A unique blend of the possible and the improbable.

I have lost 5th place to this http://www.flickr.com/photos/95657923@N00/1047326296

and damn I can't say I mind.

If any of my knitting friends is feeling creative.. would soooo love to have one of my own. so cute!

Since I watch way too many movies.. Bolded are the ones I have NOT seen. Italicize I have seen parts.

( Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaa )

Does anyone know someone who has worked in a foreign country? I would like to ask them some questions about how they got the job, etc.

Extra credit for someone without a bachelor's degree.

A literary meme. Even the introductory text was ganked.

SFX magazine recently posted a reader-voted Top 100 list of sf/f authors. Below the cut, mostly for my own edification, is the list, with the authors by whom I've read one (entire) (sole-authored) book bolded, and one's I've partly read (or am currently reading) italicized.

( I aparently read too much )

I am looking into the feasibility and options of doing a "round the world" tour either this winter or sometime next year. Mostly what I am having trouble with is I want to see almost everything! So here is a poll to you all, to see if I can try to narrow it down to reasonable dimensions.

*to clarify. I will probably be traveling alone. (do you know anyone else who wants to travel?) However for places like the middle east, India and Africa. I would probably do one of these tours if I went.

Poll #1206083 Travel Poll take 2
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

If you could go anywhere (on the planet) where would you go? Any of these places?

View Answers

Russia
5 (38.5%)

Middle East (please not specifically where below)
2 (15.4%)

Eastern Europe
4 (30.8%)

China
4 (30.8%)

Japan
11 (84.6%)

Phillipines
2 (15.4%)

Laos
3 (23.1%)

Burma
2 (15.4%)

India (Big country, anywhere in particular?)
5 (38.5%)

Malasia
4 (30.8%)

Singapore
2 (15.4%)

Indonesia
1 (7.7%)

Australia
7 (53.8%)

New Zeland
10 (76.9%)

Africa
4 (30.8%)

View Answers

Alaska
7 (63.6%)

Canada (Where in particular?)
1 (9.1%)

Mexico
3 (27.3%)

Brazil
5 (45.5%)

Venezuela
1 (9.1%)

Ecuador
1 (9.1%)

Peru
8 (72.7%)

Argentina
7 (63.6%)

Chili
6 (54.5%)

Other South America (Please Specify where below or in comments)
2 (18.2%)

Costa RIca
5 (45.5%)

Central America Other(please specify which)
1 (9.1%)

The video says it runs about a hour at 80km/hr on one liter of water. Tiny little thing, not so sized for the general American market.. But WATER powered! How cool is that! I want one!

"Jun. 13 - Japanese company Genepax presents its eco-friendly car
that runs on nothing but water.

The car has an energy generator that extracts hydrogen from water
that is poured into the car's tank. The generator then releases
electrons that produce electric power to run the car. Genepax, the
company that invented the technology, aims to collaborate with
Japanese manufacturers to mass produce it.

SOUNDBITE: Kiyoshi Hirasawa, CEO, Genepax. "

http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=84561&videoChannel=1

This is my new favorite tea! No sweetener required, and I usually like my tea sweet! Thank you to

childewolf and

mechagojira for showing it to me!

(on the same note,

foogod, my mother sent me home with a bunch of teas I have for you to try. We need to get together to do so. I can't make the next cooking night, but perhaps the one after?)

My cousin (who is awesome and weird and likes squid, I think she has a masters in marine biology) is moving to the area in October to start up he brand new job at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

(Yay!Yay!Yay! She won't be on the other coast anymore!)

She is going to be looking for a place/house to rent, preferably 2 bedrooms and near to Monterey. She is clean and very nice, an outdoor enthusiast, and has one very well behaved dog.

If anyone knows of anyone who is going to be renting out a place, please let me know!

Thanks!

[here are the last 3 weeks in a nutshell, expansion if specifically requested]

Went up to Mom's. Packed a lot of stuff, moved a lot of stuff, painted a lot of stuff. Thank you dinner from mom at a fantastic Thai Restaurant. If anyone is ever going to Seattle, and likes Thai food, totally worth the 1/2 hr drive south of the city. Mmmmmm.

Then up to Vancouver for a day and a half. Took a wander around the Vancouver Aquarium, (Monterey has totally spoiled me) then took a walk around part of the seawall in Stanley Park. I am really out of shape again, but it was pretty.
Found a neat all you can eat sushi place in Vancouver on Robson Street, somewhere between Nicola and Cardero, where 9:30pm-12am it is only $11.95, not so bad and great when you want something late. All the fish stuff was good, not too great a variety, but it was good anyway, I had loooots of salmon.

Saw lorn Man in Richmond, BC at the Imax, unfortunately on a regular screen, speed racer was on the Imax. :( Was ok anyway. Fun movie.

Tuesday headed down to Portland to celebrate a birthday with a friend for a day and a half. Good friends, cute dogs, great company, pool, and good beer. Dirk and Julie rock!

Thursday saw us driving through the central valley at over 100 degree heat in the truck with no AC. wheeeeeee.. to Willits, where we stopped to visit a friend and I got to meet his wife of 2 years for the first time. Sometimes I suck. Oops. On the other hand, she is awesome and I am glad to finally have met her.

This morning we headed back to Sebastopol/Occidental. It's hot here, but not too bad. The cat missed us.

What's up with all of you?

Done with this work assignment. Heading home, to frantically pack up the rest of my stuff to go to Seattle, then off to Seattle to help my mother move.

I'll probably be offline till Sunday at the earliest, and sporadically after that for the next 2 weeks at least.

Don't break the internet while I am gone.

