iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I really need to finish my presentation for the Bay Delta Science Conference, but Penzey has other ideas.

A photo of a small dog wearing an aloha shirt curled up next to a person’s legs on a couch. There’s a laptop open in the background.

Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Why are there so many mosquitoes in my office? Not just in the building- they’re flying around in my little shoebox in the middle of the building first thing in the morning.

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I got my covid and flu vaccines yesterday. Obligatory bandaid selfie- this time in the spooky decorations aisle. (Extra weird pose because I’m wearing a work shirt and I’m trying to cover up the agency shield.)

A photo of a woman with her sleeve pushed up to show off two bandaids on her upper arm. She is posing in the Halloween decoration aisle.

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

My presentation might not be done yet, but I’m ready for the Bay Delta Science Conference! Look what arrived in the mail today!

A photo of two packages of stickers. One package has longfin smelt on it and the other has delta smelt on it.

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Happy Friday! I finished a first draft of a data analysis and write up for a technical appendix yesterday. In celebration, here’s a picture of Penzey being adorable.

A photo of a small tan dog lying on a dark floor. His front feet are neatly out in front of him, but his back feet are sticking out to the side in not quite a sploot.

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Things I used R for today: 🐟 Simulating effects of different fish survival patterns 📉 Making graphs 🧮 Calculating the difference in premiums for insurance because it’s open enrollment

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I did two clean double pirouettes while my tap teacher was watching. iykyk

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Happy caturday! Atcha found one of the baskets that I used to pick basil this morning.

A kitchen counter piled high with fresh basil

A tabby cat sitting in a rope basket, leaning hard to the left

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Reposted by Vanessa Tobias

Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

I’m part of the 36%. Technically I was a statistician at USFWS, but I am also a fish biologist and ecologist. I left for a lot of reasons, both good and bad. I still have mixed feelings about it 7 months later. I love the job I’m doing now at the CA Dept of Fish and Wildlife, though.

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Someone I really respect told me that they have a post-it note on their computer with a one-sentence summary of a big issue we’re trying to solve that I said during a meeting a few months ago. 🥰

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

At my dance studio we do time steps for celebrations in tap classes. Usually it’s while we sing someone happy birthday. Tonight we did our whole time step warm up routine to a Dolly Parton song in her honor.

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

So much of learning a new modeling technique is figuring out what words to search for. Somehow, even though I work with fish, monarch butterfly population models always seem to have good examples of what I need. Thanks, monarch scientists, for giving me the vocabulary I need! 🧪👩‍🔬🦋🐟

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

No, I don’t really have any project updates to share because I was on vacation since the last time we met. Can I interest you in a picture of some kangaroos instead? (My team will have updates to share, but probably not pictures of kangaroos.)

An adult kangaroo with a joey in her pouch in a eucalyptus forest.

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Maybe under appreciated benefit for government scientists: you can’t bring work devices out of the country so when you travel internationally nobody can bug you on vacation. I’m back at my work computer after a week and a half of zero contact. Only 70 emails and no urgent teams messages. Not bad.

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

I love when I’m in a fun sciency meeting about fish ecology and I can hear that the meeting in the next conference room is also fun.

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

This has been a long week, but it’s important to celebrate wins so… my longfin smelt growth paper is ready to go! Huge credit to the first author who wrote the code & put up with my suggestion to add a fecundity angle to the discussion. *for internal review, but I would submit it to a journal as is.

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Thanks to everyone who submitted a comment to OPM this week! It doesn’t feel like much, but it means a lot that you took the time to speak up.

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Why isn’t my graph changing when I adjust the code? I’m looking at the wrong png in my graph output folder. 🤦‍♀️ #rstats

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

I’m almost done revamping the last garden bed. The neighbor’s tree roots found their way into every raised bed. I started digging this one out to install a barrier and drainage like a month ago. Then my tooth saga derailed me. This one was an absurd amount of work especially in this heat.

A photo of a grid of paving bricks with gravel between them.

A phot of an empty raised garden bed on top of a sheet of weed fabric. There is a big pile of soil next to it.

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Some folks say they want to help but they don’t know how to write a public comment. Structure doesn’t matter. Content does. Experts, write in your field’s style. Cite literature. General public, say why you disagree with the proposal. Just don’t curse or threaten- that gets comments tossed out.

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

I have been on the gov side of public comments. If all you can do is say you don’t support the rule, it will be tallied & reported. A comment with explanation and citations usually has to be responded to individually. Giving info that wasn’t considered in the original rule makes the biggest splash.

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Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

For folks asking why bother commenting because the OMB won't care: comments help build cases for the courts by explicitly laying out harms. That's why it's really important to have your comments be as specific as possible. Also, contact your senators and reps! They actually do care about this.

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Yay my abstract was accepted for a talk! Oh crap my abstract was accepted and now I have a hard deadline to finish that data analysis!

