Southern Fried Cricket

Learning the trade with my sister

Anyone who knows me well would say I love to watch cricket. It would have to rank as my favourite live sport, alongside watching the mighty All Blacks do their thing. It's been awesome to watch the Black Caps over the last 18 months as they've gone from strength to strength, culminating in winning their last three test match series (hopefully they can also win the decider against the West Indies). I've also played a lot of cricket since I was around six years old; turning out for Sumner Cricket Club during primary school, playing a bit at Christchurch Boys High School, and then donning the colours of the legendary Addington 4A (the photo below says it all about the good times had with that team). My batting technique has been described as most akin to Chris Martin's, but I bowl decent left arm medium inswing with good bounce thanks to my lanky frame.

Addington 4A

In Baton Rouge, cricket is surprisingly thriving. In fact, it even drew enough attention for a visiting New Zealand reporter to write an article about it, published in the Waikato Times (thanks to my Aunt and Uncle in Hamilton for chasing down the printed paper for me!). Cricket's popularity here is largely driven by the South Asian students and community associated with LSU, specifically those from Nepal, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. It's primarily played in the large LSU parking lots, and real bats are used in combination with yellow kiwi cricket stumps, and a slightly heavier than usual tennis ball, made specifically for cricket (like an old school incrediball, but sadly it doesn't swing). Innings are usually 12-20 overs each with slightly modified rules played, like no lbw or leg byes.

The Waikato Times article on Baton Rouge cricket (click to enlarge)

Some or my best friends here in Baton Rouge are Nepalese so I play with them every couple of weeks or so. Abilities range from the very talented - by that I mean they could make the Addington 4A team - down to guys who have barely played before, but the games are always competitive and a lot of fun. The overall quality of play is pretty good and there's also great banter between the guys, even if I can't speak or understand a word of what is sometimes being said.

Teams from different countries don't seem to play against each other all that often, but I once had the honour to play as a Nepalese import player in a T20I against Bangladesh. We came out with a good upset victory, but my friend Asim tells me Nepal has been hammered a couple of times by the Indian team in the past - maybe we can change that soon!

Nepal (batting) vs Bangladesh

This past couple of weekends some of the guys organized the Baton Rouge Nepalese Cricket League, which was essentially a tournament between three Nepalese teams (nine players per side), selected using the style of an IPL auction. It was decided to play this tournament on the grass of the LSU parade grounds (LSU Oval) so there could be proper fielding. However, playing without a rolled pitch meant the bounce could be variable, with some balls keeping low and others rearing at your head off a good length.

The first Saturday consisted of three games of 10 overs an innings, where each team played the other two, with the top two teams qualifying for the final to be played the next weekend. My team, the Baton Rouge Tigers (BRT), bowled out La La Chha Chha Moj Gar Moj Gar (LLCCMGMG - literal translation "ok ok you got it, have fun have fun") for just 44 runs in the first game (yours truly bowling 3-1-1-11). But we failed to chase the total down, losing too many wickets and playing out too many dot balls on the tricky wicket. LLCCMGMG (the favourites) then won their second game against Baby Doll Mein Sone Di (BDMASD - literal translation "I'm a baby doll made of gold"), scoring 68 runs and defending it without much hassle. In a virtual semifinal we put in another good performance, bowling out BDMASD for a paltry 37 (My figures were 2.2-0-2-8), and chasing it down with 9 wickets and 10 balls to spare. The final promised to be a tight and gripping contest.

LSU Oval

The final format was 15 overs per team, and it was a damp morning when we lost the toss and were put in to bat. We lost wickets steadily, scraping through to a score of just 53, which we still considered defendable (we'd bowled out both teams in the previous games for 44 or less). Coming out to bowl all fired up we took three wickets in the first two overs. LLCCMGMG's middle order then put on a couple of good partnerships and we knew we'd have to bowl them out to win. We managed to keep the pressure on with a couple of big breakthroughs and it came down to 8 needed off the last over. The first ball was pushed to our captain Sudh at cover who fittingly completed the run out as the batsmen set off for a suicidal single, sparking wild celebrations for the Baton Rouge Tigers! I finished with figures of 4-0-2-11 and scored 3 runs batting at number seven. The tournament was a privilege to be a part of and the organisers did an incredible job.

The game of cricket is alive and well here in the south, and I'm loving it.

