Random Stuff X: Something Weird

[marsoupial they/them]

16 minutes ago, Draginon said:

Hearing the Weinstein stuff on tv and radio and I guess I don't know my Germanic pronunciations correctly. Everyone there keeps pronouncing it Winesteen but every German name and word I've seen with the ein sound always the same (Frankenstein, Einstein, stein) so I'm wondering where the een sound came from.

Also currently reading Sherlock Holmes and the Servents of Hell and all I can think after the first chapter is "Finally! A British book where the spelling is British and not American!" It annoys me so much to read British books but to lose some of that flavour when it's brought over here.

It's more a Jewish name than a German one. He's from Queens.

[Draginon he/him]

22 minutes ago, bleeder said:

It's more a Jewish name than a German one. He's from Queens.

Jewish? Never would've guessed.

[Delightful]

I know at least one Jewish Weinstein, but the name definitely originates in Europe. Poland maybe, or Lithuania.

Also, we're discussing Weinstein but what we're discussing is his *name*? 

 

(am feeling v insecure right now *hides*)

[Orlion Blight he/him]

24 minutes ago, Delightful said:

Also, we're discussing Weinstein but what we're discussing is his *name*? 

That's the Patriarchy for ya! 

[The Invested Beard]

2 hours ago, Delightful said:

I know at least one Jewish Weinstein, but the name definitely originates in Europe. Poland maybe, or Lithuania.

Also, we're discussing Weinstein but what we're discussing is his *name*? 

 

(am feeling v insecure right now *hides*)

Because even thinking about his actions (along with many others in Rapeywood) makes us feel icky. If people think he's the only one in that town acting like this they're naive.

[Ammanas]

I don't consider any of Brandon's books "Military Fantasy" but evidently amazon does; the following list caught my attention:

[Draginon he/him]

8 hours ago, Delightful said:

I know at least one Jewish Weinstein, but the name definitely originates in Europe. Poland maybe, or Lithuania.

Also, we're discussing Weinstein but what we're discussing is his *name*? 

 

(am feeling v insecure right now *hides*)

I didn't want to get into his actions here because it doesn't need any saying now.

[The Invested Beard]

[Draginon he/him]

Ordered this during the summer and it got delayed to Halloween, but because I preordered I get it two weeks early

Can't wait to watch!

[Steeldancer he/him]

3 hours ago, The Invested Beard said:

Chris pratt= upvote

[Sunbird she/her]

Today I saw a bird I'd never seen before, a striking beauty called an Evening Grosbeak. (4 photos in spoiler)

Spoiler

There were actually probably about 100 of them hanging out in a beautiful cemetery, eating juniper berries off the trees. (Random side note: Juniper trees smell really good.)

The name Grosbeak comes from the German word gross, which means "large" and refers to the birds' heavy bills.

This guy spent several minutes fluffing and preening himself. It was adorable.

"'Choo lookin' at??"

I also managed to get a picture of a cute (but very twitchy and hyperactive!) Juniper Titmouse. I'd seen one before but had never gotten a photo. (1 photo in spoiler)

Spoiler

 

[Draginon he/him]

Decided to see how many stories I have in my leatherbound collection. In 30 Volumes I have around 158 stories. The number isn't exact since I'm obviously counting the Oz books separate but counting all of the Grimm fairy tales as one since that would get ridiculous. If I did count the ones like Grimm separate then I'd probably have closer to 300-400 stories, especially if I counted collection stories, like the Sherlock Holmes books, by their stories instead of by the volume itself. Amazing how much of a value these books are considering each is 20-25 and you get so much out of them, even if a couple do overlap with some stories.

[Silverblade5 he/him]

The day according to my coworkers

"Hey Silver, I want you go outside, shake this banner for a bit, try to attract some business.

30 minutes later

"Hey, it's been a while. Should I go get Silver?"
"Nah, he'll come in on his own"

2 hours later

"Hey have you guys seen Silver?"
"No, I think he's still outside."

Meanwhile

"Ok Silver, you're good. Come in."

 

[Sunbird she/her]

Moar birb photos! These are from about a month ago when I met some education ambassadors from the organization Hawk Watch International. Sometimes when birds get hurt and brought to a wildlife rehabber, their injuries are too severe or too permanent for them to survive if re-released to the wild. So those birds generally become ambassadors to show people at school visits and so on for education purposes.

This little darling is a Western Screech-owl named Artemis, after the Greek goddess of the hunt and the moon. She was hit by a car and suffered head trauma that damaged her eyesight. (5 photos in the spoiler)

Spoiler

Screech-owls are very small; Artemis is a full-grown adult and only weighs a few ounces. (less than half a kg, for you metric users )

 

[Silverblade5 he/him]

A conversation that happened at work:

Coworker: Yeah, you have to be kind of weird to work her- Oh look! This cucumber looks like a gun! *Points cucumber at other coworker* Pew! Pew Pew Pew! Yeah, that kind of proves my point.

[Sunbird she/her]

Time for a little bit of fun bird trivia!

Certain water birds, including loons and grebes, are so adapted for the water that they can't even walk on land--their feet are set way far back on their bodies near the tail, which is great for swimming but terrible for balancing on two legs to walk. Loon and grebe parents also let their chicks hitch rides on their backs while they're swimming.

