Okay, get ready kiddos because all interested parties are invited to join me on a little trip to Pablo Escobar's former estate, Hacienda Nopales.

Apparently, it's now a theme park (with a maximum security prison being built nearby) in Colombia.  Here's what was there:

Escobar purchased the 22sq km (8.4 sq miles) Napoles Estate, about 320km (200 miles) from the capital Bogota, in 1978.

He turned it into a fantasy land with concrete dinosaurs, a bullfighting ring and a private zoo that would have made Michael Jackson jealous, with giraffes, elephants, kangaroos and hippopotamuses.

To keep them company, he built a herd of concrete dinosaurs.

Above the entrance gate to the estate, the never-subtle Escobar put a plane he had used to smuggle cocaine into the US.

After Escobar was killed, the place was ransacked and some conservationists saved most of the surviving animals BUT they couldn't transport the hippopotamuses.  The four hippos were fruitful and multiplied into 25 which now roam freely over the reserve.

To recap: it is now a theme park/hippo reserve/former home of a drug kingpin.

How fabulous is that???

-tsachi, zookeeper; while feeding owls

Green-colored polar bears are drawing questions from puzzled visitors at a Japanese zoo. Three normally white polar bears at Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Gardens in central Japan changed their color in July after swimming in a pond with an overgrowth of algae.

The sight of green polar bears has prompted many questions from visitors concerned about whether the animals are sick or carrying mold, said zoo official Masami Kurobe...

High temperatures in July and August and less-frequent water changes because of the zoo's conservation efforts caused an algae growth in the bear pond and safety moat, Kurobe said...

The bears are expected to return to their natural color when the algae growth subsides in November.

I expect the "green" on a lot of American politicians to subside after November, as well.

He cried some more.

The highlight was the bald eagle in a cage, but we're not sure who's actually in the cage. 

Is America in the cage? Freedom itself? Or, are we trapped...in Roswell...while the eagle soars?

You be the judge.

For more pictures from the Roswell Zoo, click here.

***FIELDNOTE #3: DR. DOOLITTLE***
We discovered, to our surprise, that Colette, who we thought was monolingual, is fluent in pony-speak. We had her ask the ponies for some grass.

Wahre Schönheit? Oder doch nur ein Pfau? ;-)

Tierpark Herberstein

Photo ©hsm

Wizyta krótka, ale na szczęście udało mi się "ustrzelić" choć kilka zdjęć. Jeszcze mniej "kilka" nadaje się do pokazania. Zwierzęta chyba przeczuwały zbliżający się deszcz i niezbyt garnęły się do pozowania. Trzeba będzie tam zatem wrócić, może gdzieś za rok? Jak będzie cieplej i trochę bardziej słonecznie.

Azi, un paianjen foarte dragut [noooot] mi-a facut o vizita. Mancam struguri si atunci a aparut. Dupa ce l-am vazut i-am vazut si casa care era in strugurii pe care eu ii mancam. Si de data asta m-a salvat bunica mea care l-a scos afara [again, viu].

Daca tot aberez despre insecte, am mai vazut azi ceva interesant. Eram la zoo [a vrut mama sa imi arate o noua gradina zoo] si am vazut cum 2 albine se reproduceau pe jos, era sa calc pe ele. =)) Si mai tarziu, tot la zoo, am vazut cum 2 maimute faceau acelasi lucru. =))

Domnisoara tantar inca ma enerveaza [am inceput sa scriu acum vreo 15-20 de minute, inspiratia vine mai greu la mine =)) ]...

Later edit: Am vazut acum, sunt 3 tantari, nu unul. :| Si tocmai am strivit unul pe monitor. M-am facut si eu criminala de insecte. =))

Even though it was chucking it down we enjoyed every minute! The kids were amazed by all the thomas themed rides and Luke had a really close encounter with a tiger! They even managed to get me on a rollercoaster! lol (Ok, so it was a kids one, but it still went really fast! lol)

They do an offer during the week in term time meaning that toddlers and a parent get in for £14, so it cost us £28 for all four of us to go. Normally the tickets cost £23 each for an adult so it was a bargain!!!!!!!

