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melting ice on garfield street

i finally finished that photo dvd for professor zheng. it was completed a few weeks ago, but i only managed to burn it onto a PAL standard disc last night (i'd burned one earlier, but it was NTSC). i also wrote the chinese text yesterday, and spent today transcribing it to the belated christmas/new year card. i walked down to the porter square post office in the afternoon. the weather was rainy and wet (late last night it was still snowing) but i had my rubber boots and umbrella so i felt pretty invincible, splashing through as many puddles as i could. after filling out a customs declaration form, i send away the package to china. coming back home, i stopped by the dunkin' donuts to grab an extra large cup of white hot chocolate and a maple cheddar croissant sandwich. i don't know why i got it because it was pretty gross; i love sausages and i love maple syrup, but the two should never be combined in my opinion, a conflict of interests.

outside the shop a homeless man asked me if i could spare any change. "sorry, i'm unemployed," i shrugged. "i hear ya. i know how that feels," he replied. i don't know why, but when people ask me what i do, i still want to blurt out that i'm unemployed. even though i've been working from home for the past 2 years, it doesn't feel like real work unless i'm in an office doing the 9-5.

this rainy weather: does it signal the end of winter and the beginning of spring? the only thing i'm concerned about is the annual salamander migration. the first rainy night where the temperature is above 40 degrees is when the salamanders head towards the vernal pools to mate. i want to see a wild spotted salamander so much it hurts. i just don't know who i can talk to or get in touch with to do this. i tried last spring, reaching out to a few places, but with no luck. i guess tomorrow i'll be making some phone calls, see what i can find out.

that was about as exciting as it got on this friday. later in the evening i was watching ms.adventure on animal planet, which follows a simple winning formula: take a photogenic talent and have her interact with various animals. the show has a narcissistic feel to it, as the hostess is constantly turning the video camera on herself and narrating, which sometimes makes it seem like it's a videoblog.