Tuesday, June 06, 2006

forest ecology

I used to be very interested in forest ecology. I still am I suppose, but in college I actually did research in forest ecology, fancied myself an ecologist, maybe a botanist, and went to graduate school in the southern appalachians to study forests with Dan Pitillo (pitillo-triphosphate as Roger Lumb once called him). I was definitely interested in ecological theory, particularly succession and the "steady-state", but I was mainly interested in hiking around the woods, measuring trees, touching trees, seeing snakes, turtles, birds, deer, bear, rocks, fungus, flowers, moss, lichen, ferns, liverworts, etc. etc. etc.

How I came to work in the lab in the southern appalachians on experimental evolution, how I came to work on a computer on philosophy of biology in Indiana is not entirely clear to me. Everything is ideas now. No trees. No pitillo-triphosphate.

Oh well. Such is life.

At least I'm heading down to WNC this Thursday for more or less the whole summer. I'm going to work in the lab, but there'll be time to get out in the mountains. To get out in the rivers and fish. In fact, on Thursday, shortly after I arrive in Cullowhee I'm tagging along on an elk poop collecting trip to Cataloochee, a big isolated valley in the Smokies where they reintroduced elk a couple years ago. We watch the elk, wait for them to poop, then when they leave, run up and stick their poop in a tube.

That is going to be awesome. I hope I don't get mauled by a bull elk. Those fuckers is big.

It was this article on rain forest ecology that got me all sentimental and what not.

Gut rot.
Block sock.
Tick tock.
You don't stop.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Matt Dunn I love Color me Badd's "I Wanna Sex You Up" as much as the next guy but that is no reason to quote it in a forest ecology talk

Matthew D Dunn said...

I prefer Da brat's rendition:

"Shit sweet every sit down, to the last drip drop
Watch the hips rock
Color Me Bad, tick, tock, you don't stop to the thick thighs
Dick rise when I skip by, I ain't surprised
I'm what you like, nigga"

or even better, from the Urban Dictionary:

"tick-tock



describes the rhythm of buttocks in motion, esp. desirable ones.

"tock" is short for BUTT-tocks.

"tick-tock" is also onomatapoeic, describing the sound made by shoes or high heels.

here's how it might be used in conversation:

George W. Bush: "tick-tock, twelve-o-clock." (the girl walking right in front of us has a fantastic ass i can't stop looking at. are you looking at it too?)

Dick Cheney: "tick TOCK." (yes, i see. it is quite remarkable)

George W. Bush: "tick-tock you don't stop" (i could look at that ass forever)

Dick Cheney: "you know what time it is." (i agree wholeheartedly)

George W. Bush: "tick...tock...tick...tock"

Dick Cheney: "hmmmm... tick-tock, three o'clock." (look to your right)

George W. Bush: "tick TOCK."

etc."

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed this comment section far more than the posting itself. Is that wrong?

Matthew D Dunn said...

Yes Erika. It is actually wrong.