Thursday, November 19, 2015

The Black Hole for Resumes

Check out these sweet socks I got from a Google campus recruiting event! (Crappy picture.. whatever.)

I got them because I answered the question, "Where did Google first start, specifically?" (Answer: Palo Alto. More specifically: in a garage in Palo Alto. You could get way more specific than that, regarding whose garage and the relation of that person to Google's founders... but let's not.)

The recruiters were accepting resumes, and as I glanced around the crowded auditorium with well over 100 students in it, I wondered if the resume pile would ever have human viewers. So at the bottom of my resume, I wrote, "Hi! Does anyone actually read all these resumes? Bye! :)"

That recruitment event was October 21, and I still haven't received a response to my hidden message. Take from that what you will.

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

It's a Trap!

Danger! Danger!

What kind of deranged person leaves such a booby trap as this in a public bathroom?

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

3 Cat Harmony

I feel comfortable in declaring that we have achieved that most elusive state called 3 Cat Harmony. Things finally seem to have simmered down between my 2 kitties and our newest addition Sparky.
Sparky's story is a very sad one. We can only guess at his age, which is probably between 7 and 10 years old, but we know for sure that he's been abandoned at least 3 times. After his latest abandonment, Sparky was left in a cruel Kitty Limbo: his previous caretaker hadn't bothered to take him to the county shelter, and he was left with no home, food source, or prospects for either.

Enter bleeding-hearts Laura and Evan. (Suckers.) When we brought Sparky home with us, he was emaciated and had a large weeping abscess on his side. Fleas and ear mites were the least of his problems. Fast forward 4.5 months, and Sparky is healthy, happy, gaining weight, and driving us nuts the way only a talkative cat can. And all the cats are getting along now. (At least mostly.)
Signature move: paw in the mouth

Monday, November 16, 2015

Wild Rumpus-ing

... or All Hallow's Eve: Athens Edition.

This year's house pumpkins: a sexy lady pumpkin and some goober reddit meme
It's pretty cool living in a town where people take Halloween very seriously. And by Halloween, I mean Halloween costumes. People in Athens take their Halloween costumes very seriously.

The first year I was here, I vaguely dressed up for the Wild Rumpus parade on Halloween night, but only when I arrived at the parade did I realize how horribly under-dressed I was. People had been working on elaborate costumes for days, weeks, or even months before the parade! There was a giant papier-mache Dolly Parton with moving arms, a very convincing PeeWee Herman, Cheetah Girls on the aerial silks, and Max (from Where the Wild Things Are) leading the parade and heading the band for the after-party. Just to name a few. Evan made an awesome Wild Man costume and had his picture taken with some random Japanese tourists. (...?)

Our billiard room, with Ms. Peacock and the Confidential envelope in the background to the right.
From the Athens FotoFlower man.
This year my personal favorites were Richard Gene Simmons (Richard Simmons clothes and personality with Gene Simmons KISS makeup) and David Bowie from Labyrinth (complete with abducted baby). And my costume this year was part of the Clue Crew, that is, Clue the board game. We had characters, rooms, and even the lead pipe. Evan still had the best costume, going as the Confidential envelope. How does he always win?

As for me, I take pumpkin carving very seriously. Here's the house's pumpkins from last year (mine's Paul Stanley from KISS).
 

Monday, October 26, 2015

A mushroom by any other name...


Leucocoprinus birnbaumii.
Yellow parasol.
Plantpot dapperling.
Yellow pleated parasol.
Or my personal favorite, lemon-yellow lepiota (after its old scientific name).
 
Whichever name you so choose, these guys would still be yellow, dusty-looking, and living with my potted Pentas. I was freaked out by them when they first sprouted up out of nowhere, but I think they've grown on me (figuratively AND literally).

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Things You Don't See Every Day

.. in Athens or anywhere else.

Tiny house.
Tiny house on wheels.
Tiny house on wheels being transported as an RV.
Tiny house on wheels being transported as an RV behind a full-bed wrecker truck.

Jesus
Jesus and Mohammed
Jesus and Mohammed's Tree Service

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Purrfect


 
I love Kitty. Beaker loves Kitty. I love Beaker. Cycle complete.

Monday, October 19, 2015

Beach Plants

 
My standard Florida pics generally include a sunset, some turtle tracks, and an obligatory pool-and-beach shot, but I mostly neglected any of those this year. I took a few snaps of various plants and flowers I thought were interesting and wanted to ID later, but that was about it. At least the weather was nice this year.

Sunday, October 18, 2015

The Hills Are Alive

... in Vermont. Where else?

