Today's a wonderful day! Hip hip hooray!
Such a sunny day! Hip hip hooray!
You're so wonderful, God of the Sun!
We love absolutely everything You've done!
The sun's the source of all life! Yay!
We love You, Píríuso! Such a sunny day!
We'll throw a parade for You, the Perfect One!
March up the street, all carrying a sun!
Today's a wonderful day! Hip hip hooray!
Such a sunny day! Hip hip hooray!
O Hérazhahívo, please let every day dawn as glorious as today, Your Holy Day! Please let every day teach us to admire Your wonderful sunrises and Your most excellent humidity! O Hérazhahívo, but can't You just turn down the humidity a notch or two in Houston?
Just for one day?
No?
Well, that's all right. I don't live there anymore. Thanks anyway, Hérazhahívo. You're swell.
Tomorrow, I fly to Spokane (again). It shall be my third trip there this year. I had ten last year. I guess I'm just not keeping up!
Speaking of keeping up, here are the numbers of my work flights for six-month periods:
Jul-Dec '06: 6
Jan-Jun '07: 14
Jul-Dec '07: 10
Jan-Jun '08: 13 (2 of which are merely scheduled)
Jul-Dec '08: 2 scheduled so far!
With vacation flights, I'll be up to 17 flights by mid-July. By that time last year, I had 24.
Rule One of the Fremont Solstice Parade is: "No printed words or recognizable logos."
I saw one logo during the parade. Do you recognize it?
Maybe they thought no one would recognize it. (Ha!)
Maybe they just didn't think the rules applied to them.
As a corollary of Friday's post, if you put a picture on the internet of a smiling, rollerskating, naked woman (full-frontal with no bodypaint), you can generate 1,000 views in a day.
Such a photo of mine from Saturday's parade has 965 views. I posted it yesterday around 6 p.m.
If the above description doesn't offend you, click here to see it (and add to the tally!).
... I guess she's not completely naked. She has high socks and a scarf!
UPDATE: It took 20 hours. 1,012 views.
O great and wonderful Zhíanoso! O wise and powerful Creator of the Universe! O most clever High God of Fire!
Please accept my gratitude on this, Your Holy Day. Please accept my gratitude that You don't play any tricks on me. Please accept my gratitude that You consider me so insignificant that You haven't burnt down my city.
Thank You, Zhíanoso!
On flickr, I have one photo approaching 5,000 views (right now, 4,999). I uploaded it a year ago, just after the Fremont Solstice Parade.
Since the parade will be recommencing tomorrow at noon, let's celebrate by posting the star photo:
Looks like fun, doesn't it?
And yet Chunlin doesn't want to do it. . .
(By the way, seven others have over 4,000 views. The only connection I see is that they all have naked or semi-naked women. Hmmm. . .)
Happy Summer Solstice, the happiest happy day of them all!
Not only is today the northernmost day for the sun this year, but it's also the Friday closest to that solstice, and therefore the happiest day of the year.
Just like back in January (or rather, just the opposite of then), some psychologists have deemed that this particular Friday is the day of the year when people are the most happy.
So, happy Happiest Day! Happy happy happy!
...
Are you happy yet?
Be happy!
Three weeks ago, I received a comment on the subdivision application from the zoning department.
Of the eight reviewing departments, five have completed their review. Zoning had the only comment so far.
The only thing I have to report today is that the other three had target dates for their review of May 20 (Addressing) and June 17 (City Light and Land Use). Now that all the target dates are in the past, they are officially going slower than even they said they would.
Why am I not surprised?
If I had a cushy job at the city, with almost no way to be fired, what incentive would I have to work hard and get things done on time?
6-5 to LSU. Boo!
I guess now I'll just have to root for . . . nobody. Who cares, anyway? It's just college baseball.
Rice lost yesterday (17-5 to Fresno -- yikes!), so they have one more chance in the losers' bracket, against LSU tomorrow.
C'mon, Rice! Go Owls!
Are you sure it's Monday already?
It seems like we should get at least another day off, if not more.
It can't be Monday. Nope.
O! say can you see by the dawn's early lightThank you, Francis Scott Key.
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming.
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming.
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
First reaction: Yay!
The "yes" crowd (much of the government) refuses to call it a EU Constitution, but that's what it is. They refer to it as the Lisbon Treaty.
Out of all the countries in the EU, Ireland is the only one who has a vote of the people on the subject. The Irish were the only people who had a chance to stop Europe from turning into a mini USSR. I'm sure the "leaders" over there will still find a way to solidify their continental power, but for now, they got shot down.
From AFP via ABC:
Justice Minister Dermot Ahern told the broadcaster the "no" camp appears to have won, calling the outcome "disappointing".
