Not Intent on Arriving

Wow, how is it already October?

1) And the Winners Are….On September 30, the Ig Nobel Prize awards were given out. These awards hail achievements in research that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” See the complete list of winners here. My favorite award went to a team of scientists that researched fellatio practices in bat.

2) Speaking of “Research”: One recent Duke graduate created a “thesis” of all of her hookups, going into excruciating detail about each man she slept with. You guessed it. That list is now on the internet.

3) San Francisco’s Gay Community Speaks Out: A group of adult, well-adjusted gay people send a video postcard to all teens who feel isolated and alone, reminding them “It Gets Better!”

4) Wash Those Bags: One reporter demonstrates that reusable grocery bags may actually carry millions of bacteria, if not washed between uses.

5) Street View Now On All Continents: Google now shows scenes from Antarctica.

6) Jack Johnson Is Awesome: Even if I’ll miss his show this weekend.  His new video called “At or With Me” features SNL star Andy Samberg.

7) Wait, There’s Another “Law & Order”: Yes, and this one is based in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Times created a front page ad for the show, featuring fake content. Surprisingly, some people object.

8) Every Life Matters: Words to live by. Read this.

We came out on top at trivia last night. Out of the 9 teams, we took the entire $45 pot. The categories:

1. The Beatles— Did you know they were the Quarrymen before they became the Beatles? We missed that one, but got a bonus point for knowing Pete Best was the original drummer.

2. Twin Peaks— No one in the bar liked this category at all.  I learned later that the show lasted two seasons, was set in a small Washington state town and followed the FBI’s investigation of a brutal murder. One question: name the fictional soap opera that played throughout much of the first season. Yeah, we didn’t know that one.

3. NFL Coaches— Yeah, I rocked this category and I have no idea how. We got all 6 questions right. I got that Jim Mora was responsible for the legendary clip below and remembered that Ray Rhodes coached the Eagles from 1995 to 1999.

4. Cities Before They Were Cities— Before it became New York, it was known as New Amsterdam. Mumbai was Bombay for years. Didn’t know what Melbourne was known as (and still can’t remember).

5. Washington State History— Another category where our performance was average (luckily none of the other groups liked these categories either). A previous trivia night had asked for Washington’s date of founding so we got a point for remembering 1889 exactly. Treaty of Oregon? Pig War? Didn’t know those tidbits.

6. Technological Innovations— This was the visual round. We nailed pulley, electron microscope, antibiotics and sextant, but missed the ballista.

All and all, a great success.

This song is addictive. 16 songs remixed into one bubblegum smash hit.

A beautiful, sunny Saturday in Seattle took me around to three festivals, yummy food and more. Here’s a collection of some of the best images.

We started off the day at the Festa Italiana Seattle, which included music and food from the country. I was the first person to add my pin to the map. Unfortunately, we got there a bit early and there wasn’t much going on.

We survived a bike flat tire going down a busy highway (!) and made it to the opening of Lake Union Park, which is absolutely gorgeous. It was the perfect day for a park opening.

A collection of Native American tribes had a salmon bake, and introduced me to a new way of baking fish.

Kids took model sailboats for a spin around a new pond, with the Space Needle in the background.

From there, we headed back to Fremont and Blue Moon Burgers (@BlueMoonBurgers) for lunch.  Yummy, delicious burgers. High marks.

After that, we headed into Oktoberfest. There weren’t that many people when we first entered, but that quickly changed. More than 100 beers from all over the world were available and we had 12 tasting tokens.

There were some really good beers and some that were less successful.  All and all, though, we were very satisfied with the choices and selection.

At one point, we decided to take a break and stumbled upon the Flying Apron (@flyingapron), a vegan, gluten-free, wheat-free bakery. I was initially skeptical, but was proven quite wrong. We got a corn-berry muffin that was delicious. See below.

A summary of the day: lots of really different, interesting experiences.  High marks, Seattle.

1) House Membership to Shift: After analysis of the 2010 Census, the time-honored tradition of reapportioning seats in the House of Representative will occur. New York to lose 2 seats; Florida gains 2.

2) Tragic Accident Kills One of Britain’s Wealthiest Citizens: Jim Heselden, who owned the Segway brand, died when a Segway he was driving went over a cliff and into a river.

3) F***ing Sweet New Twitter App: Cursebird tracks tweets with swearing in them.

4) Video of Emergency Landing: Ignoring the warnings of a flight attendant, two passengers on Delta Flight 4951 filmed the emergency landing of their plane. Sparks fly.

5) Steve Jobs Responds to E-mail: And seemingly petty ones. A student was shocked that the Apple CEO personally responded (rudely) to her e-mail about a paper.

6) Jaws: Video of several great white sharks eating a whale.