In June I made a little journey to the wild North, where I stayed at the Trapp Family Lodge. Besides being a great location for recreation such as hiking and skiing (in the winter), the Lodge now has a brewery on site, which is set to open... now-ish?
While I was there, I discovered a new beautiful (and naturally, completely invasive) flower.. hawkweed! Apparently hawkweek is native to Europe, so I guess it's somewhat appropriate that it be found at the Trapp Lodge, since it was founded by Austrian musicians.
There was plenty of hiking and wandering to do in nearby Stowe. Here's the iconic view from Sunset Rock looking down into the village.
What trip would be complete without a little Appalachian Trail action (or in Vermont, the Long Trail)? Here's Mt. Mansfield, from a safe distance on the rec path. The nose is the hooked peak on the left, and the chin has lots of cloud cover touching it.
It took a few hours, rock scrambling, and lots of sweat and encouragement, but I made it to the top along with my cousin and two uncles. Here's a view from the chin itself, complete with cousin's head. Needless to say, going down is much easier.

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Peak Baggin'

Second-tallest peak in Georgia? Bagged it!
Wild and scenic river in South Carolina where they filmed Deliverance? Bagged it!

Early summer seemed like a good time to do some peak bagging, that is, visiting some of the highest points in the state. So the household piled into a Rav4 and headed up to Rabun County in northeast Georgia. Rabun County is home to the second highest peak in Georgia, Rabun Bald (second only to Brasstown Bald). So we enjoyed a nice hike up the mountain passing through groves of laurels, rhododendrons, and azaleas.

The mountain laurel was particularly stunning, with its pale pink highlights and popcorn-style buds opening up.
Similar in coloration were the Piedmont azaleas.
We reached the peak after a few short hours of casual hiking and strolling through rhodi tunnels. The final challenge is climbing the steps of an observation tower, from whence you can see views to the mountains of North Carolina and down to the piedmont of Georgia.
We took a detour for our hike back down, walking down an old logging road. We were hoping to catch views of the multi-million dollar vacation homes on the side of the hills, but to no avail. However, we did see tons of flame azaleas in bloom, which made for some nice color contrast, as well as ferns, lichens, and salamanders.
After finishing our hike, we still had plenty of daylight left, so we decided to head across the border to South Carolina and experience the wild Chattooga. There's a sweet rapid called Bull's Sluice that's quite the hangout spot for kayakers, so we hung out on the rocks and watched paddlers and boats full of raft guides-in-training shoot the rapid. All in all, a pretty successful day.

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Gettin' Crafty

About two years ago, one of my brothers decided to do a clothing purge and set out on the monumental task of going through every single t-shirt he had ever acquired since elementary school. He ended up with a mountain of shirts from every type of event, club, and fundraiser known to man! Running races, schools, youth groups, family reunions, sports teams... everyone had a unique t-shirt design for their people/place/thing. How did we develop such an obsession with special matching shirts?? I digress...

His plan was to tote Shirt Mountain to Goodwill, but when I happened by and noted the amazing colors in some of the shirts, I got an idea.

a wonderful, awful idea
Some time back, I had seen this article on the internet about making a braided rag rug, and I already had a few old t-shirts hanging around. So I took on some of the more vibrant members of Shirt Mountain and schlepped them back to Athens with me, where I began to undertake Operation Floor Decor.

It took a year and a half, but I finally turned the bulk of those several dozen t-shirts into 3 rugs: 2 braided ones and a woven one (inspiration from here). They took many, many hours (so many hours!), but I couldn't be more pleased with the results.

Monday, October 12, 2015

A Windy City Wedding

Back in April, one of my good college friends was getting married in Chicago. I had never been to Chicago, despite living relatively close to it for 4 years, so I was excited to finally pay a visit.
Evan and I both flew for free, thanks to sky miles, and we stayed in a hostel in the Arlington neighborhood near Lincoln Park, which was a really lovely area of town. This is what $85 a night can get you in Chicago (with a shared bathroom down the hall).
 
The hostel was being (inexplicably?) occupied by a large class of French students on a field trip, so there was never a shortage of people hanging around. Our hostel room had an unexpected guest who hung out with us as well. I think this is Katharine Hepburn, though I don't think Hedy Lamarr would be too far off either.
The weather was pretty dismal; highs in the 50s, gray, cloudy, and drizzly most of the time we were there.. quite a change from the South, where the redbuds had bloomed 2 months earlier and where we were starting to hit highs in the 70s and 80s each day. But I hear that's just how the Windy City rolls.

