Today was not so fun at the job

We only saw a few bottlenose dolphins and some sea lions. June gloom is in full swing, and it was really really cold out on the boat. We spent 3 hours searching and covered about 45mi. No big whales. Sigh.

This makes me feel better though:

The dog is just so happy!

You can always find something useful at CVS

Next time you're bored and/or need a cheap pick-me-up, head to your nearest drug store and explore. Really, they have everything these days: from mascara and cheeze-its to office supplies and band-aids. You are bound to find something you need, or at least nearly need.

There's nothing like new moisturizer, some postcards, resse's pieces, and a little travel-sized toothpaste to cheer you up.

I have the best job* in the world

And not just because at the end of the day the captain says, "So now we go to the Mai Tai bar." I got to go out on two whale watching tours today, saw sea lions, sunfish, common and bottlenose dolphins, and a blue whale. Not only that, but I was even trusted to use an expensive and fun camera to take pictures of said animals! As soon as I can get some of my files off the computer I will try and pop them up here. They're exciting. I got a couple good ones of the dolphins jumping today.

*Ok, it's only an unpaid internship, but still.

Ohmygod, Shoes.

"World's Oldest Leather Shoe Found—Stunningly Preserved" says this National Geographic article I found while reading up on Jacques Cousteau's 100th Birthday (more on that later). The piece alternates between obvious and insightful.

"It is astonishing," [Manolo] Blahnik said via email, "how much this shoe resembles a modern shoe!"

Um... isn't that what makes it a shoe?

[T]he 5,500-year-old moccasin-like shoe was found exceptionally well preserved—thanks to a surfeit of sheep dung

Wow, okay, go sheep!

[T]he shoe was likely tailor-made for the right foot of its owner, who could have been a man or a woman — not enough is known about Armenian feet of the era to say for sure.

Uhhh...

"The hide had been cut into two layers and tanned, which was probably quite a new technology," explained Ron Pinhasi, co-director of the dig, from University College Cork in Ireland.

But see, that's interesting!

"It immediately struck me as very similar to a traditional form of Balkan footwear known as the opanke, which is still worn as a part of regional dress at festivals today," said Elizabeth Semmelhack, a curator at the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, Canada.

And so is that!

Protecting the foot was probably one of the main reasons people started wearing shoes

Facepalm.

[S]hoes like this would have enabled people to cope with extremes of temperature in the region—up to 113°F (45°C) in summer and below freezing in winter — and to travel farther. "These people were walking long distances. We have found obsidian in the cave, which came from at least 75 miles [120 kilometers] away," [study co-author Gregory Areshian] said.

Again: interesting!

Blahnik, the shoe designer, speculates that even this simple design was worn for style as well as substance.

Sigh.

I am in no doubt that a certain appearance of a shoe meant belonging to a particular tribe," said Blahnik

Ok, good way to spin it...

The wearing of shoes, though, is almost certainly older than the oldest known shoes. For example, a weakening of small toe bones found in 40,000-year-old human fossils has been cited as evidence of the advent of shoes.

Go Science!

Rebecca Shawcross, a shoe historian at the Northampton Museums & Art Gallery in the U.K. ...

I want that job. But I'll probably have to fight Kelly to the death for it.

Thinking about the days when men wore hats

Those days are long gone, and trying to recreate them just seems forced. If you walk into a bar now and see men in a waistcoats and hats, with ironic moustaches... all I can think is this place takes itself too seriously. On the other hand, if it's the bartender he (or she) gets a pass, for purposes of the style-and-tips relationship.


Gone are the past decades and traditions... let's not try to bring them back, hipsters. Have a healthy relationship with history, please. Look at pictures of them, go get drunk, and move on. In the course of time things have changed, and we have become Men Without Hats. (If you missed the band pun, they are best known for their song Safety Dance.)


Inspired by this awesome photo retrospective of old bars in Seattle and The Hotsy Totsy in Albany (I recommend the Mexican Velvet).

Toxic O.J.

Today I found in my car a bottle of orange juice that had been there, er, awhile. It fizzed like soda when I opened it, and as I poured it out in the sink it appeared to be smoking. Now I'm certain I'm going to die of exposure to toxic fumes. Hm, not really the way I envisioned myself going.

A Study of Squares: "Dilly Dally in Pussy Park"

Apart from being a great bit of Latvian Soviet-era animation, I had a great time thinking about the geometry in this clip.



What do the squares mean? Squares mean death, they mean the end. They cannot move! Circles are life.

(More animations here.)

This blog is for...

All the silly little things I think about. The random stuff I do. And all the strange I stumble across (real or virtual).