Told You I Was Right Up Front.

Somebody unearthed this Youtube video, nearly a year later, from the second night of the Moody Blues double-header with the Dallas Symphony. You can watch the entire video here, but here's a screen cap, so you can spot me:

Can You Believe...

... His Chubbiness, Prince Fluffy-Butt, will be a whole year old next week.

Good News and Not-As-Good News

The good news: The 'pooter is out of the shop. Finally.

The not-as-good news... I have to reinstall the operating system.

They put the new parts into it days ago... but it was having trouble booting up, and after several days of attempted diagnosis, they finally figured out that when the power supply blew, and took out the motherboard with it, there was a cascading effect on the operating system.

I told the guy I can do that myself. The truth is, I'd far rather do that myself, because I know exactly how I want it set up.

Guess how I'm spending my weekend....

Announcement From The Management

I have had to enable comment moderation because the Chinese pornographers are having a field day with Blogger blogs.

All this means is that your comments will not show up on the blog until I have approved (or disapproved) them.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

What Fun

I've just been chatting on Facebook with my grand-niece B, whom I have not seen since she was just a toddler. She's 10 going on 11 now, and is coming to this area in August for a visit. What fun it will be to see her. She friend-requested me last night, out of the blue, and until she did so, I wasn't sure she actually knew who I was... although, being her grandmother's youngest sister, she certainly SHOULD know that I exist, at the very least!

And all this and 50 cents will get you tomorrow's newspaper.

Some Days You're The Windshield...

I'll give you 3 guesses what I've been this week. (Hint: It's not the windshield.)

It all started Tuesday morning. I was minding my own business, when all of a sudden my personal desktop computer shut itself off, and I smelled something burning. So I took it to the hospital, and the prognosis was grim. Seemed the power supply blew--and took the motherboard with it. Since I'm on a budget, I took the option of new power supply and new/used motherboard instead of a new computer. All the other pieces are still good. But they had to order the parts, so the 'pooter is still in the hospital.

But I still have the company computer to do my work on. Or do I? Mid-shift this morning, it quit talking to the internet. Since I work over the internet, this was not good.

I rebooted it twice, also rebooted the router and the DSL modem. I even tried switching the network cable to a different port in the router, in case the port had gone bad. I knew the router was fine, as was my internet connection, because I had the laptop running on wi-fi in another part of the house, and it was talking to the internet just fine.

I called tech support and they said it was very likely the network card inside the computer, as those have a habit of dying at the most inconvenient times. He suggested I try a "dongle," which is a USB ethernet adapter. I finally found the thing, right where I last left it. I even found the driver CD.

Next problem. The CD drive in the company computer could not read the driver CD. Back to the laptop, to download the drivers (which are fortunately still available) onto a thumb drive.

Now we're cooking. Or so I thought, until I experienced the first Blue Screen of Death I've seen in a very long time.

After yet another reboot, now Internet Exploder keeps freezing up on me. This too is bad, because the company software platform is IE-based. Makes it kind of hard to work....

So now I'm running every diagnostic trick I know to see if I can settle this thing down. And meanwhile, I had the tech support guys install the company software on my laptop, so I have that for a backup now.

I should have just rolled over and gone back to sleep when the alarm went off this morning, I am thinking.

This Is MUCH Too Cute Not To Share.

There is no indication of what zoo, or what bear this is... but this panda tries to climb the enclosure wall to greet some delighted visitors.



(Hat tip: Velia, via Facebook)

UPDATE: Velia contacted the person who posted the video to Youtube, and they replied that the video was shot at the zoo in Chongqing, China.

Somebody Didn't Do Their Research.

Forbes Magazine, no less.

People. Please. If you're going to discuss my home town, for cryin' out loud LOOK AT A MAP FIRST.

Route 1
California
Distance: 72 miles on the Big Sur Coast Highway
Points of Note: You'll start in the idyllic Carmel-by-the-Sea and head north to Los Padres National Forest (complete with Redwood trees), then hit Carmel Mission, Basilica, Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, the Monterey Bay Aquarium. You'll see sea lion caves, cliffs and gleaming coastline.

For the record... Los Padres National Forest is NOT north of Carmel. Furthermore, neither the Carmel Mission nor the Monterey Bay Aquarium is on Route 1.

For you flatlanders, those points of interest, in the proper order, north to south, are:

• Monterey Bay Aquarium
• Carmel-By-The-Sea
• Carmel Mission
• Highway 1
• (a bunch of other stuff they don't mention in the article)
• Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park

Yes, I am feeling a bit curmudgeonly this morning. Thank you for asking.

TV Show Recommendation

You'll have to watch it on the computer at Hulu... but it's well worth it, if you like quirky British humor. (Or should I say 'humour'?)

Friend Wendy recommended it to me a few weeks ago, as the 4th season was just finishing up on local PBS. With the first episode I watched, I understood the basic premise and who all the major characters were. That's good writing, if you ask me--for a viewer to "get" a show by watching a random episode in the 4th season.