One of the best parts about Chicago is the L (or "el" for elevated train system). It took us everywhere we needed to go at any time, it ran regularly, and it was completely reasonably priced at $2.25 a ride to most anywhere in the system. We used it to get from Midway to the hostel, to bars and restaurants, and to downtown. We also used Uber for the first time, and it was a smooth, easy experience, waiting for 2 minutes on the corner and getting dropped off at the hostel doorstep (for free, since it was our first use).
We hit up the Lincoln Park Conservatory and briefly the Zoo, but mostly we caught up with my old friends who I hadn't seen in a long time, which was quite nice. Also, Lou Malnati's Chicago-style pizza, mmm mmm.

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Springtime in Athens

The courthouse was sporting a nice look for springtime (circa late March), and the woods were sporting an even nicer look, complete with morels.

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Woooo Spring Break!!!!

We had a plan for spring break this year: drive down with a bunch of graduate students to St. Catherine's Island and hang out on the beach. It was rock solid and on the calendar... so naturally it didn't happen. Turns out the island is more or less privately owned, and our friend who lives and researches there got word that the owners would be vacationing there during the break and wouldn't be pleased with a bunch of vagrants camping out on the beach.

So there went that plan. Evan and I came up with a brilliant backup plan: visiting Unicoi State Park near Helen, and camping out in a Squirrels Nest. A Squirrels Nest is one of 16 roofed platforms that are all connected and sit on the side of a very steep hill. They're actually cheaper than a camping spot, and apparently they had just reopened for the season a few days before we got there.
It was cold and rainy, and the "comfort stations" (restrooms) by the Squirrels Nests had not actually been unlocked yet. We also forgot to bring a flashlight, but there was a giant fire ring by the Nests that provided a little background illumination. In nicer weather a multi-mile hike to Helen and back would probably be in order. Overall, I can recommend a stay in a Squirrels Nest, but it's probably best to time a visit when there's not, say, a troop of boy scouts visiting, as you can easily hear everything that's going on nearby.

Monday, May 11, 2015

A Merry Athens Christmas... in May

Athens puts a giant Christmas tree up in front of the courthouse each year, and it looked pretty festive. Another nice touch is that the downtown is lit up during winter nights with white lights.. didn't get a picture of it, but it looks like a little fairy land or something.
And this was my makeshift tree made from a tomato cage, flipped upside down, and wrapped in lights. It's more of a Charlie Brown kind of tree, but it did the trick in keeping guard over the presents.

Friday, May 8, 2015

I Could Never Swim that Far

In October I went to Chattanooga to participate in my third "Swim the Suck" race. It's a 10-mile swim down the Tennessee River, but no, I was not swimming it. I've been a volunteer kayaker for it, which means I paddle alongside an impressive athlete who's actually swimming it, keep their unofficial time, feed them snacks every 30 minutes of so, and make sure they don't get run over by a motorboat.

This year's weather forecast was absolutely dismal. We were all prepared with rain gear and extra sets of clothes, and we knew what the emergency plan was in case of lightning. When I woke up at 6am the day of the race, it was raining steadily, and I thought about how miserable I was going to be sitting in a kayak for potentially up to 6 hours.
To everyone's credit, nobody chickened out on account of the weather. We showed up, and we were ready to go. And as luck would have it, we were all starting to mill about the starting ramp about 30 minutes before race time, when the sun came out.
And stayed out pretty much all day. It turned out to be an exquisite day to be on the river, as the sky gods rewarded us for our bravery. My swimmer made excellent time, and we were off the river in about 4 hours, with tasty food and libations awaiting us. A few swimmers dropped out due to hypothermia, and some powered through nearly-hypothermic, which was rough to see. But for the most part, it was a great day for a race.

Thursday, May 7, 2015

Game Days (Go Dawgs!)

I actually went into the football stadium this year, and this was the sight that awaited me at the UGA vs. UTK game:
On the tailgating side of things, check out this ridiculous remote-controlled recliner that can raise itself so high it dumps you out of it:


Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Asheville: the {insert nickname here} city

Seriously, what is Asheville's nickname? Here's my exploration of potentials.

Wildflower City: It has a nice botanical garden, with cool rocks and lovely plants like jewelweed, ironweed, and some sort of phlox.

 

Culture City: It has a cool sculpture walking tour you can take around downtown.

Foodie City: It has some good restaurants and breweries, even a bar that makes their own sake.

Future-site-of-a-water-war City: Apparently it's in one of the driest areas of North Carolina situated immediately next to one of the wettest.

Surely one of these must be close!
... Okay, I just looked it up, and apparently Asheville's nickname is "Land of Sky." Yeah, I guess it has some sky. Case closed.