I’m off sick today and can do very little beyond being a passive participant in existence. Here’s a couple items for you.

• A document of a legal nature that ensured that Thomas Paine’s marriage was dissolved, while giving him enough money to flee the country.
• The Paris Review is seeking a new editor. This article recounts some of the magazine’s importance and contribution to the publishing world.
• Photos and readings from the Harbourfront reading series to be archived.
• That rare Darwin first edition has sold at auction for $174,000 Cdn.
• This last one is not about books, but is an interesting read, both for the subject matter (which is unfamiliar in Canada), but also the Northern Territory’s planned reaction to a camel invasion. I kid you not. Some australian’s are livid.

Rolou uma PVT na casa do Henrique Twist. Muita bebida e tudo mais. Henrique e mais o Ronaldo foram levar as meninas que estavam na casa embora, isso já devia ser umas 4h da manhã. Permaneceram na casa: Henrique, Ronaldo, Bruno Ruza, Víctor Sousa, Bruno Ferreira, além do Rafael Leonardo. Mas pra rua só tinham ido os 4 primeiros, ficou o Ferreira e o Rafael em casa. Na volta, estacionando os carros, olhamos para um pasto que tem no fim da rua do Henrique. Resolvemos subir ali, mas antes tínhamos que chegar a outra rua. Pulamos uma cerca de arame farpado. Henrique foi na frente correndo e ficou preso em uma outra cerca. Passando por essa, nos deparamos com um brejo. Aí sim, olhamos pra cima e começamos a ver a primeira mata. Ronaldo, não sei de onde, tira uma lanterninha muito fraquinha mas que ajudou bastante. Os celulares do Henrique estava apitando pra carregar e o do Ruzza estava gravando toda a caminhada. Subimos correndo. No meio da subida reparamos que Ronaldo tinha ficado pra trás e ele dá o grito: “valeu galera, não dá pra mim mais. Vou ficar por aqui”. Como um Negão deste tamanho não aguenta subir um pasto correndo? (…)

Continue lendo a história aqui.

Thousands of feral camels are wreaking havoc in an Australian town as they search for water in a continuing drought…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: north sea. The blog is also related to: ocean of the pacific.

Só clicar aqui e ver que na Camel só tem gênio!

Sooo the biggest weekend of shopping is coming up this week, and instead of buying random odd gifts for someone you care for, here are some hot hoilday gift ideas….in random order cause their all great!

Cashmere Scarf or Silk Pashmina great in every color to go with every bag.

Spa Gift Certificate: Every Lovely Lady and Man loves to get pampered, whether its a massage, scrub or facial you can go wrong with with little bit of love.

Leather Gloves: they come in amazing color and are a luxury of life in the winter and extremely classy. like these Burberry ones on the runway!

A great bottle of perfume: whether you go with the classic sent or a new fresh smell, you cant go wrong with yummy smells!

Jewelry: Watches, earrings, bracelets, necklaces, gold, silver, plastic, i think anything shiny can make anyone smile.

Call me Old Fashion but i still love mixed tapes… i mean a customized playlist!! Sneak it on, or just give it to that special someone… still soo cute! & great for students!

Designer Bags: Everyone needs a new purse, book bag, or murse. Check out this 2010 Hermes Camel colored bag. (p.s. camel is so hot right now)

Board Games: Who doesnt love to snuggle up next to a fire and play a board game up at the cabin?? Everyone!!

Comfy PJ’s and Slipper!!! The love of new flannel or silk soft PJ’s!!

Happy Shopping!!!

]]> http://canalcamel.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/vai-dizer-que-nao-ta-dando-pro-gasto/ Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:09:17 +0000 henriquetwist http://canalcamel.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/vai-dizer-que-nao-ta-dando-pro-gasto/

Tá. E como tá!

Nós temos uma devastadora quantidade de adesivos da Camel com o CanalCamel.com. Tudo o que a gente faz, nós colocamos o CanalCamel.com. Só faltava mesmo ter alguma coisa no CanalCamel.com. Agora tem.

O Twitter está mais ativo do que nunca. O site conta com novos banners, botões e etc. Tá dando pro gasto, maluco. (;

Com o tempo vamos arrumando tudo direitinho, mas por enquanto é isso.

Os camelinhos voltaram. E os efeitos colaterais estão surgindo.

