Atlas Bites...

Welcome to all you kids wandering over from Sadly, No!

I’ve been pretty lazy about blogging lately, but I figured if you are all dropping by and hoping for a little more AtlasMadness™, the least I could do is accommodate you.

Not surprisingly, embedding for this next video has also been disabled by request. But I can offer a screen shot:



I think she’s eating some imaginary food item; I’ll leave you all to speculate as to what that item might be. Once you’re done pondering that, check out the full video here.

Back? I hope you made it through the video intact. You'll do a lot better if you don't expect her to employ any logical thought patterns. Or actually follow a train of thought. Or complete any sentences.

Really, it's best if you just sit back and enjoy the ride. But in doing so, be sure to remember the most coherent thought she manages to express: you’re either with us, or you’re agin’ us. There are no other options.

Also, John Bolton? Super hot. I think it’s the mustache.

UPDATE: The lovely and talented Gavin M. provides us with shocking new photographic evidence:



I had no idea things were this bad. I mean, I'm sure they're a delicacy and everything, but doesn't she know that pandas are endangered? Yeesh.

In transit

I'm at O'Hare right now, killing time while I wait for my flight to KC to leave. It's been an uneventful trip so far, other than the woman in the row behind me on my flight from Boston, who spent an inordinate amount of time discussing (with a complete stranger) the horrible rash she had just picked up after getting a massage.

(Shudder)

She was concerned that she may have "ingested" something in the massage oil, because the rash had spread to "well... places the masseur didn't touch". That's wrong on so many levels. And I don't think "ingest" means what she thinks it means. Although you never know.

Thank God I wasn't sitting one row back. That could have been me nodding and smiling (and squirming) in the seat next to her.

Fortunately, I was able to drown the woman out (for the most part - sometimes you have a hard time not listening to these things; it's like the conversational equivalent of watching a train wreck). This was in large part due to the rockin' new tunes I got from the incomparable Maxx, who took a large chunk out of my Amazon wishlist in one fell swoop on Friday. (Yay Maxx!) For today, I have all the Spoon and New Pornographers I can eat, which is a very nice thing when you're trapped on planes and in airports, and trying not to be horrified by the people in the surrounding seats.

Anyway, nothing of substance to say - still creeped out by the rash discussion. Here's a New Pornographers video, though, so you can share in my musical joy:



I'll report in from the heart of Middle America in the next couple of days....

Finished drafts, gourmet hawklets, and sweet, sweet frog lovin'

Remember last Monday where I said I’d finish that paper "today"?

(If you don’t remember, just scroll down one post.)

What I actually meant to say was that I’d finish the paper "within one week".

Yeah. That’s totally what I meant.

And I’m true to my word! Or at least, I'm true to what I meant to say. I finally got a draft of the paper off to my advisor. Now I have a solid hour or so of free time before I have to move on to working on something else. Hooray!

I have a fair accumulation of wildlife photos to pass along, so I might as get to that now. In the first, our little hawklets have gone all gourmet on us, and dramatically improved their food presentation skills.












Mmmmm…. Mangled rodent on a bed of wilted greens.

Sadly, that looks more appetizing than anything I’ve managed to eat this weekend.

Next, I’ll share a picture of our floor’s pets, three Xenopus frogs that are all named Ricky (the naming thing is more or less my fault, but it’s a long story). They were all raised up from tadpole stage by my friend Dave, but one of the Rickys quickly and dramatically outgrew the other two, so we separated Big Ricky from Middle Ricky and Little Ricky for their own protection (these frogs tend to violently eat anything they can cram in their mouths).

Middle and Little have since grown up considerably, and were getting a little big for their tank, so we reunited them with Big in the large tank. And much um… affection… ensued. Take a look:














A little grainy, I know, but I can’t imagine you were expecting high quality frog porn. In any case, our lunchroom has been the site of sweet, sweet, frog lovin’ pretty much 24/7 since they’ve been reunited. Makes for some great lunch conversations. We’re all eagerly anticipating a whole new generation of Rickys coming up. Hopefully they’ll help fill the void left by the hawklets leaving the nest.

And now, I’m off to cook something that actually resembles real food, and then sleep for hours and hours and hours. Because now that I’m done with that paper, I have plenty of time to… work on the next one.

Bleh.

I’ll try to post about something of consequence at least once this week, but really, I make no promises.