nice socks but i hate wearing anything that has the name brand on it. it's like the company is using me as a free billboard (not that anyone really sees my socks, but it's the principle). if anything, clothing with the name brand prominently displayed should be cheaper, like the corporations should be paying me for selling their stuff.

fish update: i managed to save another fry from the 10 gallon tank and transferred it to the minibow. the past few days i've been scooping the surface of the aquarium, trying to get rid of the thin layer of oil that'd formed on top. partly it's my fault, all the moisturizing i do, sometimes i don't clean it all off when i'm sticking my arm into the aquarium; the other culprit is the oily cooking that goes on either in the mornings when i'm asleep or at nights. it doesn't seem to bother the fish very much though, at least not that i'm aware of.

no checks in the mail but i did finally get my passport back from the US government along with the additional supplemental pages. for some reason i thought they'd rebind the passport but all they basically did was tape some new pages into the center, very low-tech. i figured with all the anti-counterfeiting measures and holograms and special printing paper, that maybe they'd do a better job. i wonder if they add a microchip into the passport? i don't think they did, i'll have to wait until the next time i renew. in the meantime: blank new pages! like they're tempting me to go traveling again (which currently isn't on my schedule, at least not this year, not while i'm still struggling to get by).

in the evening i went to a lecture at the HMNH, "song of insects" presented by lang elliott and wil hershberger. great lecture, marred only by the fact that i sat next to a crazy old woman who basically had no internal monologue and said out-loud everything that came into her head. from mid-summer into autumn, the air is filled with the high-pitched songs of crickets, katydids, and cicadas. authors lang elliott and wil hershberger will discuss how to appreciate and identify insect songs and demonstrate the equipment they used to produce the elaborate photographs and sound recordings featured in their upcoming book and cd, the songs of insects (houghton mifflin). a lot of insect songs are very high pitch, and there were some recordings that a good portion of the audience (including myself) couldn't hear. "i can't hear nothin!" the old lady cried beside me; i shifted away from her and covered my face in embarrassment, least anyone might think we were together. even elliott himself confessed to his own poor hearing and revealed the use of a special sound amplification gadget utilized primarily by hard-of-hearing birdwatchers. it was really interesting to finally put a "face" to a lot of these common summertime sounds. the two speakers were also more than happy to reveal their techniques, whether with photography or audio recording (i thought that was just as interesting as listening to insect songs). in that other insect-related lecture i went to a year ago with piotr naskrecki, he had some of the most amazing insect photos but he was very reluctant to reveal his secrets and was evasive when asked about his camera equipment. at one point that old lady's cell phone went off (i'm not making this up); i closed my eyes as she fumbled inside her purse to turn off the ringer. the lecture was starting to run long so they cut it short, much to the disappointment of the audience. they were selling and signing pre-release copies of their new book; i think i might get a copy when it comes out in wide circulation in april.

back at home i ate the rest of my linguine leftover from last night. an tao didn't come home until much later, quickly fixing up some cauliflower with noodles and retired to his bedroom after eating.