It’s Launch Time!

Posted in Career, Feminism, Me Me Me!, Women by Marci

Good day, gentle readers. For the past 15 years I’ve had the idea of doing a magazine, aimed at girls between the ages of 11 and 17 or so, that focuses on subject matter that doesn’t reduce our girls and young women to sexual objects who only need to look cute and pick the right shade of lipstick to be successful in life. I wanted a magazine that would foster a love of creativity, intellect, and curiosity in girls and young women so that they might someday have the confidence to achieve any dream they have. Why do boys have magazines geared towards adventure, the outdoors, technology and science, while girls have so few, if any, equivalents?

Well, starting a magazine was going to be pretty difficult for someone who has a background 180 degrees from what she should have to do so. Someone suggested I do a blog, and the more I thought about it, the more it made sense – it’s up to date, I have complete control of the content and format, it’s free to everyone, and more and more people are getting away from print media and looking towards electronic sources for their news and entertainment. So, hello Brainy Girls blog – it’s VERY nice to finally meet you!

Please take a few minutes to read my new blog, Brainy Girls, by clicking here. It will change monthly, and I’ll add things throughout the month, too. The main message of this blog is to let our girls and young women know that it’s ok, and even awesome, to use their brains. Don’t be scared of being smart – embrace it! And you don’t have to choose between being brainy and anything else. You can be everything you want to be all at once, as long as it is truly you. Be who you are – the world WILL benefit!

Additionally, the Brainy Girls facebook page is complimentary to the Brainy Girls blog. I hope it will be a forum where women and girls of ALL ages can interact to ask questions, give advice, serve as role models and mentors to others, and offer opinions and feedback on this blog. So take a look and “like” our Brainy Girls facebook page, too! And if you’re so willing, please share our Brainy Girls blog and facebook page with your friends, daughters, and daughters’ friends.

And don’t worry, I’ll still sporadically update this blog with all things Marcilicious, just as I’ve been doing since 2005. Enjoy my new side project! Toodles!

8Sep2012

Do you know what this is?

Posted in Animals, Day Trips, Non-cats, Travel by Marci

Hi! Do you know what this is?

I’ll give you a hint. It’s not an eel, and I took these pictures at the viewing windows at Bonneville Dam this past weekend. Still don’t know?

Here I am doing some guerrilla aquatic education at the public viewing windows in the dam. And stop looking at my butt. You can take a closer look at what I’m doing, however.

Those are Pacific lamprey! You can learn all about Pacific lamprey by following Luna the Lamprey on Facebook, or do a google search. Their population numbers are dwindling, and they’re an important part of the aquatic ecosystem as well as native American culture. The Fish and Wildlife Service, and our office especially, is going lamprey-crazy right now with a lot of research and outreach efforts. So check them out – they are a very cool fish! And kind of cute in a way.

This is one side of Bonneville Dam – it’s a pretty incredible structure and it supplies much of the Pacific Northwest with power. And this is apparently what a fishery biologist looks like (although it doesn’t much resemble what I look like, even when I’m at work). Ha!

8Sep2012

Olympic Peninsula Vacation

Posted in Travel, Vacations by Marci

At the beginning of August, Chris and I took a long weekend to drive around the Olympic Peninsula. We stopped at the Hoh Rainforest and Hurricane Ridge, the Olympic Game Farm, took the ferry over to Whidbey Island and drove over Deception Pass, then landed at Tulalip Casino where we lost a bunch of cash (aside from my winnings at a slot machine called Siberian Storm, featuring lots of tigers). It was a great break from work and it felt like an actual vacation! Check out my photo album HERE to see some of the places we stopped.

Me and Chris in the Hoh Rain Forest, part of Olympic National Park.

5Sep2012

Finally done! And it’s not 2019!

Posted in Entertainment, Hobbies by Marci

Hurray! I’ve finished my 2011 scrapbook! I’ve been putting together 12×12 scrapbooks for each year (and additional books for various trips, cruises, etc.) since about 2001, and switched over to digital scrapbooking for my 2005-to-present books. I hate calling it scrapbooking, because it brings up images that don’t quite describe me. But that’s ok – my move to digital rectified most of my issues there. I simply GAVE AWAY most of my scrapbooking supplies, tools, totes and everything else; I think I sold my largest tote packed with supplies for only $90. I’d probably spent over $1000 on all that crap, too.

But doing digital layouts is much better – you don’t have to lug supplies around, get everything out, clean everything up, deal with paper, stickers, glue, and things that don’t quite match. I use Photoshop Elements to create all of my pages, and EVERYTHING can be resized, recolored, reshaped and replaced just the way you want it. It’s still time-consuming, but all you need is a laptop and your digital pictures! Yay!

Anyway, I did finish 2011. I’ve even started on 2012. I used to try to catch up on the oldest years, but I decided to just work backwards instead. So, I still have to do 2007 – 2010, but that’s not so bad, right? Right??? Riiiiiiiight.

So I’m happy to share my 2011 book – feel free to check it out on my share site! You can look at it full-screen (keep in mind that it’s not full resolution, but it still looks pretty good). Click here http://marcikoski.shutterfly.com/27 to see!