-- pumpkin carving party

Even pumpkins rock the vote!

Pirate flashcard strikes a pose...

A night of friends and creativity comes to a close.

-- now I'm committed.

I just joined "NaBloPoMo" -- National Blog Posting Month. It starts tomorrow; bloggers only have to commit to posting once a day for an entire month and you're in. If you're interested, head over & sign up!

-- Dirty jobs, my favorite show.

So I'm sitting here watching Dirty Jobs (right now) with Dan. I love this show. I love Mike Rowe. He is absolutely perfect for this show, he has a fantastic personality. I have such a celebrity crush on him.

So we're eating dinner in front of the tube. Here are some snippets of our running commentary:

Watching sheep castration (7 minute clip):
(HORRIBLE GORY AWFUL CLIP warning, do not watch if you are faint of heart!)


Mike Rowe grabs a sheep scrotum, pulls the skin taught and slices off the tip, as instructed by the farmers standing over him.

Dan: OHH! Oh omg OH that is awful!! OW!! OmG!

Then Mike Rowe bends down and, with his teeth, grabs the balls by their stringy ligaments, rips them out and spits the whole bloody mess into a bucket.

Dan: That is the most DISGUSTING thing I have ever seen!

Dan: You know, I've had HUMAN FECES spray onto my face and even THAT wasn't this bad.

me: What? Wait, when did this happen?

Dan: On the Gazela (photo at right) when I was cleaning a sewer pipe that had become clogged. I opened the end and crystallized human urine and feces splattered onto my face.

me: omg I didn't know about this!

Dan: Yes. And even that was not this disgusting!

Next clip is on leech hunters in the South, collecting leeches and making (their words, not mine) "$1,000/day." (Sorry, but I don't believe this, or there'd be no leeches left after 3 months; the place would be crawling with get-rich-quickers.)

After a hard day of gathering leeches, Mike and the rest of the men settle in the leech "processing" facility to gaze at the leech yield while sitting on empty buckets.

So how do you sit on a bucket? Usually upside down, right? Buttcheeks require surface area. Everyone knows this. But the leech dudes sneer knowingly at Mike.

"You know what happens to a baby when it's trapped in a dirty diaper?" Mike looks quizzically at them. "You should sit on it the other way." He looks at them uncertainly and turns the bucket over slowly to perch uncomfortably over the top, derriere ensconced in the opening. "I just don't like how this um, stretches things," he comments.

me (laughing): I don't get why he has to turn the bucket over.

Dan: Me either.

me: I mean, what did it have to do with a baby crapping in its diaper?

Dan: Beats me!

me: Maybe it has something to do with their redneck-ness. Like maybe the very act of sitting on a bucket makes you unable to control your bowels, so they figure better be ready.

Dan (laughing): I bet any one of those guys could destroy a toilet bowl.

me: I'm assuming you mean by overuse?

Dan: I mean, even just the first beer crap in the morning would do it.

I love this show!

Pink Proud To Be Considered Gay

Pink Proud To Be Considered Gay....

Pop star Pink is unfazed by rumours she's bi-sexual, insisting she is "proud" to be considered a part of the gay community.

The So What singer was often mistaken for a lesbian in the early days of her career because of her tomboy looks.

And Pink, who recently split from husband Carey Hart, admits she loves challenging the public's image of her.

She says, "I'm proud people think I'm gay. Everyone has always thought I was gay because of the tattoos, the short hair, the attitude. But I don't care. I love to challenge people's preconceptions."

And the star admits she would gladly use her fame to draw attention to the inequalities in American society, especially for gay people.

She adds, "Loads of my friends are lesbians and it really annoys me that gay people aren't allowed to get married in most parts of America. I'd go on a march for gay rights any time.".

-- follow this blog (new widget)

So there's a new widget where you can follow this blog (on the right sidebar). I like blogger because they're constantly adding neat tools like that. If you don't use blogger, what do you use and do you like it?

-- dude, I coulda told you. 38 eggs in one sitting, NOT wise.

This is tragic and sad but somehow amusing. Some guy choked down 38 soft-boiled eggs in a competitive eating contest and then had a stroke. (He did, however, recover and was able to return to his beloved "sport.")

