The Book List

I think it started when I was in middle school. I wrote down all the books I wanted to read on scraps of paper and put them in a box. That way I could reach into the box and pick out my next book. It would always be a surprise.
I kept doing that for a long time.
After a while I didn't care about keeping the books random. But there were a lot of them and I didn't want to have to type all of them out as a list.
So I put it off.
And kept putting it off.
And the number of scraps in the box kept building. It was a pain if I ever had to go through them for any reason to find a specific book.

Finally I couldn't take it anymore. I spent two nights typing out all of those books on my computer.
The list is 12 pages long.
12 pages.
That's over 500 books.



Will the list ever get shorter? I read a lot, but even the books I have at my house never seem to diminish in number. I haven't even been buying any books lately! But they keep multiplying.
Well, at some point I have to read some of the oldest books on the list that have been there for over 15 years.

Office

We moved into our new office this week.
It's much nicer than the last room we were using. It has a nice big window.
I feel so official having a real office.

Book Club

I went to a book club earlier this week. I've never actually been to a book club before. Though I have done many classes which included book discussions. And I've discussed many books with people I know.
The meeting was at a big name bookstore, about a rather well known book. And it's in an area with plenty of people (as opposed to out in the country or something).

And there were only three of us.

The leader of the book club got the assignment at the last minute because the original leader of the discussion had a family emergency. So he'd only read half of the book.
And the other lady that came had read most of it, but still had a few chapters left.

It's hard to discuss a book when the other people haven't finished it yet.

Wifi-less

Last week I had a couple days off to go back up to Yosemite/Wawona, where I worked last year.
It was cool to see everything again. My neck was mostly better, so I was able to walk around some. Thankfully.
I finally got to the Mariposa grove, which was closed last year so I never got to see the trees @_@


I met up with my old boss and stayed in the big old hotel.
The wifi was out, so I had no internet or TV for two days. Which was fine. I should get away from internet more often. I did have my laptop to write. And I had books to keep me company. After all, Wawona is the place to hang out on deck chairs and relax in beautiful surroundings.

Best Flamingo Ever

One last animal post XD
Watch about 20 seconds of this. This is the cutest freaking flamingo ever.



This is a scene from the show "Secrets of the Zoo."

Cub Photos

Dude, I never posted the photos of the baby snow leopards!





They're already a lot bigger. These are from a couple months ago.

Zoo Photos

I'm just going to dump a bunch of these here. These are from the last few months.


Guanaco


Black and white ruffed lemur, hanging like a bat


This is one of my favorite photos out of all of them.
Red tailed boa with a dying dart frog sitting on his head.


Prarie dog loaf (dude prarie dogs have entire languages with nouns, verbs, and adjectives @_@ )


Red ruffed lemur tucked into a ball


River otter


Grizzly bear. She's holding her foot out of the water XD


Our Sumatran tigers snuggling. He's got his paw draped over her back~


She's got a goats milk pop sickle


Baby francois langur. Babies are born bright orange


Siberian tiger
Flehmen response: When an animal like a cat smells something really interesting and opens their mouth to pull the scent in. It's adorable.


Over the course of 10 minutes her tongue kept coming out farther and farther.


Sifaka, rolled into a perfect ball


Baby mandrill




Red pandas eat bamboo, just like giant pandas


Siberian tiger


Red panda


Zebras lined up perfectly


West African crowned crane.
I love it when they ruffle their feathers. They look like porcupine birds.

Look at People when you Talk to Them

Last week was one of the really big fundraisers for the zoo. I was scheduled to help out with it. I'd never done a big event like this, and wasn't sure what to expect. I kept teasing about how I'd handle a night with lots of rich people and lots of alcohol.
Half of that is pretty silly since I've known plenty of rich people. It's not like they're aliens or anything XD
A lot of people would consider me rich, considering I have plenty of food, a nice place to live, and even a car.
And as to the alcohol, well, I didn't have to stay the whole night so I was was gone before that became a thing. Though someone did spill wine on me. They were rather mortified, but it didn't bother me. It's just a work jacket. Wine is a lot less messy than other messes at the zoo (like when giraffe drool blows into your face).

