soapbox

Friday. Holiday weekend. Yeehaw!!! ‘Bout time!

Cowboy Up, Y’all!

Now that it’s properly July, I figured this notice from the Cowboy Cultural Society would be appropriate:

“The American Cowboy is a national icon, well represented and celebrated in movies, television, and sporting events such as rodeos, and more. Senator Craig Thomas of Wyoming introduced a resolution to designate July 23, 2005 as ‘National Day of the American Cowboy.’ The resolution spells out what it is to be an American Cowboy, the pioneering men and women who helped establish the American West, describing them as icons that embody “honesty, integrity, courage, compassion, respect, a strong work ethic, and patriotism”.

Also, be sure to listen to the Cowboy Cultural Society’s webcast, either through the radio listings on iTunes, or through the stream from the webpage i linked above. 24/7 sounds of the Old West, including songs and honest-to-goodness cowboy poetry.

Anyways, I expect everyone with boots and Stetsons to be wearing them on the 23rd.

on a far less frightening note, i’ve found a sombrero smiley at the babylon 5 msg board i’m part of. enjoy.

this one is also fun.

and then, what sort of physics blog would this be without:

so, the only thing i hate more than spiders are centipedes. naturally, i go the whole week finding nothing in my room more harmful than the pseudo-ladybugs. imagine my surprise when, while changing for bed, having been released of observing duties for the night slightly early because i have to drive to the airport tomorrow to pick up the undergrad, i look over by the desk in my room and see something that looks vaguely like a really thick, long piece of fuzz. and then i move closer. it’s a fucking centipede. and i’m not talking the fuzzy kind we get in the northeast. i’m talking a real fucking desert centipede. nasty orange, at least 2 inches long, maybe 3, and probably (forgive me for mixing units) .75 mm wide, big thick legs and parasitic-looking head. guess who’s not really sleepy anymore! fuck fuck fuckity fuck! i jumped on him repeatedly, and discovered that their guts seem to be black. i was only able to kill him because he can’t fly, and i was still wearing my kick-ass boots. i told thor, and he said that he’s never seen one, they must be pretty rare. painful bite, but not fatal. i move out of my room tomorrow (well, later today) and down to the 1.3m, where apparently the mice are alive and kickin’ again. oh rapture. GET ME OUT OF HERE!