User:Rowena Mikin

Hello to those of you interested in knowing precisely who the mastermind is behind the character Rowena Mikin Let me introduce myself in a way that while perhaps not quite flattering, best exemplifies one of the few favorite pastimes that occupies me greatly aside from roleplaying: Eating!



I've been playing on Chiaroscuro for about 5 years now and would love to continue for another 5. While many of you are familiar with Rowena's background, I doubt very seriously that many of you are familiar with mine. So let me share.

When I first encountered the jointhesaga.com wonderfulness I was a sophmore in college, midway through my pursuit of a Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Science. My Alma Mater? Jacksonville University, Jacksonville, FL. Go Dolphins! Well I graduated from that chaos in May of '06, leaving behind long, unpaid hours in our program's wet lab, swarms of mosquitoes, and of course, many dear friends.

After departing Florida, I returned home in the northward direction to St. Louis. For those of you not familiar with that city, it's in Missouri, midwestern United States. Now Missouri is landlocked, ocean-wise, and sported just a pair of dirty rivers for a certain budding marine scientist to play in. Needless to say, I did not play in them much, excluding the hobby of fishing for those scrumptious bottom-feeders that call the Mississippi home. No, I do not "noodle".

After several months as working for my hometown zoo as a security beat (snort) I was sucked up by the Miami Seaquarium and thusly moved back to Florida to pursue a career as an aquarist. Now that I'm here I can't confess to being overly content with the position or the city, but it's a job and I'm grateful to have it.

For those of you who might not know precisely what an "aquarist" does on a daily basis, let me enlighten you:

A) It would be a prime candidate for Mike Rowe's "Dirty Jobs" series, and that's on a good day.

B) We are in charge of maintaining the exhibits of and taking care of the following animals:  -Fish Well that might not seem like a lot, but that includes three primary exhibits - the Shark Channel, the Reef Aquarium, and the two corridors filled with smaller, 450 gallon wall aquaria.  We also of course run a pair of quarantine, or "fish hospital" rooms.  Daily care for all those things includes feeding, diving on a daily basis, training, 6 daily presentations (three of them involve getting very wet), scrubbing, cleaning, vacuuming, piping, plumbing, patching, necropsy-ing, and performing water quality tests.

C) We, when more fully staffed than presently, also are in charge of scrubbing four manatee pools, aiding in the rescue/release of manatees and sea turtles, and being an easy source of muscle for vet assists with those animals that our sister sub-department of keepers take care of.

To those of you who have witnessed one of my rants about a crappy work day now understand why I may be stressed or too tired to make an appearance. You also might understand why I sit here thumbing my nose at those friends of mine that are bored at their desk jobs. Who needs a gym when you spend an hour wrestling a frisky 2500 pound manatee off your back while desperately clinging to the wily scrubber machine? Not I!

Thanks to a recent shift of responsibility I can also boast to being one of the few made to jump into the bay water and claw crap and trash out of our intake pumps that supplies the entire park with salt water. Two words: Sea Lice.

SO. That brings us to present day.

When I'm not roleplaying OR working I can typically be found sleeping, eating, reading, drawing, contemplating going for a swim but then not doing it, spoiling my fish and hermit crabs, being a bum, being a couch potato, and generally lounging around the house. Yes, I do go out every now and again with folks from work and folks outside of work, but very rarely frequent the bar/club scene....or as I almost wrote, the car/blub scene.

I guess maybe "blub" is a sound you might make unceremoniously in a car after exiting the bar?

That's more or less a fine summary, I think, to my habits. I am quiet (mostly) and so like to surround myself in quiet-like things. This preference for the absence of horridly loud noise and traffic might be the root of my aversion towards this city I've come to inhabit.

Honestly I'm not sure what else to scribble down here, so there it is. Rowena's player. Her name is Charlotte, by the way. Hope you've enjoyed the sillyness of it.

Ciao.