Went to the zoo yesterday. Crowded as heck. Yuck. But I still managed to find some critters.

Say it with me now . . . AWWWWWW!!!! These are baby fossas, born June 19th, in the nursery because their mom didn't care for them. The zoo does good with breeding these guys; I think this is the third litter I've seen.



This is one I haven't gotten a picture of; a fishing cat. He has a waterfall and a big pond off to the right, out of the picture.



This is a guenon right up against the glass. These monkeys like to be around water.



And this dude is an alligator snapping turtle. He doesn't have a name, I asked the keeper feeding the fish he shares the pond with. Just a number. Anyway, he usually lurks in the bottom of the pool at the entrance to the Children's zoo, but I was lucky enough to catch him on a rare trip topside.

Didn't go to the zoo, but I did stop by the rose garden because I had to get outside for a while. It's hard to take a bad picture there so I uploaded a bunch.









The fountain was off for some reason, and I found these floating in there and thought it was nifty.





And now I'm off to see James Patrick Kelly read at Mysterious Galaxy for the Clarion class.

Watching three synchronized fireworks displays over downtown from a balcony at my apartment building is just plain awesome. (Yes, I'm trying to make you jealous.)

Hearing via various outlets that students in the Clarion West writing workshop had their laptops stolen just plain sucks. Poor kids. Details over here. They're taking donations to help cover the cost.

Lets see . . . last year, I was here, watching the same thing. Two years ago, I was, um, I can't remember. Oh. On my aunt and uncle's house which is on the other side of downtown with a great view. Three years ago I was at Clarion; my default userpic is one Cory Doctorow took at the holiday BBQ. (Which wasn't actually on the 4th, but it was fun.)

And someone tell my muse that I need to work on two certain stories, not start another one. Arrrgggh.

Alas, I have been remiss in posting this, but livelongnmarry is now live and running. Briefly, from their info page:

What is this?
Live Long And Marry is a fandom auction to benefit marriage equality. Bidding begins on July 1, 12:01 AM one minute after midnight Pacific Time, 2008, and closes on July 15, 12:01 AM one minute after midnight Pacific Time, 2008. Please do not bid until bidding opens.

What's the cause?
The auction will raise money for the fight against the California initiative which will legally destroy existing same-sex marriages and ban any further ones. If the initiative passes, it will write discrimination into the state constitution, annull existing marriages, and make Mr. Sulu cry.

There's all kinds of great stuff up for bid; critiques by pros and agents and original art and fan fiction and many other things. TONS of good stuff.

Go forth and bid!

 Aaaand . . . right about now, two of my very good friends from Seton Hill will be going up to collect their diplomas.

HAPPY GRADUATION devilwrites and chicklitter

. . .when I actually want to get some work done, Mina insists on being Velcro Cat and keeps rubbing me and then lies on my arms or the pages I'm trying to see?

. . . is a free ticket to Sea World!

Okay . . . was it worth getting sopping wet, twice, thanks to the efforts of a pilot whale, to get pics that look like dolphins are flying like birds? You tell me. (Oh, and the camera is totally fine. I put it in the case when I knew the water was coming. I did get salt water in my eye though. Ow.)





Dolphins in another pool. This might be my pic of the day.



( Cut because there's lots of pics. )

Went to the cactus garden, and look what I found! A cicada! I figured it's a sign. Would've missed him except he kept making noise and it led me right to him.



Lots of bees and flowers, too.



And this dove found a prickly place to have a nest.



And then I went to the zoo, and saw them feed the anteaters. This is Lucy. Check out her tongue; you can see it curving all the way around the tray.



And I have a new favorite critter, this little white-faced capuchin monkey. Awwwww. He came up to the glass and said hi to me.

I did go to the zoo last week. I just got lazy about posting.

Here's Clyde right up near the glass. That's his son Satu you can see in the background.



Here's Janey, who was raised by humans. She likes to come up to the glass and see what people have in their purses and backpacks. She's also a different breed of orangutan than the others, but they get along well.