If anyone needs to reach me I am always availiable by cell!

Ta

Well the Temp job I have in Terra Linda, CA right now ends on the 25th of
April. It's been fun, neat people and such to work with, but I can't say
I'll miss the commute.

On the 26th We will be loading J's truch with my stuff from storage
and heading up to the Seattle area to help my mother move into her new
house. The new house has enough storage for a household of 15, so it will
all fit with room to spare.

I SHOULD be back around the 12th or so of May. The return date is undecided
as of yet.

If there is anything in particular in the Bay area that should affect my
return date I hope you will all let me know. [any parties, etc that I don't
know of or have forgotten?] Otherwise, I'll try to keep in touch

So I have my ipod hooked into my car sterio on random most days.

The morning commute pretty much is background music with very little impinging on the conciousness needed to get from point A to point B. (considering thei is usually an hour drive at 6:30 in the morning..)

Sometimes however, the music penetrates..

Noteable last week was Steven Lynch's "My Hermaphroditie"

this morning was "I'm turning Japaneese" I didn't realize I even HAD that song.. Now the damn thing won't get out of my head!!

Argh.

Poll #1161738 Rose Hips
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

What should I do with the Large amount of Rose Hips I have drying on the sunporch?

View Answers

Make Rose Hip Tea
5 (62.5%)

Make some weird cure for plague from Barb's 1900's book on "things to do with roses" you knever know if you'll need it
5 (62.5%)

Figure out a way to make alcohol
4 (50.0%)

throw them out, you are being silly
0 (0.0%)

something else I'll explain in the comments
2 (25.0%)

The sunrise this morning was spectacular..

...but it in no way makes up for having to leave the house at 6:30am

despite light traffic due to spring break..

... there are just as many stupid people in the morning commute

and that is all for this morning.

But I did get some rest

...and braved the cold to go take some pictures this morning while it was sunny out.

click on the snowdrops to see the rest of the set.

Then it hailed. And got colder. brrrr.

mmmm.. weekend.

Sonoma County -

Pros - great friends, great weather, good fresh food readily available year round
Cons - Job market sucks, housing expensive, non-existent nightlife, small community

Seattle -
Pro's - city fun, good job prospects, Canada close, housing not too bad, snowboarding an hour away, fresh produce available in winter, mother
cons - currently limited friends there, weather

NYC -
Pro's - friends I don't see often enough, probably easy to find a job, nightlife, Relatives
cons - big city, noisy, hard to find good fresh produce in winter, everything more expensive, housing VERY expensive, what to do with car? longer move

any other cities I should be considering? in any case I need to move out of where I am at in a few months and start paying rent, so I need to make a decision as to where.

The Wolf Moon (February's full moon) is tonight, and it will be completely eclipsed by Earth's shadow in the only lunar eclipse in 2008 and 2009. The whole eclipse "event" lasts from 7:01pm to 7:52pm P.S.T., with the complete shadow occurring at about 7:30 pm.

Here's hoping for good weather!

Happy moon viewing everybody!

More details here

I had already planned to make this post this morning, but

kdavoli said it so well. I pretty much just copied!! thanks!

Copied from

epinephric
original site here

AESOP'S FABLES TEACH CHILDREN THE ART OF VOTER SUPPRESSION.
BY ANDREW GOLDEN

- - - -

The little zebra was coming back to his ward of the savanna after doing some important errands, when an odd scene caught his eye.

His local polling place was packed. The lines were very long, and overwhelmingly composed of tired, confused-looking antelopes.

At that moment, Mr. Giraffe whistled for the zebra to come over.

"Hey, Zebra," hissed Mr. Giraffe. "We need your help here! We're overwhelmed."

"Are you getting out the vote?" asked the zebra innocently.

"Are you kidding? No, we've got to win this thing, Zebra. B.A.M.N. That's right, an acronym. 'By Any Means Necessary.' For the good of this savanna. Listen, put on one of these T-shirts."

"Why?" said the zebra, as he was handed a T-shirt with the phrase "Anti-Fraud Enforcement" written across the chest. He noticed that Mr. Giraffe and several menacing-looking hyenas were wearing them, too.

"Check out these antelopes, little Zebra," said the giraffe under his breath. "All looking for a free handout. And that music they listen to. Well, we're not gonna let them, or their NAAAP thugs, steal this from us. Here's what I want you to do. See that old antelope over there? Tell her she's at the wrong polling place. Then, if she acts confused, tell her she needs to show you six forms of ID."

"But what about free elections?"

"That's cute," said Mr. Giraffe. He turned quickly around to see a couple of young, idealistic-looking antelopes getting in line. "Hey, guys, you know if you've got any outstanding parking tickets we're going to have to arrest you if you check in to vote. It's all right there in the fine print. And if you have any parking misdemeanors on your record? You're going away for a long, long time."

The antelopes scattered away.

"This is illegal!" protested the zebra.

"You're illegal, Zebra. You're illegal. Shut the fuck up. I mean, do you want 'Hanoi' Hippo to win this thing? If he gets in, the vampire bats win."

"I feel bad about this ...," whined the zebra.

"You do what we tell you, or we'll take the tax exemptions away from your synagogue! And another thing: If you see any born-again rhinos come to this precinct, or any fat lions wearing "Who Farted?" T-shirts, send them to the front of the line. And give them 11 ballots. I can't wait to read wild African jackass Bill Kristol's column tomorrow!"

"Well," shrugged the young zebra. "At least I'll go to my grave knowing that no cheetah couples ever gained hospital-visitation rights or filed joint tax returns on my watch! Phew!"

- - - -