Team Fortress 2 youtube clips, ground squirrels as pets, bangle customs, Tim Duncan, Battle of New Orleans

Something i have joyfully rediscovered are the youtube clips/ads for the multiplayer video game Team Fortress 2. Despite only seeing this game being played, the clips are hilarious and worth watching. Meet The Engineer reminds me strongly of my electrical engineer brother, my biomedical engineer friend Zachary, and my civil engineer cousin, giving me strong reason to believe it applies to all Aggie engineers. They recently released a short called Expiration Date, which brought this whole thing back to the forefront of my mind. Did i immediately have to sit and re-watch them all? Yes.

So i was hanging out with the lovely KateB the other evening, and the topic of conversation turned to ground squirrels. In brief, ground squirrels are members of the Xerinae subfamily of rodents, containing ground dwelling marmots, pararie dogs, and chipmunks (versus the standard tree squirrel) . i grew up in an area that did not have chipmunks, but those are probably the most adorable. However, given their small size, the query was whether they are permitted as pets in Wisconsin (and refer here for highly detailed chipmunks-as-pets info). There's not a whole lot of clear answers here, but a few resources imply that this is not allowed without a license.

While also at Kate's, she was looking at glass bangles as wedding jewelry. Bangles are a traditional accessory, and there seem to be a lot of customs associated with them, usually varying by region. Red and ivory or green bangles are apparently given to brides on their wedding day. For some states, these are gifts from specific family members (mother of the groom, or an uncle, or the bride's family). Green indicates fertility and is gifted in the southern part of India. It is documented that for some places, the honeymoon is said to be over when the bride breaks the last glass bangle. Further, in various places more solid (ivory or iron) bangles are tied to a husband's happiness and well being; when these break, it is highly inauspicious. Kate's mom had heard that in some places, when Indian ladies hear of their husband's (presumably unexpected) death, they immediately smash their wrists to break the bangles present. i did find some documentation of that one as well, but usually in rural places.

Tim Duncan is not yet retiring from playing for the Spurs! YAY! Also, from this Duncan/Letterman interview comes the quote, "No whining on the yacht." And finally, an article entitled, "Why Tim Duncan is not LeBron James".

i tend to sing at my running and cycling partners. This past Saturday, Asuka and i were riding along when i burst out into the old school Battle of New Orleans -  "they ran through briers and they ran through the brambles and they ran through the places where the rabbits wouldn't go...". While it's an old song, i was not quite sure how old it was - 'Not from 1814, but probably 50-60? Maybe?' Looks like it was first released in 1959 by Jimmy Horton, so 55 years ago.

It turns out, and i find this fascinating, that there is a website that compiles all of the public fireworks displays for the state of Wisconsin.