wanker of the day

Mark Foley? Oh, no, now that would be too easy.

How about Newt? Here's his opinion about those "activist judges" on the Supreme Court. He's an effin' looney!

more new friends

Got these yesterday, playing with the camera. The cottontails have surprisingly little fear of humans here, considering (people running them over, shooting at them, etc.).

my new friend

This morning, I was sitting at the bar, reading something at the computer, when I heard a loud "thump" behind me. This being a rural area, the younger birds seem to be quite naive about windows, so the thud of birds hitting one of the windows on the house is fairly regular - one or two a day. I got up to go see if the bird made it, and found a young bird that turned out to be a Grace's warbler flat on it's back, feet in the air, breathing rapidly. I waited several minutes while the poor wee bird's breathing slowed, but it still could not orient itself. I sat on a nearby door sill to allow it a few more minutes, right next to my new friend here. I noticed movement beside me and turned to see this lovely mantis crawling up the door frame:



After a minute or so, I went over to the bird, and turned it over. As soon as it was righted, it flew to a nearby tree to continue recovering from the collision with the window. You might recall that last year, my parents and I rescued a flammulated owl from a similar collision. We rarely have birds thud into the windows at home in the northwest, but here it seems to be a regular occurence. At least the bird survived it, and I identified it as a Grace's warbler from some of mom's birding books. Then, I went inside for the camera, to get a picture of my new insect buddy.

travel blogging

Well, here I am at my parents' place in Southwest Utah. It took a couple of days to figure out what settings I needed to toggle on my computer in order to get onto their wireless network, but I finally made it work. I am playing with a digital camera I am getting second-hand from one of my mom's friends down here, who is an excellent digital photographer and early adopter of new technologies, so he had a couple of cameras he wanted to get rid of (thanks, George!).

I am trying out a Casio EX-Z120, which is a 7 megapixel camera with zoom and some video capability. I used GraphicConverter to shrink down a photo:

This is a view from my parent's acreage, looking west towards a part of a mountain range at the edge of the Great Basin that the locals call "Bumblebee."

slow

Yes, I know it's been forever since I last blogged, so sue me.

Getting ready for my vacation and other things have kept me busy. I have been trying to finish up a sweater before I go, looks like it'll be close. The sweater is really cool; I do hope I can get a digital camera soon so I can do some knit- and pet-blogging. Then I can bore you all with Friday Parrot-blogging or cat blogging. No nudibranchs, sorry!

No linkies today, just a sigh of relief that it looks like the BIAW isn't succeeding in their efforts at taking over the State Supreme Court. (Effin' John Birchers!)

uh, George....

I wonder what the Shi'ites would have to say about that? You know, the ones in Southern Iraq? The ones who's leaders are aligned with the Imams in Iran?

Oh. I guess you really don't know.

Forshaw

The NYT has an article about Australian ornithologist Joseph Forshaw.

Maybe not as famous as Steve Irwin (who was reportedly scared of parrots, by the way), but nearly everyone with parrots has a copy of his book, Parrots of the World, illustrated by W.T. Cooper. My own copy is parrot-eared (that is, one of my birds went to work on the top of the binding) and has bookmarks at the pages of particular species of interest (some that I own, others I would never dream of owning, such as the delightful Pionites).

ya think maybe?

The Seattle-PI reports:

A 1993 Maryland police report, obtained Friday, shows that Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike McGavick was less candid than he seemed last week when he disclosed a previously unknown arrest for drunk driving.

It was a commenter over at HorsesAss, I think, who wrote something along the lines of "if he's admitting to this, I wonder what bigger skeletons are hiding out in his closet?" Maybe that closet door is creaking open a bit.

On the other hand, how STUPID must you be to come out with something "voluntarily" (to limit the potential political fallout, one would assume) - but then LIE about it, when you KNOW that it is a matter of public record, and that the media, if they are, you know, DOING THEIR JOBS, can dig up the actual details fairly easily? Hey, does anyone else think a Senator ought to have better judgement than to get caught at something so obvious?