The Deletist

Black Sand Beaches

by The Deletist • 29 June 2015 • 1 Comment

After another long, rocky night of travel on the boat, we ended up on the west side of Santiago Island at a place called Puerto Egas. It was the same island where we went on our first excursion back in time, but the west side offered totally different terrain including a wet landing onto a black sand beach. Sea lions dozed peacefully nestled into the rocks. The marine iguanas blended in so perfectly with the sand I had to watch carefully not to step on them.

Landing on the black sand beach. A small sea lion pup napping on a rock edge. Sea lions lounged everywhere in the rock formations. Marine iguanas lazed about on the sand.

We hiked along a dusty, sandy path and had the good fortune to see a Galapagos Hawk, the top predator of the Galapagos Islands. On this particular island the hawks have adapted to become polyandrous (one female, many males), instead of the life-long, monogamous pairing typical of hawks.

Scenery along the sandy trail to the coast. It was arid and scrubby looking filled with cacti, acacia trees and lots of sharp, pointy brush in muted tones.

Eventually the trail led us to a lava beach. Sea lions frisked around in the diaphanous blue-green waters. I was fascinated by a spot nicknamed “Darwin’s toilet” aptly named due the waves filling up and draining a particular hole in the lava with a flush-like action. Marine iguanas lazed about on the rocks soaking up the sun.

Two alpha males fighting for the prime spot of rock. They were rather raucous. If you look carefully you can also see a few marine iguanas (look for the tails) and the bright red Sally Lightfoot crabs.

We returned to the boat for our snorkeling gear and headed back to the black sand beach. I was lucky enough to see a giant sea turtle resting quietly on the sandy floor of the ocean, partially obscured by a school of tiny fish. On the other side of the beach I watched another sea turtle quietly grazing on a patch of sea lettuce, waving gently in the currents. Just before we had to leave I spotted two white-tipped reef sharks. My initial response was one of panic before I remembered to calm down so as not to attract any unwanted attention.

In the afternoon we headed to Buccaneer Cove for deep water snorkeling. I saw my first starfishes, which prefer to live in colder waters. One was called a chocolate-chip starfish because of the dark, chocolate-colored markings on it.

A chocolate chip starfish. Starfish like colder water so I actually had to dive down to get a picture of this one.

Bonus picture of a pelican. I accidentally got sunscreen on the lens so there’s a bit of a smudge on the image.

One of the many curious pelicans that would cruise over to check me out while I was in the water.

Deletion, Spring Cleaning, True Confessions

Spring Cleaning Challenge II

by The Deletist • 22 June 2015 • 1 Comment

I caught a lucky break with my spring cleaning challenge. The day after posting the challenge, I found a bookcase on the street while taking an early morning walk. My body hurt for about two days from lugging the bookcase to my building and then hefting it up three flights of stairs, but it did make the clean up easier.

Like most clean-up projects, I started by sorting the items into piles: Donate, Keep, and Discard (Shred, Recycle, Toss). It sounds simple, but the Keep pile always gets a bit complicated. There’s always a curveball, meaning something random I want to keep that doesn’t fit anywhere.

Mid-way point, after ~1.5 hours of work:

The piles starting from on top of the white box, moving down and then clockwise: green holder of professional reference materials, flower box of active client files, 3 piles of books and journals (donations), garbage, shred and recycling piles, stack of office supplies (folders, etc.), 2 curve balls (comic and envelope of product samples), and 1 new project to organize all my business cards.

I finally found a home for my professional reference materials and active client files. Score! I donated the contents of the green holder to make space for my professional reference materials. The outdated files in the flower box were shredded and replaced with new active files. Still remaining was 1 banker’s box of school materials and a pile of teaching/training materials.

After the first push, this is what the closet looked like.

I finished processing the first round of stuff, including all the books that went straight to the new bookcase. Then I tackled the second round, basically the banker’s box of *stuff*. I followed the same process and donated or recycled the majority of the contents.

The piles starting from the top left clockwise: Office supplies, Professional Reference materials, Keep, Teaching Materials, Recycle, Return to Friend (I borrowed the booklets about two years ago).

Finally, the closet and boxes are empty.

All clear! Whew!

There were definitely a few hard moments, like when I had to admit my erudite days of being a scholar were long gone and recycled or donated a lot of academic materials. Or when I pulled down a pile of papers containing my original birth certificate, a few other vital records and my two graduate degrees. Erp. Definitely not safe storage! Another hard moment came when I unearthed two boxes of business cards and carefully balanced it on top of my inbox as a future project. I hate it when I make more work for myself!

