I wish I had a digital camera

It is absolutely unbelievably incredible over here right now. I first noticed it when I was walking to campus this morning and found myself surrounded by dozens of flitting shapes, each one seeming to be careening toward me. I don't know if anyone will believe me, but San Diego, and La Jolla in particular, is absolutely drowning in butterflies.

That's right, butterflies.

There are hundreds of the things flying around outside. It's not enough to form a major cloud, but everywhere you look there are a dozen or so butterflies, wafting about on the wind, resting on metal or rock, or perched on flowers. The whole campus is full of reckless fliers, who manage to weave their way in and out of the human traffic while managing not to get squashed or stepped on. From my perch on the third floor it's sometimes hard to see the ones at ground level, but if the sun catches them what you get is the sight of hundreds of points of light, almost like dust motes in a silent and empty room, but these ones are clearly moving of their own volition, disobeying the writ of gravity with utter impunity. It can get so thick at times that one is afraid that even moving will result in a rather unpleasant butterfly sandwich; or some other butterfly related malady. And there seems to be no method to the madness, they flit about first in one direction then another, some circling buildings, some moving along roadways, and some flying back and forth from flowering bush to flowering bush. Occasionally a gust of wind will arise and blow apart a flock, sending them scattering in all directions, before they reassemble themselves, or perhaps meet up with other likeminded individuals, and continue on their lazy way through the concrete and steel jungle of San Diego.

It's almost enough to make me feel poetic.

I guess that it's time for the annual monarch butterfly migration. I missed it last year. And they look so much happier this time around. I suppose not all news is bad news.

Oh well, enough reminiscing and such. Back to work.

A Bit Disjointed

Hmmm...just as a note, it turns out that the butterflies were Painted Ladies instead of Monarchs. They're here on a brief excursion of some sort, up from Baja. So that's one strike against me.

Meanwhile I'm being tempted to break my rule about not writing any fanfiction for the Harry Potter fandom. There are a few plot bunnies gnawing at my skull. Unfortunately several of them look like Gary Stu type adventures, so I'm keeping my distance. The urge will go away eventually.

And I was wondering if anybody knows of a good site that discusses security for Linux computers. It sounds a bit bad, but since I need to learn security sooner or later, I need to learn the ways in which people attack them.

And I was curious if anybody has or has ever handled older cotton cloth, made back about a hundred years ago (if any still exists), or at least before the advent of modern automated factories. How thick and heavy is it relative to today's fabric?