. . .
His comments came as the first official result was published, showing that the constituency of Waterford in south-east Ireland had voted with 54.2 per cent "no" and 45.7 per cent "yes," on a turnout of 53.4 per cent.
. . .
Ireland is the only EU country holding a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, but could sink it since all 27 member countries have to ratify the agreement for it to come into force.
The Lisbon Treaty replaced the doomed EU constitution, which was rejected by French and Dutch voters in referendums in 2005, plunging the bloc into a crisis.
For your reference, the teams in the College World Series are:
Stanford vs. Florida State (Saturday)
Georgia vs. Miami (Saturday)
Fresno vs. Rice (Sunday)
Louisiana State vs. North Carolina (Sunday)
North Carolina came in second the past two years, losing both times to Oregon State.
Rice had better beat Fresno. We don't want to take any chances of Fresno State playing Florida State in the final. That would be too confusing:
The Rice University baseball team is in the College World Series! Again! For the third year in a row! For the fifth time in seven years! For the seventh time in twelve years! Maybe they'll win it again like in 2003!
Their first game is Sunday!
Go Rice!
Beat dem Bulldogs!
Boo, Bulldogs!
This morning, the KING 5 weatherman called this month "Junuary." It certainly feels like it.
January
February
Marchuary
Apruary
Mayuary
Junuary
. . .
I only hope we have a real July and August before we hit the -bers.
But I'm not holding my breath. The sun's still cold.
Having pineapple for breakfast takes me back to my honeymoon.
How long ago was that, eleven months?
And here are some photos from my mother's sixtieth birthday party.
Smile!
Eat! Eat!
Open your presents!
Open your eyes, Mom!
Today is National Donut Day and we don't have our typical Friday donuts here.
It's blasphemy!
. . . Perhaps I shouldn't have said anything in my yearly review about the donuts. I believe my words were, "What are you trying to do, give us all heart attacks and diabetes? Some of us have no willpower. It’s like handing out free whiskey to alcoholics!"
To which my boss replied, "We do that, too."
A week ago, I was in Minnesota for a day.
Here are a few photos from the four hours I was at the Minneapolis airport Friday evening.
"Four hours?" you say. "Why were you at the airport so early?"
Well, we arrived an hour before our scheduled flight, but then it was delayed. We actually had a hard time convincing the United employees to give us boarding passes at the terminal. They mentioned transfering us to a flight through Los Angeles.
I managed to convince the United employee that we'd be able to make a five-minute connection in Denver because the gates were right beside each other and the other plane would probably be delayed too. He gave us the boarding passes.
But we still had an hour before boarding, so I wandered the shops a bit before heading to the gate. The plan was to meet up with my coworkers and get dinner. Instead, they wave me over to the podium and tell me that United is revoking our tickets.
The United employee doesn't say much of anything till she hands us the new boarding passes. They're for a Northwest flight, non-stop back to Seattle, arriving only a half-hour after our originally scheduled flight.
We hiked over to the new gate, got our new boarding passes from Northwest (with only minor difficulty -- for good service, go to a gate without people swarming around it), ate dinner, and then I went shopping again.
Back home before midnight!
So, I'm finally back from my business trip (Birmingham via Charlotte, then drive to Atlanta, direct flight back). (By the way, it's really hot on a roof in the early afternoon in the Deep South in June. I'm glad we didn't go in August. . . )
Back at my desk at work, I turn the page from May to June and get this photo from our wedding (one year ago June 30!):
Chunlin has this photo on her calendar at work, this month:
Which do you prefer?
While I was in the Minneapolis airport, I realized my prescription sunglasses were missing. I hadn't used them the whole trip, so I couldn't pinpoint when I lost them. It was possible they fell out going through security since the bag was on its side, but I've never had a problem with my sunglasses falling out when the bag even flips completely over.
So I was stumped.
I filled out a lost-item form online for Sea-Tac. I called my coworker who had driven me to the airport and back. I searched high and low at my house and my office.
And then a little voice in the back of my head told me to check my other jacket.
Lo and behold, my sunglasses had spent my entire trip in the coat closet at home, safely tucked away in the inside pocket of the jacket I didn't take with me.
Sotosoroto King, husband, architect, etc. etc. etc. |
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California Roadtrip, Summer 2006
Light Rail Neighborhood Density
Proposed Interstate 905 in Seattle
The World Does Not Agree with You
Failure Should Never Be Rewarded
Thoughts on Illegal Immigration
I'm a Native American, Dammit!
More "Global Warming" Skepticism
11-Team BCS Replacement Playoff
Giant Solar System Model along I-90
Restaurant at the End of the Universe Movie Idea