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

I’m super proud of myself for figuring out how to use a teams channel’s sharepoint as a bare git repo. If anyone else has been stuck in this, creating a shortcut in my OneDrive was the key for me. After that it works like a regular folder and you can make it a remote.

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

TFW you’re planning out some data gathering and rearranging and you think, “this seems familiar. I think I did something like this for another project.” And you actually find the code and it’s pretty much exactly what you needed. Thanks, former me!

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Congress, and we make this happen by creating a One Big Beautiful Bog Act? (Sorry that was the cringiest #wetlands joke.)

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

I had a tooth removed today. It had a crown that failed twice so it was time. I’m super grateful for 1) antibiotics and 2) a dentist who didn’t make a big deal about my anxiety, but just did everything he could to make me comfortable.

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

A lot of what the Governor has said to justify RTO is about the value of in-person collaboration, but most of the plans I’ve heard are just about assigning cubicles. There doesn’t appear to be a plan to help us with spaces that facilitate collaboration.

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

First baby mantis of the year in my yard. Sorry, friend. The sunflowers aren’t quite ready to bloom and attract snacks for you just yet.

A photo of several small plants. One has a very small praying mantis on a leaf.

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Working in a cubicle several days a week is less than ideal, but I am amused that my coworkers talk to their modeling code as much as I talk to mine.

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Find freedom in this movement. That’s what my dance teacher told us in class tonight, but it felt more widely applicable right now.

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

Progress today: Wrote some code. Broke the code. Fixed the code. Now the code works too well and it broke some other code, but I’m not sure why yet. Then Atcha showed up and needed a lap, so now I’m cat furniture.

A photo of a multicolored tabby cat sitting on a lap. Behind her, a small tan dog sleeps in a blue blanket.

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

I left my wildlife camera out in my yard for like a month and I just pulled the SD card. I definitely squealed when I saw this picture of a possum with babies on her back. I hope it brings you joy, too!

A black and white photo of an adult possum with two baby possums clinging to her back. She is drinking water out of a small pond made out of a bowl-shaped planter.

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

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Anne Hilborn @annewhilborn.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

Permanent job in Sacramento! Sr environmental scientist in a good unit. Manage acoustic data, implement automated approaches for aggregating and summarizing wildlife data, carry out advanced quantitative analyses that integrate multiple data sources. calcareers.ca.gov/CalHrPublic/...

Department of Fish and Wildlife

JC-515381 - Senior Environmental Scientist Specialist
SENIOR ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENTIST (SPECIALIST)
$7,820.00 - $10,732.00 per Month
New to State candidates will be hired into the minimum salary of the classification or minimum of alternate range when applicable.

Final Filing Date: 5/5/2026

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

This news feels like a punch in the gut. 💔 I don’t work with LTER sites, but I work with other long-term monitoring data. It’s hard to describe how incredibly valuable long-term datasets are. They help us understand 1) what’s changed and 2) if it’s something we broke, how we’re doing at fixing it.

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

I’ve done several long CA road trips in an ioniq5. Public charging is a lot like a gas station. For commuting I have a 220-volt outlet in my garage. I charge about once a week for my commute. The car is scheduled to only charge during lower time of day rates so it’s so much cheaper than gas.

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

April Fools Day is a good reminder to be skeptical of things you read on the internet. Be extra careful out there today.

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Reposted by Vanessa Tobias

Chris Kluwe @chriswarcraft.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

This is why I constantly recommend people attend a No Kings protest. It will invigorate you immensely. The vibes are excellent.

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

Sacramento was really mellow, but there were tons of people out at the Capitol today. I reused my sign from last time and I added some glitter.

A photo of a sign that says “impeach the phony king of America” and a cartoon of the phony king from Robin Hood sucking his thumb.

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Why does sitting on the floor or on a couch make writing (code or English) easier?

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

I made some neat #accidentalaRt in #rstats today. Those are supposed to be convex hulls around some clusters of points, but this is cool too.

An abstract line drawing that looks like a very spiky distortion of a gray and white checkerboard pattern.

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

Atcha is helping me turn the effects narratives from some water permitting documents into DAGs. I’m hoping this approach to reading will help me with paying close attention now and modeling in the future.

A photo of a multicolored tabby cat crouching on a notebook. The notebook is open to a page with a box and arrow diagram scribbled on it. The cat has one ear pulled slightly back, making her look annoyed.

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

Tonight? Oh, sorry, I can’t. I have dance.

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

I’m getting closer to having the energy and enthusiasm back for posting about fish and stats models. In the meantime, here’s a picture of Penzey tasting a seed catalog. He’s the best little weirdo.

A photo of a small, tan dog with his face shoved in the middle of a seed catalog.

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Vanessa Tobias @marshprincess.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

This is what I did with my holiday. I made a lot of salsa from tomatoes that I threw in the freezer back in August.

A photo of 11 jars of salsa on a kitchen counter.

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