Swine Flu and Will It Affect My Trip?

I know swine flue is more of a Mexico thing, but I'm a little nervous about Hong Kong deciding that maybe I don't really need to visit this summer. I mean, the WHO has already raised their threat level to 5 (out of 6!!!), and who knows what will happen in the next few weeks?

Now of course, the most important thing is that this pandemic (I looked it up!) gets contained. And no one wants to see any more sickness and death (possible case of swine flu in Harvard Dental School?!). It may be a bit selfish of me to focus on how this will affect my trip, but there it is.

Here's hoping that things get better instead of worse.

And yes, I really should be working on my Corp Finance exam right now. Damn you internet!

I've found new shoes

I can't honestly claim that these are solely for the internship this summer, but I really needed a new pair of sneakers. And since they'll come on the trip with me, I can include them here.

After several test drives (runs) up and down the aisle, I settled on old school Converse All Stars. I wanted something low key and comfortable. Frankly, the state of sneaker technology seems a bit... Extreme right now. I tried a few different sneakers, but nothing really did it until the All Stars. Not bad.

I have new pants

For the trip of course. Since I work for a tech company, it's kind of understood that I won't dress to fancy. Sure, not everyone follows this "rule" as closely as I do, but that's another story. But as I'll be working in a law firm this summer, and I've been told "no running shoes and no jeans", I had to expand the wardrobe a bit. Now, my closet looks like an adult's. Except for the small size.

I'm actually quite excited to have some new pants. It's kind of nice to wear non-jean pants a few days a week. And it turns out that they're pretty comfortable. Go figure.

Now, there's been some eyebrows raised when I mention that my mom hemmed my pants for me. As I have absolutely no sewing skills (though, I did make a pillow in junior high), it would have only lead to tears if I had tried. And poked fingers. Which wouldn't help on the guitar.

And as I said to my mom, it was a reason for an extra visit. I enjoyed lunch.

Gay Duck Rape in the Boston Gardens

Wandering through the Boston public gardens this afternoon, I noticed a small commotion in the water near the swan boats. I have no scientific proof, but based on my rudimentary ornithological knowledge, I believe I saw one male duck attempting to, apparently with some success, rape another male duck.

The victim seemed to be trying to swim away, but the rapist managed to mount him, and proceeded to use his beak to repeatedly push the victim's head into the water. Now maybe this was a consensual encounter, and perhaps that bottom duck enjoyed this deviant behavior, but he did seem to be trying to swim away.

To make things worse, this was apparently a gang rape, as another duck got in on the action after a few minutes (yes, I watched this for about 3 or 4 minutes. Perhaps the longest 3 or 4 minutes of my life). But the really weird part was that this new duck actually mounted the duck on top! So here we have one poor duck trying to keep his head above water, while two other ducks (rapists!) climb on top of him.

This horrid scene finally ended when the triplet of ducks, one atop the other, bumped into a stationary swan boat, knocking the two perverts off that poor guy on the bottom. Our victim managed to harness a burst of energy at his new found lack of a rapist on his back and flew a few feet away. It kind of looked to me like rapist #1 wanted to continue the party, but he managed to control himself. This time. Who knows what will happen next time.

(Note: While I'm joking about gay duck rape here, I really don't think rape is funny. But seeing a few ducks acting this was was pretty funny. But not, I realize, to that poor duck on bottom).