seal: (Default)
seal ([personal profile] seal) wrote2009-07-22 09:04 am

The month of lj friends

It's been a pretty intense month, not only from working roleplaying and hiking with camp kids, but also, in the midst of this I've had some pretty thorough LJ friend action going on, comparatively speaking.

It all started with [livejournal.com profile] jlsjlsjls sending me Canadian/Polish mushroom bouillon cubes and along in the package enclosing this awesome book:

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Here is just one example out of many from the naughtiness of this very weird little book:

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Friends and family read it, and now they all want to know who jlsjlsjls is. I told them that we all need to go to Canada anyway.

After that I was visited by three lj friends on two different occasions.



First [livejournal.com profile] kejn and [livejournal.com profile] yathin stopped by for a few days after their ginormous and fantastic tour of US national parks. To see Rocky Mountain National Park right after camping in Yellow Stone might not be all that impressive, but the landscape is still pretty special, rough and wild...

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It was really nice to see them (and meet Yathin for the first time in person) and they showed me some awesome pictures of bear, bison and wolves while we drove up the mountains and hiked a bit in the higher foothills.

Yathin's and kejn's backs while hiking:

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kejn makes the victory sign after overcoming a cumbersome piece of nature:

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The first animal we spotted was, not very surprisingly an elk, but it was a very handsome one, framed by some nice surroundings:

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This year has been unusually rainy on the Front Range and as a result you can spot cute wildflowers as high up as 11000 feet, in July.

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Then we spotted some shy and less shy rodents among the cliffs. Chipmunks aren't that shy, but the little buggers are fast, so this was the best I could do with my camera:

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Pikas on the other hand, strike me as a bit shy, and also hard to spot due to their superior camouflage skills. They're cousins of rabbits and chinchillas:

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These fellows were not shy at all, however, they frolicked around pretty blatantly for a while there. Singular Marmot:

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Playing marmots:

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On the way down the mountains we also saw a male moose teenager that was quite cute in a scruffy way, my camera was however not good enough to capture how he flipped us off in a defiant way. Further down, on our way out of the National Park, another elk came right up our grill though, munching on his dinner:

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It was good seeing kejn again and meeting yathin and having some Ethiopian food with them at ras kassa's in Boulder.

Later in July I finally met long time on-line friend [livejournal.com profile] wolfchilde. Ages ago we used to game on the White Wolf game chat and started talking and continued talking. Apparently, in the beginning he didn't believe I was Swedish, because my American English (and its slang) was so good, and he thought that I was pulling his leg and trying to sound original on line. After a while though, he noticed that I was up on odd hours compared to California, and he started gaming with a real life friend of mine back in Sweden, who confirmed my authenticity.
After that came LJ and telephone calls, and last week we hung out, along with a friend of his, a librarian/archivist at CU Boulder. Great times with great people. (and M, you're way way more sarcastic irl than you are on line!)

The only thing I feel a bit bummed about is that I was such a wreck during these meetings, I was physically and mentally exhausted from the #@&*% job, and thus prone to falling asleep in the midst of movies, or forgetting what I was gonna say in the middle of sentences.

These next couple of weeks I've told the camp job that I need to work on my other job and that they'll just have to give some one else the honor of questing 6 and 7 year olds. It feels great working from home again for a bit, and I really don't miss the swashing with soft swords one bit.

Also, I'm going to Sweden in a month. I was accepted to the classes I need for the new master's at Uppsala University. It turned out I didn't need many classes at all to get the title, maybe as few as one or two, which means I might be done by ending of the year. I'll be in Sweden for a couple of months and do as much of the other work as possible from the US.
I have mixed feelings about going back to Sweden for the longest visit since 2005. It feels exciting and dear to me, but also a bit as an extravagant annoyance, we'll see what comes of it. Most likely I'll be there from late August to early October.

nice photos

[identity profile] chocolatebark.livejournal.com 2009-07-22 04:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Drunken squid! I had no idea such things existed in Canada.

Re: nice photos

[identity profile] sealwhiskers.livejournal.com 2009-07-22 04:51 pm (UTC)(link)
She's a Canadian cataloger, so she's prone to be a bit on the wild side, and finding weird books from all over the world!

