american assholes are ruining the planet

american asses are worse for the planet than hummers

it is estimated that on average, each american uses 20,805 sheets of toilet paper per year interesting

this is not a political blog, but...

sometimes i just can't stop myself.  vent open.  

torture, the american way

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the united states does not torture. george w bush assured us it was true even as the truth was leaking out. now that obama has released the memos describing the techniques dubya and darth cheney allowed, the idiotic republicans are crying about these techniques being ruined (rove) and mongering fear. some people argue that this is the kind of stuff the public just shouldn't know about. idiots. turns out, we were torturing even before cheney had the justice department change the rules. (that link is to an incredible article)

when our troops were subjected to waterboarding in WWII we were aghast. we modeled the correct behavior by waterboarding a guy 183 times in ONE month. the only humor in this moment is the right's overreaction about releasing this information while saying nothing about what officials and American soldiers were doing. these techniques only "uncover" false confessions and promote hatred of this country among extremists, thus creating more terrorists, not winning this endless war on terr.  i think we should prosecute every one of them.

republicans (especially dick cheney) need to just shut up and go back to what they do best, teabagging  

vent closed.

sick day

saturday, i was sure my scratchy throat was nothing.  yesterday, when it clearly became a stuffy shitty cold i was sure it was nothing.  but this morning, i was getting ready to head to school when the nasty hot chills hit.  then my stomach [insert tmi here].  and the rest is a sick day on a monday.  ahhhh.  ugh...

just watching some daytime tv and saw kristen chenoweth on ellen. she was telling about a time when she was sick.  she had a candle burning on the back of the toilet.  while she was throwing up, she set her hair on fire.  at least my day hasn't been that bad.  yet.  oh crap, is it the swine flu?

now, back to bed...

an etymology of nerdglee

at a recent point in time, i believed i coined the term nerdglee in a drunken giggly conversation with sara.  after beginning this blog, i googled the term (that is the only measure of cultural significance today, right?) and found only 300 results, thus proving the rarity but not my colombian claim to discovery.

however, every entry with the term has it as two separate words.  i therefore stab my flag into the one wordified version.  indeed, when the word is spoken in its true state of emotion, it rolls into one syllable.  do what you will with nerds; have your way with glee, but nerdglee is mine. but i will never stop trying to spread her around.

as of today, this blog is the 5th result when the term is googled. google likes to think you meant to search for "nerdle" - which is either 1. the ADA's term for the correct amount of toothpaste you should use each time you brush; or 2. the gunk in the corner of your eye in the morning

nerd

1951, U.S. student slang, probably an alteration of 1940s slang nert "stupid or crazy person," itself an alteration of nut. The word turns up in a Dr. Seuss book from 1950 ("If I Ran the Zoo"), which may have contributed to its rise. Adjective nerdy is from 1978.

glee

O.E. gliu "entertainment, mirth, jest," presumably from a P.Gmc. *gliujan but absent in other Gmc. languages except for the rare O.N.gly. In O.E., an entertainer was a gleuman. A poetic word in M.E., obsolete c.1500-c.1700, it somehow found its way back to currency late 18c. Glee club (1814) is from the secondary O.E. sense of "unaccompanied part-song," as a form of musical entertainment.

the slow end of the shuttles

this picture was taken by a friend of a friend who works at NASA. according to him, this is the last time there will be two shuttles prepped for launch.  according to their website, Atlantis will launch to service the Hubble (scheduled for May 11) and Endeavour will be on the launch pad standing by in case "the unlikely event that a rescue mission" to Atlantis would be needed.

never ever shake a baby. or...wait?

sorry, but this shit is too damn funny...  apple released (for a day) a baby-shaker game for the iphone.  then they had to apologize for it. i've heard a good shakin can promote genius.

or was it "prevent" genius...?

fat lazy babies

a few more pictures from the san diego zoo.  first - young giraffe gettin fresh

sleeping droopy koala balls...  if you go to visit these guys at the zoo, there's a 99% chance this is all you'll see.  they sleep some 22 hours a day (yes, i'm jealous).  we stayed late enough to actually see them start waking up.  not surprisingly, they unfold slowly and have that look on their faces like i do when i sleep too long on a saturday.

the terrific joplin panda from before.  this is what she does most of the day (this stretch is the height of her daily exercise).

what is nerdglee?

most of all, it is finding true wet joy in learning, evolving, growing, giggling; the quiet tingly sensation that accompanies witnessing rare astronomical events; the giddy delight one feels when explaining a bizarre natural phenomenon that few people know or care about; the elation in contemplating m-theory

what is it to you?

happy earth day

i spent the afternoon cleaning Como Park with the kids.  no used condoms or syringes were found this year.  and no one found money, to the great disappointment of those who haven't really gotten why we clean on earth day...

a magical garden at the zoo

this was in a small part of the san diego zoo.  koi pond, bridge, and this incredible tree.

a weeping cyprus

adorable gay wood duck couple

san diego sunsets

my beautiful boys in silhouette

near sunset cliffs; those are surfers' heads in the water

our first night, near la jolla

boyle me a dream

i know i am not alone in my obsession and fascination with susan boyle this week, but i cannot stop watching.  her morning show interview is also too wonderful

there is something so truly beautiful about the whole story; the pre-interview, the audience jeering, her frumpy sass...  the lyrics are too perfect for her, it is heartbreaking tearjerking and spine-tingling 

san diego animals

after being fed a huge mound of bamboo, this female panda walked back to what appeared to be a water fountain and stuck her head inside.  she then passed out like this for a long long time...

unnamed 1-month old baby elephant at the wild animal park.  too damn cute.

evil has a birthday

it's my first time. be gentle. i am starting a blog as a way to quiet the evil facebook demons. how long will this last? the air is fraught with anticipation. i'll begin with a shower of photos from my recent trip to san diego. many trees and flowers there bring dr seuss to mind; later i found out he lived there. hear a who?

more from the good doctor...

the midnight tree