From Scientific American's article "Death by steamed rice bun"

-- funny website of pet peeves

This is hilarious. This whole site is dedicated to people's pet peeves, like one user's submitted peeve:


Asking me a question when I'm chewing something, then waiting for the answer. from Biffy on Vimeo.

haha!! I do this all the time. BUT! I don't sit and stare...

See more peeves -->

Actress Alsion Hannigan Pregnant

Alyson Hannigan is expecting her first child.

The star, 34, has announced she is expecting her first tot with actor husband Alexis Denisof next spring, according to People.com.

Hannigan met the 42-year-old on the set of cult TV series Buffy The Vampire Slayer during the 1999/2000 season. Denisof played Wesley Wyndam-Pryce in the show.

In 2006, the actor also joined Hannigan on How I Met Your Mother, playing a recurring role, Sandy Rivers.

The pair married in October 2003 and currently reside in Santa Monica, California.

Guy Had Almost No Sex Life With Madonna

Guy Ritchie had apparently told his friends that he had almost no sex life with wife Madonna as she was obsessed with her daily four-hour workout regime.

Guy is said to have made repeated pleas claiming that they should spend more time with each other but was turned down by the singer owing to her fixation with her exercising routine.

He got more and more frustrated as she spent nearly half the day working out. Afterwards she’d be too tired to make love, News of the World quoted a close pal of the couple as saying.

And towards the end Guy wouldn’t be there. He’d get fed up waiting for her and go down the pub with his mates, the pal added.

The close friend further revealed that even when the couple did indulge themselves in acts of passion, Guy reportedly felt he lay with a bunch of bones.

The friend said: After a few drinks one evening Guy said it was like cuddling up to a piece of gristle.

All the soft feminine tones have been replaced by the build of an athlete.

-- Vive la Mexico! Hatching turtles, seethrough bathroom stalls.

Fortune cookies know all.
Mine, the day before we left.

Day one: is getting there really half the fun?
The flight was awesome. I spent the entire day wedged between hackers and sneezers, eyes swinging with fatigue, worrying that the measly one hour of sleep I got would lower my immune system enough to land me a nice vacation in a Mexican bed. (Remember this paltry amount of sleep, it will come up later.) Luckily, the mind is powerful but cannot conjure worries into reality so I never got sick. Whew!

Courtyard area of Scuba Club Cozumel

Our concrete hotel with concrete bed and concrete furniture testified to the wisdom of not having flimsy adornments in a place vulnerable to hurricanes. Many members of our group were present during Hurricane Wilma's wrath a few years ago; they spent three days locked in their rooms awaiting death as waves crashed down their doors and dragged heavy statues, crabs and other helpless wayward sea creatures inside. Their stories were sobering.

Sleeping on a slab of concrete does take a wee bit of getting used to. The bed and pillows had about as much "give" as bags of sand. But really, the bed is second in importance to the almighty king of modern technology: the (working!) toilet.

Me: I heard one of the girls saying she wasn't happy with this place, that it wasn't luxurious enough.

Dan: I think it's pretty nice!

Me: Me too! I mean, what do you need besides a working toilet and a shower?

Me: Oh wait.

I drew this for the staff and pantomined cartoonishly but luckily the word "plunger" was well-understood in English....

Hotel maids arranged soft sculptures of towel art each day.

The spitting cobras added a romantic touch.

Wonderful view from the balcony.

Purpose of vacation (for most of our 24-person group): to dive.
Onward!

Ready to go?

One great leap for Dankind

I relaxed in a hammock, marveling at how wonderful it was to sit and read, undisturbed by pressing deadlines. This vacation made me realize that I haven't stopped moving in months. Note to self: do more of this!

Crabs crawled boldly near the hammocks hoping for a crumb or two.

Day two: catching up on this relaxation thing

Ok, so remember when I mentioned only getting an hour of sleep the night before? I thought no worries, I'll catch up tomorrow. Well Dan left for an early dive trip and I dozed right through his morning routine. I was still sleeping soundly when the maid burst in at 8am chirping, "You want clean??!!"

