Category: adventure

Sea World at the Capitol – May 13, 2009

At first I thought it was unusual to see “wild” animals in a Senate chamber but after thinking about it for just a minute more it really seemed appropriate (especially if you’ve ever seen some of these Senators go at each other on the floor debating contentious legislation.)

This wasn’t a protest so I won’t be putting it under the Protest at the Capitol heading…  I don’t know why Sea World brought several of their animals to the Capitol before sending them to Southern California for the summer (another question, I forgot to ask there as well…)  At first I thought it was unusual to see “wild” animals in a Senate chamber but after thinking about it for just a minute more it really seemed appropriate (especially if you’ve ever seen some of these Senators go at each other on the floor debating contentious legislation.)  I think I saw all the animals that they brought into the Capitol, if there were larger animals on the grounds I missed them while working, so all the pictures and videos will be of smaller creatures…

That's me and that is a ? armadillo, I forgot to ask
That's me and that is a ? armadillo, I forgot to ask

When I first walked into the room there was a terrible screeching going on and on and on from one of the animals in a covered traveling case.  It turned out to be a black and white-ruffed lemur’s mating call, I don’t know who he thought he was an eligible mate in the Capitol…  I have to admit I enjoyed seeing wild animals while at work, (what other places of business have Sea World stopping by to show animals off?)  the coolest part was seeing the reactions of small children and kids as the looked at penguins and African porcupines, held an armadillo, and petted a lemur!

Here is an unedited video of them showing an African Porcupine:

Here is a short video of the penguins the brought in:

Here is footage of the lemur:

Here is some video of that look children get that I mentioned:

I doubt I’ll be seeing anything else as photogenic as these animals here this year!

Protests at the Capitol: Vang Pao Supporters March!

My hopes in the future are to be able to mingle with protesters and talk with them a bit to get their sense of why they’re protesting and what they hope to accomplish by doing so.

Last week (May 11th) a large group of Hmong, Vietnamese, Vietnam Vets and others (estimated at over 10,000) gathered at the State Capitol to march through Sacramento to the Federal district court.  The marchers were protesting the trial of General Vang Pao and 10 others who are on trial for allegedly trying to overthrow the Communist regime in Laos.

Using my Flip Mino (first time) I was able to record a small bit of this as the protesters assembled at the Capitol.  I had no idea who Vang Pao was, or that he and others were on trial.  For more details on what exactly is going on you can check out the Wikipedia article on the him here.  This has been the largest group of people assembled at the Capitol I’ve seen so far this year.  I only caught a small bit of the march as I was heading into work and had quite a bit today that morning and so was prevented from talking more footage or talking to the people.

My hopes in the future are to be able to mingle with protesters and talk with them a bit to get their sense of why they’re protesting and what they hope to accomplish by doing so.

So here’s the videos via Youtube (warning 5 seconds in there is a loud whistling!) :

and another short clip  to roughly show the size of the crowd:

Who know I’d be addicted to DnD?

I’ve only played Dungeons and Dragons once.  I was 20 and drove an hour and a half to an acquitances house and jumped into a compaign already underway as a dwarf paladin (I think).  Sitting in a garage with people I barely knew, rolling dice for reasons I didn’t know wasn’t much fun.  I was invited back but I never accepted the invitation, I decided I was nerdy enough playing video games, board games, table-top war games, card games, etc., etc.

So it is with the greatest surprise that I find myself currently addicted to the new facebookapplication, Dungeons and Dragons Tiny Adventures.  The great thing about it is, I don’t have to do anything!  I don’t have to know the arcane rules, I don’t have to pretend to be someone I’m not,  I don’t have to create a character…  In actuality the application is nothing more than a paper-doll program with narrative, and  a little bit of social interaction thrown in.  Not much to it, but I’ve only been playing for about a week and my character is already nearing level 10 (which as I understand is where normal DnD characters max out, you need more books, or something, after that).

So if you’ve got a facebook account and want the easiest possible introduction to what DnD and roleplaying games are, click the link above and start adventuring!

Goals, the Importance of Writing Them Down, and My Own

Setting goals, writing them down, sharing them, and my own!

It’s important to have goals, to set bars for yourself, why? So that you know just where it is you’re going, and how best to plan getting there. Sure, you could go through life without setting goals, writing them down, etc… But, I have a feeling unless you have a great memory and a lot of drive, those goals, dreams, and aspirations will be forgotten.  Writing your goals down is one thing, making them public is completely different. When you write a goal down it becomes something separate from yourself, it becomes real, not just in your head, sharing those goals with others is the next step in making that goal real. Making it independent of you. When a goal is something real it hangs over you more, it creates guilt, and despite what your therapist tells you, guilt is a great motivator, it can and is a good thing (especially in this instance.) Some place you can go to make your goals public? Well your own blog, your journal, a club or organization you belong to, or if you don’t have any of those go to 43things.com.

So here are my goals, set into 3 groupings, 1 year from now, 5 years…, and 10 years… This list will grow and shrink, I’m sure as my life changes, priorities rise and fall, and I go through the business of, you know, living. But here it is now, and I’m dedicated to crossing off every single one of them, so that in 10 years time I can make a new list and begin working on it. I’ve printed this list out, signed, and dated it and it now looks at me everyday, posted on my bulletin board, a not so subtle hint to be working on crossing things off of it!

My goals, To Be Done in:

  • 1 Year:

    • Start Career in politics

    • Scuba Diving License

    • Be enrolled in graduate level program

    • Be engaged

    • Submit work(s) for publication

  • 5 years:

    • Be married

    • Have graduate degree

    • Run for office

    • Be published

    • Be Debt Free

  • 10 years:

    • Have a family

    • Own a home

    • Have a retirement plan in place

    • Be a force for good in politics

    • Continue to be published

I commit myself to reaching and overreaching on these goals I’ve set for myself.

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