I have written 4800 words about the American Lobster (Homarus americanus) and the New England fisheries thereof in the last 4 days and I’m only a little physically sick of typing. It turns out I hit the spacebar a) very strangely, b) very consistently, and c) pretty hard? So the outside of my right thumb was getting really sore part way through the week and I had to wrap a bunch of medicine tap around it to cushion the whole process. Which is definitely the silliest thing I’ve had to do all week. It is sometimes a relief that the hyper-specific things I pack are actually very handy, if only for the problems I end up inflicting on myself. Hurrah for a little self knowledge I suppose.

I did have a surprising amount of fun researching and writing this report though, even if I did have to stop myself from describing lobsters as ”horrible ocean bugs” and ”solitary bastards” in a formal report; I did get to talk about how they keep growing through out their lives and may in fact be functionally immortal. It is very hard to age lobster because they molt all the bits that have growth rings every few years and there isn’t a consistent relationship between overall size and age so we truly don’t know how old they can get, but they don’t really appear to die unless something eats them or they trapped climbing out a molt. I also made one of the most cluttered slides I have ever made for this presentation, and it cracks me up:

Because I wanted to relate technological developments in both trap and boat to how much lobster was being caught, and then realized part way through I needed to explain what each development was and that that would be much easier with images rather than more text…and it got away from me a little. There’s a reason I didn’t go into graphic design.

I did end up making a little cape for the mouse:

It’s the Ursa Minor constellation from the curtain fabric, and I’m pretty pleased; getting the hood to fit down over the ears took a hell of a lot of tweaking. I can’t decide whether the mouse looks more like a hobbit or wizard in this, but either way, solidly prepared for adventure. I also finished sewing and installing the curtains, and I’m very pleased. I can sleep later in the mornings and they also block some of the wind that leaks around the edges of skylight when it gets howling outside.

The next class is Coping with Disasters, which looks like it is going to be very good and maybe a little bit depressing. We’ll see.

I am still having fun in school, but I’m going to go. not type anything for a little bit. Putting words in order hard.