As an added *bonus* I rented a car and took care of the donations right away, including a mound of stuff piled in my bedroom for months. I was able to donate many of the academic journals by posting a notice on a listserv.

Pile of *stuff* waiting to be donated.

Thanks to those of you who participated in the contest. I hope it provided some relief. I know I feel a lot “lighter”.

Digital Dilemma, Social Media

Social Media & Dating

by The Deletist • 15 June 2015 • 2 Comments

It occurred to me recently that social media has really destroyed the discovery process of getting to know someone when going out on dates. Social media makes it really easy to “learn” a lot about a person before meeting them. The danger with this, however, is that you may be exposed to information about the other person out of context. Maybe there are certain things about a person you might be willing to accept if you knew him/her a little bit better, but that feels very off-putting when you read about it, or see photos, without having met in person.

I often think about this in reference to my Facebook photos, about 98% of which were posted by other people. Or how my Facebook friends do not fully represent my strongest relationships since most of those people aren’t actually on Facebook. Or if they are, we almost never communicate through this platform. The point is, it’s not an accurate representation of me and it might lead somebody looking at it before meeting me to get a vastly different impression of what I’m really like.

One time I was having a friendly IM chat with somebody I “met” through online dating. Through the IMs he told me about a particular fetish he had and wanted to know if that was a turn off. I advised the gent that this was the kind of thing he might want to share after, or during, a first in-person meeting. Or maybe even after a few dates. My feeling is that certain things may feel possible with somebody once you get to know him/her, but without any context, or frame of reference, or solid physical attraction, it might be an instant turn off rather than a consideration.

The other consideration is the pace at which you receive information. When you meet somebody in person, you can ask questions, or only discuss certain topics, to guide the conversation and shape the experience. But if you look somebody up on social media, it’s just a big data dump without any background details.

When I go out on dates, I enjoy the discovery process and learning about things in context. Besides which many aspects of dating can only come from meeting, such as physical attraction, smells, laughter, eye contact, body language, etc. All this to say, get off of social media and start learning about people face-to-face.

Digital Dilemma, Social Media

Connection Paradox

by The Deletist • 8 June 2015 • 2 Comments

The internet, and social media in particular, has given us new options for connecting with people. “Friend” people on Facebook, follow people on Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr, or connect with people on LinkedIn. But do these digital connections have the same meaning as a flesh-and-blood connection? By that I mean actually working at a establishing a connection with somebody the old fashioned way through face-to-face interactions, real conversations, and sending messages more than 140 characters long.

I was on Facebook last month and happened to see a rather humorous, but odd posting, from a friend of mine. She posted something about her horrendous morning commute, including a germ-filled encounter with a sickly person. On the one hand, for those of us that brave the wilds of public transit, it was pretty funny. On the other hand, I couldn’t help but think not that long ago this was the kind of thing I would have only shared with a close friend via call/text. Maybe I would’ve ranted about it to a co-worker. But broadcasting it on Facebook?

When I see these types of things shared so broadly I have to wonder about the motivation behind it. Is it because we think our life events are so amazing, funny, or remarkable that other people are really interested in knowing about them? Is it because we want the attention and rush of happy emotions we get when others “like” or “favorite” our posts? Is this the kind of thing that really makes us feel more connected?

Everybody talks about how great it is to be connected through social media, but are we? People use social media to foster connections, but I have to think maybe this isn’t so successful for everybody when I hear about companies offering professional cuddlers for people starved for human touch. Or I see companies with boyfriends for hire. All those Facebook “friends” and not one who could be relied on for a hug or as a date for some event? Then I see how people interact face to face and the availability of these services doesn’t seem so bizarre to me.

Here’s a photo I snapped surreptitiously of a couple spending time together. If this is what it looks like to be in a couple, no wonder we need professional cuddling services.

A couple spending quality time together.

Ecuador, Galapagos

Isle of the Red-footed Booby

by The Deletist • 1 June 2015 • 3 Comments

We boarded the pangas at 6:30am to reach Genovese Island, home of the elusive Red-footed Booby. This is the only island to see this particular type of booby in the entire archipelago. At the landing dock a mama fur seal and her pup rested peacefully until we came along. They’re actually sea lions but were named incorrectly as Galapagos Fur Seals. Once the sea lions left we disembarked and climbed up some stone steps to reach the top of the cliff.

