How Not to be Popular by Jennifer Ziegler

I just started the book, "How Not to be Popular," by Jennifer Ziegler. It's about a girl named Maggie,  whose17 and all she's done is move from place to place her whole life, never more then 8 months. Making friends and finally adjusting to her new home, then leaving again to the next place. It seems like she would never learn until she is moving to her new home in Austin, TX, and has the idea to simply NOT be friends with anyone. To be the weird one and the loner type, but I think this is a good idea and bad idea because it could backfire, and she might have people try to be friends with her.

Even though I understand that Maggie just doesn't want to have anything to loose when she leaves Austin, I think this plan could go really wrong. Or there could be a plot twist and she has to stay here longer than expected. Already in the book she turned the popular girl group down in class, and also  a chance to sit at the popular lunch table twice. It's nice that she really wants to keep to her plan, and I understand how hard it can be to change schools and have to make new friends. And with her schedule of always moving around, it must be really painful to loose connections with all the friends you used to have.

All in all I think Maggie should be careful on the actions she makes over the next months in Texas, and realize even though she doesn't want friends, she might accidentally make them. Some people just don't know how to get a clue, and those might be the people that latch on to her because they want a friend.

Hunger May Be Driving Spike in Sea Lion Strandings

I recently read, "Hunger May Be Driving Spike in Sea Lion Strandings," by Megan Gannon. It was an article about little sea lion pups being found on the shores on South California. Nearly 1,100 have been found. Biologists are mostly clueless as why, but their best guess' are hunger. Environmental issues have killed their normal food of sardines and anchovies, so they are left with barely nothing to eat. Some have been rescued on shores and brought into captivity.

I think what's best for the pups right now is to move them into captivity. It's going to just be safer for them, older sea lions can adjust their diets easily to a new food, but it's much harder for the little sea lions. Some of the ones have been found with lice, but that is not the reason they have been washed up on shores. Some was even found with pesticides on and in them, but I think those are more secondary causes. In shelters, they can be better taken care of until they are better. Though no one can help all the sea lions still in the oceans, we can feed the ones that we can reach to make them better.

It's sad to hear this because getting food to all the animals who have been losing it is impossible. Environmental conditions have been targeting all of us, which of course includes animals. The hard part is try to help them.