And It Wasn't Just Bears.

A few residents of the Wild Animal Park:

Just Because.

Bai Yun (the mama bear) in one of her favorite poses... hanging over her drinking fountain.

Oh Yeah? How Are They Gonna Know??

From the label on the back of a bottle of drain opener:



Isn't enough the federal gubbermint is taking over our healthcare? Now they have to take over our bathrooms too?

Look out... the bathroom police are coming for YOU!

I Expect To Be Arrested.

For smart-aleckry on the census form.

Yeah, they can make me fill it out, but they can't make me play their stupid little ethnicity games.

On the "race" question I went all the way to the bottom, checked "other" and wrote in "human."

Expecting the jack-booted knuckle-dragging thugs to show up on my doorstep any old time....

But I'm pretty sure they really don't give a rat's rear end that I'm white beige because the only yes/no question had to do with whether I was some form of Hispanic.

And if there'd been room for an essay answer, I would have spewed about how it's unfair and misleading to lump all people of European ancestry under the "white" label because if you're going to go down that road, let's point out that those of us whose ancestors several hundred years back hail from northern Scotland (mine) have little in common with those who were born in Italy and emigrated to this country as young adults (my landlord and his wife), for instance. And yet, the gubbermint considers us all "white."

Can you tell I get really, really annoyed about this crazy Balkanization that I'm paying for via my tax dollars?

I am a human-American of light beige skin tones. So there.

The Hat

Old pal Patrick mentioned the "khaki" hat.

Actually... if you look very, very closely, it is a WHITE baseball cap, complete with plush panda ears sticking out of the top.

I had at least half a dozen people at the zoo demand to know where I got it. Well... new friend Laura made it. That one and most of the other ones you can see being worn in the picture. She took plain white hats and sewed fuzzy ears onto them, complete with something to stiffen them and make them stand up.

Because inquiring minds want to know.

Somebody Finally Scanned It.

Can you spot me?

Almost Done

Spent the night in Lost Hills, because although it's only 3 hours from home, I was very, very tired, and I did NOT want to drive into the setting sun!

So I'm off to make that last leg this morning. And there was another method to my madness... on the trip down, I spotted hillsides absolutely COVERED in wildflowers, not too far east of Paso Robles, but I didn't stop to take pictures. Today, I will.

Yesterday's adventures began around 8 a.m. at the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve. I had the place completely to myself, and took about a 40-minute walk. The flowers were rather a bust--but the silence was magnificent.

After a quick breakfast back in Rosamond, I made my way to the cat place. It's small enough that you can get in and out in a hour--and that's if you go around twice and spend some time rummaging through the T-shirts in the gift shop.

And then... a meander down San Francisquito Canyon Road, with a hike to the site of the St. Francis Dam, which fell down and killed hundreds of people back in 1928. There's not much left of it, but it isn't hard to spot, because whenever you see a piece of grayish-beige aggregate with smaller rocks in it... that's a piece of the dam. Don't tell anybody... but I picked up a chunk and brought it with me. (There's still enough there to satisfy souvenir-hunters from now until Doomsday.)

After that, I just pointed the car northwest and drove and drove. I wasn't sure how I did it... but I ended up in Buttonwillow, of all places, and thus to Lost Hills where I decided it was time to call it a day.

Precious Moments

Taken during the 10 seconds or so that "Yunior" was awake Monday morning.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, our little extravaganza even got press coverage. Several of the reporter's photos can be found here.

Liana is already planning next year's convention....

Stud Muffin And The Acrobat

Two of the pictures I described below.... First picture is Gao Gao, second picture is Zhen Zhen.

We Saw All Five Pandas Today!

We got very, VERY lucky....

Saturday morning, as part of our special tour, they took us into the "classroom" area (which is normally off-exhibit) where Zhen-Zhen is currently living, so we got to see her. Of course we saw a lot of Su Lin, Bai Yun, and Yun Zhi as well, because they are the bears currently on exhibit to the public. We had hoped to catch a glimpse of Gao-Gao, the patriarch (father of Su, Zhen, and "Yunior") who is also currently off-exhibit, but he was never in line with the tiny cracks in the fence.

Until this morning. We had gotten a heads-up that one could see into his enclosure (and Zhen's) from a high walkway across the canyon, so this morning on our last trip to the zoo, we purposely came down that walkway--and there he was. Mister Stud-Muffin himself, prowling around his enclosure. Yes, he was at a great distance, but we saw him.

