#my macroplastic baby

[autisticaradiamegido]

day 288

my beautiful daughter made of abs plastic and scribbles

[ashlin-slanger]

Week 2 (June 12-16)

This week has been extremely busy! I finished writing a literature review concerning my project on macroplastics which took me about a week. I’ve also been learning a few tricks with the coding program R for analyzing data. I may need this when I start collecting actual data on plastic accumulation on beaches. I’ve decided to do cluster analysis, grouping similar types of plastics into “super individuals”, a method I learned about from reading a paper for the literature review. The idea is that after collecting a certain amount of data and characteristics of plastics, we might be able to narrow down what plastics are local and which may have further origins. To begin the actual project, I first had to go identify several beaches that were farther from base than the ones we already collect data for. Then I had to completely clear them of plastic and waste (a very arduous task in 90 degree heat) so when I begin collecting data on how much plastic accumulates it will be starting from scratch. In a day, I may spend 5 hours walking the coast collecting garbage.

On top of this, I have also been going on snorkel surveys to analyze biodiversity in nearby coasts. This is not for my own project but it is to help out other interns! We also do plastic collections on 3 beaches nearby, so I participate in these daily. After all this work, we also have daily chores that need to be done to keep the base cleanly and working well. After a day, I am so exhausted that the heat doesn’t even bother me at night anymore! I sleep like a baby.

On weekends we get to enjoy the beautiful, and now plastic free, beaches. Last Sunday we spent all day at Psili Amos, a sand beach that is about an hours walk from base. It might be my favorite I’ve been to here! We get delicious food and beverages from the shops here, a nice change of pace from the food that is provided at base. I make it a point to try something new each time.

[devotedkatydid]

[id: a poem titled ‘12/2/22 macroplastic lover’. it reads ‘boys and girls made special-order / romance flavored machinery / tied down i turn to god / latex crowned, baby i’m never gonna leave you / my lady’s a sweetheart / my baby’s a sugarcube / love blooms like bleach + rosewater / hot hot hot!! / millennium model!! / kings come and go but baby i’m forever / time twists and turns and knots / butterfly body / everyone’s rusty but the barbie dolls / sky’s a bruise or a thundercloud or a neon sign / girlsgirlsgirls just inside heavens gates / a dozen old gods pumping violence into flesh and blood lungs / my baby’s hosting ballrooms in the stars, my boy’s gone planetary / my boy’s got three backup planets so he’s giving this one his all / mouth and neck and hands and heart / skin to skin, perfume pink lover / angel-model rockets going supernova / the ocean rushes hungry to a thousand fallen satellites / says gods getting awful picky with his staff / and baby i’ve got a millennium to go / my baby keeps dying but i’m used to changing hands / my eyes beat electric, i’m an old god myself / out with the old and in with the new / nuclear spray, nuclear pray / flotsam jetsam in orions belt / a thousand hands clawing for heaven / a thousand bodies, baby im familiar / drown in oil or choke on ice / valentine types come lung-free / sea swallows me whole, says / stay for a while baby / sand’s overcrowded and im the earths sweetheart / too human to be jellyfish and too perfect to rot / toss and turn love-letter style / urgent message! sealed with a kiss!! / when she vomits me out with the laundry / i sprawl summery, barbie has a beach day / sunbeam baby, warm me up!! / rocket launcher style, ozone blanket / melting millenium / loneliest girl in the world / me and solar power, me and solar plexus / the two biggest stars at the end of the world / babydoll, here it comes!! the millennium daydream! / no grim reaper, please no thank you / i’m perfection, $6,000 / will my imaginary heart pitter-patter, heartbeat style? / will i get high off radiated adrenaline? / who’s left after barbie ascends? / raptures’ awful late this season, nobody left to save / the gates aren’t pearly they’re buzzing neon / nowhere left to go baby, / nowhere left but up. end poem end id.]

thinking about microplastics in the water supply and what they’d have to say about the subject