Re: nice photos

[identity profile] jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com 2009-07-22 10:52 pm (UTC)(link)
The author is from Los Angeles, allegedly has 75 tattoos, is heavily into taxidermy, and is most famous for his comic books about "Lenore, the cute little dead girl" ... in his case drunken squid verges on being "normal" ***GRIN***

[identity profile] zombienought.livejournal.com 2009-07-22 04:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Wow, it's like you went to the zoo, for all
the wildlife you encountered!

That's a really nice landscape.

Do you think you were better at hiking, at
least, due to the #@&*% job?

I hope you have fun in Sweden while you're
there on your working vacation.

P.S. What a weird little book.

[identity profile] sealwhiskers.livejournal.com 2009-07-22 04:54 pm (UTC)(link)
The job has taught me a lot, improvisational skills and humility among other things! I'm probably in a little better shape than I was before I started, but I still have ways to go, to be as good as I've once been.

You should see yathin's and kejn's pictures from yellowstone, talk about safari wildlife!

[identity profile] kejn.livejournal.com 2009-07-22 04:29 pm (UTC)(link)
excellent pics!!

rocky mountain was indeed worth seeing after all the other stuff. we didn't get to go up as high as 12 000 feet anywhere else! and those elks (and playing marmots) were just "picture perfect". :) so thank you for going with us there! and for all the other "wildlife" i got to experience while in boulder. like watching cute young lesbians kiss and dance in the thunder and rain. heh... :D

and yay to being accepted to the classes!!

[identity profile] sealwhiskers.livejournal.com 2009-07-22 04:57 pm (UTC)(link)
I have a great picture of you and yathin against that fence, but I didn't post it, because I didn't know if you guys wanted to be in a public post with your pretty shiny faces up front! ;)

I hope you can salvage your other pictures, I'm sorry to see you're still having technical difficulties. :( I was hoping to see the pics from the tea house with you, me and E, and from that menu...

I'll see you back in Sweden in the early fall!

[identity profile] kejn.livejournal.com 2009-07-22 05:44 pm (UTC)(link)
i'll send you links to my phone cam pictures and you can send me what you have. and thanks for not posting me publically. :) i don't mind if you do it in a filtered post though.

[identity profile] lizardek.livejournal.com 2009-07-22 05:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Marmots! Pikas! Elks! What, no moose?!

[identity profile] sealwhiskers.livejournal.com 2009-07-22 06:35 pm (UTC)(link)
The moose was hiding in a swampy terrain and really hard to reach unless you had a very powerful camera (unlike mine). I saw him mainly through binoculars.

Thanks for Sharing!

[identity profile] lelain.livejournal.com 2009-07-22 07:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Those pictures are spectacular! I love the wildflowers! The mountain vistas though are just amazing! Wow!

Hope everything goes well for you in Sweden!

Re: Thanks for Sharing!

[identity profile] sealwhiskers.livejournal.com 2009-07-22 07:29 pm (UTC)(link)
I love the tundra landscape of the Rockies too, it has its own special rugged beauty. I'll most certainly be posting and bemoaning/celebrating my Swedish endeavors in various lj post during my stay!

[identity profile] berchshill.livejournal.com 2009-07-22 07:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Even if you are having ambiguous feelings about coming here - Yay for a Seal-visit!
I have seen some temporary archivist jobs in my search results recently in Sweden, would you like me to forward them to you?

[identity profile] sealwhiskers.livejournal.com 2009-07-22 11:11 pm (UTC)(link)
sure, why not! I don't think I'll be allowed to work in Sweden during my stay, since I don't pay taxes there right now, but it would be interesting to compare the work markets if nothing else...

This time around, me and kejn will meet up with you, for sure, it's been way too long!

[identity profile] scowling-hermit.livejournal.com 2009-07-22 07:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Haha, that book!

Awesome photos. It's very beautiful out there. :)

I hope you'll enjoy your time in Sweden.

[identity profile] sealwhiskers.livejournal.com 2009-07-22 11:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Haha, that book!

..and I haven't even posted a picture of when everyone is hungover and puking! (the squids, the sea-urchins and every one else)

Next time I post pictures, it'll most likely be from Sweden.

[identity profile] jennixen.livejournal.com 2009-07-22 08:37 pm (UTC)(link)
I love the photos, they look great. :)

[identity profile] sealwhiskers.livejournal.com 2009-07-22 11:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks! sometimes it's hard to capture the hugeness of the landscape on camera, but it went pretty well this time. I hope to see you in a month or two!

