Eccezionale Fabregas!!!

Today was a crazy day!  I got to sleep in, which was great, but once I was up, the hits just kept on coming.  Once I had taken care of some reading and a bunch of emails, I headed over to the NYS Marine Resources Bureau for a meeting on mapping new york seagrasses.  I just started working as a technical advisor for the DEC in February, so this was really my first time meeting a lot of people involved with the project.  The meeting focused mainly on the technical problems surrounding aerial surveys of coastal areas, and the need to develop comprehensive standards for surveying seagrass beds while taking into account the unique aspects of each system we'll be looking at (south shore, LI sound, Peconics, etc.).  Until now, several different surveys have been carried out at various times by a number of different entities, all using different survey and groundtruthing methodologies, so hopefully one of the things the NYS seagrass task force will accomplish this year is a standard procedure and schedule for conducting these aerial surveys.  

Chris Friel and Gary Florence from Photoscience presented a lot of interesting information about new digital sensor technology and analysis.  Even though seagrass biomass is probably declining in almost all of our systems, the new digital sensors are so good, that switching from analog to digital imagery makes it look like there have been large increases in seagrass coverage, simply because the digital sensors are able to pick up signatures we never would have seen with the older equipment.  Kind of a 'good' problem to have, and one I never would have thought about before today.  By far the best part of the meeting though, was the Tate's Cookies that someone brought.  Next time you're in Southampton check these guys out, their cookies are incredible!

The meeting ran past 4pm, so JB provided me with important text message updates on the Arsenal - AC Milan game.  Apparently Cesc Fabregas is not only blessed with an incredibly awesome name, but an incredibly awesome ability to score goals:



GOOOOOOOAAAAALLLLLLL!!!!

After the meeting I had time to grab a quick bite to eat before I drove back to school for my bronze casting class.  Right now I'm working on a piece inspired by Zena Holloway's photo "75 Metres".  When I get a chance I'll upload some pictures of all the different pieces I'm working on.  Right now I'm mostly finishing up some Wax burnouts and pouring some molds.  It should get a little more interesting when I start actually casting the Bronze.  I'm also working on some new stuff to add to the blog.  Good Night!