Friend of mine is going to Cuba for winter break now that the ban is gone. It's REALLY cheap, only about $400 round trip from LAX. And of course everything on land is super affordable. No idea what the country and travel experience is like though.

In order to avoid cultural appropriation ask yourself these questions:

Do I understand who or what aspect of a culture I am depicting and do I know enough about it to know if a costume or depiction is accurate? (Then it's likely ok)
Am I depicting someone's religion or ritual clothing? (don't do it if so)
Is my costume a caricature or stereotyping of a culture being erased or currently oppressed? (Don't wear it)

omg thank goodness he was heard and rescued. There have been way too many stories involving 'and the the skeleton was in the chimney for 3 decades, as no one could hear him scream'

A friend of mine can't memorize and recognize faces very well, though more to a mild degree than outright forgetting your own. He was abused as a child and thinks there is a connection, as other people he knows who went through similar trauma have facial recognition problems as well.

Thing I miss most about upstate New York is watching the mountains turn brilliant shades of red and orange. Really magnificent.
Here in LA we only have two seasons: the great burning and the great dying (with some cooler weather). Autumn doesn't really happen, the leaves just... get browner and fall off. To be honest I can't tell the difference between season induced shedding or just typical drought death.

Unfortunately his condition looks to be a result of bad (human caused) breeding and because of that I don't think his popularity should be encouraged. To get the extreme flat face look he has the upper skull is being forced backwards, reducing room for the eyes. That's why it looks like his eyes are going to pop out of his skull, they literally are. Pugs have this issue too.
Also 'no health issues?' " eyes are so big that he cannot completely close his eyelids","He couldn't eat himself and had to be hand fed" I think Herman should get treated well and he's not to blame, but I think humans should stop breeding deformities to animals because its 'cute'.

I've notices also that many documentaries such as the 'Wildest _' series and Chernobyl Reclaimed add artificial drama. They will say something like 'little does this baby gorilla know there are predators lurking about' and jump between footage between a snake and the baby gorilla, but at no point are they in the picture together and were probably not even in the same vicinity. Complete fabrication that ruins credibility, and a waste considering the material is already interesting as it is.

so cute! So many wild animals seem hot this summer and are cooling off like the rest of is.
I always forget how big moose are though, just look at them compared to the car. They're like big ol' stocky horses. Except even more so.

I like the one that has three frames. The last shows how the fence is turned into chain link, representing how the 'problem was resolved', equality has been achieved and now the boxes can now be removed since all parties can see the game.

I heard that many scientists found these sound-based products don't work.
Could be a good excuse for when TVs make that annoying high-pitched noise sometimes, blame it on the mosquito repellent.

This is the worst food I could imagine...it's like deep fried butter... but maybe they will sell well in states like Colorado, Washington and Oregon? ;)