"No, no es necesario," I croaked hoarsely, my eyes little slits, pillow lines zigzagging across my face.

She looked affectionately at my sleeping form twisted in bed and held up a stack of white cloth. "But clean towels?" I cracked a smile, laughing at her ease and geniality. "Oh, esta bien (it's ok)" I offered. "Tomorrow?" she countered back. "Si, manana ok" I smiled. She backed away and closed the door gently, like my mom would, and I layed there feeling simultaneously embarrassed and warm inside.

The rest of the day I swam, snorkeled, read (I finished Haruki Murakami's A Wild Sheep Chase on this trip and started Luis Alberto Urrea's The Hummingbird's Daughter, a 500 page novel taking place in 19th-century Mexico), played with my new camera, wrote, socialized, and watched approaching rain clouds. I could get used to this, I thought.

Caribbean raincloud in the distance.

Day 3: the richness that comes from meeting others

One topic that frequently came up last week was diving -- how people got into it. One person shared a particularly interesting motivation and how she learned to swim just so she could dive:

New friend: And so that's why I learned how to dive. Because the ocean was stalking me. It wasn't really stalking me but I had to confront it, you see.

Then later on, we were talking again and I was sharing my college studies:

me: And so that's why I went back to school, to confront my fear of math.

New friend: So was math stalking you?

me: Heh. I hadn't thought of it that way. But yes.... it was something I thought I couldn't do. I have to keep re-learning this lesson again and again, that I can do anything if I try hard enough. (um, except sing, or anything that requires talent and not just hard work...)

I found the idea enriching. Being stalked by our limitations until we confront them and realize they are not stalking us so much as we are running from them.

Later on a group of us ventured out.

At Casa Denis, the oldest restaurant in Cozumel.

Which was a great place until the mariachi band tormented us.
We paid them to make them go away!

The symbol for pesos is the same for dollars, but
obviously lobster is not really $390 dollars!

(It was, however, roughly $39 -- not cheap.)

Day 4: Mayan ruins or bust

This day we visited the ruins of Tulum, the smallest, newest Mayan city in Mexico. It's on the mainland so we took a ferry over.

Tulum is beautiful, on a cliffside overlooking the sea. It was a gated community of sorts. We learned that about 2,000 Mayans lived there but only 100 of the educated class (astronomers, architects, mathematicians, etc.) lived inside. Knowledge is power. The most important person of all was the priest; religion has always been a great agent of control.The Mayans came originally from Asia via Alaskan route. Their culture was (according to our guide) at the time the most advanced culture in Mexico and was even more advanced than the Europeans during the dark ages. They invented zero and created a very advanced calendar more than 5,000 years ago.

Hard to see here, but the doorways of all the buildings were small, fitting perfectly the tiny Mayan people.

Fascinating to me: their standards of beauty. Today I put earings on, lined my eyes and reddened my lips. But back then it was considered beautiful for Mayans to have crossed eyes and flat foreheads. Adults would strap a board to baby's head to encourage a sloping landscape and dangle a rock between baby's eyes to train cross-eyes to form. They also chiseled pebbles of malachite and other minerals into their teeth; skulls have been found with the encrustacions still in place.

Oh, and you know how to the Romans the god of love is Venus? Well to the Mayans, Venus was the god of war. They had many gods, of nature, fire, wind... even a god of suicide. The most important ones were the rain god and the serpent, which symbolized fertility of agriculture. (Makes sense, they gotta eat to live.)

The Spaniards destroyed much when they landed here and what does exist has limited excavation funding so little is known about the Mayans. It is, however, known that Tulum was a marketplace of sorts and people would come from the Honduras to trade items. Their language has not been totally deciphered, but what is known is taught in schools on Cozumel and in some areas on mainland Mexico.

You know chiclet gum? Chiclet is a Mayan word; "Chic" means "mouth" and "let" is the name for the sound you make while chewing. Rubber trees were used for more than chewing though -- the extremely strong wood was used in the construction of the buildings (along with rocks and limestone to cement the building blocks together).

