattlesnake habitats taking topology in mind (lots of cool 3D graphs), and garter snake pheromones (given by a biochemist friend of my parents). We then went through the poster sessions and went to a talk on box turtle personalities that definitely has DD thinking about what she can do with our neighborhood and headstarted sliders. DD is always more engaged and relaxed on Friday, and I think the difference is that Thursday's talks are either the big plenary or student award talks, and the students going for awards are anything but relaxed. Today was professional talks and the pros just plain are more relaxed and approachable, and it shows. Tonight is the PARC reception/social, and that one she wants to go to (and is likely to be more restrained than the big one we skipped yesterday). 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted July 14, 2017 Share Posted July 14, 2017 Does she know a lot of people there? Have you gotten past the stage of people being confused by her being there and treating her like a cute child? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted July 14, 2017 Author Share Posted July 14, 2017 She is now to the point that she's recognized enough that she is just accepted. It's kind of nice, but at the same time, I think it. makes it a little harder-she's just one of a horde of Herpetologists :) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted July 15, 2017 Share Posted July 15, 2017 I remember going to a mammalogy conference and having someone in the elevator ask if all of us studied breasts. :001_smile: 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted July 15, 2017 Author Share Posted July 15, 2017 (edited) One of DD's online friends is a mammalologisf who specializes in lactation. She gets a lot of jokes. We've had people surprised that there is a whole conference studying herpes. Edited July 15, 2017 by dmmetler Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted July 15, 2017 Author Share Posted July 15, 2017 This morning we went to (and talked with) a herpetologist who is using PVC pipes to study tree frogs, and shared our observations from our PVC frog tubes (and another herpetologist's experiences with them colonizing downspouts) and then jumped over to some of the AES talks on the history of elasmobranch biology. We're going to meet some folks for lunch, and then go back for conservation bio and maybe gecko feet if we can transition quickly enough. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted July 15, 2017 Author Share Posted July 15, 2017 And cue the early adolescent, "I'm not accomplishing enough" angst.... Sigh...now that she blends in and isn't standing out by being little and cute (and is just plain accepted as belonging), she feels like she needs to stand out by her work-and that only is her work not good enough, but she's not entirely sure what she wants to do long-term. Poor kid. I suspect a lot of it was that with only a couple of exceptions the talks just weren't very interesting to her this afternoon-the main symposium was on management of conservation programs, which is definitely not something a kid can be involved with at the grassroots. We went to talks that were being done by people she knows online, but even then she really didn't get a chance to talk to them. And there is thunder rolling, so getting into the pool or even going for ice cream isn't likely to be in the cards. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted July 15, 2017 Author Share Posted July 15, 2017 She seems to have settled a bit-the fact that tomorrow's schedule looks a lot more interesting doesn't hurt :). We ordered pizza since it's pouring, which I suspect helps, too. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted July 15, 2017 Share Posted July 15, 2017 Funny that our kids are doing these events at the same time. I just think there is pressure to achieve *something*, and it is going to be hard no matter what. I don't think that these feelings are going to magically go away in adulthood, so it is very good for kids like ours to face them young because they still have guidance from their parents. Good going mama. You're doing great! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted July 16, 2017 Author Share Posted July 16, 2017 This morning has been very positive so far. Talks on brown anoles (apparently living in cities under artificial light actually seems to benefit them in both growth and reproduction-something the researcher did not expect), detecting Eastern Spadefoots, and on making mixtapes for cane toads (and what kinds of calls attract males and females and how digitally altering them can make it more effective), which has DD discussing how to make mix tapes and synthetic calls to try out on her frogs and toads. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted July 16, 2017 Author Share Posted July 16, 2017 This afternoon, hybrid rattlesnake venom, pythons from New Guinea, camera traps for snakes, snake makeup (actually facial stripes), and all the various raffles and auctions (total, frog salt and pepper shakers, a book on tadpoles, another on captive management of large pythons which a professor from Villanova outbid her on and then have to her, a shell pin from the larval fish conference raffle, and the one thing I put in tickets for-a half kilogram of maple sugar-the ELHS is from Canada and had apparently brought a carry-on of Canadian food items for their raffle ;) ). We're skipping the live auction tonight, so the plan is to find dinner, maybe walk down by the lake again, and then get ice cream and visit the giant marble cows again. She got outbid on the Cornell guide to Science Communicafion, so I'll be checking on Amazon for that one. It's been a busy couple of days. But good ones. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.