33 posts tagged “throughout the year”

There's been a pretty nasty wildfire raging in the Santa Cruz mountains for the past couple of days. Usually wildfire season doesn't start until late summer/early autumn, but we had one of the driest Aprils on record, followed by intense wind for a lot of May.

Even here in Fremont you can tell there's a fire somewhere. The air quality is very poor--my eyes are burning. The sky is all hazy, and you can even smell it.

It looks like they're getting it under way though, and the weather's cooperating. It might even rain a little bit this weekend.

Spring in the Bay Area is a schizophrenic time of year. The weather flip-flops from one extreme to the other. In the space of one week, it went from triple-digit record heat, to cold and windy. The temperature dropped about 30 degrees over a 3-day period. It can make biking a trial, because you never know what to wear. I try to remember my mother's advice: Dress in layers!

From Best Week Ever:

 

 

I used to hate this day. And not because I'm single; I hated it even when I was in relationships. It's just depressing to see even otherwise intelligent people getting led around by the by nose by the floral, chocolate, and greeting card industries.

Plus, I got sick of bitter single people whining about the day; worse, they'd always try to drag me down into their self-pitying hell with them, now that I've sworn myself to a life of singlehood. Umm, I like being unattached. And if I want a bouquet or a box of chocolates, I can buy it for my damn self any day of the year. Go cry on someone else's shoulder.

And then there's the whole commodification of love/sex, and the attendant onslaught of misogynist commercials making thinly-veiled references that men have to buy women into giving up the pussy with tacky, heart-shaped, mass-produced diamond chip jewelry. Because women would never have sex out of desire; they're all cheap whores who have be purchased.

But you know, now I figure hey, some people obviously enjoy being chumps or being bitter, and it's not my place to tell them not to be. So now I enjoy the day for the most important reason of all: 24 hours later, I can buy a shitload of candy for a huge discount.

Mid-February doesn't mean Valentine's Day to me. It means The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show!

I'm always thrilled when a real dog wins (as opposed to some overly-groomed and pampered monstrosity like the Standard Poodles): Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show fans were treated to the baying howl of a beagle victory Tuesday night when Uno became the first pooch in the breed's history to win the coveted Best in Show title.

 

Incidentally, did you know heiress/brainwashed terrorist/friend of Jon Waters Patty Hearst is a dog enthusiast? And she owns a French Bulldog, my favorite breed! She even won a ribbon at this year's show for her Frenchie Diva, for Best of Opposite Sex.

Today begins the year 4706 according to the Chinese calendar. It is the Year of the Rat, the first animal in the Chinese zodiac cycle of 12 animals. Naturally, people born in Rat Years are leaders, as well as being cunning and adaptable, like their namesake.

Rats were associated with prosperity in China, and those born in Rat Years often do well as a result of their practicality, organizational skills, and tendency to work hard. They can be manipulative and controlling, but also fair in their dealings with others, and they expect fairness in return.

This is an Earth Rat Year. The additon of the element of Earth into people born in Rat Years gives a yearning for stability and roots, and a reluctance to be overly spontaneous.

Famous Rats include Mozart, Shakespeare, Nixon (well, he was hard-working, anyway) and Samuel L. Jackson. Gung Hay Fat Motherfuckin' Choy, you sons of bitches!

Snowmen don't usually have hair, but my hair is like my single most defining feature. They also don't usually have clothes, other than a hat and scarf and maybe some mittens, but I didn't feel comfortable being represented by a naked snowoman. I'm a very modest person.

The eyes are supposed to be peppermints. The traditional swirled pink and white wasn't possible to recreate in the mediums of felt and hot glue. And that's a cross stitched Christmas tree I'm holding.

Academics finished our office decorations this morning. We won the competition last year so we're feeling pretty competetive. We chose the theme "Let it snow".

Here's the door to our office. I did some of the snowflakes (papersnowflakes.com!), but the student workers made most of them. Merry Christmas, this year we got you carpal tunnel syndrome!

 

The big snowman has different accessories you can dress him with, like a Mr. Potato Head.

 

We each made our own personal snowman/woman. Can you guess which one is me?

 

 

Our tree. Except for this and a few things we had lying around from other years, we made everything ourselves.

 

We strung cottonballs together for falling snow, in addition to more paper snowflakes. We also had an urn of hot chocolate to bribe the judges with.

 

We did the "snow" on the ground last, because it's going to get everywhere. The janitors are going to hate us.

 

We did the whole front office ceiling. It was like a paper snowflake sweatshop factory in here last week. I like them because we made so many different kinds, with very little duplication, some single, some double strands, even some triple strands. Everyone knows no two snowflakes are alike!

Snowball fight! I did the "splats" and somone else did the snowball halves. Then I glued them together and taped them to the walls.

Let it snow!

And since you can't improve on perfection, I'm just going to link to this LiveJournal post and not add anything.

Toward a Childfree Identity

Mexico wins the "Coolest Version of Halloween" contest, to my mind.

 

And here's a tutorial on how to make your own sugar skulls.

p.s. We had a fairly sizeable earthquake last night, 5.6 and centered in the South Bay. (Fremont is either the southernmost part of the East Bay or the easternmost part of the South Bay, depending on who you're talking to. I always considered it the East Bay, myself.) It was awesome, I was washing my supper dishes and it felt like a semi was driving through the house. It lasted for an unusual length of time too, something that hasn't happened since Loma Prieta. Dishes rattled a good bit but nothing fell or broke.

 

If you felt it, help out the USGS by filling out a "Did you feel it?" report. It only takes a minute.

October 11 is National Coming Out Day! You know, just in case you had anything you felt like sharing.

Joking aside, when I stop to think about it, I have been really blessed to have been raised by tolerant, accepting parents; in an area of the country that, for the most part, doesn't give a damn about the gender of the person you're sleeping with. I'm not gay myself, but I dislike any kind of bigotry.

In all honesty, I wasn't even really aware homophobia existed until I was in my late teens. We always had friends of the family who were openly gay, since I was a small child, and it was never remarked upon or treated as unusual. Some people liked the opposite sex, some people prefered to stick with their own, but we all ate turkey on Thanksgiving, so who cares?

In the Bay Area (at least the parts I frequent), it's not the gay people that have to hide, or at the very least downplay their personal life. It's the homophobes. People don't hesitate and do a mental check of how well they know the people in the room before they mention their boy/girlfriend. It's the people that want to tell a homophobic joke that have to do that. Every time I curse the Bay Area for being too expensive and think about moving, I remember that, and somehow find a way to justify staying.