Category: Photos

Mangosteens and Rambutans

…are in season!

They sell for around 40 cents per pound each at the market; this is apparently a good year.

Probably my favorite fruit in the world. In fact, I can’t think of a close second.

Such an alien-looking fruit. Delicious, though.

Fr007 pr0n!
Bonus trivia (via Wikipedia):

  • The mangosteen is known as the “Queen of Fruits” in Asia. (The “King of Fruits” is the durian. If the king and queen ever bear children, I’ll be the first in line to eat them.)
  • The exocarp (purple outer layer) of the mangosteen is rich in both nutrients and antioxidants, however, this is generally not the edible part. The inner white fruit is known as the aril and seems to contain, well, uh, delicious juices that aren’t proven to be beneficial in any way, thus proving that anything that’s really healthy for you probably doesn’t taste very good.
  • “There is a story, possibly apocryphal, about Queen Victoria offering a cash reward to anyone who could deliver to her the fabled fruit (mangosteen).”
  • Thailand is now the world’s largest producer of rambutans.
  • Rambutan seeds are poisonous to humans.

Impossible Fish


Why not ride on the coattails of the Impossible Fish Tank? (See that? That’s how to give credit, bitches…)
We somehow acquired a small fish tank at the house and went out to buy some fish to keep as slaves (not slaves in the sense that they will work our land for a share of the crops, but in the sense that they exist only to amuse us, since freshwater fish make such shitty companions/rescue animals).
We went to the local pet shop and found mostly a bunch of fat, quivering goldfish and mollies, which I detest, as I like my slaves skinny (and preferably, forlorn/amusing). In a tank wedged between the goldfish, however, we found the fish pictured above. Rather than thinking about how I’d never seen fish like these before, or how unnatural their coloring looked, I instead thought about what a stunning resemblance they shared with some fishing lures in my tackle box at home:

So you may understand that I reacted with some surprise when the worker at the pet shop, while scooping these specimens into a bag for us to take home, told us that they had in fact been artificially colored. And I do not mean to say that they were painted or dipped in some kind of dye, either. It was INJECTED into their bodies!
…………..
Fucking third world!
Poor fishies!
I no longer think of them as slaves; they are my babies and I shall care for them tenderly (feeding them processed food pellets once a day) until the time of the Big Flush.

museumr

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Go play, if you have a flickr account.
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Here’s the original:
http://flickr.com/photos/cbuddha/433197026/
And there’s a story behind it: Went fishing in crazy hot weather a few weeks ago on a ghetto pontoon boat; caught a few fish and saw this little guy hit the water and start drowning. Fished him out with my Thai “fish hell” rig just as he stopped struggling. Put him on my finger and blew on his wings, and he came back to life! It was pretty cool.

Nam’s ducky cowboy hat


We came across a roadside vendor selling cowboy hats at the end of last year, and this one just stood out.
In related news, I found a hidden horse ranch on the dirt road behind our house.
Now all I need is a good set of spurs!
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UPDATE (transcribed from Google Talk session with Adam):
me: oh wait i just realized something
it’s not a duck is it
Adam: no
chicken
me: oops
always thought it was a rubber ducky
Adam: nah, dude, its like a chicken in a biscuit
me: godammit
oh well the name stays
this is nam’s ducky hat godammit
Adam: cool

What is this blossom?

Note: This is an update post to What is this tree?.
Click on any of the photos to open an enlarged version in a popup window.

The tree.

The vibrant variation in color is one reason why I call this tree the “super sakura.”

Pistil porn.

Note the fig-shaped buds.

I had to cheat in order to get a good frontal shot since the trees are so tall and the blossoms face upwards.
What is this tree?

karma karma karma karma karma



The thing is, it looks like an iguana. Could it be a false chameleon? A quick Google search shows that opinion is split as to whether iguanas can change colors on the spot or not. Whatever the explanation, this particular lizard changed the upper half of his body bright red when he climbed up this tree, right before my very eyes. I had just parked my car (I park under this tree every day) and remembered that my camera was on the back seat, so the timing was lucky.