Eternal Sunset

From the Department of Aimless Surfing On Painkillers, here's a pointless feel-good website: Eternal Sunset, a collection of webcams set to rotate according to sundown. No more impatiently waiting for your local sunset, tune in anytime. Plus, it's kind of cool to compare a day's sunset in Ontario and Key West.
Like, wow, man. Far out. Uh, could someone please pass me the Cheetos?

Congratulations, it's a....cellphone!

For those of you too busy to keep track, Lun Lun had her baby August 30th. I was hoping for another twin cub---two of them together would be quite a sight---but given the rarity of Panda births, we're lucky to have even one. The press is now using the phrase "about the size of a cellphone" to describe him. Mei Lan was "about the size of a stick of butter" when she was born. I'm not sure if they're using a different description because this cub is bigger, a cellphone is an object most people handle on a daily basis, or they realized "stick of butter" was a strange analogy.

There was a brief scare a couple of days ago, the cub's body temperature dropped and they put him in an incubator for 19 hours. He's back with his mom now, everything seems fine.

Due to the "incident" Pandakeepers are weighing and checking him periodically. I wonder who has the job of grabbing him away from Lun Lun? Those animals are pretty damn big.

Congratulations, it's a....backbone!

Zoo Atlanta's panda, Lun Lun, is pregnant! Here's her ultrasound, the alien like thing in middle is a spine. And this is very soon (in panda terms) after having Mei Lan....I'm so proud of our little panda hussy!

Let the Games Begin! Pt. II

Here's one of those Olympic athletes who are lesser known, but far more interesting than some of the big names; Melanie Roach, an ex-gymnast who took up weightlifting to rehab from an injury. She qualified for the 2000 Olympics but ripped up her back shortly before going to Athens, and retired from the sport. So she went out and started both a family and a business. After several years she had back surgery so she could try again, and managed to make this year's team at the apparently old-weightlifter age of 33. Melanie is a definite multitasker. Her three kids are all under six years old, and one is autistic. Her Olympic blog talks about a visit to the Great Wall, and with some kids from a special needs orphanage in China.

She's fun to watch because---well, she looks like a gymnast who just happens to be lifting weights. The first big clue of her background is her smile. This picture isn't staged, it's from a competition. She does that every time she lifts, as opposed to other women who make faces more appropriate to hoisting one's body weight above one's head. You can see her fighting hard after a lift not to do the little gymnast pose.

BTW, she didn't win any medals, but she did make all six of her attempted lifts, and set a new American record. She seems quite happy about her Olympic experience.

Santa Clara's drumline does NOT rule

In the world of DCI, the Phantom Regiment does. Literally. They brought their own slaves to the semifinal competition last Thursday, and had them carry the drum major onto the field--when they weren't otherwise abusing them.

All assertions from Cheryl about the superiority of Santa Clara's drumline aside, they placed sixth, along with their overall corps. The DCI theater telecast was great, both in coverage (really good camerawork and sound) and in comfort (A/C, cushy seats.) I had forgotten how entertaining these productions are, with bunches of people who can run--not march, run--around making formations while playing the Waldenstein Sonata in C Major, Movement 1.

Like the Phantom Regiment, who did "Spartacus," most corps' shows had a central theme. My biking nut friend Jamie really enjoyed "Tour de France," with the color guard in full biking attire. Good thing it included helmets, they threw bike wheels at each other.

Other interesting themes--a boxing match, and "The Pursuit of Happiness," (yeah, whatever, people.) One of my favorites was the Cavaliers Samurai theme. They whipped Santa Clara too, check out the Cavalier's Kodo drums in the youtube clip. Hard to compete with that. Poor Santa Clara. Outgunned in the percussion department.

Let the Games Begin! Pt. I

It seems like just yesterday we were making fun of London's orally fixated 2012 Olympic plans, and now it's time for more Olympics---beginning tonight the Chinese host them in Beijing. China I always look forward to the games and am usually more prepared, but they kind of snuck up on me this year. There is a dizzying array of coverage schedules which I can't decode to save my life, so I'm just gonna take it day by day and try to use the VCR for those critical events. One problem is the time difference, most of the events will take place in the middle of the night (our time.) Despite my rabid motivation I'm a bit old to be awake at 3am. And most of the prime time re-broadcasts will be in sports that don't always interest me much, like track and field or basketball. I'd much rather see the little offbeat stuff like archery or badminton.

So, anyone else tuning in? What events are on your must-see list?

Where have all the trees gone?

Into excessive packaging for one stupid pair of earphones. (Note: cat is for comparison purposes only, and was not included in shipping.)

I suppose it's better than this case, where HP used 17 boxes for...a few pages of paper.

My foster cats need dentures and a green card

My sickly cat, Huey (the black one) has had so much trouble with his teeth that the vet recommended just pulling them all out, except his fangs. So I had them yanked out a couple of days ago. He's doing remarkably well, much better than all the humans I know who have had such extensive dental surgery---including me. I guess cats naturally whine less than people. He's resting very comfortably, as you can see.

