The Hipster Eclipsters

Last Sunday there was a solar eclipse.  Did you miss it?  We sure didn't.  Third-wheel-Kevin, our hippie stoner friend, calls us up like "hey guys wanna grab some beers and go watch the eclipse from the top of a mountain?!"  and like proper acclimated Californians we said "for sure dude, that sounds totally rad!"

It sort of happened like that....

Hey!  Where's the eclipse?

it's not in my butt pocket

not over here

hmmmmm

There it is!

After a few attempts of staring through a hole in the paper looking straight at the sun, Trevor (who did his research beforehand) was the first to discover the ecliptical shadow approach which does not produce unwanted retinal destruction, a.k.a. blindness:

He also read about these rounded shadows that the eclipse causes (you may have to zoom in on his hands):

 

So while the rest of us blind hippies were staring straight at the sun, Trevor was in the background trying out his experiments...

 

 

Staring directly at the sun does not help you see the eclipse.  But taking pictures directly at the sun produces these lens flares that for some reason, unbeknownst to me, create cute little outlines of the moon passing through the track of the sun....And here you are...my photo journal of celestial, ecliptical events...along with 25 handy words that do not exist in the English language...

1 Age-otori (Japanese): To look worse after a haircut

2 Arigata-meiwaku (Japanese): An act someone does for you that you didn’t want to have them do and tried to avoid having them do, but they went ahead anyway, determined to do you a favor, and then things went wrong and caused you a lot of trouble, yet in the end social conventions required you to express gratitude

3 Backpfeifengesicht (German): A face badly in need of a fist

4 Bakku-shan (Japanese): A beautiful girl… as long as she’s being viewed from behind

5 Desenrasçanço (Portuguese): “to disentangle” yourself out of a bad situation (To MacGyver it)

6 Duende (Spanish): a climactic show of spirit in a performance or work of art, which might be fulfilled in flamenco dancing, or bull-fighting, etc.

7 Forelsket (Norwegian): The euphoria you experience when you are first falling in love

8 Gigil (pronounced Gheegle; Filipino): The urge to pinch or squeeze something that is unbearably cute

9 Guanxi (Mandarin): in traditional Chinese society, you would build up good guanxi by giving gifts to people, taking them to dinner, or doing them a favor, but you can also use up your gianxi by asking for a favor to be repaid

10 Ilunga (Tshiluba, Congo): A person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time

11 L’esprit de l’escalier (French): usually translated as “staircase wit,” is the act of thinking of a clever comeback when it is too late to deliver it

12 Litost (Czech): a state of torment created by the sudden sight of one’s own misery

13 Mamihlapinatapai (Yaghan): A look between two people that suggests an unspoken, shared desire

14 Manja (Malay): “to pamper”, it describes gooey, childlike and coquettish behavior by women designed to elicit sympathy or pampering by men. “His girlfriend is a damn manja. Hearing her speak can cause diabetes.”

15 Meraki (pronounced may-rah-kee; Greek): Doing something with soul, creativity, or love. It’s when you put something of yourself into what you’re doing

16 Nunchi (Korean): the subtle art of listening and gauging another’s mood. In Western culture, nunchi could be described as the concept of emotional intelligence. Knowing what to say or do, or what not to say or do, in a given situation. A socially clumsy person can be described as ‘nunchi eoptta’, meaning “absent of nunchi”

17 Pena ajena (Mexican Spanish): The embarrassment you feel watching someone else’s humiliation

18 Pochemuchka (Russian): a person who asks a lot of questions

19 Schadenfreude (German): the pleasure derived from someone else’s pain

20 Sgriob (Gaelic): The itchiness that overcomes the upper lip just before taking a sip of whisky

21 Taarradhin (Arabic): implies a happy solution for everyone, or “I win. You win.” It’s a way of reconciling without anyone losing face. Arabic has no word for “compromise,” in the sense of reaching an arrangement via struggle and disagreement

22 Tatemae and Honne (Japanese): What you pretend to believe and what you actually believe, respectively

23 Tingo (Pascuense language of Easter Island): to borrow objects one by one from a neighbor’s house until there is nothing left

24 Waldeinsamkeit (German): The feeling of being alone in the woods

25 Yoko meshi (Japanese): literally ‘a meal eaten sideways,’ referring to the peculiar stress induced by speaking a foreign language

and

 

that's all

 

  I got

from here

There once was a puppy who jumped in my car

Isn't he cute?

Oh Dear Dog

One night Trevor and I went for a walk along the beach to watch the sunset.  Afterward, Trevor went back to school to study and I headed back to the car to go home.  Out of the corner of my eye I was startled by a little black beast prancing towards me.  Paranoid it was a stinky skunk or rabid raccoon, I froze in my tracks and did nothing...

Then I realized upon closer inspection that the beast is wearing a collar and that the animal is in fact a mangy, matted dirty dog...He seemed friendly enough:

I tried to let him sniff my hand but he runs away.  Whatever.  I get in the car, then think..."I better check to make sure he's not running around the parking lot."  I get out to check.  No dog in sight.  I look around thinking "wow that dog must've run away pretty fast!"  Then I turn and realize he is sitting underneath my car wedged up against a tire.

I try to coax him out, but it's pretty dark out and I don't know what kind of dog this is so I don't want to get too close... I call Trevor, "Uh hey Trev, so in the 5 minutes since you left me I found a dog!  and well I probably would have just left him alone, but now he's hiding underneath the car and won't come out and I'm scared I'm gonna run over him!"

Trev runs down the hill back to the parking lot and he tries to get the dog out.  No luck.

Trev eventually gives up and runs down the beach to see if there are any dog-less owners around.  Meanwhile, I open the car doors and turn the car on to get some more light on the situation.  And wouldn't you know it, just as I get into the front seat to put the key in the ignition that little son of a bitch (pun intended) runs out from under the car and jumps into the back seat. 

He puts his paws up on the center console and is all wags and drool, as if to say OK I'm ready to go home now!!  He then nestles himself very cutely in the backseat and I actually start to take a liking to this mangy mutt.  Well... I always wanted a little puppy.  So I guess this is kind of like a dream come true.  Do you think Trevor will mind the new roommate?  Then reality strikes and I remember I'm deathly allergic to dogs.  So I took him straight to the pound and they put him down immediately.  Just kidding... his owners picked him up a few days later and they lived happily ever after.