Tulum is part of the Yucatan peninsula, which is where scientists believe the meteorite responsible for dinosaurs dying off had hit. The 2nd largest coral reef in the world is here, stretching from Cancun to the Honduras.

Our guide, Pedro, recommended the ruins Ekbalam. He said they were close to Chichen Itza. They're less well known but incredible.

I asked about what it's like to work in Mexico and learned that minimum wage is only $5/day. Even educated people like doctors and lawyers have trouble getting jobs because people outnumber available openings.

The funniest part of Tulum was the visitor's center bathroom: clear walls between each toilet, and was not free!

In case it's hard to tell, I am actually inside the stall.
YES, you can see that well right through the walls.

On the way back we stopped at Paradise Beach (La Playa Paradiso), where I saw the most loveable mangy mutt ever.

There's a ton of stray dogs around Mexico. I wanted to offer this guy some real food but I had nothing on me but pumpkin seeds; still he lapped them up gratefully from my hand. (Yes, mom, I disinfected it heavily!)

A week has passed and I'm still thinking about him.

BTW the bathroom here totally stumped me. Um, which one?? (click to enlarge picture, it's truncated here.)I picked "damas" hoping it meant "dames" in Latin or something. Luckily no one was around to bust me if it were wrong.

Day 5: Local sites (and the Mexican equivalent of Costco)

I wanted to see what it was like inside the Chedraui, the superstore where you could buy both cheese and couches.

Tiny stove.

There I came across one of the smallest stoves I've ever seen. I thought goodness, am I just huge or is there some other explanation?

We learned that some of these tiny stoves fit into premade platforms that raise them so people aren't likely using them this low to the ground. Made for a funny picture though.

Ginormous juice.

I've never seen a juice container the size of my torso before!

child labor.

I think the age labor laws are a bit different in Mexico than here. The boy bagging our stuff looked about 12.

Pimped out car. Think this might get you pulled over in the states?

Breast augmentation, right here!

We all loved the "bump" streetsigns, usually with two bumps but here with three, looking like an urgent calling for body modification, now!

Day 6: turtle hatching!

We rented a jeep and headed over to the other side of the island to explore and came across turtles hatching! (And some of the fiercest mosquitos I have ever encountered in my life. Bug spray is a must!)

Turtles crawling out of nest hole,
heading instinctively for the water.

Remnant of turtle egg among some dried seaweed on the beach.

Me, clutching a turtle.

I'm actually holding it very gently but it's hard to tell because of the OMG! look on my face.

turtle videos: Not the best videos -- I'm still learning how to steady the camera and stay focused on the subject, but neat to see what it looks like!

Aerial view of Cozumel's east side.

This is the undeveloped east side of Cozumel (where we saw the turtles) as seen from the air.

We also saw San Gervasio, very small Mayan ruins right on Cozumel.

San Gervasio (Mayan ruins) in the rain.

Last day: Flying home:

Tired but happy, waiting for airport shuttle.

Bimbo crackers

Snacking on Bimbo crackers at the airport. They're not just for blondes! (kidding) Actually they're really tasty, on the sweet side, a flaky oat cracker not quite like a granola bar.

At the airport.

Well I've been home a week and now am ready for another vacation!

-- friendfeed's "imaginary friends"

So since I'm a web geek, I consider it part of my job to explore new stuff. This goes against my inherent repulsion for creating user accounts and special passwords all over the internet but whatever.

Well tonight I was checking out Friendfeed and noticed that not only can I subscribe to "friends" and view "recommended" friends, but I can create imaginary friends. Imaginary friends, really? How pathetic is that?

Now on to finish my login process....

...

BTW thank you for your suggested blogs! Going to summarize them in one giant shout-out post next. I also have pix from Mexico to share, stay tuned.

Christina Applegate Donates Ribbon Roses To Charity

Christina Applegate is to auction off the roses she made from ribbons while she was recovering from her mastectomy earlier this year, for her cancer foundation.

The actress learned to make the ribbon roses when she was a child and spent hours making hundreds of them as therapy while she was in hospital.

She explains, "I learned how to do this when I was about six, and then, for some reason, every time I get a ribbon in my hand, I start making these roses,and something I did in the hospital was make hundreds of these roses.

