Butterfly exhibit

I saw the live butterfly exhibit at the Smithsonian last Sunday. It was amazing! The butterflies were native to South and North America but I couldn’t remember names with the exception of the Monarch and Tiger. There were so many of them flying all around and landing on people. We had to make sure we didn’t leave with some on our clothes when exiting the exhibit. I took some cool close up photos.

Butterfly man

We also saw the The Lost Amazon with photos by botanist Richard Evans Schultes who lived for twelve years in the Colombian Amazon during the 1940s and studied medicinal and hallucinogenic plants. He took amazing photos of plants, nature, and people with a Rolleiflex camera, one of the first portable cameras.

Schultes camera

Portrait of a Shaman by Schultes

And a fake but impressive Crystal Skull

Butterflies

War on Nature Illustrations

option-g (Cole Gerst) illustrations on nature and human impact:

http://option-g.com/gallery/prints.html

I’ll go for the imagination in blue and orange in Underwater Find

MSNBC report of a girl murdered at Bulgarian orphanage

I am surprised that a tragic story from Bulgaria made it in the U.S. news–a former supervisor at an orphanage, fired over sexual abuse allegations have killed a 15-year old girl who was summoned as a witness, and have wounded two other girls before killing himself. More.

Bulgaria joined the European Union in January of last year but with some safeguards because the country was lacking in terms of ”rule of law.” Rule of law is a broad concept but in this case, Bulgaria needs to deal with (high-level) corruption and organized crime, and to make institutional and judicial reforms. Last October, I think, the EU issued an interim report criticizing Bulgaria for inadequate progress in these areas. The EU can penalize the country by cutting funding on various agricultural and development projects.

Here, an alleged child molester was fired and prosecuted. Cases like this were not brought to court a few years ago (my perception). But the victims/witnesses were not protected.

  

Slow recovery

I’m in bed with an ice pack on my face and not feeling that well. I had oral surgery last week, the procedure was unpleasant but quick. I had a chipmunk face (no offense meant for the chipmunk) for a few days but I was recovering fine. Over the weekend I was feeling fatigued and was thinking I might be having an infection. It turned out I was having some internal bleeding around the surgery. Except that everything else was looking great. I need to take it easy for a few more days (no karate or weights), and hopefully, no more problems. Patience. ah, if somebody else can do my work so I can stay at home that would be. Fantastic.

A 101-year-old will attempt the London Marathon

101-year-old Buster Martin has completed a half marathon, and next will attempt to complete the London Marathon. He says he would celebrate with “a pint and a fag.” More from Reuters. 

That’s the way to go! I thought my bones are getting old . . .

My new Sony VAIO®

I just bought a new laptop, a Sony VAIO® CR (VGN-CR320E/N) notebook, after my old trustworthy Dell died. It has the Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T7250, Intel® Centrino®, 2GB DDR2 memory, and Bluetooth®.

I didn’t have time to research or look online to buy one. I just went to Bestbuy and looked at what they have in store, and was quite surprised I found this one with the specs-price combination. I really like the display (crystal clear!) and performance so far, and it looks great. I also got a small discount and couldn’t be happier!

The only complain I had was that it was pre-loaded with software. I am not a fan of Norton Antivirus, for example, and activating a 60-day free trial is not going to happen. It took me an hour to remove what I thought I definitely do not need, and I’m sure there is still some extra stuff.

Busy and Ignorant but Has Time for a Party

I have been so busy with work and some personal stuff this last week that I have no idea what’s going on in the news these days. I haven’t followed the primaries (for U.S. presidential nominees) and didn’t watch the Democratic debates last Tuesday. I’m not sure what’s happening in Kosovo and Serbia either, but there seems to be a discussion of partitioning Kosovo. In Kenya, on the other hand, a power-sharing deal was brokered, and so on.

I went to a birthday party of three of my Bulgarian friends yesterday. As it was a Bulgarian party, there was lots of dancing and some singing (let’s just say the neighbors upstairs came down to complain about the noise and mentioned “police” a few times). I am happy I caught up with some friends I haven’t seen for a while. I didn’t take photos this time, but I’m sure there will be a few photos of me on Facebook! Now, back to school work, taxes, and everything else that I say I would do on Sunday, but rarely do.

Grandmother March and the Stork

Today, March 1, Bulgarians celebrate Baba Marta, or Grandmother March. Who is Baba Marta? In the Bulgarian folklore, she is an old grumpy grandma whose mood swings bring sunshine or freezing snowy weather.

The holiday is thought to be an old pagan tradition in anticipation of the spring. We give each other adornments of white and red yarn called martenitsa or мартеница in Bulgarian. These are pinned on clothes or tied around the wrist to appease Baba Marta. We wear martenitsa to bring about the spring weather sooner and to ward off snowfall that could damage the newly planted crops. Wearing the martenitsa also brings good health to people.

Why a stork? Well, we wear martenitsa until we see signs of spring, a blooming tree, or a native stork or swallow,  arriving back from spending the winter in warmer climate. Is that the end of it? No, then we tie up our martenitsa around a tree so that the land is fertile and plants and crops are healthy.

As I am a big stork wintering in Washington, DC (see Bulgarian Stork page), I’ll wear my martenitsa until I see a blooming a tree.

White Belt Demons Update

I just got the results from the Karate testing on Thursday–7 kyu, orange belt! I can’t believe it, I’m so happy!!!

I can finally throw away (no disrespect meant) my 7-year old white belt! Ok, I haven’t trained all these seven years, but I started Shotokan Karate 7 years ago but for one reason or another -relocation, injury, finances, and brief adventures in Tae Kwon Do – I never advanced.  

Now, I can move forward