u/Lepotato-da-boss

Hi! I'm going to college for an undergraduate degree in botany soon, and I've wanted to get better at studying the natural flora in my area. I am in mid-north California, and got a second hand Jepson manual as my dichotomous key, but I feel ridiculous carrying that huge book around along with other companion books, just to identify and learn about the handful of plants I see. Do botanists just constantly carry around a ton of books? Or are there more condensed ways of having this information with me? I would use online resources more, but many of the places I go to look at plants have no cell service and I try to keep my battery for emergencies and navigation to get home. My usual setup has been the Jepson manual and my two national auburn society books for visuals. Also if anyone has other recommendations for dichotomous keys or field guides for California I would be very grateful! I'm just trying to expand my knowledge as much as possible before college so that I come in prepared. Thank you! (also I couldn't find a "questions" flare, hope that this is okay)

Not sure what to tag this as. When you suck on a popsicle and the color/flavor drains from it, what is happening there? Is there something different between the flavored part of the water and the frozen part? Thanks in advance!

As the title says, I'm trying to find some alternative hobbies because I'm not sure mine can even be considered hobbies... I like to make floor plans online, like plans for apartments or office buildings (I use Floorplancreator.net if anyone is curious- I just use the same plan and restart when I make a new one). I also enjoy making budgets and hypothetical life plans in Google Sheets, like researching housing costs and jobs in a specific area and calculating expenses. I feel like I've sort of hit a limit though, and I would like to branch out into new hobbies, but nothing else feels as engaging. Its a specific feeling when I'm making these, and I haven't found anything as fulfilling. If anyone has any recommendations on hobbies or websites to check out, please let me know! I've tried coding before but the learning curve was really extreme, especially since I don't have a ton of time to learn a lot of information before just doing the hobby, I like things that I can pick up in my free time but not have to constantly be learning. Thank you!