Welcome to Canada!
I know it has been a while, but Markasaurus isn’t extinct. I was studying for my LEED Exam (green building certification) and recovering from my vacation to the Pacific Northwest. So much has happened in the last month, but I don’t have time to write about it today.

Have a great Canada Day, but don’t drink too much Labatt Blue or eat too much poutine!

I’m not sure what to make of this one. I suppose it could have been domesticated, but that squirrel I saw on the sidewalk looked and behaved sort of “domesticated” too and I couldn’t catch it either.

My friend Chad (who lives in North Carolina) informed me earlier today that he is on crutches. This prompted a three-way email discussion with our friend Chris over what his excuse should be when people ask about his injury. The slightly edited list follows:

• I jumped off the bar stool wrong.
• I was chasing after some freshman girls during my lunch break and they were just too fast.  Now that I am 30, if I run fast I will break something.
• I took a slap shot to the ankle.
• I was hunting squirrels up in Mt. Airy and I got attacked my a mountain lion.
• Syphilis.
• I owe people money.
• I am a famous writer and I was taken hostage in a secluded mountain home by a fan who broke my ankles when
  she discovered that I turned her ceramic penguin in the wrong direction.
• I was preparing for a made for TV movie about Joe Theisman’s famous Monday Night Football compound fractured leg and was hurt during filming so they have to postpone filming until I am healthy.
• I was born this way, but was always too proud to use crutches before.
• I always used crutches, thanks for finally noticing.
• As part of the cease and desist order, I can’t talk about it.
• “He’ll hurt me more if I talk to you.”
• I am getting lazy and tried convincing my doctor I needed a Hov-a-round wheelchair, but he didn’t buy it and gave me crutches, so now I have to use them or I could go to jail for medical fraud.
• I was rolling my pant legs and poked my ankle with a safety pin.

If you have any further additions, feel free to add them in the comments!

I overheard pieces of a woman’s cell phone conversation today at the Palo Alto Duck Pond while walking in to the visitor’s center. In order to set a mental picture of the scene, the woman was overweight and in her late 30s or early 40s and carrying a very expensive SLR camera with huge telephoto lens and a camera bag.

“No, it’s not worth going to jail over. No, stop. It’s only $7. Look, I just talked to the ranger and it’s definitely illegal. It’s only $7! Give me the money and I’ll give it to him tomorrow. It’s really not worth going to jail over.”

No blogs next week. See you again after October 28th.

An African Grey parrot who learned more than 100 words, Alex was the subject of years of scientific study. I took animal cognition when I was an undergraduate at the University at Buffalo, and Alex was a big topic in the class. Follow the link to a NY Times story about this amazing animal.

read more | digg story

This article from the Chronicle puts my curiosity to rest. Apparently, the city is ringed by boxes full of raw sewage that smell when it gets hot out! Maybe they should go on postcards with the Cable Cars and the Golden Gate bridge? In any case, if you were walking out of work yesterday and thought you stepped in something, you didn’t! That’s just the smell of summer.

read more | digg story

I felt pretty confident after my exam. Taking the exam was a little unnerving, since they do everything short of a full body cavity search to make sure nobody is able to cheat. I had to put everything from my pockets, my watch, my calculator etc into a locker before I could enter the exam room. They have a big jar of hard candy on the desk, but if you take a piece you have to throw the wrapper out before entering the exam room. At least they don’t try to feed you the candy.

Following the exam, I was excited to see that a new dinosaur that looks like a strange overgrown bird was discovered in China recently. I think it looks a little bit like they assembled two other dinosaurs incorrectly, but perhaps after the escape with the “Brontosaurus” scientists are more careful.

As you may have noticed, the design of the blog has now been outfitted with a variety of my dinosaur drawings thanks to my friend Lauren at Object Adjective. I promise to write more ASAP.

I’m finally blogging again. After a lame attempt at a myspace blog and then an upadate of my main site (www.markhogan.com), I decided it was time to bring the Markasaurus out of hiding.