We saw a lot of Su, Bai, and Yun. Then, on the way back, we looked for Gao-Gao again, and he was not visible--but Zhennie was playing trapeze artist in a tree branch, swinging around, hanging upside down, doing all kinds of maneuvers. Again, she was quite far away, but we sure got a kick out of watching her. I took some pictures with my telephoto, but I haven't yet checked to see how they came out. Stay tuned....

I dropped Laura and Brad off at the airport and headed north. This time, it only took two and a half hours to get from San Diego to Burbank (remember, it took 4 hours on Friday). The time frame was 1 to 3:30 p.m., and included a gas stop, a burger-to-go stop, and a couple of fairly minor traffic tie-ups.

After a Starbucks stop, I headed on up into the high desert. I am now ensconced for the night in Rosamond (near Edwards Air Force Base), because tomorrow I am planning to go visit the cats. Those of you who have been reading this blog for a long time might remember a prior visit there--5 years ago already, it was, on another road trip (the Death Valley trip, for whatever that's worth). I also plan to do a little wildflower-chasing.

Point of minor trivial interest. This motel is the first I have been to in YEARS where the room key is--a key. Not a card, but an actual key that looks just like my front door key at home.

And now I'm going to finish my bowl of soup and get ready to watch the season opener of Dancing with the Stars. If y'all are lucky, I might get some more pictures posted before I give up for the night. But don't hold your breath. :)

Because Patrick Wants To Know.

I didn't stay in Burbank. That was just the last time I had looked at the clock. That's how I know it took 4 hours to get from there to San Diego.

Today, we started out at the Wild Animal Park, and were fortunate enough to see the cheetahs doing something besides sleeping (the lions weren't nearly so visitor-friendly), and we saw the baby elephant.

Then, we went back to the zoo--and were very, very fortunate in that Prince Fluffy-Butt also did something, for once, besides sleep. I shot 500 frames in the panda section alone. (Rapid-fire shutter mode is a wonderful thing.)



The remaining convention survivors are headed off to dinner in about half an hour. My new friends Laura and Brad and I will be making one last trip to the zoo tomorrow morning, because their flight home to Texas doesn't leave until 3 p.m., and I'm driving, so I can do whatever I want. They had bought a zoo membership, which paid for itself this weekend alone--and they gave me all the free passes that came with it, so I haven't had to pay admission to any park I've been to this weekend.

This Is As Good As It Got.

All day long.



We went through the line 5 times, I think, and baby bear did what he does best--sleep.

Our little extravaganza got some press coverage.

This morning we're off to the Wild Animal Park, but some of us are going back to the zoo late this afternoon, hoping for another try at some good pictures.

This Place Is Unbelievable.

Long story a whole lot shorter... I'm in San Diego, going to visit (who else) the pandas tomorrow. A bunch of us who met on the internet are going together, and the zoo is providing us with a special behind-the-scenes tour. And tomorrow night, we have a major banquet/shindig here at the hotel. Should be a lot of fun.

But this hotel is amazing. When I made my reservation, I said, just put me in a place with a bed and a working bathroom, I don't need anything more. Well. Apparently, the entire hotel is suites. So I have a large room with 2 queen-size beds, a LARGE closet with mirrored sliding doors, a full bathroom--AND a full kitchen, complete with 4-burner gas stove, microwave, full-sized kitchen sink, and full-sized refrigerator. There's also a dining table with 4 chairs. The closet contains a full set of dresser drawers, and then there's another completely-empty storage closet without even a hanging rod in it. I'm not sure what that's for. (It would hold a kidnapped baby panda. Hmmm.)

I know people who live in apartments smaller than this.

Other than that, it was a LONG drive. It took me 4 hours to get from Burbank to San Diego--and I didn't stop once. (That was in addition to the 6 hours it took me to get to Burbank in the first place.) Who were all those people on I-5, and what were they doing in my way??

Oh, you want to know what hotel it is? Park Manor Suites. You can look it up.

For No Reason At All

Anybody know what/where this is?


Photo source

See below the fold for more information,if you're curious.

There's more! Click here to read the rest!

Surprising? Not At All.

