Higo Blog

To my brother, “irreverent Atom Boy”:

I will celebrate your birthday by toasting you, and drinking a cold, crisp Fat Tire Belgian Ale.

I think this one turned out the best of the lot. Shooting at night is a bit more challenging, especially when you don’t have a tripod. Luckily, the walking path provided a stable rail, providing the camera with a stable base.

Why do most people make new year resolutions during the start of a new year? If you need to make a change now, chances are that you will forget about what it is that you want to change if you wait until the next year rolls around.
I know I’ve been really light in the amount of posts that I’ve been writing since I’ve started my job. I could list off reasons why this has happened, but that would make for a boring post.
Instead, I’m going to start taking more pictures and doing more post-worthy things. I guess this means that I have an excuse to buy the “necessary equipment” that I require to do the best job that I possibly can.
Damn, I should make resolutions more often.

Last night was the Pacific Grove Chinese Lantern Festival, happening right next to my apartment. We sampled gyros, baklava, and calamari from the vendors who had set up food stalls next to the beach.
The residents of Pacific Grove obviously put a lot of effort into this event, as they had erected a faux pagoda on the tip of our small breakwater. A team of swimmers clad in wetsuits pulled a limo-sized dragon float through the water while a court of formally clad girls danced to multi-ethnic music (Japanese, Arabic, and Spanish songs were part of their repertoir).
We walked around for a bit, awed that so many people could fit on the beach and on the park at Lover’s Point. Then we went home.
Just after the sun had set, we popped our heads out of the apartment to see this:





I love being able to see cool firework displays right outside of my apartment. In this respect, living in PG is kind of like living in Juso, where I was able to walk down to the Yodogawa and see one of the best firework shows in Osaka. It’s as if I am destined to live in places that are home to other people, like me, who like to watch and play with fireworks.

…[fringeheads] have a great fondness for empty bottles and cans; the bigger the container opening, the bigger the occupant. In some areas, such as the beer bottle field at the head of Redondo Canyon, southern California, nearly every bottle will house a fringehead. A fish usually lies in its home (which it considers its territory) with just part of its head exposed. Fringeheads are extremely aggressive, and they will lunge at intruders (even divers) with jaws snapping.

This is an excerpt from “Probably More Than You Want To Know About The Fishes Of The Pacific Coast”, a most excellent book by Milton Love.

I had already accepted that I would never see a live Death Valley Pupfish (I’m assuming that’s the fish they’re talking about). When I first heard about these guys, reports about their survival were pessimistic, but after reading this article I don’t know what to think. Awesome.

It has happened in Japan, and it happens here.
To the postal workers around the world who check my mail from foreign countries: Would you all please start at least taping the envelope shut?
It’s just common courtesy.

I used to catch bees and hornets and placing them in the freezer for a few minutes. After they had stopped moving, I tied a thread around their thorax and waited for them to warm up in the sun. There was something inherently hilarious about taking a bee for a walk.
It seems someone has one-upped me using flies and a match. Ah, being bored leads to strange diversions.
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