The finalists posing after a hard fought battle

Love Bugs

These fancy little insects are known as two-lined spittlebugs (Prosapia bicincta) and belong to the family Cercopidae, commonly called the froghoppers or spittlebugs - those frothy masses of bubbles you sometimes see on plants are probably caused by relatives of these guys. I spotted these two mating on a stem of Phragmites australis in our common garden today. The different colours of their lines really stands out well using the Instagram filters, despite only being taken using my Samsung Galaxy S3.

Aphids and Syrphids

This is the first of my (hopefully many) Instagram updates. I was working in our common garden today when I noticed these colonies of red aphids on a weedy plant in one of our pots. While trying to get a decent photo I noticed a couple of different hoverfly species ovipositing (laying eggs) near the aphids. Hoverflies belong to the family of flies named Syrphidae, and their larvae are common aphid predators; adults mostly feed on flower nectar and pollen. I managed to identify this particular species of hoverfly as Toxomerus politus (thanks to the great website of Bugguide) but I can't confirm the aphid or host plant species from the photographs I have.

Life Through A Filter

In my last post, I said the lack of updates is about to come to an end. I've decided to link my Instagram account to the blog in order to create more regular (and shorter) postings. For those not in the know, Instagram is a social media app with the main purpose of sharing photos and short videos with those who follow you, and viewing the photos and videos of those users who you choose to follow. The fun feature which makes Instagram so popular is the ability to edit your photos prior to posting by applying colour filters, contrast, frames, and a other well-designed effects. I started an account on Instagram a few months ago and have since started posting photos a bit more regularly, depicting things from the places I visit, wildlife (mostly insects) I encounter, and experiments I'm working on, to the mundane parts of day-to-day life in Baton Rouge. By linking the two accounts, I'll be more regularly updating the blog with (hopefully) aesthetically pleasing, informative, and interesting photos, and maybe even some videos. Below is a sample of some of the photos I've shared since I signed up for an account to give you an idea of what to expect from future posts. I still intend to write lengthier posts on topics of particular interest, but this new approach will lead to more regular brief updates also.

An experiment recently set up to examine interactions between Phragmites and its soil microbes

A field trip in Jim's boat in a bayou near Lake Pontchartrain 

Hyalopterus pruni aphids on Phragmites

A leaf footed bug (Acanthocephala declivis) in Homochitto State Park, Mississippi

Io moth (Automeris io) caterpillars...

...and the resulting female (top) and male

A banded water snake (Nerodia fasciata) spotted while teaching invasive species ecology at Bluebonnet Swamp

Your daily dose of cuteness from the stray neighbourhood kittens

LSU campus with azaleas in full bloom

Teaching the ecology lab on seed dispersal from four stories up

Scottish band Mogwai came to Baton Rouge and put on a mean show

View down the Hooker Valley from my last trip home - I miss NZ every day

Pavlova I made for my friend's BBQ, another great NZ treat

The General Exam of Dooooooooom

It's been a long while since I posted a blog on here, but that's about to change. This year so far has been intense, hectic, rewarding, and productive. Among the chaos of the spring semester at LSU, I managed to pass the general exam, a major step in pursuit of my PhD degree. As mentioned in a previous post, the general exam is a comprehensive written and oral exam designed to examine a student's knowledge of their respective field in order to ultimately determine whether they're worthy of becoming a PhD candidate.

I was nervous going into the exam. Despite putting a lot of preparation into being ready, I still felt like I knew little more than the basics of the field of ecology. I'd made a checklist of subjects, hypotheses, organisms, statistical methods, journals, current issues in ecology, influential scientists, and LSU faculty I should at least know something about, and I'd managed to tick most of these things off (while still barely scratching the surface). However, one of my PhD committee members had told me, "there's no such thing as an unfair question", which had me wondering whether there was going to be something from out of left field. I'd heard of some crazy general exam questions before, such as one professor at LSU being given a random skull to identify upon walking into their exam (it turned out to be from a bulldog). I don't remember if she answered the question correctly or not, which highlights an important attitude I tried to take in my approach to the exam: it doesn't matter if the final answer to the question is correct or not - what does matter is showing that you can use what you do know to think critically and logically about the question, providing an answer to the best of your knowledge, which will forever be incomplete. 

