eew, naked mole rat!

A naked mole rat at the zoo. Kind of an odd pose, but I did see it move, so maybe it was just pining for the fjords or something.

I realize they're highly unusual animals with a hive-like social structure, and it's fascinating how this behavior evolved independently multiple times in the animal kingdom. Although it's hard to think about that for too long without being reminded of Frank Herbert's creepy Hellstrom's Hive. Set right here in Oregon, too.

I often wonder, though, whether the zoo keeps naked mole rats around because they're pretty much the ultimate gross-out animal, something to keep bus loads of 8 year old boys entertained on field trips. I mean, I suppose it's practical to have a gross-out animal like this. It's not like you can get 8 year old boys to sit quietly in the aviary and watch the colorful birds. Even I wouldn't have done that at age 8. And maybe one kid in a hundred or so will be enthralled and grow up to be a zoologist, or maybe a horror film director. So maybe that's the zoo's educational mission at work, I dunno.

ferris wheel, cuatro de mayo

cuatro de mayo

A few photos of Portland's Cinco de Mayo festival, taken the day before when everything was closed, nobody was there, and it was pouring rain. Juggling the camera and umbrella and trying to stay dry and not drop anything expensive wasn't really that fun. But it's about the closest you can get in Portland to that staple of moody art-school photos, the Windswept Abandoned Amusement Park.



Ok, there's also Oaks Park in the winter, and I'd actually intended to go take some photos there, preferably with the semi-trusty & currently dusty Holga. But then an enormous project ramped up at the office, and I barely remember anything at all between roughly mid-October and mid-April, and in short I never quite got around to it. I guess I could still go have a look around, considering we still have cold wintry weather even though freakin' Memorial Day is later this month. But, you know, I think I've got the theme covered at this point. Night shots of the lights would be fun, although that may involve braving crowds of carnival-goers. And I suppose a series of Diane Arbus-style portraits of carnies might be... interesting, although that would involve a lot of hanging out with carnies. So I'm probably going to take a pass on that particular item.

It's The World Famous Land Manatee!

We're looking after a pair of cats for the next couple of weeks. The, uh, larger-boned of the two is a Himalayan of indeterminate gender that spends roughly 23 hours a day sleeping, and the other hour pestering you to go to bed at 9pm. Other than that, it basically doesn't move much. Sleep, pester the humans, eat cheese... Have I mentioned that it demands a pinch of Parmesan twice a day? That might help explain its, uh, generous proportions. It's actually a very nice cat, just sort of... different. It walks around with an abstract, distant look on its face, as if it can see the world behind the world. Or maybe it just has bad vision, it's hard to tell with cats.

Anyway, I've mentioned this beastie over on the intertweets a few times, nicknaming it the #LandManatee. That, understandably, generated requests for photos, so I took a few, and here they are. They're not the best cat photos I've ever taken; natural sunlight works a lot better, but we only have the cats for two weeks, and it's May, so I doubt we're going to have any proper sunlight while they're here.

dogwood, first avenue

irises, tanner springs

Like the title says, some irises (I think) at Tanner Springs Park in the Pearl. Fun fact of the day: "Irises" is only the correct plural when you're talking about the flower. If you mean the iris in an eye, the plural is "irides". I wasn't aware of that until just now. And it doesn't explain what the plural of an iris in a camera lens would be. I've always assumed it was "irises" for all 3, clueless barbarian that I am. But this would be similar to the case of "virus", where it's "viruses" for computer viruses, and "virii" for the real thing.

Someone, somewhere, is probably making up the rules this way just to be difficult.

City United, Country United

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A few photos of the odd mural in the tiny neglected plaza next to the downtown MAX turnaround, on SW 11th between Yamhill & Morrison. It has the phrases "City United" and "Country United" on it, so I'm guessing that's what it's called. According to this 2007 press release, the mural was a joint effort of the police bureau and a couple of social service agencies, enlisting street kids to help spruce up this blighted spot. The mini-plaza is still generally empty & neglected, since it's in a weird location and there's really nothing to do there unless you're a transient looking for somewhere to sleep.



But at least it's all bright and cheery now, I guess. The part with the bonfire is kind of alarming, though. Sure, everyone's united, but I'm not sure their intentions are peaceful. Give them a few AK-47s and it'd look a bit like a mural out of Northern Ireland. Although in recent years those are starting to be seen as just a belligerent form of folk art, and even a tourist attraction. Maybe that's the ultimate goal here, I dunno.