In today's Yahoo news:



Think about it. How many times have YOU had a job where you could have been happy if only it weren't for that constantly-whining co-worker? The person for whom the glass is not half full, it is not half empty, it has a very large crack in it? The one bad apple that spoils -- well, you get the drift.

I Laughed Out Loud.

A little creative Photoshopping, found at the always-interesting Are We Lumberjacks?

Bear In A Tree.

Too True...

"Baby Blues," from today's comics page, offered without further comment from me. Interpret as you choose.

Anybody Want To Buy A Busted Swiffer Wet Jet?

Empty cleaning fluid bottle included....

So much for that handy-dandy appliance. The second time I went to use it... as soon as I pointed the business end of it at the floor, the entire bottle of cleaning fluid leaked out in a steady stream.

It's a good thing I still own a mop. You know, a mop. The thing you dunk into a bucket of some kind of liquid and wring out.

An entire bottle of Swiffer fluid, plus an old-fashioned mop, will indeed clean the kitchen floor.

But the now-empty bottle will NOT disengage from the appliance. It laughs at my puny efforts when I press the release button and try to pull off the bottle. We'll see how it feels when I take an X-Acto knife to it....

Deepest Condolences To The Koenig Family.

Andrew Koenig, son of Star Trek actor Walter Koenig, has been found dead of apparent suicide. He was known to suffer from depression.

I never met Andrew, but I met his father many times in the late 1980s, and met his sister Danielle on the west coast Star Trek cruise in 1987.

Heartbreaking, to see Walter break down on national television. My deepest condolences to him and his wife Judy, and the rest of the family.

What is WITH all the WHINING these days??

What happened to good sportsmanship? Am I really such an old fogey that I see something wrong with all this grumbling and sour grapes?

Last night, it was the Russian ice dancers who whined that the Canadian gold medal winners didn't really "dance" on the ice, they just skated, and therefore did not deserve the gold medal in ice dance. (I am assuming that they believed that they, the Russians, DID deserve it. I did not see where they mentioned the American silver medalists, probably conveniently forgetting that one more pair stood between them and the gold.)

Last week, it was another Russian, men's silver medalist Evgeni Plushenko, who grumbled that American Evan Lysacek should not have won gold because he does not have a quadruple jump, and therefore somehow is not a proper skater.

Umm... Scott Hamilton (who won gold in 1984) did not have a quad either.... Gosh darn. All these years he's been entertaining us, and he's been an improper skater all this time. Dang.

By contrast, American fourth-place ice dancers Tanith and Ben congratulated the medal winners, and if they had disagreement with the judges' decision, they did NOT display it in public. And this is how it should be.

Bet You Thought I'd Forgotten.

Not a chance!

Rock-a-bye bear-baby, on the treetops....

They Opened A Support Ticket For THIS??

I just e-mailed tech support with a quick question about how to turn off the sodding beeps that drown out whatever is supposed to be in my headphones, every time I hit a certain keystroke combination.

And they opened a support ticket. Geez. It seems it would have been a lot easier for somebody just to e-mail me back and say here's how you do it, either that or tell me it can't be done.

Guess this is how they guarantee full employment for tech support people, eh?

Janet Is Fine.

A little late to the party here... but it's a wonder her friends didn't totally crash the internet yesterday, looking for her. You see, she works for the IRS in ... Austin, Texas.

However... she works in a building about 15 miles away from the the one where the latest Darwin Award contender met his demise yesterday. Naturally, she's a bit shook up, exhausted, and VERY glad today is Friday, but it could have been So. Much. Worse.

Quite a miracle that the idiot took no one else with him, isn't it?

Social Networking In The Modern Age

Via e-mail from faithful reader Pat, aka Bum:

SILICON VALLEY – A new social network is about to alter the playing field of the social media world, and it’s called PhoneBook.

According to its creators, who invented the network in their dorm room at Berkeley, PhoneBook is the game-changer that will leave Facebook, Twitter and even the much anticipated Google Buzz in a cloud of dust.

“With PhoneBook, you have a book that has a list of all your friends in the city, plus everyone else who lives there,” says Danny Fruber, one of PhoneBook’s creators.

“When you want to chat with a friend, you look them up in PhoneBook, and find their unique PhoneBook number,” Fruber explains. “Then you enter that number into your phone and it connects you directly to them.”

Another breakout utility of PhoneBook allows the user to arrange face-to-face meetings with his or her friends at restaurants, bars, and other “places,” as Fruber calls them.