Would totally recommend the place to anyone who has thomas mad kids like us. we all really enjoyed our day!

Highlights were the tourblesome trucks rollercoaster, the animals, the boat ride in thomas land, and the Pirates adventure (A boat ride through different pirate scenes with a bit of a flume and water splash, I got soaked and had to walk back to the car with a wet through bum!)

We woke up early and got ready (and my wife and kids made a picnic lunch) and we took the train up north into 埼玉県 (Saitama Prefecture) where the park is.
The weather forecast on the TV said that there was a chance of rain but we decided to go anyways because the pool will close next week for the season (and we have other plans for next weekend)...and it was good that we went because the weather was perfect.

We arrived there at about 11:00 AM and stayed until 3:30PM. My kids were in the pools and water slides the whole time (my wife and I went in for awhile too), and only got out for lunch.

The lunch that my wife and daughters made was おにぎり (rice balls) with salmon inside, chicken, chips and ビール (beer) (the kids drank Coke®).

The only photos that I took there were of my family (which I don't put online). I didn't take any other photos at the pool because I didn't feel comfortable taking pictures of other people.
Well, I did take this photo of a 蝉 (cicada) that we saw there:

The 東武スーパープール (Tobu Super Pool) is a part of the excellent 東武動物公園 (Tobu Zoo Park).

So, to get into the Super Pool, you need to buy admission tickets to enter the 東武動物公園 (Tobu Zoo Park), which has an amusement park, a zoo, a dog park, as well as the Super Pool.

With that ticket, you can visit the zoo, but the dog park (where you can hold and play with different dogs), the amusement park, and the Super Pool cost extra.

We bought the admission tickets at a discount ticket shop last week, so we saved some money on that cost.

We have been to 東武動物公園 (Tobu Zoo Park) a few times before.
You can see a slideshow of our last visit there at this link.

and another post about it here.

When we left the Super Pool yesterday at 3:30PM, we walked around the zoo and looked at the animals until it closed at 5:30PM.

We were surprised when we were looking at the chimpanzees, they suddenly became quite agitated and started yelling and running around the cage throwing the tires and their water!

Then, at 5:30PM, we headed home for dinner. My wife made excellent 豚キムチ (Pork kimchee (spicy cabbage)).

Here are some videos I took of the animals at the zoo (including the angry chimps):

It's a bit of a lazy Saturday for me and I'm sitting around watching silly cartoons and surfing the 'net. A mid-western teacher colleague of mine that I follow on Twitter shared a really cool web site with me. The folks from the New York Zoos and Aquarium have created a fun web site called BuiLD YouR WiLD SeLF. Rather than spend too much time explaining it, I encourage you to click BuiLD YouR WiLD SeLF and go see for yourself! Have fun!

This first photo was one I took Thursday night at the Indianapolis Art Center.  I was working hard on working lighting on the manual setting.  This is a small section of a sculpture... how fitting, eh?

I had several shots from the zoo that work... so I will add them as I review them.  I had to include one of the many butterfly photos I took there.  The floral and fauna at the zoo is stupendous.  Next week we will be concentrating on that rather than the animals, but I did a sneak preview.

I was in the aviary for awhile this morning... they sure were a noisy bunch.  The lighting in there was patchy, but I got a few good shots and no bird poop, so all was good.

The last one for today is one of the Flamingos.  They are looking a little washed out.  Not enough shrimp in their diets.  They made up for the color by their noise.  Evidently there was some type of neighborhood argument going on.  In this photo are the two who were bickering the most.  They must have keep it up for a good half hour and then I left.  They were picking at each other with their beaks... It looks like they are being nice, but they weren't.

I will be including more photos from the shoot later, but wanted to share my quick interpretation of wings... ooops... wait... I love my bald eagle shot!!!  This was taken in Alaska.

That's it for now.  Enjoy!

we decided to get a family membership this summer and we've been making use of it.

more zebras.

a sleepy lion.

giraffe.

cute monkey.

the real monkey is starred.  the other monkey is also starred. incrediblehusband would run around the cage and the monkey would keep up with him running laps as well.  yes, that's the stroller speeding along and incrediblehusband in mid-run.

 making friends with the marmoset.