"Then I taught everyone who would come to visit me how to make them...Anytime you would come into my room there would be, like, six people in there making these roses."

Now, the actress has gathered all the roses together for an upcoming RightActionForWomen.org charity auction.

Jennifer Lopez reveals breakdown

Jennifer Lopez suffered a nervous breakdown after working too hard.

The singer-and-actress, who has two children with husband Marc Anthony, was working on movie 'Enough' in 2002 when she "froze" and realised she had to slow down.

She told website The Daily Beast: "There was a time when I was very overworked and I was doing music and movies and so many things. I was suffering from a lack of sleep. And I did have a kind of nervous breakdown. I froze up in my trailer. I was like, 'I don't want to move. I don't want to talk. I don't want to do anything.' It was on that movie 'Enough'.

"I kept saying, 'I'm not weak. I'm not weak.' It's funny what tricks your mind plays on you. I just didn't want people to think I was falling apart."

Jennifer decided not to consult a therapist about the breakdown, but followed her doctor's instructions to take a break from her hectic schedule.

She added: "My bodyguard picked me up and put me in the car and they took me to a doctor. Right away they want to give you pills. But I have never liked the idea of pills and kept saying no. My doctor said. 'You're sleep deprived. You're overworked. Go home and go to bed.' He told me to go back to work on Monday after a weekend of sleeping. So that's what I did. I've still never been to a shrink. I'm not a shrinky person."

-- tell me, what are your favorite blogs?

I'm leaving in about 5 hours for a vacation (will be gone for a week, going to Mexico!). A housesitter will be watching over things back home so the animals are set but not me -- I am frantically packing but should be sleeping! This post may stagnate until I get back so since I've been wanting to ask for a while, I'll just bring it up now.

What are your favorite blogs? I'm looking for additional reading material. I've been setting up Google reader for all my fave content and I'd love your suggestions on blogs you really enjoy reading. (Hey it was through other people that I found all the blogs that I read now, so y'all have good taste!)

Looking forward to some good suggestions when I get back! (Of course I'll be checking out your own blog if this is the first time you're commenting, so thx!)

-- want to be a drug addict, or just look like one?

Just got back from an eye exam where they dilated my pupils to see the retina. Aside from looking like an addict of some sort because my pupils are oddly enlarged, I can't see that well either so I am probably acting weird too. Just now:

Taco place lady: Hi, can I help you?

Me (squinting at menu): Yes, I'd like one spinach burrito. No tortilla! In a bowl. Um. (squinting harder) Not a flour bowl! No edible bowl! Just a bowl. A to-go bowl. That's it, a to-go bowl. (holding menu away from me) Oh and no sour cream. None! But extra salsa. Please?

Taco place lady (staring hard over her glasses): Hmm, I SEE. (loooong pause before tapping on register.)

I'll spare you the rest of that totally awkward interaction but suffice it to say that I slinked off with my burrito, narrowly missing a collision with outdoor railing.

Historically, some women used to TRY to dilate their eyes, it was thought to make them more beautiful. They would use drops made from belladonna, the deadly nightshade plant (bella donna means "beautiful lady" in Italian). The active agent in belladonna is atropine and it prevents the ciliary muscles from contracting and thus the pupil is left wide open, paralyzed.

Atropine is still used for pupil dilation but it's not preferred since it takes days to wear off. Instead, they used tropicamide which is supposed to wear off in 2-3 hours for a brown-eyed person but 4-5 hours in someone blue-eyed. I'll let you know if that's true. *UPDATE 4 hours later: still dilated, though a smidge less.

Belladonna plant, or deadly nightshade
photo from about.com

The entire plant itself is dangerous if ingested (hence the name deadly nightshade). From botanical.com:

Belladonna's deadly character is due to the presence of an alkaloid, Atropine, 1/10 grain of which swallowed by a man has occasioned symptoms of poisoning. As every part of the plant is extremely poisonous, neither leaves, berries, nor root should be handled if there are any cuts or abrasions on the hands. The root is the most poisonous.

So, if you're out and about, don't eat this stuff, alright?