“You will be sitting right across from your friend and seeing them in 3-D,” he said. “It’s like Skype, only without the headset.”

PhoneBook will enable friends to play many games as well, such as charades, cards, and a game Fruber believes will be a breakout: Farm.

“In Farm, you have an actual farm where you raise real crops and livestock,” he says. “It’s hard work, but it’s more fun than Mafia, where you actually get killed.”

Kind of reminds me of the thing that was going around a few years go about a guaranteed piracy-proof method of music distribution. I can't find it now, but it involved a picture of an old-fashioned vinyl record album, and some text about how the youngsters could not figure out what to do with it.

This Says It All.

Hat tip: Moonbattery.

His Royal Highness...

... Prince Fluffybutt, complete with spotted tail tip.

Boys Versus Their Toys

I'm not sure who is winning this contest.



About ten seconds after this screen capture was taken, Big Mama came along and knocked the red ball right out of his lil' paws with her big snout, and now it looks like he's got one of his back feet stuck in one of the holes.

Sometimes, these balls with holes in them come with treats inside. Don't know if this is one of those occasions.

Worth Another Look

Hard to believe it's been more than 10 years since this showed up....

I only went looking for it because I was hitting the car radio buttons, and the song came on.

Now, be honest... does ANYONE out there ever hear this song anymore without thinking about a squashed one-eyed alien??

Enjoy!

Well, Now I Know NOT To Try THAT At Home!

In an effort to perform some function on my computer, I accidentally hit some combination of CTRL and ALT and an arrow key--and my entire screen turned upside down.

I have enough trouble working without adding THAT little feature to my workday.

Fortunately, I have another computer, so I went to it and Googled "screen upside down." And, in short order, I was able to fix the screen that was catty-wompus.

Whew!

Shhh.

Baby sleeping.

Worth A Rerun

This morning I was perusing my old blog (which is actually still up on the former site) and found a few things worth resurrecting--and worth re-posting, just in case their links ever break.

First up: An extremely politically incorrect poem, by St. George True.

There's more! Click here to read the rest!

Don't Mess With Mama Bear.

She plays rough!

Bear In The Bushes

In which Chubby Cubby rolls around, chews on the shrubbery, and eventually tries to stand on his head....

Cuteness Overload

Baby bears don't have thumbs, so they suck on their entire paws.

Thanks, as always, to the fabulous DoxieMom who "runs tape" almost every day on the live Pandacam.

Good News, Bad News

The good news: Got an unexpected message this morning from former co-worker Stacy, who was going to be in town for an appointment, and wondered if I wanted to meet for lunch. Long story short, we did, had a lovely chat, got caught up on all the news.

The not-so-good news: It's like I'm learning my job all over again, because today our work got transferred to a completely different software platform. The work itself is the same; but how we get to it, where we click, the shortcut keys, every single thing, is new and different. We were supposed to have migrated 2 weeks ago, and we were trained accordingly--but then the conversion date got switched back, so we all forgot every single thing we learned in training.

Are we having fun yet? No!

I think I'll go take a peek at what the you-know-whats are up to....

Ahh. Snoozing the afternoon away. Big surprise there.



Yesterday afternoon, Mama Bear was doing her headless panda act:

Bittersweet

Tai Shan, who was born over 4 years ago at the National Zoo, is moving to China next week. "His" humans will surely miss him.


(Image gratefully borrowed from Somesai at Flickr)

Best Line Of The Evening

"Ginny and I were going to start a procrastinators' club, but we never got around to it."

Sawdust Is Fun!

Sawdust-rolling is hungry (and thirsty) work.



Apparently it's a rather tiring proposition, as well.

Gully-Washing

If you see a large wooden boat taking shape in the front yard, you'll know why. I'm just sayin'.

Meanwhile... anybody got a snorkel and flippers I can borrow?

Baby Bear Gets Body-Slammed Again.

And some other stuff.

This movie consists of some brief clips from this morning's antics. I haven't taken the time to learn any fancy movie-editing techniques, so the transitions are nonexistent, plus Movie Maker apparently has no way to put text right into a frame. So here's the script, as I see it.

First... Yun Zi is minding his own business, when Mom just plows him under. He barely gets back on his feet when she goes by again--and you can see him back off so he doesn't get knocked down again.