I was lucky enough to see a group of Clark's Grebes with babies on Utah Lake last weekend. Unfortunately, they were literally about half a mile away from where I was standing on the shore, so I didn't get a good view or good photos. Prepare to laugh at my awful pictures!  (4 photos in the first spoiler)

Spoiler

Parent and baby Clark's Grebes. (This is after I cropped out about 95% of the frame.)

Baby grebe piggybacking on the parent (they're facing away from the camera):

And, just for laughs, here is the original uncropped version of the previous picture, which I took with 20x zoom on my camera:

Now for some actual nice photos, LOL. I took these at Utah Lake the same day that I saw the grebes.

Osprey, also known as a fish hawk or fish eagle (2 photos):

Spoiler

First I saw him fly overhead and then dive into the lake and come up with a fish! Didn't get a picture of the dive, unfortunately.

A while later I found him eating his fish on a telephone pole.

Red-tailed Hawks are probably the most common bird of prey in North America. Any time you see a big hawk sitting on a telephone pole or fence post by the side of the freeway, the most likely candidate is a Red-tail. (1 photo)

Spoiler

This guy didn't like me pointing my camera out the car window at him and only let me snap one picture before he flew off. XD

 

[A Budgie she/her]

@Sunchicken Nice! The hawk looks really nice, even if to me the shortened name 'Red-tail' brings to mind a certain species of parrot for me.

[Sunbird she/her]

3 minutes ago, A Budgie said:

@Sunchicken Nice! The hawk looks really nice, even if to me the shortened name 'Red-tail' brings to mind a certain species of parrot for me.

Would that parrot species happen to be an African Grey? I don't know my parrots very well, but that's the first one that comes to mind.

Also, abbreviations--My mom is also into birdwatching, so we often text each other about birds and shorten stuff even more than "Red-tail." Some that I use frequently:

GBH: Great Blue Heron
GHO: Great Horned Owl
RTH: Red-tailed Hawk
Modo: Mourning Dove

Birders in general have some nicknames and abbreviations that can be pretty funny too:

Yellow-rumped Warbler -> Butter-butt
Gray Jay -> Camp robber
American Woodcock -> Timberdoodle
Magnolia Warbler -> Maggie
Common Gallinule -> Swamp chicken (I'm actually not sure if anyone besides my mom uses this one)
Hooded Merganser -> Hoodie
Bald Eagle -> Baldie
Sharp-shinned Hawk -> Sharpie

[A Budgie she/her]

2 minutes ago, Sunchicken said:

Would that parrot species happen to be an African Grey? I don't know my parrots very well, but that's the first one that comes to mind.

Nah, red-tailed black cockatoo!
They're an endangered species here in Aus, so you might not have heard of them before.

[Sunbird she/her]

Just now, A Budgie said:

Nah, red-tailed black cockatoo!
They're an endangered species here in Aus, so you might not have heard of them before.

You're right; I hadn't heard of them before. Sounds stunning and beautiful, though! *goes to Google*

*jaw drops*

OH MY STORMS, THEY'RE GORGEOUS

[A Budgie she/her]

Just now, Sunchicken said:

OH MY STORMS, THEY'RE GORGEOUS

I KNOW
They can be a little intimidating up close, though. I once had one sitting on my shoulder and let's just say it was a lot bigger than a budgie.

[+Slowswift]

@Sunchicken I saw a Steller's Jay up the canyon today! He was rather jumpy so I couldn't get a good picture of him: this is the best one, and it's still blurry because I took it with max zoom.

Spoiler

 

Edited October 17, 2017 by Slowswift

[Sunbird she/her]

3 hours ago, Slowswift said:

@Sunchicken I saw a Steller's Jay up the canyon today! He was rather jumpy so I couldn't get a good picture of him: this is the best one, and it's still blurry because I took it with max zoom.

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Ahhh, that makes me so happy! I love Steller's Jays. And WHOA, is that snow in the background?

[Draginon he/him]

Sweet bird pics!

 

Guys, you know how the news keeps making a big deal over the NFL players 'disrespecting' the flag? I read an article the other day that showed how we're all disrespecting it as according to the flag guidelines, yes there are official guidelines on how to do stuff with the flag. (I'm not putting this in legalize for simplicity)

One is to never wear the flag or use it as decoration on clothing. So anytime you wear a shirt with the flag then it's disrespecting the flag, same goes with those flag bikinis. Helmets do count so the NFL isn't off the hook along with the other sports teams.

Another is to never use it to advertise a product. Beer companies do this all the time when advertising American lager and other beers around the 4th. I think this includes movie and book covers but I'm not sure.

Displaying the flag in anything but flag stance is a big no-no since it's the same as letting it touch the ground.

If the flag is printed on anything then you can't throw it away, it's the same as burning the flag itself so hold on to your Independence Day flag disposables and dispose of it the same way the flag gets retired.

Those were just 4 of the 10 from the article and I already named any clothes manufacturer/anyone selling clothes (disney, J. C. Penny's, Hot Topic, Wal-Mart), all beer companies (and possibly all of Hollywood and all book publishers selling books in the US), people who improperly display the flag and the companies who make paper plates and napkins as showing no respect to the flag.

[+Slowswift]

22 hours ago, Sunchicken said:

Ahhh, that makes me so happy! I love Steller's Jays. And WHOA, is that snow in the background?

Nah, just bright sunlight on some logs, combined with a crappy zoom camera and a filter.  

And @Draginon, it's things like this make make me thankful that while the Flag Code's technically law, it's not legally binding. 

Edited October 18, 2017 by Slowswift