Biology Paper

So for my Bio 100 classI had to write a book report on the book The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Eathworms. I am an awful person with very little interest in science...that's not completely true. I enjoy learning about live bearing fish, technology, beards, the behavior of mallard ducks and all sorts of stuff. I just like science when I get to learn about it on my own terms. Reading this book was not on my terms, so I only scanned and retained very little, but the paper that came out of it...whoa. It might be my favorite paper I have ever written. Ever. Here it is. Enjoy.


The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms

Who hasn’t when they were a kid - or even recently, I won’t judge - lifted up an old brick in the garden and poked at the worms underneath it? I have always thought that worms were fascinating which is why I chose How to Eat Fried Worms for my natural history book to do a report on, but then Dr. Belk didn‘t approve, so I went with, instead, The Earth Moved.

The Earth Moved was an interesting read because it was written by a gardener, not a scientist so it wasn’t a book that overwhelmed me with technical words or made me feel stupid. In layman’s terms, the book described how earthworms help out the soil that we, animals, minerals, and vegetables (well, I guess not minerals - they wouldn’t be reading my paper), use. Earthworms “plow” through the soil, aerating it and replenishing the nutrients that get used up. Earthworms are blind and deaf, and completely okay with that; below ground there isn’t much to be seen that can’t be eaten. Besides, all dirt is essentially some other worms excrement and what kind of creature wants to eat and see that.

What I really liked about reading this book though, was that it made me think about worms. Although I must admit I was disappointed when by the end of it, it wasn’t mentioned that worms make much, much better fish bait than crickets.
On a completely (well, sort of) serious note, Darwin actually thought about worms, too, and thought that earthworms were among the most interesting creatures on or in the earth. Many people criticized him for that opinion, but he stuck by it, and any creature with the Darwin Stamp of Approval is legit.

But I had really never considered how much worms really do for our world. Today we hear a lot about what people do to the world and about going green, but if we take it all the way back to the basics earthworms are the original defenders of our world. They take waste and transform it into something more useful. I told my roommate, a biology major, about this paper and how I was writing about worms and she said that they were basically, entirely a digestive system. This is something that I thought was amazing. My sisters and I are forever cursing the name Clint Mabey because he passed down to us a terrible, terrible digestive system. Pork, no way. Ice cream, fuhgeddaboudit. A whole creature that is just a fully functional digestive system? Whoa. It’s a mind boggling concept to me. And to Darwin, too, apparently; he also had terrible digestive problems and spent a lot of his time sick as a dog. People like my friend Chuckie D and myself can truly appreciate the impressive power of the earthworm.

Something that reading this made me wonder, random as it may seem in a paper so strictly structured, is how long have earthworms been around? I know that cockroaches (nasty little buggers) have been around for millions of years, but have earthworms been present just as long, just hanging out underground? Are there any fossilized worms? No, I guess not since they have no bones; they would die, decompose and then get broken down by another worm. Oh, gross.

But that is what earthworms do: break down the gross stuff that we don’t like to think about while we just piddle around in our gardens, waiting for our okra and zucchini to be ready to harvest.



I made a 91 on it. Thank goodnes for TAs with a sense of humor and mercy.

Dinner!

So on Monday, it was my turn to cook for dinner-group and I had the brilliant idea on Sunday night to make homemade pizza. I figured that it couldn't be that hard so my roommate Anna and I went to the store and I picked up bacon, pepperonie, cheese, banana peppers, jalepenos, and black and green olives. I got home around four-thirty and looked online for a pizza dough recipe and clicked on the first one hat I found. The original recipe made enough for four serving and there are 11 people in my dinner group -one of whom eats a ton!- so I quadrupled the reciped and got this:

14 cups flour
4 cups warm water
8 tbsp yeast
8 tbsp honey
1 cup olive oil
2 tsp salt

First you mix the warm water and salt and honey in a big -huge!- bowl, then the yeast and olive oil and let it sit for about five minutes. After that, you add four cups of flour and mix. I found it easiest, although probably messiest, to just mix if with my hands. Then mix in the other ten cups of flour. Again, i did it by hand. Cover it and let it rise for about forty-five minutes. And man! It will rise!


Next I just cooked my sausage and bacon and slice up my vegitables.



Then I shredded a whole block of mozarella cheese

By this time, my dough was finished rising and my kitchen was a mess. So I rolled out my dough and put all my toppings on it! It turned out awesome! I was so excited. It was delicious and there was enough for everone (it made one big pizza and two that were a little smaller). It was the first thing that I have actually made! Sure I can do spaghetti and Joseph's dirty pasta, but I don't feel like those require, well, anything. So there you have it! Homemade Pizza! Success!

Wow. Great, Important Article

I found this very important article while I was just surfing around and decided that it was imperative that I share it with all the very important people that read this blog.
Enjoy.

Ballet Friday

So on riday night I went to the Ballet Theatre in Concert that was playing on campus because I am taking a class that requires I go to two dance concerts during the semester. It was West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet with a fifteen intermission in between the shows. West Side Story was less ballet and more jazz. The girls moved like ballet but there was a lot of partnering and the comstuming was more like a play than ballet. It was really cool. Romeo and Juliet, which I didn't like as much was much more traditional with the chorus dancers and more of the solo dancing and the girls all on pointe. I didn't like it as much, but it was a good experience because now I can say that I have seen real ballet.

Last night and today was stake conference and we had the blessing of having Elder Ballard come and talk to us. It was so nice! This morningafter the meeting was over, Elder Ballard stood and told us all to hold out our right hand and he did the same. Then he told us to shake our hands in the air then go home and write in our journals "I shook hands with Elder Ballard of the twelve and Elder Stone of the Seventy." It was funny. He seems like not only an inspired man, but a very, very nice and friendly man.

And I have said goodbye to the unwooable boy. I decided that I didn't want to waste my time wanting someone that didn't want me. What? Did you think that I went to the ballet alone?