Then he climbs onto the water fountain. He asks Mom how to get down, and she tells him, you got up there, you can get yourself down. So eventually (and a lot of footage has been cut out of the middle) he does get down--snout first.

Finally, he's sitting on the platform (which is also a scale) when a keeper comes into the room and tries to bribe him with treats. He plays coy for a while. Eventually the keeper picks him up and carries him out, presumably to put him into the public exhibit for his morning showing.

Enjoy!

UPDATE: Youtube has a means for putting captions into videos, so I made use of that.

A Word To The Wise Bear...

... do NOT climb into Mama Bear's water fountain.

Yesterday, Yun Zi learned that getting up is easier than getting down, and he never actually did figure out how to get down by himself, because Bai Yun apparently wanted a drink, and took matters into her own paws. Twice. Splat! Ouch!

Just Hangin' Out In The Tree.

It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it.

Baby Bear Climbs Mount Mom.

Immediately following which she rolls him off and does zerberts on his tummy.



Shortly followed by the dreaded under-the-chin koochie-koochies.

Press Debut

Mama and baby were introduced to the world-wide press yesterday. The little guy lost his grip and went splat shortly after this image was captured.



You can see that fall (and the fact that he got right up when he landed) on this video. The whoopsie happens right at about 2:18:



Again, I ask... was there ever such cute-i-tude ever, anywhere in the whole wide world?

He Goes Public Tomorrow.

I don't have to tell you who "he" is, do I??

I may get a chance to get down there myself in a couple of months, and see Himself in person. Woo-hoo!

Quality Time

I really hope one of the other Pandacam watchers caught the recent antics on video, because just a few minutes ago, His Chubbiness was climbing around on that log and plank arrangement you can see in the background--and then he faw down go boom, while Mama snoozed away in the foreground. If I can get it, I will of course post it.

As a side note... the particular yard Mama and Baby are playing in is called the "classroom" and is not visible to the public. Baby hasn't gone out on public exhibit yet. Apparently Mama herself will decide when it's time, and haul him out there herself.

You Just Can't Get Good Help Anymore.

Today's earth-shattering news headline:

Snowflakes on Christmas Cards Drawn Wrong.

In pop culture depictions, snowflakes are usually drawn inaccurately, an expert now says. Snowflakes are six-cornered, rather than the four-, five- and eight-cornered crystals typically depicted in children's books, Christmas cards and even in an ad for a science magazine.

Thomas Koop of Bielefeld University in Germany noticed the frosty mistake on a subscription advertisement for the scientific journal Nature that contained octagonal snow crystals in the background.

"Ironically it was entitled '...for anyone who loves science,'" Koop said. Bringing the irony full circle, Koop's commentary on the subject is published in the Dec. 24 issue of Nature.

Snowflakes are made of water molecules that link up via hydrogen bonds. The best and most efficient way to arrange themselves is a hexagonal crystal lattice, Koop explained. So rather than eight sides, snowflakes are bound by physical laws to take on a six-sided shape.

And if that weren't enough, raindrops are also inaccurately depicted.

"The shape of falling rain drops is depicted incorrectly in almost any (children's) book that I know of," Koop said. "Most often, they are drawn in a teardrop-like shape, a kind of pinnacle at the top and round at the bottom."

He added, "However, in reality cloud droplets are spherical because of water's surface tension and falling rain drops are somewhat flattened at the bottom (depending on their fall speed), because of the resistance they feel as they fall through the air (similar to the drag that you feel in your face when you bike)."

Is there nothing sacred anymore?

Was There Ever Such Cute-itude?

Ever? Anywhere in the world?

Mama Bai Yun plays helicopter with baby Yun Zi.

Not To Be Outdone

In the cuteness department that is.

This is Zhen-Zhen, "Yunior's" big sister.

Testing His Teeth

The keepers assure us that he isn't actually eating that bamboo just yet....

Just Whose Brilliant Idea Was This, Anyway?

Timing. Bureaucratic timing.

They're tearing up the streets. Right by the mall. Right before Christmas.

I tried to run an errand today. Have a look at the map. You can see the most direct route from point A to point B--but a crucial street near point A is completely blocked for construction right now. The route I was forced to take is shown (sort of) in green. As you can see, it goes clear off the map in a couple of places.

Why didn't I take some of those in-between streets? Because they don't go through, that's why. Amazing as it may seem, the route I took was indeed the most direct route to my destination.

