School has started... Not so many hipsters?

Well this is embarrassing.

First I say, "It's been a while!" then talk about how normal everything has gotten, and then promise to post new things like pictures and do regular updates. Naturally, none of that has happened (But the pictures really exist!).

To recap: It's been a month since my last update, I'll get to the exciting bits before long here; I indeed have pictures of the chanterelles from the first trip, and will post more pictures of the newer ones as well - eventually (there have been two other trips since then); I have not been going to the gym regularly, that was apparently a temporary thing (I will return); and the digestive process is the one thing that has normalized (though I had an unfortunate experience with an overabundance of hot sauce...).

So onto some more new things! School has started ;_; And it may be just me, but it appears that there are fewer hipsters this year. Only time will tell - warm weather separates the men from the boys (or in the case of hipsters, the emaciated vegans of indeterminate gender from the less-so-but-still-slightly effeminate emaciated vegetarians). Come colder weather there will be scarves flying and oddly-put-together flannel outfits with skinny jeans and stout snow boots topped with truly epic, though still somehow ironic, untamed facial hair jutting out from beneath hats that people might have worn in the 60's, but still shouldn't have (I don't like hats).

Now that THAT sentence is done, I am enjoying school so far. I need something to stop me from being lazy, and apparently cooking for myself is not enough. But 3 heavy higher math classes is more than enough. I like learning and I like doing more than nothing - at least for now. I ran into some people at a table in one of the huge public areas at UW, and they were advocates of the LaRouche PAC. I had no idea what the LaRouche PAC was, but they had signs proposing the smashing of solar panels, so I needed to understand why. I'm not a huge fan of solar panels - at the moment, they are an inefficient novelty that uses up a lot of water and costs a ton of money for the energy they put out - but there's nothing wrong with them in theory (except that it always seems to be those "Mother Earth is tired of being raped, so rape the sun instead" vegans who support them). Give them ten years and they will become efficient - give them twenty and they'll be economical too. Any-who, the LaRouche people told me about a couple of interesting things about water usage in the US and gave me some literature - which promptly proved their insanity. The literature droned on and on about "the evil British Empire" and how we need to ally ourselves with Russia and China in order to form a Pacific alliance to counter them strategically - and this isn't my usual "I hate stupid people" hyperbole - they really said these things.

I went on another trip to Seabeck for more mushrooms. Found a couple of a different type as well - another type that is not quite as easy to identify as Chanterelles, but still easy enough for a novice like me - the bolete. There are many kinds of boletes, and only a select few are poisonous. One of these is called the devil's bolete - it has the shape and other characteristics of a normal bolete, but is bright red, and it's flesh turns blue when bruised, and it smells like a dead, decaying body. Normal boletes look like a mushroom from Mario Brothers, only they are usually brown and usually don't have spots (colors vary from a bit greenish to yellow to orange to red to brown - avoid red and orange types). They are fat, large mushrooms with stout stems, and lack gills - they have spore tubes that start with a smooth covering with pores in it (the covering falls off as they age). Most boletes are edible, though some are notoriously bitter (and thus considered inedible despite not being toxic). Boletes should be cooked. They are also a favorite of grazing slugs and insects, so it's best to go bolete hunting after the first frost. Enough about them - we got a TON of chanterelles! Many many pounds! I don't even know what to do with em all, but I'm sure I'll think of something.

I was typing up this blog post when I suddenly realized I had an errand I desperately needed to run, after which I went to the gym! Success!!

Going to bed now, more details some other time. Night!