“The Fish Ear” explained. I have a mild obsession with fish and most generally everything to do with water. 

1.     I’m a graduate student at Scripps Institution of Oceanography studying Biological Oceanography.

2.      I study fish ear bones (called Otoliths).  Otolths are like trees - they have growth rings and from them inferences can be make about how weather and climatic events impact fish growth rates.

3.     Fish and marine sea creatures are most often the subject of my art: jonesfishcarving.com (sadly, this website hasn’t been updated for ages)

4.     I was a competitive swimmer from ages 5 until I was 21.  Including 4 years of D1 collegiate swimming.

5.     I’m now a competitive triathlete. The swim portion is my strength.

6.     I’m very interested in sustainability and the environment (i.e., save the whales)

7.     This list could go on and on…  but at this point you’re probably getting bored with the list.

(this is a fish ear bone or "Otolith")

Why a blog? 

If you know me well, you’d know that I’m not one who you’d expect to have a blog – of any sort.  I don’t really like writing about myself and have always felt that if someone was interested in my accomplishments, they’d ask.  So why a blog?  Well, I’m really not too sure.  I enjoy trying new things, so that is part of it.  Another part is that I don’t like clogging everyone’s newsfeed with constant updates (“OMG, I just fed my gold fish and I think he smiled!”) – so with a blog, you can choose to follow everything, read a few posts everyoneonceandawhile, or just ignore me.  My intention is to post about races, training, news events I find interesting, and some random stuff about my everyday life.  I will keep most of my posts very short with lots of pictures.  I invite you to enjoy!