To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive

I am like an eagle (or a reasonable fascimilie thereof)

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 05:06:43 GMT

Today I learned how to fly.

You see, being descended from birds, the Lenarii have a tendency to settle in high and difficult to reach places. Unfortunately, a few millennia ago they lost the ability to fly, so it's not easy to get to those mountain dwellings. So over the years, they've perfected the small plane to the point where it's about as common as cars are back on Earth, and with the help of computers even easier to operate. Not being able to get to some of the higher neighborhoods of La-Lor City because I don't have a pilot's license has been a small but niggling annoyance since I got here, so today Dor took it upon himself to teach me to fly. He claimed that as my older brother (no, really, after last year's tukka fruit debacle, apparently we really are considered relatives), it was his duty to teach me.

So we squoze ourselves into his little red monoplane--not, I might add, sized for Humans--and before I had time to think about what a bad idea this could turn out to be, he'd talked me through setting the flaps and the fuel mixture and everything and we were off.

You guys, this planet is beautiful from the air. It's beautiful on the ground, too, but up high you can really appreciate the rolling, varied landscape, and the way all the glass used in the buildings sparkles and flashes in the sun. The reddish-purple leaves on the trees made these wonderful sprays of contrast over the blue-green grass, and in a field outside the city, the wind caused the tall grass to ripple so that it looked almost like an inland ocean.

I almost didn't want to land, but eventually we touched down in Zenni Heights for lunch. And while we were there, I saw something that convinced me I just had to get my license. Much in the way that Humans are pretty close on the evolutionary tree to chimps and other primates, the Lenarii have an evolutionary relative in the sanga bird. These guys never developed sentience--at least not as it's currently defined--or opposable thumbs, but they did keep their ability to fly. And opportunistic foragers that they are, they're fond of nesting near Lenarii settlements in the mountains. They are small and multicolored and like to perch attractively on rocks in the sun.

Yep, I'm getting my pilot's license so I can take better bird pictures. No one is surprised.

( ...the hell? )

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Twitter-stalking TV characters has become my new hobby.

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 23:31:42 GMT

Bwahahaha.

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April Fools Day

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 18:25:30 GMT

Of the internet pranks I've seen so far today, Hulu's is far and away my favorite. I think the frames were the best part.

Google's is pretty good, although I feel like it's not as outlandish as some they've done in the past. But for a subtle prank, do a search for "helvetica" or "comic sans" and see what happens.

I really like YouTube's 1911 button. :D

I haven't been through all of Think Geek's fake products, but I think my favorite so far is the Tribbles & Bits cereal. (...Someone tell me that's actually a fake. Their offerings are so strange usually that I'm not entirely sure.)

Have you seen any good ones?

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Lost in translation

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 05:15:44 GMT

So. My life has officially turned into really bad fanfic, because I appear to have accidentally gotten married.

Apparently if you eat a tukka fruit at the same time as the person you're standing next to, it acts a marriage ceremony. Somehow, the Lenarii don't consider this essential information when handing out those tasty little plum-like things, so I bit into mine right after Kurt, who was with me on this little cultural exchange program to the city of El-Naar a few hundred miles to the west of our embassy, and poof. Married.

Everyone at the reception started cheering, and a few of them even ran outside to pick some flowers and throw them at us. Kurt and I, of course, could only stand there staring at each other wondering what the hell was going on.

Dor got a big kick out of it, because he's a JERK (I hope you're reading this, Dor). Then he informed us of the reason everyone was acting like we'd just won the lottery or something equally magnificent.

I must have looked really pissed, because my little purple penguin friend quickly said that divorce was just as easy should one find oneself in this predicament. All Kurt and I had to do was throw a tukka fruit at each other, and we would be legally separated. Kurt's a nice guy and all, but I feel no particular compulsion to be married to him, so we tossed the fruit at each other. Then, with what I must admit was a certain amount of glee, I lobbed another one at Dor.

...Apparently that means we're now brother and sister. I guess I'll be invited to the Lenarii equivalent of Thanksgiving with his clan this year.

In other news, I heard that a round trip flight out here has gone down to a couple hundred dollars. You should all come visit me. It'll be like Vegas, but with aliens!

( What in tarnation? )

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