Pokemon Birds Flocking

This was a really crazy Pokemon Go filled weekend, so I'm only now getting around to blogging.  I think Robert and I have fallen into a Pokemon Go obsession the way that we fell into a birding obsession 15 years ago when we were living in Austin and building up our bird list.

I was thinking recently that it's too bad that we've never really gotten into a birding rhythm up here.  Partly it was that my PhD program basically destroyed my life for a while, making me lose the hobbies that I had been able to sustain while working 50+ hours per week in my masters program.  I've also not really adapted to the effects of the different climate/seasons/weather cycles/daylight cycles.  For example, at first, we would go out early in the morning like we did down south, but it was like the birds weren't awake yet.  It's also hard to adjust to how birds are here in different seasons from what we're used to--like, what, there aren't ducks in the winter?  Yeah, I guess not.  And migration happens, but it's not obvious.  However, I really do believe that the birding just flat isn't as good up here as it was in Texas and North Carolina.  Lower density of birds, lower diversity of birds.  I swear we can go out and our sum total of birds is like chickadee, song sparrow, and crow.  I don't know.

Pokemon Go hits a lot of the same buttons, and as long as it's keeping my Fitbit numbers up, it's all good.

It's funny how being out in a place where a bunch of people are playing Pokemon Go is like birding in a place where a bunch of people are birding.  I swear you could substitute bird names for Pokemon names and the conversations would sound the same.  "Did you get the XXX?"  "Whoa, that's a really good XXX."  "A XXX?!?!  Where???"  "There's an XXX down by the... here, let me show you."  It's like, Pokemon Go players are kind of like birders if birding were a normal activity--not requiring the development of specialized knowledge and skill over long periods of time, not requiring a lot of patience and planning, not requiring uncommon equipment, not requiring travel to wilderness-type locations in the early hours--that normal non-nerdy people did.

On this note, on to the outfits, with some of my recent purchases.

My New Favorite Jacket--Saturday, 3/4/17

Yep, the white moto jacket was a winner.  It's such a show stealer that I kind of forget that this striped top is new also.  The top is long-sleeved (bracelet sleeved, actually) but very, very lightweight so it will work well into the Spring/Summer season.

*Cream-white moto jacket (Loft), $35.00/wear
*Navy and white striped swing top (Loft), $17.49/wear
Skinny jeans (JCP), $0.42/wear
Blue pointy-toed flats (Nordstrom), $2.00/wear
Silver/teal peacock pendant (Target), $2.38/wear

Outfit total: $57.29/wear

Why Don't I Always Wear These Colors?--Sunday, 3/5/17

Today's Reverse Inspiration is the middle outfit in this triptych from the travel and capsule wardrobe specialist at the Vivienne Files. 

From theviviennefiles.com

All these teal and aqua shades are crazy flattering for a pale, blonde, blue-green eyed person to wear.  If I wanted to create a capsule wardrobe in "my colors," this would be a good place to start. 

*Navy/teal floral top (thrifted, Kohls), $6.74/wear
Skinny jeans (JCP), $0.41/wear
Dark teal drapey cardigan (Coldwater Creek), $2.14/wear
Bright teal flats (Payless), $0.76/wear

Outfit total: $10.05/wear

Today's bonus photo:  Here's what happens when you wear a pair of fleece leggings to bed (because you were tired and lazy and didn't want to change into pajamas) and twist and turn on white flannel sheets for hours.  Yep, as you abrade the leggings during the night, little pieces of flannel stick to the leggings and do not want to ever let go, resulting in flocked leggings that will ever only be worn to bed in the future.  Flocking, it's not just for birds and artificial Christmas trees anymore!

This photo Robert took reminds me of the persuasion mini game in Oblivion.  Basically, you walk up to an NPC and try out the four speech options (joke, admire, boast, coerce) as a wheel spins to indicate in a very confusing way how the NPC will react (love, like, dislike, hate) and to what degree (size of a pie piece).  This rabbit's expression is what happens when you select a speech option aligned with the biggest pie piece and the hate reaction.  Bottom line: Robert played the persuasion game with this bunny and lost, big-time.

In other news...I need to go get changed so we can exercise and watch Game of Thrones.  No Pokemon Go tonight as the wind is absolutely fierce (and the wind advisory is in effect until midnight).  Walking across the parking lot after work, I was hit so hard by the wind at one point that I actually thought I might fall over, and I'm not exactly so fine as a bee's wing that a breath of wind might blow me away under anything like normal circumstances.