About Oregon Expat
Sometimes the best view is from the outside, and an American expatriate living in Portugal is, in many ways, outside of both nations. The views can be spectacular. I’m also a science nerd, Mac dweeb, grammar geek, and science fiction author, so the posts in this blog tend to be eclectic.
Click the “About” tab if that wasn’t quite enough detail — or go to my official author website.
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Recent Posts
- Hope, an unfamiliar emotion
- Pompeii takeout and American assumption
- Far Enough
- I have an issue with Netflix’s “Away”
- Now, about *that* topic
- The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
- Alsea Rising: The Seventh Star is in the wild
- Alsea Rising is out and #1!
- Coming soon: Alsea Rising
- On his terms
- Beyoncé: Homecoming
- UPRISING and balance
- The brain radio
- Alsea lovers: This is the one you’ve been waiting for
- The chicken church
Recent Comments
- Fletcher DeLancey on Porto’s most famous bookstore
- pablohaake on Porto’s most famous bookstore
- Alberto on Throwing flowers
- Rael on Portuguese idiom of the day: Lança perfume
- Rael on Portuguese idiom of the day: Lança perfume
- Fletcher DeLancey on Hope, an unfamiliar emotion
- Miriam English on Hope, an unfamiliar emotion
Categories
Monthly Archives: February 2013
Cute baby alien life!
Hot on the heels of yesterday’s post of the Moon Jellies From Outer Space comes this video from the Oregon Coast Aquarium, showing…baby moon jellies! (But not in outer space, alas.) Jellyfish have a cool life cycle, involving both sessile … Continue reading
Posted in biology, video
5 Comments
Alien life
Yesterday’s Guardian featured a jellyfish slide show, which included the above spectacular shot (photographed by diver Alexander Semenov). This looks exactly like Moon Jellies From Outer Space, orbiting Earth. Seriously, I’m waiting for the starship Enterprise to appear in the … Continue reading
Posted in biology
7 Comments
Superpowers
Yesterday evening, our kitten Rumple was chasing a fly in the kitchen. It was one of those small types that flies silently — the kind that aimlessly zigzags back and forth in the middle of a room. It had briefly … Continue reading
Posted in life
5 Comments
Wallpaper Monday
Sanphet Prasat Palace (also called the White Palace), Thailand. Or at least a replica of it — the original was burned to the ground when Burma invaded in 1767, leaving only the raised red brick base. Sanphet Prast can be … Continue reading
Posted in wildflowers
1 Comment
Saturday picture show
The Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO) has just finished its third year of operation, in which it continued to collect scads of fantastic data, thrill researchers all over the world, and produce truly awesome videos for the rest of us. Seriously, … Continue reading
Giving new meaning to “electric pink”
Researchers from the University of Bristol have just published a study showing that flowers have yet another method of communicating their desirability to bees besides colors, patterns and scent. They have electricity. Plants are usually charged negatively and emit weak … Continue reading
Posted in biology, science
2 Comments
Some things never change
The Atlantic calls this “The 15th-Century Equivalent of Your Cat Walking on Your Keyboard,” and it first made me laugh, then gave me an odd sense of comfort. How nice to know that through 700 years of lightning fast changes … Continue reading
Posted in history, life
4 Comments
Not for the arachnophobes
This video has been making the geek rounds, and it has definitely put Santo Antônio da Platina, Brazil, on my Must Visit list. It’s home to a colony of spiders called Anelosimus eximius, which have an unusual feeding behavior. After … Continue reading
Posted in biology, video
3 Comments
A typical spring scene
Cape sorrel (Oxalis pes-caprae, also known as Bermuda buttercup) is blooming rampantly across the countryside these days. It’s not native, having been introduced to Malta around 1806 and spreading from there. Within 50 years it carpeted the Mediterranean region, cheering … Continue reading
Posted in Portugal, wildflowers
3 Comments
Wallpaper Monday
“On the road to Big Sur, California. Somewhere between San Luis Obispo and San Simeon,” writes photographer Wampics. Now this is a bike road…if you can get out in the morning before the winds start blowing. I’d guess that mountain … Continue reading
Posted in wallpaper
5 Comments