Two weeks before the oral exam, I received my written questions. These were fairly straightforward and took about 3-4 hours to complete each. My question from Jim (my advisor) was even very helpful in developing the next phase of my research project, which I will blog about at some point in the near future. Then, the day of my oral exam was upon me in an instant and suddenly I was all alone in a room with five professors ready to explore my knowledge until they find weaknesses. But in actual fact, it went much more smoothly than I could have imagined. The first question was one I was expecting, which calmed my nerves, and from there it took only 2 and a half hours until I was done. I didn't get too many crazy questions, but I sure discovered where my strengths and weaknesses lie. My "favourite" question was where one of my committee members thumbed through an entomology book, randomly selecting orders of insects, before asking me for their common name and a to describe a paper I had read where they were the study organism. Of course, the first insect order chosen was the silverfish (Thysanura); seriously, who knows of a study of them off the top of their head? I also remember having to pull together some sort of answer for springtails (Collembola), grasshoppers (Orthoptera), beetles (Coleoptera), thrips (Thysanoptera), and butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera).

So, now I'm a qualified PhD candidate. This means I'm (supposedly) able to read and understand the literature, come up with novel research ideas, design successful experiments, collect, analyse and interpret data, and complete the cycle by adding to the scientific literature through publishing my results. Ultimately, studying for the exam was an intensely rewarding experience and I now feel like I know a little more about the world of ecology.

I really have to express a huge amount of thanks to the awesome support of my friends and family, for keeping my spirits up and accompanying me through the long, tough nights of studying with their words of encouragement, discussions of ecology, and coffee and study snacks.

ESA 2013 in Austin, TX

For people who know me well and spend a lot of time with me, they may be continually frustrated by my fascination with insects. I say this because anytime I happen to spot a small critter flying around me or scurrying along the ground I almost always will stop to take a closer look or try to catch it (unless it is of the stinging or biting variety!). The sheer diversity of species, morphology, functions, and adaptations of insects is something I find intriguing, and is why I can see myself using them as my primary study organisms for the rest of my career.

One of the many display cases in the exhibit hall

This past week I was lucky enough to attend the 2013 Meeting of the Entomological Society of America (a conference of insect geeks in plain speak) in Austin, Texas, with my labmate Ganesh and his wife Sara. The main reason we were there was to give a 10 minute presentation of our research to the wider scientific community, and also to attend the talks of other students or researchers which we found to be of interest. There were many interesting talks which I attended, many of which have given me some excellent ideas which I can apply to my own research. There was also an awesome exhibit hall with many companies and organizations presenting. The highlight which everyone was interested in was the Bioquip stall; this had many spectacularly colourful, bizzare, and huge insect specimens for sale (such as the butterflies pictured above), various insect collection devices, and even live hissing cockroaches, scorpions, and tarantulas for sale. As for my own talk, it went pretty well considering it was my first ever presentation at a conference, and I'm looking forward to trying this again. You can see the presentation I gave below:

It was my first time visiting Austin and only my second time in Texas. It definitely seemed like a fun and busy city. It had a lot of restaurants and bars around downtown but also a lot of green space relatively close to the city centre, which was cool. The layout of the city was nice, with the bridge and road of Constitution Ave lining up perfectly with the huge State Capitol, which then backs onto the University of Texas. The campus itself is sprawling, perhaps even larger than LSU's. The football stadium is definitely larger, holding slightly over 100,000 Texas Longhorn fans. We also visited Mount Bonnell, the Austin Botanic Gardens, and Barton Springs pool. It's really just great to be travelling to new places again after a while, as I haven't done it since Alaska.

Downtown Austin

In the botanic gardens

Texas State Capitol

The University of Texas Football Stadium (capacity: 100,000)

On the way to Austin we made a little detour to visit Ganesh’s friend Arjun in Waco, Texas. The city itself was nothing special, but is home to Baylor University, which we went and toured around the morning after arriving. We then drove a couple of hours north to visit Dinosaur Valley State Park which was really cool. There you can see dinosaur footprints probably belonging to the large herbivore Astrodon, and also tracks of the predatory Acrocanthosaurus, a dinosaur similar in function and ferocity to Tyrannasaurus rex. The prints are estimated to be approximately 110 million years old, which is simply amazing! On top of that the area was beautiful, especially because the leaves of trees are changing colour to the browns and reds of autumn. 

Footprint of Acrocanthosaurus

In Dinosaur Valley State Park

November already?!