This adult Nazca Booby was standing sentry at the top of the stairs we climbed to reach the birds.

The hike took us through the rocky, dry terrain of the Red-footed and Nazca Boobies. All kinds of birds were perched everywhere on the ground, the rocks and in the trees. As a special adaptation to the Galapagos Islands, the Red-footed Boobies use their webbed feet designed for swimming to perch in the branches. This is to eliminate competition with other boobie species that stay on the ground.

Some of the birds were curious and watched us intently trying to figure out what we were and what we were doing.

This juvenile Nazca Booby couldn’t help checking out the group as we walked by.

We continued on the sandy trail to a large expanse of rocky terrain extending to the cliff’s edge where dozens of petrels swirled around. We were looking for the short-eared owl that preys on these birds. Somebody spotted one in the distance, a small statuesque figure camouflaged to look like a rock, but with a sheen to the feathers. The owl was too far away to photograph, but we saw it fly a few times and shake up the petrels before landing to continue its observations.

After touring bird island, we suited up for deep water snorkeling. Again I was treated to the sights and marvels beneath the ocean’s surface. Fish, coral, colorful, spiky sea anemones, and the patterns made by the sunlight piercing through the water.

That afternoon we went for a walk near some mangroves. This time we were at the base of the cliff and the landscape was totally different.

A Red-footed Booby roosting in the mangroves.

On the beach a dozen sea lions lazed around napping, including two mothers nursing their pups and a beach master (i.e. the alpha male). We saw scores of boobies, herons, frigates and other birds nesting, eating and making lots of noise.

A beach master protecting his harem from shutter-happy tourists. Note the nursing pup on the right. Another nursing pup was also on the left, but not shown in this picture.

The sand was whitish and littered with pieces of coral and small shells. We had a bit of free time to explore which most people used to walk around the beach. I plunged in for another swim hoping the sea lions would come play, but no luck this time.

Deletion, Spring Cleaning, True Confessions

Spring Cleaning Challenge

by The Deletist • 25 May 2015 • 4 Comments

Procrastinating on some annoying clean project? If so, now is the time to get it done and potentially win a prize. Everybody’s a winner!

This posting is lucky #104, signifying two years of weekly posts! To commemorate the event The Deletist is running a Spring Cleaning Challenge.

Rules:

1. The project has to be something that you’ve put off for at least 6 months. Ideally something that either:

bugs you and causes stress;
you’ve stopped noticing because it’s become part of the landscape; or
something hidden away (e.g. closet, cupboard, folder on hard drive) where it’s easy to ignore, but that still creeps into your thoughts.

2. The project must be processed completely, no fair shoving everything in a bag or a box to relocate it. Or scanning papers to be stored electronically, which only transfers the mess from one format to another. Remember the message of The Deletist is to be strategic.

3. The project can be for physical and/or electronic items.

***Bonus points if this project clears the way for you to do one or more actions. For example, if you couldn’t move, or buy, a piece of furniture because you had to clean something to create space.

Tips: Start small, start easy. Be strategic!

Prize: $50 gift card to a vendor of your choice

Submission Rules: Jot down your answers to the questions below, and send them along with a before and an after picture to info@thedeletist.com

Deadline: Monday June 22.

Winner selected: July 1

Questions:

What was your Spring Clean Challenge? [brief description]
How long had you been procrastinating on cleaning up this area?
Why were you procrastinating?
On a scale of 1 – 10, how annoyed/stressed/guilty, etc. did you feel before?
On a scale of 1 – 10, how relieved did you feel after?

***Bonus question: were you able accomplish another action based on the results of the Spring Cleaning? If yes, please elaborate.

I will also be challenging myself with an annoying clean project. Approximately 6 months ago my bookcase broke while I was moving it, completely filled, by slowly dragging it across the rug. This was not a good plan. The whole thing fell apart and I had to empty it rapidly to avoid disaster and injury. Some of the books were relocated to available cupboard space, but the rest ended up unceremoniously stacked in the home office closet, out of sight. The Deletist is, after all, a mere mortal in real life.

Gasp! Residue from the broken bookcase. Also a pile or two of filing on the upper shelf.

The horror! Bankers boxes stowed in the back corner of the closet. This is how I “processed” them last Fall when I challenged myself to get rid of them. The dresser is empty, btw.

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