Fungus (part II)

(In other words what happens when it is finals week and I am studying for exams)
What is a Fungus?
A Eukaryotic Multicellular organism-geeze that narrows it down then
Primary Storage unit is Glycogen- If I knew what Glycogen this would be infinitely more interesting.
Heterotrophic organism devoid of chloryphyll- In other words a Fungus is an organism that makes it’s living by leeching from others. Like a vampire, taking the life blood away from other things… like my cheese and bread for instance. Curse you Rhizopus nigricans.
Has cell walls- What if it didn’t have cell walls? Would they be as good on pizza or in pasta sauces? I don’t think so…oh and their cell walls are made out of the same substance that makes up an insect’s exoskeleton…so if you want to work your way to eating bugs just munch on some fungus and you’ll get used to it…eventually.
Non motile- Imagine a world where fungus were motile. Forget about speaking German, we’d be speaking chemical pathways… because if they can move it’s only a matter of time before they can speak… and if you know your science fiction as soon as they learn to speak they will try to dominate the human race!
Reproduces by spores- To be honest when I first read these notes I thought that it read ‘sores’ and I thought that my professor was a little crazy. Imagine reproducing by sores… “sorry honey, it may be painful but think about how cute little Johnny is going to be when the sores are gone”
Hypha-(plural:Hyphae)
Fungi are like living threads… these threads are called hyphae and are called mycelium if they are enough of them. They elongate by atypical—I mean apical growth…in other words they grow from their tips. If we grew atypically we would all have short torsos and long limbs, and you would be able to Identify Grandpa by the length of his fingers… weird hua?
These living threads will often live on your trees and flowers and things. Yeah you heard me right… a relative of the green thing growing m=on my cheese is also growing on an orange tree in my family’s backyard…but before you get the fungicide remember that the plants need the mycorrizal fungus to grow as big as they do. Without the fungus that fertilizer that you tossed on it yesterday was useless.

Micro/Macroscape

Have you ever tried to go through a corn maze? Going from place to place, making turn upon turn wondering where the correct turns are so that you don’t end up lost in the maze forever? (Unless you are trying to get lost in the maze, then of course you hope that each successive turn you make makes you guys more lost in the space) You definitely don’t focus on the little things… I can follow that grasshopper all day long and I doubt that I’d be able to follow it out of a paper bag (how you got into the bag with a grasshopper is another question entirely.) If you are in a professional maze then you can climb on top of a platform and see your surroundings, and see where the maze is going. If you are not in a professional maze then you can stand on the shoulders of the tallest consenting adult. the same can be said when you are writing a narrative. If I were to tell you what was important about today I would leave out information that might be used in a later story I tell you. Honestly I didn’t think twice about the tall red headed guy in my freshmen orientation, but I sure remembered that detail after he started working in my lab. the same thing can be said when you are talking about the narrative of John in the Gospels. John was the latest tale of Christ, all of the other synoptic gospels had already been written, as well as most of the Pauline letters. he had the chance to see what was important in the story, to see how the intricate pieces came together to make a wonderful narrative, He didn’t focus on the grasshoppers that Mark did, as much as I love reading his gospel he does tend to spending time on details that are not necessary for the story to be told. John has the scope, the vision, the interconnectedness of the story. he knows where there are details omitted that needed to be there to understand some of Christ’s teachings. He saw the end of the maze (well closer to it than the others did) and he made certain that his reader could understand the way they needed to go to make the most sense out of the information. now if only I could write something so distinct and apt as that narrative. Oh well, practice makes perfect and I should look at the macroscope not the microscope for a change.

Looking through multi-colored lenses

I think I’ve discovered what makes a person appear to be intelligent (or what intelligent people often talk about) It’s not the knowledge that they study, the numbers they have memorized, or the papers they have written…those that are considered ‘intelligent’ are considered so because of their perspective.

I’m not talking about the kind of perspective that an artist learns in their line of work. The intelligent person looks at things witha different perspective, sometimes a different colored lense every morning. There is something to be said to look at something with the eye of an artist, seeing the beauty and compositions around you. It is something else entirely to see something with they eye of the scientist, ever eager to see the logical connections between things. It is something else entirely to see things in the numberical eyes of a mathematician, to see the beauty of the numbers that organize daily existance.

They read books and in some cases remember the names of the main characters, but more often than not they are labeled smart because of an incredable ability to see connections between seemingly unrelated things. The kind of person who cannot sit through a children’s film without seeing the in depth connotations that lie just beneath the surface. The kind of person who sees the principles of Marcism in the context of the Smurfs.

Perspective is why I love the book of John in the Bible. The other Synaptic gospels are so intent on the story that they forget to mention the improtant things. They relate direct prophesies, but they do not mention the deep teachings. John focuses on the extraordinary in the ordinary actions of Christ, he acts upon the actions that others have seen, that others just push aside as ‘odd’ or ‘quirky’ and forget the deep meaning beneath.

Perhaps perspective is what makes the difference between someone who is OK and someone who is simply amazing. The different lenses make the world an amazing place to reside.