วันนี้ เจองานที่มีการจัดการไม่ดี ทำให้ต้องทำงานซ้ำซ้อน คือสรุปว่าต้องออกแบบใหม่ กะไว้แล้วตั้งแต่แรกว่าผลมันต้องออกมาเป็นอย่างนี้ จะว่าเป็นการวางแผนที่ไม่ดีก็ไม่ใช่ แต่สรุปรวบยอดสั้นๆ ง่ายๆ ก็คือ วิสัยทัศน์ในการทำงานของเจ้าของงานแคบและไม่มีการจัดการที่ดี สงสัยอยู่เหมือนกันว่าไอ้ตำแหน่ง C6 มันใหญ่ซักขนาดไหน แต่ถ้าให้ประเมินจากการทำงาน ผมว่าไม่เท่าไหร่หรอกมั๊ง ใครที่รับงานออกแบบกราฟฟิกอยู่ คงเคยเจอคำว่า "ให้ลองออกแบบมาดูก่อน" ไอ้ คำนี้แหละที่จะบั่นทอนกำลังกายกำลังใจและที่หนักสุดคือเสียเวลา ถ้าจะรับงานมาทำ เริ่มต้นให้สรุป concept กับเจ้าของงานก่อนให้ชัดเจน จะได้ไม่ต้องทำงานใหม่หลายหน ไม่คุ้มครับ สงสัยมันนึกว่าทำกันง่ายๆ ล่ะมั๊งไอ้ Artwork เนี่ย นี่เป็นงานแรกในรอบปีครับที่เจอไอ้ "ให้ลองออกแบบมาดูก่อน" แล้วงานมันจะเอาด่วนอีกต่างหาก เซ็งนะ แต่ต้องทำ มันเป็นงานครับ รีบๆ ทำให้มันเสร็จๆ จะได้ไปเริ่มจับงานชิ้นอื่นที่สบายใจกว่า

วันนี้ มา Edit เ พิ่มเติม เพราะปิดงานนี้เป็นที่เรียบร้อยแล้ว ตอนเช้ามีคนเอาโปสเตอร์ที่เค้าบอกว่าสวยมาให้เป็นตัวอย่างในการออกแบบ เห็บแว็บแรกตัดสินใจเลยว่า ไม่ต้องดูมันละ เลยคิดเอาใหม่หมดเลย เฮ้อ... มุมมองคนเรามันไม่เหมือนกันเนาะ ถ้ามีข้อมูลในหัวมาก ก็รู้มาก และเข้าใจอะไรๆ ได้มากขึ้น ถึงไม่รู้แต่ถ้าพยายามหาคำตอบก็ยังโอเค แต่บางคน ไม่รู้ ก็ไม่เข้าใจ ไม่เข้าใจก็ปฏิบัติไม่ถูก หนำซ้ำยังไม่พอ มีการหลอกตัวเองอีกว่ารู้เข้าใจแจ่มแจ้ง กลายเป็นอวดเรื่องที่ไม่น่าจะอวดไปซะนั่น (อายนะ... แต่จะบอกว่าตัวเองก็เคยเป็น) เอาเป็นว่านอกเรื่องไปหน่อยไปดูดีกว่าว่างานที่ทำใหม่ออกมาเป็นยังไง

Kamin : ใช้โปรแกรม Photoshop CS3 กับ Plugin ทำส่วนที่เป็นตัวหนังสือ ที่เหลือ Die-cut ครับ (ทั้งแบบเน้นๆ และลวกๆ)

In the plans are tours of the CNN studio and the World of Coca-Cola, and visits to the aquarium and zoo. I have an interest in the Fernbank Science Center and visiting Centennial Olympic Park, unless you can give me reasons to avoid them. What else (specifics, please) should I do, see, and eat? I'm hoping to find some good cheese grits.

Emma Cornell sa stala slávnou vďaka austrálskemu Big Brother. Profesiou je osobnou trénerkou. Vedeli by ste si s ňou predstaviť nejaký tréning? :)

Emma Cornell - Zoo weekly pics gallery