United States
After studying the ocean and literature at UC Santa Cruz, I realized that I wanted to examine the world through writing. I'm currently studying fiction writing at Chapman University where I hope to integrate topics in environmentalism, ancient literature, and family dynamics into my projects.
My professional content writing experience centers on technical material in science and engineering.
Creative
Doorknobs melt as you try to escape a hallway made of cake. All you have is a palm full of icing. _____
She was lying in the sand when the astronomers hung her around his neck
May 6, 2018 Dear Jackie, I don't know when you'll get this because the ranger station can be slow, but I'm writing like I said I would. It feels so antiquated but also like we're in a Brontë novel. I love how the paper curls when I fill it with handwriting.
"Marooned" is based on an incident I witnessed as a volunteer at The Seymour Marine Center in Santa Cruz. The small aquarium has an open-top tank for petting two long-suffering swell sharks.
Reviews, Interviews, and Criticism
JARED YATES SEXTON'S new nonfiction examination of what led the United States to the Trump presidency, American Rule: How a Nation Conquered the World but Failed Its People, is like your high school history textbook rewritten by the creators of House of Cards trying to imitate the scope of The Silmarillion.
I interviewed Lyd Havens in the summer of 2021 when we were all flirting with the idea of returning to a more normal life. People were still clamoring to get shots, and there was talk of abandoning masks by Thanksgiving. I even saw a movie in theaters.
SOMETIME DURING 2017, I learned that a Russian-sponsored propagandist ran the Blacktivist Tumblr account. I hadn't suspected a thing. Their inflammatory posts with nothing good to say about Hillary Clinton felt par for the course in Tumblr's social justice circles.
Review of Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers by Jake Skeets Review by Paige Welsh Jake Skeets' debut poetry collection, Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers, may remind readers of Ovid's Metamorphoses as one image slips into another, but Skeets plunges deeper.
The researchers could not make a dolphin speak without metamorphosing it away from its dolphin-ness, but that did not stop them because they were never interested in the dolphins. They were trying to know themselves.
Teaching and Academic
I have been questioning how much of my mental disability I should disclose to my students. I had been warned about performing excess emotional labor as a female instructor, but remote instruction throughout the pandemic already blurred the boundaries between home and school, personal and professional.
Blogging and Promotional Content
A video I shot and edited about Falcon Structures's burn building project.
When it comes to permitting shipping containers, there's more than one option and a lot of acronyms. Get your building code questions answered in plain English.
Get up to speed on shipping container basics, such as sizes, weights and components at a glance. This bookmarkable infographic is a useful tool for anyone new to conex.
By Paige Welsh Jesse Port, former Center for Ocean Solutions early career science fellow, is finding a way to identify ocean species without laying eyes on them. A bottle of sea water is laden with trace amounts of DNA sloughed off by passing organisms. Even well-camouflaged organisms leave clues in an ecosystem such as bits of scales, hair and feces that researchers can now detect with eDNA technology.
By Paige Welsh Oil tankers cross the open ocean. Photocredit: Pixabay The high seas may appear uniform on the surface, but beneath the waves, currents are constantly moving nutrients, microscopic fish and invertebrate larvae, while larger species-like whales and sharks-migrate vast distances.
Moroccan Artisanal Fishing Fleet. Photo Credit: Mike Markovina, Marine Photobank. Small-scale fisheries, characterized by their smaller vessels, relatively low-tech gear and low operating costs, comprise the vast majority of fishing employment in the global supply chain and are present on coastlines around the world.
Science and Technology Reporting
Aug. 19, 2014-On a tip from a local historian, UC-Santa Cruz geologist Hilde Schwartz went to Scotts Valley in 2012 to investigate a mystery. Twelve squat tubular stones sit among the trees like lumpy flat-topped bundt cakes in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
by Paige Welsh We trust software with everything from connecting our phone calls, to showing a heart beat on a monitor. But how many non-coders understand the life-blood that runs behind the keyboards and touch-screens? Streams of code course through our devices, but the word fragments, numbers, and brackets that write code are indecipherable to the untrained eye.
by Paige Welsh If you've ever tried to have a conversation with your phone Joaquin-Pheonix-style, you know that Siri is a pretty frigid date. Computers really struggle with personality. Zhichoa Hu, a Ph.D. student in Computer Science at UC Santa Cruz, is trying to change that.
by Paige Welsh A Case of Identity Crisis Choice Provisions , formerly known as the Santa Cruz game company Gaijin Games, is exploring new frontiers in the gaming industry and outer space. Gaijin Games was known for the nostalgic arcade style of their Bit-Trip Saga games.
By Paige Welsh Contributor, Santa Cruz Tech Beat May 14, 2015 - Santa Cruz, CA [Editor's note: Santa Cruz Tech Beat published New makerspace opening in Santa Cruz in June.] Have you ever needed a pair of pliers to pull out a memory card from a 3-D printer, and then used that same 3-D printer to print out the pliers?
Two high-school students, Zohar Wouk and Abe Karplus, couldn't be bothered to find summer jobs. Instead, they started a company and made their own. Together, they co-founded the company Infinity Gloves and hope to develop a new generation of light gloves.