Adding insult to injury, when I got to point B--they were closed! So after all that, my trip was a complete waste of time.

Good thing I know the streets very, very well.

Can you tell I'm seriously annoyed right about now?

A 17-Pound Bruiser

Trying to escape the keeper's custody during his veterinary exam yesterday .

No Expiration Date On This Kind Of Cute.

And if you look closely, you can even see the little black spot at the tip of his tail.

Brilliant!

Quoted at Wizbang, posted at Brutally Honest, by guest blogger Locutisprime, quoting an e-mail from a friend. (Did you follow all that? S'okay; neither did I.)

To the editor:

I don't understand why the White House is so upset about the two party crashers at Barack Obama's steak dinner the other night.

Is it really appropriate and politically correct to call them party crashers just because they trespassed on Mr. Obama? Does that make them criminals? Isn't that discrimination? Shouldn't they be rewarded for such bold and brave behavior? Maybe they were just trying to feed their family?

I would suggest that it's more appropriate to call them "undocumented guests."

Just because they weren't officially invited doesn't mean they should be treated like criminals. Maybe they should get free health care, free housing, free legal services and free White House green cards so next time they can enter legally. And they should be able to bring all of their relatives and family members, too.

How can Mr. Obama be mad at them just because they crossed over some arbitrary man-made border? They were there only to do the things that regularly invited guests didn't want to do. (Like hang out with Joe Biden.)

How can the White House punish these poor oppressed undocumented visitors?

Abso-freaking-lutely brilliant. Now why, oh why, didn't I think of that??

He's Walking.

And surely, no one needs to ask "who?"

This video was captured about 4 days ago on the live Pandacam:

And...

For the two or three of you on the entire planet who haven't seen this one yet:

I Am Speechless.

His Chubbiness Has A Name Now.

At 104 days old, The Chubster today received his official name, chosen from thousands of suggestions submitted from all over the world.

He is Yun Zi, which means "son of cloud." Quite appropriate, since his mother's name, Bai Yun, means "white cloud."

Steve Wozniak On A Segway.

No, that's not the newest curse.

I just saw it. On the sidewalk in front of Walgreen's. No, really. Honest.

That Was Fun.

I hadn't been to a bonfire on Carmel Beach in YEARS.

Which, of course, means I had forgotten a few things. Such as, to bring a flashlight, because it's DARK down there. Fortunately, Naomi had one, and she lit my way back to the stairs, and up to the street. I took it from there.

Another reminder to self, for next time. Shish-kebab skewers do not make very good marshmallow or hot dog roasters. They're too short.

And vegetarian hot dogs (nice thought anyway, Rebecca) do not roast well. They just kind of turn black on the outside while still staying cool on the inside. They also have a disconcerting tendency to tear, and thus fall right off the skewers into the fire. Next time, it's the real thing, and some bent-out wire coat hangers. Or even a toasting fork.

But the smores were GREAT. I had two of them and decided if I ate any more, it'd be a sugar coma for sure. Right there on the beach.

And a big thank-you to Liz, who couldn't come, but provided the firewood anyway. And the guys at the next bonfire over, who enthusiastically shared their lighter fluid. (I think pyromania is a natural by-product of the Y chromosome.)

And it must be a function of people older than me, to NOT like their toasted marshmallows well-burnt. That's the best part--catching them on fire.

It's Hard Work Being Cute

This must be why His Chubbiness sleeps so much....

(He gets his real official name next Tuesday.)

Look, Ma, Got Teeth!

You really need to go watch the video to get the full effect.

During his weekly veterinary exam, he actually barked at the staff, and then tried to crawl right off the table.

Now, honestly, is there anything at all cuter on the face of this earth?

No Traction.

The poor lil' guy is trying desperately to locomote, but his little back feet just keep slipping out from under.

I reckon if I were trying to crawl on shredded bamboo, I might keep going splat too.





He's trying so hard he's practically standing on his head.

Writers, Start Your Engines.

Yes, it's National Novel Writing Month again already.

Fire up those laptops, and get thee to a local write-in!

Now This Is Just Toooo Funny.

Kind of like FAIL blog for engineering geeks. It's called There, I fixed it, and features photos of epic kludges and jury rigs.

To whet your appetite... here's just one sample:



Hat tip: Lois McMaster Bujold, one of my all-time favorite authors, who did not pay me to link to her site.