Though still a juvenile, the great white shark at Monterey Bay Aquarium exudes the presence of an apex predator. Nothing in the tank was running away from it, but they weren’t coming near it either. Right now it’s only 5 feet 8 inches, but I still would not want to fall into that tank…
This sign in front of Morro Rock (in California) makes me wonder, “Why do they want to keep us out?”.
A big post about my road trip with my little sister looms in the not-so-distant future, but in the meantime here’s a small taste of our journey:
We were walking through Yellowstone on one fine afternoon, admiring geysers like the one pictured above. Little did we imagine that one of our group would be taken down in a most unexpected incident in front of Vent Geyser.
Extensive wooden walkways have been installed all around in order to minimize the impact that the park welcomes each year, as well as to keep people safe from the hazards of walking off of the known path. Once in a while, someone will wander off path and fall through the earth into super-heated water, resulting in burns or even death. It’s refreshing not to be over-protected from things that can hurt you but won’t unless you do something stupid. In a country where too many things are ruined for us all because some dumbass does something to ruin it for us all, it is nice to be able to go somewhere where you are given responsibility for your own safety.
Merin is pointing and laughing at Chris, a fellow med school student at Rosalind Franklin University, after he got his ass kicked by a park bench. As he was walking along the edge of the trail, he failed to notice the bench in front of him and hit it with such force with one shin that he tripped and smacked his other shin into the bench seat before falling forward onto the bench. It looked and sounded painful, but no sympathy was forthcoming.
“It really hurts!”, whined the pre-med.
“Hahahahahaha!”, we replied. From that point on his responses, no matter what he said, elicited nothing but laughter. It still makes me laugh just thinking about it. He’s not quite ready for the responsibilities that come with walking around shin high obstacles.
I live to take pictures so that I can remember moments like these. Yes, be proud America, for he is among the students destined to blaze the path of the future of medicine!
This entry marks the beginning of a series on a road trip that I took with my little sister and her boyfriend a few months ago:
The rabbits have been out in great numbers everywhere. They don’t seem to need much to proliferate. I’ve seen them in the grass, chaparral, and riparian habitats.
Young bunnies seem to be less spooky than the adults. This one liked to get really close, and then started spazzing out, running this way and that. I think I saw them do the same thing to coyotes on the Discovery Channel. I don’t remember why they do this, butt it reminds me of the behaviour of young humans.
If you like bunny rabbits, you might check out Daniel Chong’s short story.
I tried stewed rabbit in France, and remember it being a mild, succulent meat. Trying rabbit was one of the first times that I tried something not usually eaten in America, and this experience set me on the path to eating animals, parts of animals, and other things that I would have never been able to try had I stuck to the McDonalds diet when visiting foreign lands. I’ll take stewed rabbit over a Big Mac any day!
Doesn’t he look cute/delicious? Mmmmm. Stewed rabbit.
Mopar sponsored an event that made for a strange gathering of people who either came to see their favorite NASCAR driver try and their hand at drifting, or to see some of the best drifters from Japan’s D-1 circuit. I tried taking pictures of the event, but my lens was way too slow and I was too far away from the action. Though the pictures are way too blurry, the event was too interesting not to post them.
The Japanese drivers were, of course the highlight of the night. Unfortunately, we arrived a little late at the Irwindale track and missed most of their performance.
Seeing these guys race brought back memories of over 7 years ago, when I first saw cars like these tearing through the giant intertwined maze of bridges and streets in Yokohama. Back then, I had no idea what drifing was, and was amazed to see these cars evade the police with such grace and ease, and then returning shortly after the cops left to continue racing.
One NASCAR driver demonstrated how hard it is to drift in a NASCAR racer. I have to admit, it was pretty funny.
The NASCAR fans went wild watching their favorite drivers attempt to drift, but I quickly became bored of watching them.They didn’t practice beforehand like they were supposed to, so we were watching them learn how to drift. Thankfully, the Japanese guys came back on the track for an unscheduled finale.
Bigfoot also had a go at drifting. Watching that huge truck lunge from side to side was entertaining, but this is not the Bigfoot that I remember from the old days. The old solid blue design was much better! Now the sponsor’s name is written in larger print than the name of this iconic monster truck.
There were many strange things about this event: First of all it was sponsored by Mopar. It was also weird to see absolutely no Autobacs signs.
This was my first time actually being around NASCAR fans, and likely my last. I’ve never seen so many mullets in one place at one time! Nothing against NASCAR or the people who like this variety of racing, it’s just not my scene. I’ll take rally racing any day over doing donuts or drag racing.
I think the lesson from this event is to avoid Mopar sponsored drifting events, and stick to ones that are sponsored by Autobacs.
Killer is the first puppy of the litter to open his eyes.
Pretty soon he’ll be able to walk about instead of just inch around like a caterpillar.
He’s just eaten, so he wants to go back to sleep.
Over at Wired, Jennifer Granick makes an interesting comparison between the music industry and ramen:
People play guitar in all sorts of styles, riffing on notes the way the Japanese riff on the basic concept of Chinese noodles in soup. What if the original ramen chefs tried to stop others from developing their own ramen recipes and making differently flavored ramen broth?
They’d form an association — say, the Ramen Industrial Alliance of Asia, or RIAA — and announce a clampdown on the proliferation of infringing noodle shops. Their arguments would echo the music industry’s. “The chefs who created ramen deserve to get paid for their creation,” they’d say. “These noodle shops are taking profits away from the creators, while peddling an often-inferior product to an unsuspecting public that believes they are getting real ramen.”
Just as the music industry claims that tab sites are publishing “derivative works” related to the original musical compositions, the ramen industry lawyers would argue that ramen varieties are derivations of the original product. Kyushu’s tonkatsu (pork) ramen, Sapporo’s miso ramen or Hakodate’s shio (salt) ramen divert customers and take ramen sales away from the original chefs.
(link)
In a world of Maruchan, Nissin, and other instant crap, it’s nice to know that somewhere, pig bones are slowly simmering over a low flame, releasing collagen and combining with the other ingredients to make a rich, delicious broth. Long live tonkotsu (and tonkatsu, but not in ramen)!
The cow patterned puppies will blend in well with a zebra pattern.
Their pattern against the zebra stripes reminds me of the dazzle camouflage used in WWII.
This one doesn’t quite blend in as well as the other puppies.
She fell asleep right on the keyboard. More shameless puppyblogging to come…
