Monday, March 30, 2009

Carie's Turn

I figured I owed Carie a sequence, too. Doesn't she look good?

Carie from the bottom up

And another from the top down

Another one of myself because let's face it, I'm vain (but aren't we all?)

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Turn Sequence

The real purpose of this blog is of course for me to upload pictures of myself that I can then ogle at my leisure, so in that vein, here is a whole sequence. I thought it was nifty how the picture refresh rate managed to match my turn frequency almost perfectly, since I'm at the same spot in every turn in each photo. I adhere to the short, jumpy European style of turns, at least on the steeps.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Animal Menstruation

Roughly once a month, Carie and I have the same conversation, usually while in the car. It goes something like this:

Carie: God, I hate having a period. It really sucks.
Me: ...
Carie: Do other animals have periods? I've never seen a dog bleed out of its ass.
Me: I've seen a dog bleed out of its ass, but I'm pretty sure it was male.
Carie: ...
Me: Didn't we have this conversation last month?
Carie: Yeah, and I think we were in a car then, too. We need to look this up.

Well, I overcame my innate fear of typing "animal menstruation" into Google and came away with the following information:

From Wikipedia: Menstruation is the shedding of the uterine lining (endometrium). It occurs on a regular basis in reproductive-age females of certain mammal species. Overt menstruation (where there is bleeding from the vagina) is found primarily in humans and chimpanzees.[1] The females of other placental mammal species have estrous cycles, in which the endometrium is reabsorbed by the animal (covert menstruation) at the end of its reproductive cycle. Many zoologists regard this as different from a "true" menstrual cycle.

From K-Band: Overt menstruation is recorded in 48 species of primate, most of which are old world monkeys and apes (the group which includes humans). Other primates that overtly menstruate include a few species of new world monkeys and the Malayan flying lemur (Cynocephalus varregatus). Overt menstruation is also occurs in shrews, being reported in 10 species of insectivore from the genera Elephantulus, Erihaceus, Tana, and Tupaia. Other species for which overt menstruation has been reported include four species of bat (Carollia perspicillata, Desmodus rotundus, Glossophaga soricina, and Molossus ater), a marsupial cat (Dasyurus viverrinus), the coyote (Canis latrans), and the African elephant (Loxodonta africana). The reports for menstruation in the coyote and African elephant are anecdotal.

So it looks like it's mostly just monkeys that have a "true" period. Most everything else manages to avoid the messiness, but is probably still pretty crabby nonetheless.

There you have it, more information about animal menstruation than you ever wanted to know.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Pictures from Ohio!

Awesome Ohio Skiing (to be fair, it was the last day of the season and a freak 70 degree day in the middle of a cold spell...but that doesn't excuse the lack of vert)

That is the top of the ski area as seen from the base.

The cheese on most burgers isn't this melty.

Good snowboarders kind of make passable skiers. Kind of.

The reverse is not true. Damn it's hard to stay up on near-flat ground!

Did I mention it was melty?

Air Force Museum AKA Hordes of Sexy, Sexy Planes

A10 Thunderbolt II. I want it so bad.

F22, baby!

You can blame NASA for this thing. It's actually called a "snoopy nose". It's got a 7' radar dish in the nose that they used for tracking Gemini and Apollo missions when the spacecraft didn't have a clear radio path to the U.S..

I do not fit in the F16 cockpit. At all.

Whiskey needs one of these.

It's so big!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

What I Do

Just to break up the whining and give you a little taste of what I do and why I'm willing to put up with shitty trips to Ohio for it:



Also, I need a DSLR. After using one in the lab, I forgot how much I miss having an SLR. I'm thinking of getting a Nikon D60, but don't like the 18-55mm lens that comes with it. Still, only $500 and I think I can get more than half that for all my film equipment. Hmm...

Saturday, March 7, 2009

FYI

I'm still a really bad snowboarder.  Ohio ski areas are, from my experience, very melty.  I'll post more when I get time and a decent internet connection.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Off to Ohio

I'm outta here. I'll report back in two weeks.

Piano #2

My star pupil playing "Ode to Joy". She's come a long way in a short time.