My other cat Emma (the calico) was undocumented. She finally has some records, so I now don't have to worry that the INS will come take her away. She came with Huey. Both of them arrived under questionable circumstances, which I've sort of pieced together...I think. Their former owner was a kind, but stupid young woman, who had previously adopted them from Lifeline Animal Project. Despite the paperwork which specified she would keep them indoors, Huey ended up with FIV, most likely because he's a male and was bitten in a fight. The girl began asking Lifeline to help her with vet bills, which they did. Eventually she lost her job, moved in with her parents, and was going to keep the cats in an unheated garage over the winter. The shelter manager at Lifeline was apparently fed up, and made her surrender them both. Of course, they needed a schmuck who would foster them, so guess who got the call? I met the girl at the shelter when she brought Emma and Huey in to give them up, so they passed directly to me, which is most likely why Emma had absolutely no paperwork of any kind...vet records, intake forms, nothing. I might as well have picked her up standing out front of a Home Depot.

I did take her in last week for a standard checkup, so now she has her shots and microchip. They also looked at her hip. I thought maybe she had a problem since she limps occasionally. The verdict---she walks funny because she's so fat. I'm always putting out food to encourage Huey to eat and gain weight. Unfortunately Emma never met a can of food she didn't like, so she's pretty darn round. After the green card and the dentures, the next item on my cat list is a kitty treadmill.

So you think I'm a blagger?

Here's a blog of one-entry blogs---if that makes any sense. Most of them are like you'd expect, "so I wuz saiyin 2 my freind, I got the didgits of this hottie from a club, but I losted them cuz my ass-hole brat broher flushed my cell down in the toillett, like, yeh, watevr beeyotch...." stream of consciousness blather.

Occasionally you'll find a blog like billionare.blogspot, launched by a seemingly ambitious (but apparently lazy) Libertarian Objectivist who wants to get rich. I wonder if there's a nicely assembled market here for ADHD drug prescriptions? Maybe that's where billionare.blogspot guy disappeared to.

Top fifteen mobsters who make you say "mmmmm"

15. Danny Arugula

14. fetachini ravioli boyarde

13. patrick the pickle

12. Tony Tater Tots

11. Mr. Ravioli

10. The pancake maker

9. pauly bag of donuts

8. Jimmy the Prawn

7. Tony Carbonara

6. frozen chicken

5. bitch took my cookie

4. dom perig non

3. Al Cappuchino

2. Half pack o certs


......And of course the number one mobster that makes me say mmmmmm....





1.Joey Calamari

Saturday morning flashback

Before the IQ reduction tool of "No Child Left Behind" was created, generation X had its own intellectual minefield to contend with: Saturday morning TV. A bunch of hippie Baby Boomers took over children's programming, with their bongs, roach clips, and windowpanes in tow. H.R. Pufnstuf is a fine example of the result.

On Saturday mornings children could see what happened to little Jimmy and his Magic Flute after they boarded the Magic Ship. In a real bummer of a buzzkill, the evil Wilhelmina W. Witchypoo turns Jimmy onto a bad trip, and he washes up on Living Island. H.R. Pufnstuf, the friendly dragon/Mayor, offers Jimmy refuge from all that crazy sh!# which has suddenly popped into his head. Of course, Living Island is the place where everything is alive and talking---trees, buildings, furniture, bags of extra crunchy 'n hot Cheetoes---they all offer profound insight to little Jimmy. Like, whoa, dude. I think we can all understand what "stuf" was being "pufed" here. So could the smart&$ who posted this alternate version of the intro.

Random information moment

I’ve been tagged for a meme by Cheryl, or possibly Dianne or Laura, I think the whole blog family is tagging each other so it's getting confused. So if you're reading this...you're it.

A meme consists of any unit of cultural information, such as a practice or idea, that gets transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another. Here are the rules:1) Pick up the nearest book. 2) Open to page 123. 3) Find the fifth sentence. 4) Post the next three sentences. 5) Tag five people and acknowledge who tagged you.

Here's mine. Y'all are going to be sorry, since I'm studying for a final. This is from Biology with Physiology: Life On Earth :

Meanwhile, light rays have also been striking the pigment molecules of photosystem I (step 5 in Fig. 7-7, middle of Fig 7-8). Energy from the light photons is captured by these pigment molecules and funneled to the two reaction center chlorophyll molecules, which then eject high-energy electrons (step 6). These electons jump to the electron transport chain associated with photosystem I (step 7).

This is part of the answer to that nagging question---how do plants generate NADPH? I'm sure y'all are on pins and needles wondering what eventually happens to those high-energy electrons. Don't worry, the textbook goes on to explain they end up retiring to a small Mexican fishing village, where they run a hotel and deep-sea charter fishing service.

The End.