I got lucky and saw the gorillas being fairly active. I was surprised to see how much the little ones have grown. I actually haven't seen them in a while because they have two troops, and the smaller one seems to be out on Wednesdays, but since I went on a Thursday, I got to see these guys. Junior here liked to jump up and smack the glass, or pound on the glass until his mother stopped him. The crowd loved it.



Here's the silverback. It was actually hard to get pics of these guys because of the glare on the glass. I tweaked this pic colorwise a little.



I like this bird, too, which was in the aviary. I don't remember what it is though.



And have I mentioned that the zoo is also a botanical garden? I liked this view, which is across from the flamingos.

Alas, I was remiss in posting yesterday.

Here's Kenai the Arctic wolf. They're readying the ampitheater for the summer show, so they were doing a show and tell just outside of it, so we all got to get up close to the critters. Kenai has a dog buddy to keep him calm and to keep him company. His brother is over at the other theater. And the trainers get the crowd to start howling and then the wolf howls. I just learned that wolves howl in discord, so he waits for the crowd to go and then howls a pitch they aren't.



This pic isn't the best, but it's the first time I've actually seen this little Kazhakstan fox.



And here's a New Guinea singing dog, one of two the zoo has, and becoming endangered because of habitat loss and breeding with regular dogs.



The zoo has two other canine species; African wild dogs (my favorites!), Michael J., the little fennec fox in the children's zoo. The four hyenas, which are always sleeping when I walk by, aren't dogs, even though they look like it; they're closer to mongoose and meerkats.

( And there are more pics here. )

Bonus points for knowing where the quote's from.  I listened to the audio book in the car.  Quite interesting, and I like the characters a whole lot better now.

 

Had to work this morning, so no zoo, but here's a pic from last week.  The rose garden is blooming, and it's gorgeous.  Here are some more pics I took.  Zoo tomorrow, hopefully.

Hey folks. Thanks for your support on my last post. I whipped this up over the past couple of days, so let me know what you think. This one isn't friends-locked, so if you know other people that might be interested or have something to share, send 'em on over.

This is a very rough roughdraft; nothing is set in stone, especially the author contributors (because I haven't actually *asked* anyone yet) and works used. I admit to the authors and works I've mentioned is limited to those I've met in person or via internet and works I've read; it is not all-inclusive or necessarily the best examples of what's out there. This is more of a wishlist of people I'd like to work with and whom I know would have something to contribute, but please feel free to say "Yes please," "me too," or "no thanks" and I'll alter this accordingly. 

As far as author contributors; if you/they have books out currently, coming soon, or recently, that's preferable because I'm looking for works that are easily accessible, but if you have an older book that is relevant to this, than please let me know.  I'm not doing much with related short stories because they seem harder to get ahold of in general (maybe I'm wrong, but many are on the shelf for a very limited time,) but I will still create a list of them at the end of the book for reference.

For the anecdotes sections--that is, quotes by average readers about their experiences with LGBT SF/F, I hope to set up a questionnaire of sorts on my web page. I just have to figure out how to do it, and when and if I get that done I'll start soliciting people for that.

At the moment, I'm looking for more ideas on M/M SF, and works in F or SF that include transgendered persons. Cross-dressing is okay but I'm having a hard time thinking of books with truly transgendered persons.  I could also use more YA ideas, especially in something other than urban fantasy.

Any comments or suggestions overall would be welcome, whether it's format, content, structure, or whatever.  I do want this to be a current, relatable and interactive book of sorts, so any and all ideas at this point would be great.  I'm heading off to the library to pick up a couple of books on proposals (and because I need to do something besides sit in front of the computer on a nice day like today.)

( Proposal overview and outline ) 



( Chapter outline and summary ) 

Overall, it turned out to be a great day for pics, even though it was cloudy and windy and not your stereotypical San Diego weather.

It was ape and monkey day. This one, I think, is one of my favorites of all time now. It's damn near perfect, I think, and I didn't crop or alter it at all. This is Clyde, the big male orangutan.



