http://www.maktaaq.com 100% Whale Blabber Thu, 04 Sep 2008 04:29:51 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Monica Hamburg, who is quite an amusing blogger, often writes about the curious comments she receives on the streets of Vancouver. Today, she wrote about an alcoholic who warned her, "Take laundry seriously!" On the streets of Vancouver, one often runs into activists, whether they are egg-throwing anti-abortionists, Tibetan-supporting ... http://www.maktaaq.com/2008/09/03/taking-underwear-seriously/ The Japanese recognize Moomins for their cuteness. The Finns presumably see their bleak lives reflected in the dangers that haunt Moominvalley's winter nights. I read the Moomins as a child because they were the only books that celebrated mysterious heroes about which the other characters could only speculate. The ... http://www.maktaaq.com/2008/09/02/die-moomins/ Has anyone else noticed that lately, the internet has been getting lonely? So many good bloggers are deserting the place. The ones that are left behind are running out of things to say. Or, they are just commenting on the latest gadgets and blogging conferences and metablogging conferences and ... http://www.maktaaq.com/2008/09/01/the-point-of-blogging/ After Ring, I continued on my Japanese horror literature reading list with Hitomi Kanehara's Snakes and Earrings. While not of the horror genre, its descriptions of icky human actions certainly horrified. Tokyo's Kanehara won the Akutagawa Prize for this 120-page novel in 2004. One of the youngest people to ... http://www.maktaaq.com/2008/08/28/snakes-earrings/ I am leaving for vacation to Japan in a few days. Usually, when I travel to a new place, I spend the preceding months researching the place, sometimes studying the language, contacting locals for more information, talking to expats from that place, and reading many, many books about the place. ... http://www.maktaaq.com/2008/08/25/ring/ Finally. 24 hours after our deadline we have two clear winners for the Hawk Eating Vole Caption Contest. I had to email everyone I knew, even people who don't know about my secret online life, and beg them to put aside their squeamishness for a higher goal. ... http://www.maktaaq.com/2008/08/22/hawk-eating-vole-contest-winners/ Please be so kind as to vote now on your favourite caption for the California meadow vole (Microtis californicus) and for the red-tailed hawk (there are two polls embedded below). More on the contest here. And, once again, thanks to photographer Steve Jurvetson for use of his photo. Online Surveys & Market Research First ... http://www.maktaaq.com/2008/08/14/hawk-eating-vole-contest-voting/ (This video will take up a mere twenty seconds of your life.) http://www.maktaaq.com/2008/08/10/presenting-dramatic-lemur/ Ok, ok. I gave up on drawing a hamster for the first place winner of the Hawk Eating Vole contest. The only cute hamster I drew is surrounded by a dozen not-so-cute hamsters in my sketchbook. It'll take me a few months to paint a nice hamster. But ... http://www.maktaaq.com/2008/08/07/prizes-for-hawk-eating-vole-contest/ One of the joys of reading my library copy of Dan Auiler’s Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic is the pedantic and sometimes argumentative, marginalia on some of the pages. About four pages of the penciled-in marginalia have been erased, presumably by the librarians, while they missed ... http://www.maktaaq.com/2008/08/06/marginalia-arguments/