Where have you been?

Here are some photos from the aquariums at Sea World. The aquariums are not as nice as the ones at the Birch Aquarium at Scripps but they are still pretty cool.

The last photo on the right is one of my favorites. Not only can you see the ass-end of some fish but you can also see my sweetie in the reflection with our ('my' really) new photographic toy. Its an 8.1 megapixel Nikon Coolpix S51. Mine isn't the lame black one but rather a sweet magenta (pink) one. I have a matching pink case. I am really happy with the quality of the photos it takes as well as the movies. Maybe I'll eventually post some of the movies here but if you see a photo with DSCN in the filename then its from this camera. For example, from the pictures above the lion fish, tiger sharks, jelly fish, and star fish are all photos from the S51.

Here is a cute picture of us at the Shamu show (above) along with the show itself (below). The show was not as good as the dolphin one plus something wierd happens at the beginning. Before the show starts the announcer asks that all miltary personel and veterans please stand up so the rest of the crowd can show their appreciation for the heroic sevice, dedication, et ctera of the military people.

Okay, thats not so wierd, but you have to think that the show goes on maybe five times a day, every day of the year - thats a lot of appreciation. Even thats not bad - the military personel do make many sacrifices for our freedoms. Why do Anheuser-Busch have to push this on us though? Perhaps to compensate for selling products that ruin families? Even this is not the wierd part.

The weierd part was when my girlfiend told me that it reminded her of the good ol' days of Communist Poland. When the government wanted to celebrate something the people were required to show up and support whatever was going on. When the announcer asked which country they loved the only answer was the People's Republic of Poland. Period.

I wonder what would happen if someone didn't applaud? I bet the result is similar to when you don't wear an American Flag lapel pin...

There is a sweet viewing area where the orca sleeping areas and the "Dine with Shamu" restaurant are located and these pictures are from there. We showed up right after one of the main Shamu shows so it was pretty empty (plus it was lunch time so there was a DWS show going on). The picture above is a composit of two others.





Wow, what a night of football. Germany beat by Croatia and Poland robbed of a victory because of the poor rules that FIFA and UEFA keep. There was nothing wrong with the call, he pulled the guy down by the shirt and thats a foul. It was in the box so it should have been a penalty kick. Simple. Except for the fact that calls are so subjective and basically up to the referee at the time. The biggest problem I have with football is that everyone has the "eh, its all even in the end" attitude. So the basis of the rules is that the referee will make enough mistakes in applying the rules so that the game, while poorly refereed, will be fair? Intersting attitude towards something called the Beautiful Game.

Under the Ray petting area you can look up into the bottom of the tank/pond/whatever you want to call it. There are several more types of marine life in there besides the rays.

Anyone just watch the impressive win Croatia got over Germany? The Germans looked frustrated from the get-go and ended with a red card. Well done Croatia. Now time to see what Poland can do against Austria.

One place my girlfriend thought was fantastic was the stringray petting area. You can walk up and feed or pet the animals as much as you like.


Here we can see a zoom of my girlfriend enjoying the company of one of the aforementioned rays.


And these pictures make me laught because there is basically a bunch of moms and dads standing with their little kids who are petting the rays and then there is my girlfriend. She is just like a big kid - pretty cute...

The best part of Sea World IMHO was the penguin house. I was a bit worred that I would not have any good photos because of the museum-like lighting conditions. Fortunately (again IMHO) I got some good ones!






Who's watching Euro 2008? The Portuguese started strong, Poland started flat, and both host countries lost. No matter how well or poor the Polish side do the real question is whether or not the country will have its act together and five (or was it six) new stadiums bulit in time for Euro 2012. Here is an interesting article that holds Poland and Ukraine were awarded Euro 2012 not because of merit but because the old UEFA director wanted to stick it to the new one. Nice...

Here are the three dolphin photos Photoshopped into one. I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't harder to do. There are some other fish photos I can play with so maybe one fo those will be more difficult.

The first thing we saw at Sea World was the dolphin show. This was basically a bunch of trained dolphins swimming around splashing people. There was also an audiance participation section where a "mom from the audience" fell into the water while taking a picture of her son. One of the dolphins swam up and gave her a ride around the pool. Later we found out it was really one of the trainers pretending to be a random person. Wow, the suspense.


Here we can see a dolphin in action. The people are sitting in the "splash zone" so were amply warned. Whenever I think of dolphins I always think of South Park. In "Weight Gain 4000" the kids all have to write essays about nature. Wendy writes about dolphins but Cartman actually wins. The conversation goes like this:

Cartman	I'm gonna be on television, I'm gonna be on television…
Stan	We don't believe for a minute that you won that contest fairly, fat boy.
Cartman	Egh, stop defending your little girlfriend for writing about some stupid fish.
Stan	Dude, dolphins are intelligent and friendly.
Cartman	Intelligent and friendly on rye bread with some mayonnaise.
Stan	Dolphins are way smarter than you!
Cartman	If they're so smart, why do they live in igloos?

Classic.




Three photos of on of the jumping dolphins. I think I need to Photoshop this image to make it a bit more dramatic. Watch out for it in future posts!

Sea World with a heavy dose of patriotism. Who would have thought that fish could be All American too!

So I was going to rail on Poland again but I think it best to just say that it is not too safe to be a pedestrian on the streets of Warsaw. Its not too safe to be a driver here either but hey, why whip a dead horse? Instead I will rant about how fantastic it was to live in England and experience first hand the rave/electronic music culture there.

I figure I wasted about five and a half days of my life going crazy next to someone dressed excatly like the guy in the video above. I never got into dressing up (that much) but man did I have a fantastic time. I started at the Drum and Bass monthlies but there were always too many hoodies/ASBO kids and way too much testosterone to relax and have a good time. I soon found my way to Hard Dance (hard techno, hardsytle, hard core) music by way of my Ukrainian roommate (or was he Lithuanian?) and thats when things changed. If you can get past the polysexual nature of the events and can fully let go there is no end to the enjoyment you can find.

At the monthlies there were maybe between 1000 to 5000 people in attendance, at the yearly festivals there could be upto 30 or 40 THOUSAND ravers going wild. I was fortunate to attend Global Gathering the two years while I was in England. Next I would like to attend one of the Tidy Weekenders held in Prestatyn Wales.

Anyone interested in hearing this type of music should search for The Tidy Boys, DJ Alex Kidd, Yoji Biomecchanica, K-90, or the Organ Donors. Alternately you can check out electronic music in general at Don't Stay In or Radio One's Essential Mix.