Here's a bonobo. Watching these critters was somewhat creepy, because to me they look far more human than any of the other apes. I really like this pic too.



( more pics )

Just wanted to say thanks to all those who continue to enjoy these. I'm sorry I don't reply to all the comments (I get lazy) but I do appreciate your notice and I'm glad you like them.

Here's one I know you haven't seen. This is a binturong, also called a bearcat, from Vietnam. They have one in the show, and it goes up and down a pole, which is notable because it can turn its back feet around to go down. Like, cats can't go down a tree because their claws go the wrong direction. Anyway. The one in the show is called Popcorn in Vietnamese, because they evidently smell like popcorn. This is the first time I've actually seen it out and moving around.



Buerger's tree kangaroo. Looks a lot like the stuffed one I have. The one next door to this one had a baby in its pouch (this one's a male) but she didn't turn around so I didn't get a pic of it. Saw it on the news, though, so I went to look.


( more pics )

Went to the beach. Low tide, which means I got to see lots of nifty little critters in the rocks. I waited about a half hour for this guy to come out from under a rock to get a pic--worth the wait, don't you think?





And an anemone (lots of anemones around)



And a fishy



And a bee.



Went to the zoo, but only long enough to take a few pics of reptiles like this iguana.

Zoo pics!

Got a few critters I don't usually get. Birds are hard, but here's a couple of cozy fruit doves.



This is a Central American agouti, who lives in the same exhibit as the anteaters.



Arabian wildcat napping in the sunshine.



And a monkey--I think it's called a black mangaby.



And just because the guanacos are so photogenic . . .

Zoo pics!

This is a golden mantella, I think. Frogs are hard to get, both because of the lighting and the water spot-covered exhibits.



I forget what this guy is called, but it's some sort of turtle, and I finally got a good pic of him.



Aaaand, just because peacocks are pretty.



This is the first time I've ever seen the echidna awake and moving. He shuffles. It's kind of cute.



The green guy is an ocellated lizard, and the guy on the right is NOT a snake. It's a legless lizard called a glass lizard.



And, speaking of snakes, you can tell spring is coming because all the snakes were much more lively today, including this king cobra.



( And my favorite pic of the day, cut for arachnophobes. )

Although I did go to the zoo today, I didn't like any of the pictures I took, save for this nice red-crowned crane who came up as close to the barrier as he could.



But before I went to the zoo, I went to the cactus garden. Lots of things were in bloom, like these purple flowers. Maybe I should have tried the filter, but the light gives them an odd, surreal look.



Then I took this lovely picture of a hummingbird.



Huh? You mean he's a bit hard to see? Well, ( look a little bit closer. )

Look, I made a new icon with my kitty, Mina.

Wanted to go to Disneyland today, but with the threat of rain, I decided to stay in town. Been hankering to go visit the Birch Aquarium anyhow, so I did that instead.

And, for kelly_yoyo I found this guy, who was darn hard to get a pic of. Actually, all the fishies were hard to get pics of because of trying to use the flash and the flash showing up on the glass. The color is better without the flash, but the critters move, so they turn out blurry. -sigh- With the flash, it's actually a bit dark. The picture program I use has an "auto adjust" option, so I hit that, and they turn out all right.



This is a bell jellyfish. They were nifty.



This was my favorite critter--a sea dragon, a rather leafy-looking sea horse.



Check out the camouflage on this stonefish.



This is the biggest exhibit, properly called the Kelp Tank.



And a lionfish. Bonus points for those who know a certain SF TV show with a pet lionfish. Extra bonus points if you know what said fishy's name is/was.



And this statue outside kept reminding me of Star Trek IV. Likely also because I got a bunch of original Star Trek DVD's from the library and had a mini Trek-a-thon.

Since there is much wind and drizzle, today will not be a Zoo Day. :>(

However, here's a couple good ones I took on my visit last Friday to tide you over. Me and graashoppa were lucky enough to see the polar bears in ome underwater action.







Aaaand . . . a goat in the petting zoo.