A Camel, aliás, o Bruno Ruzza vai ensinar vocês a fazer fogo através deste vídeo:

E aprenda a atravessar pedras com Víctor Sousa

Bruno Ruzza (desbravador) e Ronaldo Cardoso (o Ninja da Floresta) superando obstáculos naturais.

Islamic Republic of MAURITANIA

stamp: 5 francs

year: 1963

mammal: camel

State of QATAR

stamp; 25 dirhams

year: 1999

mammal: camel

Republic of LEBANON

stamp: 5 piasters

year: 1968

mammal: camel

2 days till Dubai Big Five exhibition.

From Monday the 23rd a complete report by DORO Design

http://www.thebig5exhibition.com/

Happy Friday!

So, I have no idea right now how to caption it, but I LOVE this picture. (Thank you, Terre!) I think it’s hilarious. The only way it could be more so is to have a perfect caption. That’s where you come in. Have fun boys and girls! Caption this!

I once read a piece written by a person opposed to dairy consumption which said that man was the only mammal that drinks the milk of another animal. And I believed it. For a time.

However…

Also, I read recently that “even the horses ridden by the Arab chiefs in moving their camel herds across the desert are often dependent, sometimes for as long as three months, upon the milk of the camels for their nutrition.”

Fascinating.

I realized that an older site of mine had expired and saw how many search hits this image has…

Again, the elusive male cameltoe:

I really don’t want kids, but if I could without a doubt I could have a child just like this one, I would have two of them:

10 Year Old Boy Won’t Pledge Allegiance Because Gays/Lesbians Don’t Have Liberty & Justice

He’s so smart, so well spoken and cute as a button.  But everyone agree’s if I ever have a child it’s going to be like Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes.  Too smart for his own good, big imagination and constantly in trouble.  Constantly.

Today before Dutchess went home, we went and did a bit of shopping.  Went back to the pet shop to play with the puppies again.  I really want one, but Pickles would eat it for lunch.  Also, I found a few items to give as favours for my SCA stuff.  Look how cute they are:

Wooden Critters

There’s a bear, a camel, pig and a cow.  The cow even has a wooden utter.  There were more, I wanted the sheep but the wooly bit was dirty and the others had plastic on ‘em.  But these were great.  They have a little logo under them all, so I’m wondering if I can sand it off.  So cute.  :)

It was said of James, the brother of Jesus, that he prayed so frequently and fervently that his knees became calloused like that of camels. O, how often the skin on our knees resemble that of new born infants than of camels!

August 22, 2009.  Our trip started with a Saturday 3:15am alarm, ugh… then it was off to the airport.  We were on our way to China!  We flew to Chicago then had several hours layover before we boarded our direct flight to Beijing.  After 4 movies and several meals we were in Beijing.  The airport was a modern wonder of design.  After fetching our bags and getting some Chinese money we made our way to the hotel.  The 30 hour trek went by without a hitch!  The hotel was beautiful and new, as were all our China hotels (except for Inner Mongolia).  The room was large and the bathroom was perfect. 

As we settled in at the hotel, I thought I would check out the food.  The restaurant was classy – all the wait staff in black suits, linen table settings, mmmm, looking good!  However, no one could speak English and the menus were in Chinese only.  So I started guessing on the menu… the first thing I pointed to ended up being dog and the second was horse.  I went back up stairs and we went to bed with a nice meal of snack bars.  Don’t get me wrong - I do believe in trying the local cuisine.  I was just too tired for the challenge. 

The next day we flew to Baotou, a bustling city of almost 3 million in Inner Mongolia.  We drove and drove and made our way to Resonant Sand Gorge to begin our adventure in the Gobi Desert.  This was like a trip through western Nebraska, miles of rolling land with only an occasional house.  Our driver was determined to make time so he would pass cars anytime, anywhere.  He seemed unconcerned with approaching traffic and held his own, even going up hills.  No one slowed down – it was a game of chicken.  As our driver pushed on, the approaching traffic would veer to the side of the road to avoid collision.  Eventually we got to the Gobi Desert and prepared to ride camels. 

