Amazing! Flickr pools can be so fun. Check out the different pools this photo belongs to:

The Secret Life of Toys (Pool)
Toys. Intimately. (Pool)
Constructed Narratives Using Toys (Pool)
Shadow Barbie: my kind of girl (Pool)
Nightmares and Dreamscapes (Pool)
Decapitated Dolls (Pool)
Diorama Drama (Pool)

Canadian Governor General Michaëlle Jean's statement on the earthquake in Haiti:

I now need never go to another show in my life. My showgoing days have reached their apex. My life is complete.

Take one part excellent surf band and Christmas tune veteran, Los Straitjackets*:


Add two parts burlesque dancers/backup singers, The Lovely Elvettes:


Shake with one crazy-ass (and funny) Mexican-American Elvis impersonator, El Vez:


Add Christmas and insane pop-culture references (jogaerobics around stage while shouting lines from "White Lines (Don't Do It)" during "Jingle Bell Rock" -- ROCK, get it?) and you have the show of a lifetime.


I was trying to decide what the most surreal moment of the show was and couldn't. But if you have the chance to catch any components of this post in future, do not hesitate. GO!


*PS: Not my first Mexican-wrestling-mask surf band.

This is where we talk about what I enjoy as a hobby and did NOT enjoy as a career: epi!

Specifically, I've got three interesting graphics about H1N1 to talk about. Let's go!

Here's a picture of the flu viruses circulating in the world right now. The aqua is proportion of H1N1, the purple is seasonal (other) flu. You can see H1N1 dominating, this is because seasonal flu doesn't kick into high gear until January-February. Although in the Southern hemisphere you see not many cases, and a mix. It's not flu season there.



Here's a good picture from an article on eurosurveillance.org. (Reading from the article here:) the authors used a simple model based on the H1N1 data from the spring to predict a seasonal forcing of the flu peaking right about now. They predict about two-thirds of the population in the US will get the flu, but only a quarter will fall ill and the rest will be asymptomatic. How does this compare to the seasonal flu? I guess about 5-20% of people get the seasonal flu?

Their article predicts that vaccination won't come in time to do much good, which is interesting considering they were extremely optimistic in assuming the vaccination program would be in high gear right now, which it simply isn't.




Here's a great picture from the CDC of cumulative weekly hospitalization rates due to lab-confirmed flu cases. Click for bigger.

The red line is this year, the other colors are other years. The charts start in October at the left and move to April at the right. Going down are different age groups, which are affected in different ways by the flu. Note the rates are cumulative, so the lines go up and then level off when there are no new cases.



So what do you think? Are we in the peak of H1N1 now? Will mortality continue to be significantly lower than seasonal flu? Much ado about not very much in the grand scheme of things?

Some pictures from our trip:

We saw a fox! Many times. S/he was not shy.


( More inside )

Re: Yo Rodeo Poster Sale going on today from 12-5 at 6557 Cunard (corner of Creighton)
SUPER SCORE! I got a 3D poster!

So an anonymous benefactor, actually I totally know who she is and she can identify herself if she doesn't mind, gave me a flickr pro account and THAT means I can inflict more pictures on you. Here.

Canals in Venice




( Some more favorites behind the cut )

Woke up at 5 and made scrambled eggs + watercress (surprisingly delicious) and fruit salad. I could get used to this! I really hope my circadian rhythm has re-set itself to 'morning person.'

We have a load of venison in the freezer courtesy of my uncle so Ryan is making deer chili this weekend. I voted heavily for deer stew (parsnips and dumplings...yum) but will be content with chili.

Highly recommend listening to Edith Piaf as life movie soundtrack.

Part two of the trip now on Flickr.

PS Dear amazing photographers on my friendslist. I know you are there. If you have any tips for me now that you've seen a few of my vacation snaps - easy ways to make travel pictures more interesting that wouldn't impinge on your domain as artists - I would love to hear them. In composition, subject matter, or post-processing!



( Some pictures I like behind the cut )

Last night I had my first French writing class. It was hard. The guy was like, "Write me two pages right now, then tell me your writing weaknesses at the end." Without Robert, Bescherelle or, most importantly, Yahoo Babelfish?

Listening to April March today I noticed her song Caribou has a lot of the French subjunctive mood. Ack. Also, calling anything in grammar a MOOD is just wrong.

Here's the first week of our trip on Flickr.


Venice - St. Mark's Square from the cruise ship. Note the mass of tourist humanity.



Some more photos I like ( behind the cut )