I believe I can fly
November 30th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
What is it with the French doing crazy things at crazy heights? Watching the guy at the end of this trailer with no shirt, no chute, no bungee is… nerve wracking.
I Believe I can Fly ( flight of the frenchies). Trailer from sebastien montaz-rosset on Vimeo.
Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul.
September 27th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
NASA Satellite image, April 2004
Just a month and a half after her first attempt, 62-year-old Diana Nyad tried again to complete a cage-less swim from Havana to Florida, only to be stopped 40 hours and 92 miles in (just 11 miles short of the 103 mile goal) by Man ‘o War and Box Jellyfish stings. She says she’s learned to respect the ocean and won’t try again. I have trouble believing her.
A few pics here. Pretty gnarly.
Time to be Fearless…or insane
August 8th, 2011 § 1 Comment
Photo via CNN
If you’re bored today, check out Diana Nyad‘s progress as she attempts the 103-mile swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage (they have a kind of electrical shark-guarding field that surrounds her during the swim, but apparently it doesn’t work for certain types of shark, so she also has a team of “shark divers” to distract any sharks that go after her. Uhh…) She jumped in at 7:45pm ET yesterday, the swim is expected to take about 60 hours. She’s 61.
Track her progress on the swim here.
Update: She didn’t make it. After 29 hours she voluntarily quit, and exited the water vomiting (uhh…good call on calling it quits). Props to her for going for it.
From The Garden
August 2nd, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Actually, from my parent’s garden. Thank you, Dad.
This Is Where I Play With Fire
July 14th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Books, books, books…
This Is Where I Leave You by Johnathan Tropper
GREAT BOOK. Really entertaining, parts of it are hilarious (though the subject matter is anything but…death, infidelity, being stuck in a house with your family for 7 days…) I haven’t read any of his stuff before, but will check out some other novels. Definitely worth a read.
The Girl Who Played With Fire by Steig Larsson
I know, everyone and their mother has already read this. Good airplane book. Plot driven, exciting, much better than the first (which I thought was kind of slow in the beginning), though it did get kind of…ridiculous?…toward the end. (Like…SPOILER ALERT: A giant man with superhuman strength and exceptionally strong bones that are impossible to break who also has a strange disorder where he feels no pain. Really?) But still a fun read. Have been told I should read the third one soon, so it’s on my list.
Someday you’ll see my name in lights
April 26th, 2011 § 2 Comments
Congratulations to a (portly-looking) Barkley for making the final cut into the highly acclaimed novel Feel Better, Little Buddy: Animals with Casts (available on Amazon.)
Autographed copies available by request.
Update: Yes, this is for real, Barkley’s picture made it into the book, linked above, which you can buy on Amazon (I’ve had like 4 people ask me)
Methrat
March 14th, 2011 § 5 Comments
There is a big tree in the corner of our yard.
Last night Spike was going ballistic under the tree and wouldn’t come out, so we guessed he had cornered some animal under there. I started to freak out because possums and raccoons are rabid. And because Paul was in his boxers, I was sent outside with the head lamp to deal.
I stood next to the tree yelling Spikes name, but that did nothing. At first glance I couldn’t see anything. So I got down on my knees and shone the light between the branches and saw…this:
Its face was too short to be a possum, but it was almost the size of Spike (the above illustration is drawn to scale). It was like a gigantic, hideous, deformed rat. It was…So. Ugly.
I let out some noise between a gag and a shriek and jumped up to find a big stick/yell at Paul that he’d better get out there. As I ran towards the corner of the yard to get a stick, Spike stopped barking and that creature started making these god awful, other-wordly screeching noises. I started screaming “OH MY GOD HE’S EATING IT! SPIKE IS EATING THAT THING!”
About 30 seconds later, as Paul emerged from the house shirtless in jeans with a broom, Spike came trotting out from behind the tree, like nothing had happened. We searched him for bite marks or blood or saliva, but didn’t find anything and promptly threw him in the bathtub. So. Gross. God knows what our neighbors thought was going on.
We still don’t know what that was (Paul’s mom said it had to be a possum, maybe a baby one), and this morning we went and looked outside and there was no carcass there, which means it is still roaming free. Now every time I hear a bump in the night I think it’s that thing. That rat on roids. Or more likey…meth.
First we inspire them, then we perspire them
January 24th, 2011 § 1 Comment
I hate exercise, but I like the results.
~Jack LaLanne, 1914-2011
Meet Blobfish
December 8th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
I originally saw this in the NYT about a year ago, but an old coworker re-sent me the article recently because she said it reminded her of me (uh…thanks?) Turns out sad old Mr. Blob here is on the verge of extinction due to overfishing by trawlers, which is too bad, especially because the blobfish is drawn up with other fish and thrown away, not eaten.
Though it’s debatable if Blobfish looks that way because of its current plight or if we should just let things continue down their current path and put this fish out of its misery, overfishing is a problem. While out to dinner with some friends last week one of them pulled out their iPhone and pulled up the Seafood Watch App from the Monterey Bay Aquarium to help him decide what he was going to order. The app allows you to look up the best choices (in terms of ocean-friendly fish) in your area, good alternatives, and fish you should avoid. Andriod has similar Sustainable Fish and Overfished List apps, though they are a little less user-friendly. Seafood Watch also has a mobile website with an online pocket guide. Kind of cool. Save the blobfish.
