Couldn’t resist these. I think they make great stocking-stuffers.

These finger-puppets/magnets are from the folks at Philosophers Guild and depicts cultural icons such as the ones pictured here: Edvard Munch’s The Scream, Schrödinger’s cat, Buddha, Sigmund Freud, Ludwig van Beethoven, Charlie Chaplin, and even the Axis of Evil. What’s not to like?

Picasso or Panda? Giant panda Tian Tian gets his paws dirty with non-toxic water-based paint at the National Zoo. Painting is one among many activities that fall under Animal Enrichment—a program that provides physically and mentally stimulating activities and environments for the Zoo’s residents. Art produced by many of the Zoo’s mammal and bird residents will be available for purchase at the National Capital chapter of the American Association of Zoo Keepers (AAZK) Art Show, which will take place spring 2012. Photo by Smithsonian’s National Zoo

Picasso or Panda? Giant panda Tian Tian gets his paws dirty with non-toxic water-based paint at the National Zoo. Painting is one among many activities that fall under Animal Enrichment—a program that provides physically and mentally stimulating activities and environments for the Zoo’s residents.

Art produced by many of the Zoo’s mammal and bird residents will be available for purchase at the National Capital chapter of the American Association of Zoo Keepers (AAZK) Art Show, which will take place spring 2012.

Photo by Smithsonian’s National Zoo

Blogging like it was 2004

Got an email yesterday informing me that my old blogging service was going to be discontinued. Thing is, I’d forgotten I’d even had that blog.

Of course, I couldn’t just pull the plug. Had to go read all those old entries first and, boy, there were a lot! This was back in the day when livejournal was what blogging was all about (at least in SiliVal and the Bay Area where I’m from), Blogger had just been acquired by Google the year before, and I was taking that year off college to go traveling. Needed to get out of dodge and have adventures. And so I did.

This excerpt from a post dated Jan 28, 2004 gives you a tiny indication of where I was at:

Went our separate ways from the crowd and got a late dinner. Afterwards, bought a couple of six-packs of the local brew and took advantage of the al fresco setting by engaging passers-by in conversation. Eventually, this couple from down south sat with us and offered us a smoke. No better way to chill out after having had a near perfect day of sun, beach, surf, blue skies, live music, awesome food and balmy, tropical weather.

My boy got drunk after 2 blunts and 14 beers and eventually rolled off the side of his chair the further into the night (well, early morning) we got. The rest of us smoked some more and talked about ecology (I was in the company of tree-huggers — very nice people) and art.

My old blog was like a time capsule of my year off. An unexpected twist.

Of course, the irony is these days I am addicted to microblogging like most everyone else. So much so that writing this post reminiscing about how back in the day I was used to churning out many text-heavy, largely experiential posts with startling regularity almost feels foreign. When did expression become so brief?

The green (radish) soup is by far the healthiest dish I’ve had whilst in France these past three weeks. Notice, of course, the whiskey aperitif accompanying it. I’ve also been sampling the traditional southwestern regional produce and thanks to daily café gourmands, I now have a pot belly. Vive la France!