Sneakypuss

Check out the video with this:
Two-limbed tiptoe aids octopus camouflage - Novel underwater walk helps creatures slip away unnoticed.

Sleep well, and dream of large women

I've been sick the past few days (bad cold), and Eric has lent me the 30th anniversary edition of The Princess Bride, which he'd taken out of the library. I think it's quite appropos that I'm reading it while I'm sick, and I'm enjoying it so far. I can't help but see it all happening in my head with the movie cast, though. It's been interesting to get just a little bit more background on some of the characters which makes some seemingly random lines in the movie version make more sense. The other thing I've noticed is some lines are said in the book by completely different characters under different circumstances than the movie, which is fine, just disconcerting! And my favorite line (quoted in the title of this post) is so far absent!

Goose-stepping

Leaving work today, I was at the always dangerous intersection and saw two Canadian geese waddling up to it. I cringed as they stepped off the curb and slowly started across the street. Although they seemed to want to cross diagonally, traffic prohibited this and they ended up following in the crosswalk, along with the people, many of whom were starting to grin. When the geese reached the opposite corner, they turned and started cutting across the street, pursuing their original target. It was as odd as it was amusing.

More pics from Down Under

Here are two of the pics Barb and Peter took when I was staying at their house in The Basin. Their dog, Bernie, is a real sucker for attention, as you see on the left. And that's their grandson Jake (who just turned one last month?) with me on the right.

Doublespeak

And in this pair, AOL states a new anti-privacy policy and retracts it verbally at almost the same time.

Here are the most concerning phrases of the policy: All your AIM are belong to us.

And here's the retraction (of sorts): But we won't use them.

Two computers for Michael

This first one is made out of Sicilian wine cases: Wooden laptops made from old wine-cases

The second includes a feature where the display and the keyboard are SUPPOSED to be two pieces! Although I'm not sure whether this would cause him to have yet another thing to break, or whether he would think he'd broken it when it was supposed to come apart... Probably both. Laptop with detachable display

Quiche and sticks

On Friday night, Glen decided to make a new pecan pie recipe he'd found. Due to some miscommunication, the first pie shell attempt failed, and the pie crust collapsed and baked itself flat in the middle of the pan. Rather than throw it out, I suggested we keep it and I'd make something in the next day. Quiche, I decided. But on Saturday it was snowing and wet out and I couldn't find any recipes online that used only ingredients we had. So I kind of had to make it up. And it actually came out really well! I'm very impressed with myself. Didn't burn, didn't stick, and tasted yummy besides. The biggest hurdle was that all the recipes called for cream or buttermilk or something thicker than the skim milk we have. So I mixed in some ricotta cheese, and that seemed to do the trick. (Did I mention I'm impressed with me?)

Today, the club had a guest instructor to teach Filipino stick and knife fighting, and SIXTEEN people showed up for the class! This is about four times the normal number for a Sunday. I was so impressed by their timeliness and effort! Great job, guys!

Today's installment of weird and wiggly

You thought the chicken sorter was weird, right? Yeah. So did I. But then I read this! My favorite quote is, "Apparently they enjoy the electrical stimulation." I hadn't realized worms were capable of enjoyment.

Wheeeee! Can we do it again?!

All I can say about this is that it CAN'T be good for them. Watch the video and you'll see what I mean. Check out the velocity with which the chickens come flying out of the contraption! Would make a pretty exciting weapon in a very Wallace and Grommit way...

A first for everything

A few months ago, I had my first experience with lost luggage. Not particularly pleasant, but I think it's only fair that it happens to everyone once in their life.

Yesterday, I had my first "trapped in an elevator" experience, and, even better, it was very "action movie"-esque. I was at work, and going to grab some lunch. The stairs are not easily accessible in our new office building (unless there's a fire alarm), so we are just about forced to take the elevator. There are three elevators, and they all seem to take forever to come. When one finally did arrive on my floor, a guy was already in it. I stepped on and pressed my desired floor (lobby). He had already hit his floor (3). The doors closed. The elevator started to descend but at a much more rapid pace than usual. Generally, there's a good three or four seconds between the bells the indicate each floor. Instead, it was going "ding-ding, ding-ding, ding-ding", going through floors every second or two. The guy and I looked at each other in alarm. The elevator came to a jolting stop, even though the down arrows were still lit up and our buttons were also still illuminated. Then nothing happened. "Okay..." I said to the guy, and pressed the door open button. No result. He swiped his ID, which usually overrides all other commands. Again, nothing. "I guess we have to call them," he said, and pressed the emergency call button. Instantly security answered. The guy explained our situation. The security guard asked what floor we were on. The guy looked at me; I shrugged. The display which usually says that stuff was blank. "Ground level?" the guy guessed. Security assured us they'd send someone right over. The guy and I both pulled out our cell phones. No reception. Nothing to do but wait. (No, Jeremy, we didn't make out.) Thankfully, security managed to get the doors open (we were indeed at the ground floor) less than ten minutes later. But it was exciting nonetheless!

I think it's time for another session

I had a very weird dream last night. In it, I was about to leave on a trip to Japan. However, the airlines had recently started flying "sleep flights", which was what I was going to take. Sleep flights involved knocking out the passengers (think Fifth Element). This was good for the passengers because it made long flights seem shorter. This was good for the airlines because they could stack the beds and therefore fit more people. And, by the way, they were also flying new types of planes, which, on the inside kind of looked like buildings with lobbies and brick walls. So I was in line to get on the plane, and watched several people climb up onto their beds/tables, have an IV started (for the general anesthetic), and then get moved onto the conveyor belt which was loading the plane. When I got toward the front of the line, I asked one of the attendants if I could bring my MP3 player or if I would be asleep so fast it wouldn't be necessary. They said that I'd not only be knocked out really quickly (out by the time the plane took off), but that it would be "inconvenient" because of how the beds stacked and the MP3 player wires. I thought to myself that I was really tired and general anesthetic was probably overkill. I decided not to go.

Later in the dream, I was at the same terminal when one of the sleep flights docked. First to be disembarked via a bed down the conveyor belt was a small baby of an estranged lesbian mother (I have no idea where that came from) who was visiting the other half of its family. The family receiving the baby, who was just waking up from the anesthetic, was told that the infant would likely be cranky for a few hours, an after-effect of the drugs.

Strange dream, huh.

What's disappointing to me is why I chickened out of the trip; I'm sure it was because of the needle used to start the IV. :(

I think it's time for another session...

Just about the stupidest thing I've ever seen

Today has been a bad day, just in general. I didn't get a snow day, I spent a whole lot of time stressing and waiting for yet another grant pre-proposal, which, in the end, I just sent, without final approval, and I was mostly just in a bitchy mood. All day. Sort of reminiscent of my 18th birthday on which nothing went right and at Ros & Guil rehearsal that night, Lopez, similarly having a bad day, said, "Welcome to the rest of your adult life." Well, today I'm 27, and having the same sort of day. Michael suggested that maybe it just comes around every 9 years. I can't remember how my 9th birthday went, though. And if that's so, I guess I'm due for another bad birthday at age 36? Now that's something to look forward to.

Not even my normal live bookmark browsing cheered me up, although the link that follows did cause me to roll my eyes. It seems that someone has invented clothing that is a cross between 1970s inflatable furniture, furries, those big clean suits that were so scary in ET, and a bouncy-bounce. You can see what I mean (and you must be curious by now!), here.

P.S. If anyone can cause my class tomorrow to not be happening, you have my permission to grant me that as my birthday present.