Month: July 2006

visited 17 countries (7%)

[This post originally appeared in Dullicious, where I blogged as Barbie-dull for several years.]

map of countries, the one I visited coloured in red

Since my post about visited countries last April and since I travelled during my June vacation, I decided to update my own map.

17 countries visited, 7%.

In the fore-seeable future (the end of 2007), there is no perspective of increase of those numbers. Unless I take a vacation someplace new, of course. My next travels will bring me again to California, Japan, and perhaps Canada and Massachusetts.
I found out also that I visited 8 states (15%) in the USA (I didn’t include the airport in Salt Lake City and Chicago). It’s peculiar how the very south-west and very north-east are red and how the rest is so white.

Penguins

Sign cautioning against penguins
Sign cautioning against penguins

Today I learnt a few things about penguins.

My dad watched a documentary on them and here is what he said:

The male penguin looks for a rock to bring to every female penguins until one accepts it. This is the ‘go ahead’ and they make out. Then the male penguin goes to look for more rocks and builds a nest.

He said that female penguins live for about 12 years, that they start reproducing at the age of 6 and that they lay 2 eggs per year. Then he described the rock bringing little dance he saw:

He walked with his wings spread out, a penguin walk, really. And the rock was in beak. None of the female penguins accepted his rock. The little guy will have to wait till next year.

Then my dad laughed and explained:

He even brought a rock to the photographer!

No cap, no hood at the pool

[This post originally appeared in Dullicious, where I blogged as Barbie-dull for several years.]

A couple days ago, I learnt a reason why people are not allowed to wear hats, caps or hoods at this billiards place I go to sometimes.

They could tend to hide faces in the video surveillance system, said the bouncer at the entrance.
Aaah…

Yes they have a bouncer; this is set in a trouble-prone neighborhood. Yes I was tipsy after drinking a third of my beer and yet I won more than I lost games.

Woohoo, Opera 9!

I had heard about Merlin last December, I think, and I had heard it handled e-mail pretty differently from Opera 8.5. So I wasn’t so sure I wanted to upgrade.

When I was reassured it would be totally painless, I upgraded. (Thanks for the reassurance, and holding my hand all the while!)

Opera++ for lots of new cool things but a special thanks for implementing in the compose mail some shortcuts I’m used to with emacs.