The camels patiently wait for the next rider

I guess the excursion to Inner Mongolia gave us a few surprises (we had lots of surprises during our two weeks).  The web site said to bring sun screen etc. since it could be a hot sunny day.  This was late August so it should have been hot, but the weather was already turning colder… the temperature was in the 50s and 60s with lots of wind and driving rain.  We bought rain coats ($2 each) and went to the camel corral.  There we learned we needed to remove the rain gear so we wouldn’t frighten the camels.  Anyway…  The ride on the camels was great as they slowly plodded over the hills of sand.  It was quite a site to see a long line of camels crossing over the hills of sand.  I later learned this area has crazy weather.  The desert is on a plateau and can reach over 100 degrees during the day, yet frost at night.  Also, when the winds come out of Siberia, everything cools down. 

Mary speeding through the Gobi Desert

Lunch was at a place that seemed like it could have been a 1950s Communist party recreation center.  We went into a large industrial type building and the cooks put the food on a table in large cooking pots (they looked like they would hold 4-5 gallons each).  People would take large spoons and fill their plate (a metal tray pressed with sections for your food).  As we approached the table, people would shove and push and hip check in order to get to the pot first.  Once you tasted the food, you wondered what the tussle was all about…

Genghis Khan Mausoleum

Our trip to Inner Mongolia also included a visit to the Genghis Khan Mausoleum, a horse-back ride, a Mongolian show and more Mongolian food.  Finger mutton (you got it, you eat it with your hands), rotten vegetables, not so good.  The pork and mushrooms was a nice surprise, but, I will admit, by now the bar was pretty low.  We spent the night in an unheated yurt with a concrete floor.  The bed was a blanket on a hard board platform.  The pillow was a bag of dried seeds – it was like sleeping on a bag of soup beans.  The bathroom had hair and dirt all over the floor and the next morning we noticed it was in the bed too.  We had a thermos of hot water that was to last the two of us all day for our bathing needs.  

The yurt village where we stayed

The evening ended with the Chinese guests (we were the only two westerners) singing songs around a fire with busted-up lumber, a fun touch.  There are so many stories from Mongolia… But, I will not go into all the details about our car breaking down in the rain or the driver getting lost several times and making U-turns in the middle of major 8-lane intersections in front of the police, etc.  This part of the trip could easily be the material for a “Vacation” movie.

Please don’t get me wrong, we did enjoy our adventure to Inner Mongolia.  The people seemed very nice… we just could not talk to anyone but our guide for about 3 days.  Some of the food was tasty… I think I’ll end the story there. 

Off to join the Mongol army

We are sitting at our gate, watching the sun come up, wishing we could start the pilgrimage all over again. There are many things to report…

At the empty tomb

Before most of you dear readers went to bed on Sunday evening–after the glorious victory–we were already in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher.

We celebrated Holy Mass in the tomb of Christ itself, receiving the Lord’s Body and Blood in the very place where He rose from the dead.

…I neglected to mention earlier that some of us enjoyed camel rides by the Dead Sea…

…We visited the Mount of Olives:

At the top of it, the Lord Jesus ascended into heaven. On the slope of it, He taught His disciples the Our Father. He descended it on a donkey on Palm Sunday–we walked down the ancient pathway that He used.

At the bottom we prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane.

In the Garden of Gethsemane

…We made the Way of the Cross right where the Lord Jesus made it…

…We visited the Pools of Bethesda. The Blessed Mother was born nearby, in the home of Joachim and Anne, near the Sheep Gate of the ancient wall of Jerusalem, near the Temple.

St. Anne, pray for us

…Schema, people: I have much more to tell. But it will have to await the gracious period of denouement after a holy pilgrimage.

We will board our flight home shortly. See you back in the homeland.

Saying goodbye to Jerusalem Regency hotel

THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION
There are people resemling one another, at least seven according to sources.
If some such people, of different ages, are arranged in a row, we will be tempted to believe that they are related to each other.
The casual similarity of the outline of east coast of America and the west coast of Africa, was enough to jump to the conclusion that, one broke away from the other, as if these are ice blocks!
There is the Kennedy rock hill, which looks like the profile of the ex President of the USA, when viewed from a particular point.
A scientific theory must be subjected to the same hair splitting analysis, as is customary in a criminal case. A single evidence against the prosecution theory will, if the evidence is admitted in the court, enable the culprit to get away with it.
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
If survival is the aim of evolution, plancktons, grass and cockroaches are better evolved than mammals, many species of wich have been totally wiped off from the earth. Man is extremely vulnerable.
If the resmblance in behavior is studied, asian elephants are much more similar to us, than the chimpanzee. It was in the news that a female elephant, of a circus company, was eloped by a wild elephant. Savitry, the circus elephant, returned after some months in the forest, carrying a baby in its woumb! Did they love each other as cildren, before Savitry was caught by men? Otherwise why did its lover pick her for mating?
 My father used to tell us about an elephant which could write 51 letters of Malayalam in sand, using a stick.

