I just felt the need to show off my new icon. Beware the snarky giraffe!

Wicked tickets go on sale here in San Diego on tomorrow! *bounces around in a happy little circle* Think I'm gonna dig into my pockets for that one, because I don't want tickets to sell out before I have a chance to save up money. I'm still unsure where I'll be then, but I figure if I do end up outside San Diego by that point (end of July) I can probably find someone to buy it from me. Still bummed that my copy of the book hasn't arrived yet. Grrrrr! I wanna read it! I have an mp3 of the audio book, but that's nowhere near as fun as holding a book and reading it.

Anyways, since I'm out of reading material, I picked up a book at the campus library this week on the politics of whaling. I know the moral and scientific arguments, but my knowledge of the politics that surround it is woefully inadequate. So I decided to be suitably geeky and read it for fun. That makes up for not being able to afford to re-up my Society for Marine Mammalogy membership and the subsequent lack of geeky whale reading material.

Had a somewhat lazy day at the Wolf Center today. I pretty much did computer work. Since it was barely above 40 degrees up in Julian, I was happy to stay inside! :P Played around with a mailing list database. They bought a bulk address list from a company last fall in an attempt to spread the word about the facility, and of course that means we get a stack of replies asking to be removed from the list, so I entered all those addresses into a database. And can I give a big thank you to the people who wrote entire essays on the slip about why they hated us and wolves? They made an otherwise-tedious job a lot more amusing. I especially liked the one that called us "tree huggers that need to get real jobs" and the one that called us hypocrites because we "allowed the wolves to burn to death in the wildfires in Julian" in 2003 (they knew it because the news told them so!) and that we should have just opened the pens and let them run free instead. That one REALLY made me laugh, because not a single one of our animals was lost in that fire. In fact, staff and volunteers stayed on property throughout the ordeal, digging ditches and watering down the brush and doing what they could to stave off the fire, and in the end stopped it just short of the pens. *insert Fark "I work for" joke here* Also, to whomever it was that lives on "Lois Ln.," you also made my day! I couldn't type that without giggling.

So here's my links for the day that amused me:
Coyote attacks in WA. I went to that elementary school for a year! There's definitely a lot of coyotes in the area, that's nothing new. This is the first time I've heard of anyone ever getting bit by one, though. Can't say I'm entirely surprised - they're probably starting to get VERY habituated to people as that area grows rapidly.
The mysterious boom story in San Diego continues. At least they have a lead as to what it was now. And a distinct lack of anything better to report on, apparently. (Not that I'm complaining - I'm curious)

There was a cool one about killer whales in Monterey Bay, too, but I'm bitter 'cause I can't get the video of them attacking the gray whale to work. :(


Comment on this entry and I will give you a letter. Write ten words beginning with that letter in your journal, including an explanation what the word means to you and why, and than pass out letters to those who want to play along.

princeali_m_fan gave me "r":

Rescuers Down Under: The most underrated Disney movie ever. Gorgeous animation, gorgeous music, and the epitome of my imagination as a kid. Marahute is the GREATEST.

Remember... Dreams Come True: The best fireworks show ever made. 17 spectacular minutes of Disneyland greatness! The blow-your-mind effects just make it all stand out.

Russian swing: Spiffy to watch, spiffy to play on. It terrifies me to this day, but it's such an adrenaline rush...

"Remember the Magic": Yes, more Disney. Shaddup. :P The theme from Walt Disney World's 25th Anniversary celebration, sung by Brian McKnight, and one of the most gorgeous pieces of music ever to come out of the Disney theme parks.

reintroduction: A wonderful act on the part of humans to help right the wrongs they've done to animal species all over the world. California condors, Mexican gray wolves, and Arabian oryxes are just three examples of species we wouldn't have in the wild if it weren't for this practice.

"Remember When": Sung by Leann Rimes, it's the theme of Disneyland's 50th anniversary celebration. It captures perfectly the magic, emotion and memory of the park. And on July 17th, 2005, when the music video was played on screens throughout the park, I freely admit that I had tears streaming down my face at the beauty of it all.

"Revenge": My favorite track in the Cirque de la Mer soundtrack, partly because it was so catchy, and partly because it was the finale number and meant that we survived another show. ;) (Great 100th Show Disaster aside ;))

Rising: The premiere episode of Stargate Atlantis. When it first aired, I was bored to tears by it and watched the series only out of loyalty to the Stargate franchise. I'm still kicking myself for that!

red wolf: Because Mexican gray wolf starts with 'm.' But seriously, they're gorgeous, they're endangered, and I wish I'd realized growing up how much one of the Seattle-area zoos (Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium) has done for the species.

Reflections of Earth: the second greatest fireworks show ever created, this one at Epcot. In-your-face, low-level fireworks put you right in the middle of the action, with a beautiful soundtrack to boot. And come on, who doesn't want to go play with that inferno barge? :P