quick happy post

I just love those green arrows!

I know I'm new, but

I'm taking a week off. Please come back soon!

Face Friday 3

Photograph taken on 18th and Marion in Seattle, WA.

Kakapo crazy

Good news, kia ora kakapo, one more has been discovered in nature. See the story and video, here. The video has copyright all over it, so I won't post it.

Here's a picture book about a kakapo and its friends escaping from "clutches of Gotta-Gloat Stoat." It's $17.99 at Wheelers, a New Zealand book supplier.

Here's a Gould Australia 1869 Facsimile Victorian print that you can get on Amazon for $100.

Noticing Green

Photography taken in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle.

Happy Square Root Day!

Today (3/3/09) is square root day! Here's a story about what some people are doing to celebrate. The next square root day is 4/4/16, so you better make this one perfect. Perhaps we should call it perfect square day, but maybe kids would have issues with that.

The picture is from a professor's website at the University of Oregon.

Do you have any plans to celebrate?

Say hello in Maori: "kia ora"

Just like kia ora, kakapo!

Friendly bird #2: kia ora, kakapo

Kia ora, kakapo comes to you from New Zealand. It is a unique parrot as it is nocturnal, flightless, and rather large, weighing in at about eight pounds. According to this kakapo website, there are only 62 of these green little guys left! One of the oldest parrots, it was an intregal part of Maori culture. Some folktales even attributed the kakapo with the ability to foresee the future.

This magical bird is greeting us in Maori, telling us a simple hello, kia ora.

Check out the bonjour, bird cafepress store to buy some kia ora, kakapo goodies.

Websites used: kakapo.net, newzealand.com

Face Friday 2

Taken at Cherry and 18th, Seattle.

"Everything you can imagine is real" -Picasso

I'm a new soul

Deanna's post at mischief+madness about the lays commercial song, "Thinking, Drinking, Sinking, Feeling" inspired me to look up my most recent musical find from a commercial. Yael Naim's song New Soul, from the apple commercial a while back has a video that is so fun.

I'd love to go on a living room raft and dance and play music with friends.



Three cheers for figuring out how to put a video on the blog!

snow this morning

Photographs taken on my patio looking over the alley.

What's your reading stamina?

While searching for a new book to read, I realized if I am not intrigued by a book, I will only make it about an eighth of the way through. I couldn't believe it. I actually have eight books on my bookshelf with bookmarks all at almost the same spot!

My roommate, however, tends to stop with about an eighth of the book to go. RocketReader has all sorts of suggestions to improve your stamina, but I think getting another book just might be the way to go. Well, who am I to talk about reading stamina?

Any suggestions for a good book to read?

L i v i n g

"I shall pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again!"

-Congratulations Jerry Lewis on your Humanitarian Award at the Oscars!

"I want to be thoroughly used up when I die."

This quote was written on a porcelain pendant work by Julia Bergman, a member of the Central Asia Institute. In the book Three Cups of Tea, she accompanies Greg Mortenson to Kabul to hope build schools for children, especially girls. This is just part of the quote by George Bernard Shaw, and Irish writer.

Jerry Lewis picture from The Official Jerry Lewis Comedy Museum and Store

Friendly bird #1: wâciye, owl

I'm very excited to introduce you to bonjour, bird's first friendly bird, wâciye, owl. This little guy is a barred owl, which is sometimes known as a hoot owl or eight hooter which is made clear when you listen to his raucous jumble of cackles. I haven't quite figured out how to put sound bites on blogger, but I recommend going to this link to hear the hoooooting. He also has a pretty nice scientific name: Strix varia.

I have him speaking in Cree which is a native language from Canada. This owl comes from most of the eastern half of North America, so I hope that his language is fitting. Wâciye is pronounced wah-chee-yay.

If you would like to see more of wâciye, owl, you can take him home with you by going to my cafepress shop. With the weekly friendly bird, I will also post items on this online store so you can take your friendly bird to work with you in a to-go mug, wear him on your shirt, or even put him on your baby!

Resources: USGS, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Native Languages

Face Friday

I would like to formally introduce you to "Face Friday." I am going to post pictures of faces that are not actually a normal human face. It's a fun to see things through the lens of personification. Seen any non-human faces lately?

This face was found in a restroom at the Seatac airport.

Judge a book by its cover

It takes me a while to dive into a book, but it never hurts if the book has a gripping cover. I will likely pick my next book from this book list based on covers by AbeBooks.

What's in a name?

Here's what just didn't cut it for the blog names:

• halabalu
• mazaroo
• patapusal
• zoonaboonabird...wait, it's zunagunabird
• calamazoo
• sanaranafan
• jumbalia
• twitterpated
• doodl-dalingo
• lacroixzazam
• foivalo
• wakaaa
• theandthat
• tinriver
• tunaburger...'I don't want it to be super meaty'
• tofulapalus
• and urbanfeather (it's already a design firm somewhere)
  

While some friends helped me brainstorm names for this blog with instructions of making it kinda random, maybe about birds, and perhaps colorful, I learned that one of my friends is just extraordinary at making up words (as seen above). She also happens to have a very popular name.

For further entertainment, here's the most popular names in the US in 2007:

1. Jacob, Emily
2. Michael, Isabella
3. Ethan, Emma
4. Joshua, Ava
5. Daniel, Madison
6. Christopher, Sophia
7. Anthony, Olivia
8. William, Abigail
9. Mathew, Hannah
10. Andrew, Elizabeth

And for a hoot, here's 1907:

1. John, Mary
   
2. William, Helen
   
3. James, Margaret
   
4. George, Anna
   
5. Robert, Ruth
   
6. Charles, Dorothy
   
7. Joseph, Elizabeth
   
8. Frank, Mildred
   
9. Edward, Alice
   
10. Henry, Marie
    

From the Social Security Administration