 Man is envious. Other creatures exploit species, different from their own. Man exploits his own brothers, making them slaves either directly or by giving wages.
Today, he is making a large number of nulear power plants, without a thought about future generations, who will curse us, after we have left the scene.
All through history he has done only one thing kill ) to the pwer of billion billion !

J’aime beaucoup l’idée du vintage.

Fouiner pendant des heures, trouver la perle rare…

En théorie….

Parce qu’en pratique, je ne suis jamais passé à l’acte.

J’ai bien acheté sur Ebay, ca oui. Mais bon, un objet porté deux fois, et de la saison passée, ne peut pas vraiment être considéré comme vintage, on est d’accord… (Juste en aparté, mon T-shirt Pimkie des années lycée, il est vintage? Parce que c’est quand même plus cool, de répondre “ah ca, c’est Vintage!” que “ca, c’est Pimkie!”… dans l’hypothèse peu probable où une personne charitable me complimenterait sur le T-shirt en question….)

Non, pour moi, le vintage, c’est un peu comme la mayonnaise.

Il y a celles qui maitrisent à mort.

Et puis il y a les autres, qui, comme moi, ne savent jamais à l’avance  si ca va prendre ou si ca va partir direct en sucette! (à vrai dire, je crois que cette théorie de la mayo s’applique à 90% de mes tentatives de créations!)

Du coup, pour la première fois, j’y suis allée mollo, en commençant par un accessoire “facile” : le sac Vintage. J’ai complètement flashé sur sa couleur, sa forme, sa patine, et bien sur, son coté “unique”….

Sac Vintage, robe Comptoir des cotonniers, veste Mango, mitaines Charlotte Sometimes, boots Delphine Conty

Par contre, depuis je suis prise du syndrome de la questionnïte aigue…. Eh oui, un sac vintage, emporte avec lui toute son histoire! A qui a t-il appartenu auparavant? S’agissait t-il d’un cadeau? La ou les femmes qui lui ont donné cette patine sont elles encore en vie? Ont-elles réalisé leurs rêves? Etait t-il au bras d’une mafiosette italienne? (il vient d’Italie…) Pire, au bras de Carla Bruni? (non  a priori, on n’a pas les même gouts, ouf!). A t-il beaucoup voyagé? Quels secrets transportait-il?  Je me prends à imaginer les scénarios les plus rocambolesques, tout en me disant qu’en tout cas, lui et moi allons poursuivre cette histoire un peu plus longtemps!

ps: je réponds vite vite vite aux derniers com’! ca a été un peu speed pour moi mais ce blog devrait reprendre une activité normale!

A famous white alligator

Finally made it to the Audubon Zoo on Sunday.

Read my review of it, if you like. I have to say, I was a little disappointed in it. I feel like the Audubon Society is such a major player in the animal world that I half-expected to walk into Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and for only $13!

However, I was sorry to see that many of the animals, especially the white alligator and tigers, were cramped in very small spaces and their amphibian exhibit, if you can call it that, was seriously lacking.

They did have a few more exotic creatures than most zoos, but the exhibit I enjoyed the most was the Louisiana Swamp exhibit. At least I got a look at Louisiana wildlife which no other zoo would probably go into detail about.

I saw the famous nutria and white alligators, which are almost extinct.

I also got to try the traditional Roman Chewing Candy, which was delicious — see what I wrote about them.

Taking advantage of another nice, somewhat sunny day, I went off to visit Animal Kingdom in Bordentown, NJ.  They have a lot of different kinds of monkeys there, and of course, the main attraction for me – the giraffes.

Back when I was younger, I was really into animal rights.  PETA was fairly new then, and not as well-known (or as insanely insane) as it is now.  I would order their pamphlets, check out their books, write letters, get involved with whatever I could.  At the time, I was against zoo and aquariums, believing that animals shouldn’t be caged up and should be allowed to live free.

