a Geographer's Place

My number one reason for being a Geographer can be summed up in one word: Fieldwork. While I've written on that topic previously, I want to expound a little more on the subject and explore Field Studies . At it's core, a "field study" means you are conducting some kind of fieldwork with a specific purpose. This is why I do what I do. So I can drag people into the field with me, help them see the landscape anew! Currently, I run two international field study courses: Sustainability in the Caribbean , where I spend a couple weeks with students on the Island of Grenada, and Geography by Rail ® , a program I designed (and trademarked!) to explore landscapes using the quintessential mode of transport: the train. Both represent exciting, but different, field study programs. Students at Levera beach, Grenada, excited at the opportunity to study on a tropical island! Regardless of which they partake in however, students overwhelmingly enjoy the opportunity t...

Love. A four letter word that can fill a person with many emotions: hope, sadness, loathing, self-doubt, happiness, excitement, and the list continues... It can fill the heart with joy or promote a sense of dread. At least the kind of love to which I am referring. Because so many times, the word also gets tossed about casually. “I love that color”, “I love these donuts”, “That movie? I loved it!” Or my pet peeve as people say goodbye to their friends, “Love ya!” Ugh. Why flippantly use such a powerful word? Does overusing a word negate or diminish its meaning? I think so. The more times you say a word, the easier it to say, sure. But the opposite is also true: the less you use a word, the more impact it can have. For example, I can count on one hand the number of times I heard my dad say a cuss word—even the lighter ones like hell or damn. The few times I did hear him say it, it was so out of character that I laughed out loud (literally, not just lol) in disbelief. It shoc...

Fieldwork. MY kind of fieldwork involves two things: working hard and playing hard. Yes, there’s also safety, planning, getting equipment and funding, etc., etc., blah, blah. But it all comes down to working and playing. It’s my goal to instill the kind of fieldwork I learned into the hearts of my students—those brave enough to embark on excursions with me. Because the only way to really learn it, is to do it. Fieldwork can be trying, rigorous, dangerous, challenging, and frustrating. In my eyes at least, it should also be fun. Sure you may get very hot or super cold, be extremely dry or soaking wet, and sweat like a puerco estacado . But you’ll also be richly rewarded...if not with good, usable data, then with experience that will, hopefully later, lead to wisdom. So here I am, in my little apartment on my beloved Island of Grenada in the Caribbean while students scamper around the Island on the annual G.R.E.N.A.D.A. ( G o, R un, E xplore N ew A nd D iverse A reas). All part o...

I'm writing this post for a friend who suggested I chronicle my recent life events. So here we go... After my father died, my mother had a LOT to maintain: several horses on several acres means fence repairs, irrigating the pasture, feeding the horses, maintaining the out buildings, and more. We tried, unsuccessfully, for a couple years to get her to "right-size". Not down-size, since smaller isn't necessarily better. But find the size that was right for her. Apparently, she thought the farm was her right-size (though even she admitted she couldn't handle all it entailed...so was it her right-size?) Over the last couple years, I've reflected on the idea of "right-sizing" and found it quite helpful. How much "stuff" do I really need? How large of a living space do I really need? I've never had much stuff to begin with, but I have even less now it seems. It's nice. I live downtown in a studio-size place (renting rig...

According to the geologic era/epoch/period format, we live in the "Holocene"--the last 10,000 years or so. But for some years now, some academic folks have claimed human influence on the Earth has been dramatic. (Actually, they don't call it "human", since that would be sexist (it has "man" in it). They instead use the term "anthropogenic" ( human-created ). Anyway, because of the apparent extreme anthropogenic influence, some academics say we've moved out of the Holocene and into a new geologic epoch called the Anthropocene . They cite evidence that since the industrial revolution (that's usually the start-time), human--I mean anthropogenic --influence has really been the key factor shaping Earth. Good argument, sure. Good evidence, yes. I've heard and read good arguments on both sides. But still, the term has a difficult time catching on in Science. Maybe we don't want to admit the influence we've had...Maybe we're ...

I come from a family of basketball and softball players. My mother was an avid softball player--she could play any position very well. She got offered a position on the American Girls Baseball League, but had to turn it down to help raise her siblings and run the farm. But I remember her teaching me the fundamentals. Apparently my dad was a great basketball player in his youth, and I've heard stories about how good he was from his friends. He played hard. I'm talking like Jerry Sloan hard: tough screens, elbows out, strong drives. And he played the same even into his late 60s. My first real basketball education came while living in Mexico with Cameron and playing on a city league-ish team. I had just turned 15 years old and didn't know how to "box out" or "crash boards". I came back from Mexico with good skills in each (thanks, Cameron). Once at Weber State, Cameron and I played many a pick-up game, where I gained even more pointers and refined my skills...

It started with a short trip to do fieldwork in NYC with a grad student who studies "New Media". (This is why I enjoy Geography: it allows me to study just about anything). And what's NYC without Broadway? To celebrate completing part of the fieldwork, we saw a few Broadway plays--one of which was Wishful Drinking , Carrie Fisher's one woman show based on her recent book (and life). Reviews for the show were very good, so we were expecting a good time. We also heard she was interactive with the audience...It was, I must say, an excellent, interesting, silly, and bawdy performance. I am now vehemently and ardently a Carrie Fisher fan--and not just because of how good a time we had, but because of her as a person.  For those who don't know, Carrie Fisher = Princess Leia in Star Wars  so, amongst talking about other interesting times in her life, she also spent time discussing her Star Wars past--how she unknowingly made a commitment to stay in her 23-year-old physi...