So last night I found my way to Hulu, where they have the first 3 seasons available for viewing. You have to sign up for a free account to watch this one, because the show has "adult" content. They get away with stuff on British TV that would be a no-no here. For instance, in the first episode, the main character said the S word.

Oh, you want to know the name of the show? Doc Martin. Not related to any form of footwear that I know of. Check it out. It's quite amusing.

How Do I Get This Across...

... without sounding like I'm blaming the victim? Because I'm not. I'm blaming the perp.

But it's hard not to assume somebody has been living under a rock for the past 5 years, if they aren't aware that going off alone with Joran van der Sloot can be hazardous to one's health, not to mention life and limb....

More Stuff You Didn't Know About Online Privacy

On a tip from TYWKIWDBI:

You Deleted Your Cookies? Think Again

More than half of the internet’s top websites use a little known capability of Adobe’s Flash plug-in to track users and store information about them, but only four of them mention the so-called Flash Cookies in their privacy policies, UC Berkeley researchers reported Monday.

Unlike traditional browser cookies, Flash cookies are relatively unknown to web users, and they are not controlled through the cookie privacy controls in a browser. That means even if a user thinks they have cleared their computer of tracking objects, they most likely have not.

I installed a Firefox add-on called BetterPrivacy. If you read to the bottom of the article linked above, they have some other options listed.

Not, mind you, that I much care who sees that I browsed some photos at Flickr... but better safe than sorry.

Anyone besides me ever feel like they're playing whack-a-mole, trying to stay ahead of all the possibilities?

Cross-posted at the Monterey Bay RWA Members' Blog

Anybody Remember This?

One of my favorite audio bits that made the rounds online a few years back....

Somebody has done a nifty little Youtube video.

Why? Just because I still think it's funny. Enjoy!

Just Hangin' Out.

Su Lin (the 4-1/2-year-old) proves what the keeper told us at our visit, that pandas have all-but-rubber bones and joints.



A bit later, she found a slightly more comfortable-appearing position in which to take her next nap.

I'll Be Very Surprised If Anyone Recognizes This.

(Except Bonnie... that's her husband singing.)

WWF... or WWF???

Both at once, I guess.



Image borrowed from www.myconfinedspace.com

I Am Truly Evil. (Updated!)

Remember that alleged "professional" bulletin board I keep getting banned from?

Well... the trolls and the paranoids are still at it. Interestingly, the company I work for is one of the biggest targets of their spewed venom, and if anyone dares to poke their head up and say they're actually happy with their job, they are accused of being a "suit" or a "plant" because nobody could possibly be happy working for that company.

I keep maintaining that I am not a suit, I am a pajama, and besides, if the suits have it so good, why on earth don't these people claw their way up the ladder and BECOME a suit, so they too can sit around on their pinkytoes eating bon-bons all day, which is more or less what they accuse the suits of doing, while collecting a ginormous paycheck at the expense of us minions down in the trenches? (I've been a suit. It's overrated, and nary a bon-bon in sight.)

But I digress. Early this morning somebody mentioned that management "stalks" the board, so the complainers better hope nobody ever finds out who they are.

Well. You know me. An opening like that? Watch and learn.

So I posted a message titled "Rats! They're onto us!" which read as follows: "Initiate secret code protocol Alpha Alpha Whiner Finder. Execute in three, two, one, MARK!" and I signed it, of course, "The Suits."

One of the real "suits" with whom I am in contact had a good laugh, at least.

UPDATE: Some humor-impaired maroon actually took my post seriously, if you can believe it, and wrote "Quick! Just keep calling everyone who doesn't blow sunshine up your butt a whiner!"

Good freaking grief. Our society (and our profession) is doomed. Doomed, I tell you!

Good Thing I Didn't Sign Up This Year.

For the Big Sur Marathon 10.6 mile walk, that is.

Because the night before (last Saturday), I threw out my back doing absolutely nothing. (Okay, I lied. I was breathing.)

And if I had signed up for the walk, I wouldn't have been able to do it anyway.

Yeah, I'm Still Alive.

Still wiggling, as my dad used to say.

Good friend Lucy Ann was ready to send out the posse to make sure I was okay.

Go ahead and send 'em anyway, Lucy... especially if any of 'em are cute.

Then Again, It Was MOSTLY Bears!

Had a disagreement with one of the camera cards. I finally won, and recovered some photos from the Saturday morning that I thought I had lost.... Here's lil' miss coy Zhen Zhen, the 2-1/2-year-old, peeking out of the hidey-hole where she was sleeping when we first caught sight of her:



Her name means "Precious." Quite appropriate, isn't it?

And to prove once again I didn't ONLY take pictures of pandas... here's a California condor, a highly-endangered and startlingly-ugly bird up close:

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 .