[identity profile] wolfchilde.livejournal.com 2009-07-22 10:27 pm (UTC)(link)
It was awesome meeting you and I look forward to doing so again! I will likely be coming back for Thanksgiving :)

[identity profile] sealwhiskers.livejournal.com 2009-07-22 11:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Yay, Thanksgiving it is!

[identity profile] jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com 2009-07-22 10:58 pm (UTC)(link)
That's great that you need very little classroom time to get that coveted bit o' paper, and wonderful that you've been able to get into the classes so quickly!

At this rate you'll be running the planet within the decade! (and then we'll finally have some common SENSE at the top!)

Lovely, lovely scenery and critters ... you made me nostalgic for the days when I lived and worked in the Crowsnest Pass and frequently saw mountain sheep lounging on the slopes above the road on my way to work.

[identity profile] sealwhiskers.livejournal.com 2009-07-22 11:17 pm (UTC)(link)
oh dear, no swedish libra with my temperament and disposition will ever be running the planet (although, maybe we should?), I'll settle for having just a tiny bit of influence in my field, that would make my day.

Mountain sheep are awesome, as are mountain goats and bighorn sheep!

[identity profile] jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com 2009-07-22 11:45 pm (UTC)(link)
You could hardly be any worse (and probably a whole lot better, because you have a sense of responsibility) than what we've tried putting in charge in the past. ***GRIN***

Bonus note: Very latest in new publication news from the author of "Peter the Pirate Squid" (aka [livejournal.com profile] taxidermied) just popped into being above your post on my friends page ... in case you want to share with his new Swedish fans. ;-)

[identity profile] tooticky.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 12:33 am (UTC)(link)
Wow, those raunchy squid. Who knew? (the ones I know of do flashing light shows to tell everyone else when they're in the mood, and the males hand the females 'sperm packets'! It's a long way away from hot pirate lovin'.)
I really enjoyed seeing those photos of the Rocky Mountains. Such a wonderful combination of vast landscape and tiny close-up details.
And hooray for a return to Sweden, and new qualifications. That sounds pretty exciting.

[identity profile] sealwhiskers.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 02:56 am (UTC)(link)
"sperm packets" eh? the romance of the animal kingdom cracks me up, haha!

[identity profile] tooticky.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 12:46 pm (UTC)(link)
The more I find out about squid, the weirder they become. :D

[identity profile] anotheranon.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 02:07 am (UTC)(link)
These photos are gorgeous! I'm amazed the wildlife let you get that close. And the vistas are breathtaking - one of these days I'll need to make an effort to get out to the Rockies!

And that book is TWISTED! [livejournal.com profile] jlsjlsjls finds the most delightfully bizarre things!

[identity profile] sealwhiskers.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 02:57 am (UTC)(link)
yesyes, come to the Rockies! And then we'll go crash miss jls in Canada!

[identity profile] jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 11:02 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh yes, you MUST visit the Rockies someday ... the massive scale of the things is mindblowing in both your country and mine. :-)

[identity profile] flightviolation.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 04:29 am (UTC)(link)
oooh i love these animal shots esp. thank you for sharing!

[identity profile] sealwhiskers.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 02:47 pm (UTC)(link)
A small payback for the awesome pictures you post frequently!

[identity profile] liquid-siftings.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 04:25 pm (UTC)(link)
Yay for fantastic pics! We don't get quite so much wildlife around LA...

[identity profile] sealwhiskers.livejournal.com 2009-07-23 04:42 pm (UTC)(link)
perhaps not in LA, but you guys are closer to Yosemite, which I hear is quite fantastic!

[identity profile] poesgrave.livejournal.com 2009-07-27 08:39 pm (UTC)(link)
I was once poetdan I am now poesgrave. Add me if you wish....

[identity profile] sealwhiskers.livejournal.com 2009-07-27 11:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Okay, I will!

[identity profile] dust-rat.livejournal.com 2009-07-28 06:26 am (UTC)(link)
Ah! I love that author!
When I was in a really bad shape after a gruesome breakup I read his book "The Monsters in My Tummy" and it actually helped ... because it actually felt that way ...

Loveley to have you back here for a while. Then we have to take coffe or two and you have to meet the result from the date (if you remember) I had after our previous coffe!

[identity profile] sealwhiskers.livejournal.com 2009-07-28 04:27 pm (UTC)(link)
Of course! I'm really eager to meet her, in fact, why don't we try doing dinner one evening!