Today, I realize that it’s quite more complicated than that. Many zoo host endangered and rare species, some of whom wouldn’t survive if it weren’t for breeding programs in zoos to keep the species going.  Plus, many zoos have great environments for the animals to be in. (Of course it’s no comparison to being in the wild, but still.)

Sometimes, though, I have flashbacks of those moments and those feelings when I was younger and today was such a day.  The zoo at Animal Kingdom is pretty small, with many of the animals in small enclosures and what seems to be not too much stimuli, etc.  So I don’t know how I feel about these animals being there.  Here is what the website says:

Animal Kingdom boasts one of the most extensive wild animal collections in New Jersey.  Many of our Animals are endangered species, which is why the zoo is so important.  Our mission is to educate visitors about the importance of preserving the environment and, as a result, the animals that live here.

Another thing really got to me as well.  The zoo allows you to feed some animals, such as some of the monkeys. Other exhibits, such as the giraffes, have clear signs that say not to feed the animals because they have special diets.  Yet, you will see a bunch of people – adults chief among them – carelessly feeding them popcorn or whatever else because, ooo it’s so fun and cool and freaky! The giraffe’s tongue feels so slimy!  The signs could not be bigger or more obvious yet people remain oblivious.  I even saw a guy read the sign and feed the giraffe anyway!  What the hell, that kind of stuff just really pisses me off.

I tried to enjoy my time there even after all that.  Here are some of the photos I captured:

The baby giraffe, Rocket, was so cute! He was running around all over the place. He was actually born at the zoo in July 2008.

Giraffe booty!

Another one of Rocket, the cutie!

Giraffes have long tongues.

They had hyenas! In pretty small enclosures…

White peacock. That’s the unscientific name.

Camel (with one hump, in case you were wondering).

Odd how there are always peacocks just running around in zoos.

The emperor needs his groove back! I love llamas. I’m not sure why.

I looked around everywhere to figure out what this was but couldn’t find a sign. After examining the photos I came to the conclusion it is a tapir and my zoology professor mom-in-law confirmed. Then we Googled it – South American Tapir! Do I know my animals or what!

Kind of ending on a sad note, but the monkeys in cages killed me.  This one looks like some kind of lemur, based on the eyes.

Douz czyli “DRZWI NA PUSTYNIĘ”.

Douz leży na skraju pustyni. Mieszkańcy żyją tu z uprawy daktyli, a wraz z nasileniem się ruchu turystycznego zaczęli rozwijać się również w tym kierunku.
Wysiadamy z autokaru, pierwsze kroki kierujemy do budynku, w którym cała wycieczka zostaje odziana w burnusy i chusty na głowę. Naszej wycieczce przypada kolor żółty. Odziani, zostajemy poprowadzeni na prezentację fachową “jak wsiadać na dromadera”. Nasze wielbłądy czekają z przewodnikami już w kolejce na spacer po Saharze. Każdy kolejno dosiada swojego. Powiązane sznurkami parami ruszają w karawanie, a za nami i przed nami nicość Sahary. Nasz przewodnik nazywa się Karim ma na głowie szczelnie obwiązaną chustę koloru błękitnego. Popędza dromadery ich językiem, czasem robi to głośniej gdy zaczynają skubać kępki trawy wystające z piasku. Po 40 minutach jesteśmy spowrotem, rozbieramy się, niektórzy kupują róże pustyni na miejscowych straganach, inni delektują się miękkością piasku.

DROMADER – wielbłąd jednogarbny, występuje we wszystkich krajach północnej Afryki, różni się nieco lżejszymi rozmiarami od dwugarbnego. Podczas wędrówki może w ciągu wielu dni wytrzymać upał i brak wody, poci się dopiero przy bardzo dużych temperaturach ciała. Tłuszcz nagromadzony w garbie działa jak parasol słoneczny. Stopy rozczapierzają się przy chodzeniu, aby nie zapadał się w piasku. Ważą od 400-600 kg. Ciąża u  wielbłądzicy trwa 12 miesięcy, mają tylko jedno młode. Żyją około 50 lat.

Nocleg w miejscowości Kibili, jest to malownicza oaza berberyjska słynąca niegdyś z handlu niewolnikami.