Since I returned from my trip to Alaska and the Northeast I haven’t posted much in the way of updates to my blog and time has just been flying by. That's mostly because the semester has been an eventful one, full of hard work, new challenges, good times, and great company. Here's a little run down of what's made it so special:

Halloween
Of course, one of the highlights of this time of year in the USA is the craziness which is Halloween. For the third year in a row I headed down to New Orleans to spend the night on Bourbon Street with all the other people in costumes. It's always a lot of fun walking up and down the French Quarter checking out all the crazy costumes people have made or bought - my favourite this year was a long-haired guy dressed as Jesus holding a cask of wine which had this used to be water written on it. We had an awesome night out, trawling the various bars and drinking hand grenades, with the night finally culminating in a photoshoot beside the LSU-coloured Lamborghini in the post prior to this one.

Weddings
I’ve been to a couple of weddings this semester which was really cool as I haven’t been to a whole lot so far in my life. The first was the wedding of my girlfriend’s cousin, which was held in Lafayette, a city in Louisiana about one hour west of Baton Rouge. The second was the wedding of my lab mate and friend Ganesh, to his long-term love Sara, who had finally finished her studies in Sweden and had come to join him in the USA.

They were both really nice occasions, but also couldn’t have been more contrasting in style. The first wedding was pretty much similar in style to that of a New Zealand wedding, with a nice ceremony conducted by a wedding celebrant, followed by a big reception with food, drinks, music, and dancing. Everyone was wearing their number ones and the celebrations carried on well into the night. Ganesh and Sara's wedding was much more low-key and intimate, with a small personal ceremony held at their apartment where they exchanged a few words about one another and presented each other with flower garlands, before everybody present had tikka (red rice paste) placed on their forehead. This was then followed by a delicious dinner at the Baton Rouge Nepalese restaurant.

Tikka on the forehead at Ganesh's wedding

Hiking Trips
During the semester I've somehow found the time to get away on a couple of one-day hiking trips to Fountainbleau State Park in Louisiana and Clark Creek in Mississippi. Fountainbleau State Park is right on the edge of Lake Pontchartrain and even has a man-made beach. It has around 12 km of trails, a nice campground, and also a lot of Phragmites where I took a little time to do some data collection. Clark Creek is just over the Louisiana/Mississippi border, close to the Tunica Hills Wildlife Management Area, and it was really nice. We all took lunch and lots of water and hiked for over 6 hours along creek beds, beside waterfalls, and up and down the largest hills you can find this close to Baton Rouge. We saw a few armadillos, some deer, frogs, and lizards, and a baby snake. It was a great place to visit and was definitely a highlight of the semester so far.

Hiking in Mississippi

Large orb-web spider at Fountainbleau State Park

One of the waterfalls at Clark Creek

LSU
Of course, there is always plenty going on at university, with my school commitments again being shared between research, teaching, and coursework. This is basically my last semester of coursework before I can solely focus on my research and teaching. I'm still having a lot of fun teaching the ecology lab class, although this has been a freak semester where I have only had a total of 11 students compared to the usual 24 (hooray for less grading!). One of the projects we conduct with the students even made the Baton Rouge newspaper (http://theadvocate.com/features/people/7470629-123/lsu-students-work-to-keep). Because I've been enjoying my research and time in Louisiana so much I have decided to stay on and finish my PhD. I already have a lot of nice data and am making steady progress towards producing a nice dissertation and a number of scientific papers. Next February I will be sitting the dreaded general examination. This is a comprehensive written and oral exam where your PhD committee members supposedly ruthlessly probe your knowledge of the field of ecology to determine whether you are worthy of becoming a PhD candidate. According to my advisor Jim, it is the last major hurdle before defending your dissertation research. It's time to start studying NOW!

The LSU football team hasn’t been doing so well this year, and have already lost three games. They looked great in their first few games of the season but then lost a couple of close ones before being blown out by the #1 ranked team Alabama over the weekend. Next weekend they have a big game in Tiger Stadium against Texas A & M, who have Johnny Manziel, one of the best and most exciting quarterbacks in College Football. I've only been to one home game this season, but I'll definitely be attending this one!

On a final note, I’m especially proud of my great roommate and friend Darko, who has received an offer for his dream job to work as a petroleum engineer at Shell; it just goes to show that hard work will always be rewarded. He’ll be moving to downtown New Orleans in June next year so many visits to his new apartment will have to be in order!