I had hoped to have my annual post on the state of Etech finished today, but while working on it I found myself starting to take it far too seriously. This just won’t do. Time to take a break and return to it when I control the topic, rather than the topic control me.
In the meantime today is Spring, or at least, Spring for me. The weather was warm and the daffodils, tulips, and other flowers were in full bloom. The Magnolia is just now starting too bud, and the Missouri witch hazel ending its cycle, leaving behind a most wonderful fragrance.
I walked Botanical and grabbed some sunshine and photos. Though I know you’re all tired of flowers and that sort of thing I’ll still add a couple to this writing, just to break up the words. Between you and me, I like seeing something besides red, yellow, and orange on the page from time to time.
Walking over the bridge in the Japanese Garden, the koi fish followed along in hopes of getting some of the fish food you can buy from gumball-like machines at either end. While I was dropping food into hungry mouths, a fairly large group of people approached and several exclaimed in surprise when they saw the fish. They had strong southern accents — more mountain than plantation — and evidentally had never seen koi before.
A couple of women and a young girl ran down the hill to the stream that fed the lake and dropped down for a closer look, while one guy, who seemed out of place, walked around with a quarter in his hand, trying to break into the chatter and laughter.
Another guy yelled down the women, “Watch out, Hannah. That sucker’ll jump out and take your head off!” I finished my feeding and my photos and started to pass the increasingly loud group when the same wit yelled out, “They are the ugliest things I’ve ever seen.”
I glanced at him when I passed, this guy with pasty white arms, sparse straggly black chin whiskers raggedly covering blotched, pink chin and cheeks; matted dull, black hair under an old baseball cap, and huge gut falling out from under his too tight and too short gray t-shirt.
Botanical isn’t the only place with the sights of Spring. Tonight when I went downstairs to get a bottle of water, I noticed Zoë at the window, intently looking out. I peeked through the glass and saw several young bunnies hoping about, grazing on the grass.
And the daffodils are up. Life is good when the daffodils are up.
Speaking of bunnies, thanks to Scoble, I found what I *wanted from the Easter Bunny, a podcasting kit. No, seriously.
A couple of folk pointed out to me today that there’s a rumor going around that Burningbird isn’t Shelley Powers, an American woman. No, Burningbird is none other than Jonathon Delacour, an Australian gent.
I don’t know where these rumors start, but I decided to nip this one in the bud before it spreads too far. I thought I would record a podcast, and you all could hear my softly feminine voice with its distinctly American accent.
I also thought about taking a photo of my breasts, and posting it as proof of my sex, but for all I know, Jonathon has **man breasts, and could do the same. Wouldn’t it be the pits if his were better than mine?
Catching up on my reading, Phil pointed out that Google is looking to relocate to The Dalles, in Oregon. Great location, absolutely gorgeous area, finest wind surfing in the world, but Phil’s explanation left me equally surprised:
Great Googly Moogly. To build a data center, Google has to belly up right next to a dam, with a big ol’ river to use for water cooling? That’s more computers than I can imagine piling up together.
Geez, not even Bill Gates has his own dam and power station. I can see it now: the next time a major weblogging meme hits, Portland suffers a blackout.
And on that, more than past time for bed.
*Well, I really wanted a standards-based Internet Explorer, but the Bunny wouldn’t stop laughing so I had to change my wish.
**Note, I have nothing against man breasts — as long as they aren’t better than mine.