What ended up being the main problem? I hurt my neck really badly the day before. I could barely turn my head. I still can't turn it all the way, though it's a lot better. It's really hard to talk to people without moving your head. Especially when you're talking to tall people.

Other than that the event went really well. I was there to talk to our donors about giraffes.

All the people I talked to were really great and excited about them. Some of them knew quite a bit about giraffes and had even seen them in the wild.

The boss of the whole zoo even invited me to stay for a drink. I had to go "I caaan't! I can't move. TT^TT "

The Dragon Giraffe

Okay, this is our four-year-old giraffe.


There's a little spot just above her shoulder blade


And it seriously looks just like Toothless? Imagine seeing Toothless flying, or maybe diving with his wings tucked in a bit


Do you see it? @_@

The Battle Against Bad Posture

Throughout elementary, middle, and high school, as well as some of college, I had terrible posture. It was because of those tiny little desks. I'd hunch over them whenever I was working.
Every now and then Mom would tease me about my posture and try to get me to sit up. It didn't work very well.
Now of course people are getting bad posture from hunching over smart phones (I probably hunched over my GameBoy though, to be fair).

I get anxious watching my cousins folded in half over their screens. And they insist they aren't getting bad posture @_@

My shoulders are the main problem. They were always rolled forward and inward, which also dragged my neck down.
It wasn't until college that I started to make a real effort to change my posture. I guess it was something I had to decide for myself (though I'd been thinking about it for a long time).
I've been fighting to fix it for several years now. And it has been steadily improving. I'm very lucky to have my mom, a yoga teacher. If I ask for advice she will let me know how to relax my muscles or fix my shoulders. I have to be careful if I ask her for a shoulder massage though. She never gives a shoulder massage. Instead she stabs her fingers into any tense muscles in my neck and shoulders and demands that I relax that muscle. It never feels good @_@ Though I guess it's good to know to relax specific muscles (even if it hurts like hell to have stiff muscles poked/pinched).

At first I made zero progress. I would try to straighten my spine while I was walking around, but it would only last a minute or two at the most.
The first step that actually worked was just to sit for 5-10 minutes before bed and try to focus on my posture.
That worked some. But then I asked Mom to step in. I think by then she'd given up trying to comment on my posture. She still doesn't say anything unless I ask her. She told me to roll my shoulders back, but to not arch my spine back (by relaxing around the solar plexus area). And that worked as a good next step. But my neck was still forward more than normal.
Once again, I'd try to straighten my neck while I was walking or sitting, but it never stayed that way for long.

It was only about a month ago that she gave me the next step. I was rolling my shoulders up and back, but that wasn't enough. See, if you look at someone from the front and they have their arms hanging naturally at their side, you should be looking at the thumb side of their hands. My shoulders were still slumped in enough that it rotated my arms in. If you looked at me from the front, you would see the backs of my hands. So Mom told me to pull my shoulder blades together and down. But still, don't arch your back. I have trouble with that. My rib cage keeps wanting to arch back along with my shoulders.

(All I can think of when I start talking about bones)

It's still the worst when I'm standing and walking because then I get distracted and forget to hold my posture. If I'm sitting in a good chair, I can feel that my back is straight. Like my computer chair, right now.

I'm still getting steadily better. And I feel like I'm finally at the home stretch.

If you are one of the many people to have sucky posture, do what you can to fix it. It will screw up your back and neck when you get older.
My advice might be helpful, but you may have different posture problems than me, and I'm not an expert. Talk to someone who knows what they're doing, because you don't want to sway current posture problems with whole new ones. .
Don't take this post as medical advice XD It's here to encourage you to sit straighter, and to persist even if it takes... years.


Zoooo stuff~~
More of the sifakas! They like to play wrestle