FORMER OLYMPIAN SKATER ENJOYS SNACK, SIPS SODA, BLOWS NOSE, CHECKS CONTENTS of KLEENEX, ALL AT BURBANK AIRPORT

Did you ever wonder what it would be like to see somebody famous blow their nose, and then observe them check out what landed in their tissue?

Us, too. Feast your eyes on this:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid353549946/bctid1438426736

This is Tonya Harding at the Burbank Airport in Burbank, California, USA.

We haven't flown out of Burbank, but we hear it's a great place to fly out of the Los Angeles area without dealing with the craziness that is LAX.

[Again, so we hear (or overhear, technically). We don't really leave campus, though through the internet, we globe trot virtually via the information super highway.]

She's also eating a sandwich and chips, we think.

Really interesting!  You must check this out!!

*********We would also like to pre-thank very much Mr. Geraldo and the good folks at Inside Edition for pre-allowing us to use this picture, and of course
Charles Main and his website, Tonya Harding on the World Wide Web

Here's the link to this online celebration of all things Tonya Harding:
http://www.charliesweb.com/tonya/tonya.html#Page1
*********

YOUR OPINION COUNTS- YES IT DOES!!!!!

You will now be shown three unique images gathered from the web image search for "Phoenix."

You've been tasked to pick one that best describes the reaction you had when you saw that we had just posted after exactly a one thousand day absence.


The Bird.




This image is courtesy of our pre-friends, we don't know them yet but we like what we know so far... www.phoenixrisingsquad.com


The Map of Phoenix:



A picture of imaginary condo in Atlantic City:

PHOENIX RISING from fallowness

Exactly* 1000 days (or thereabouts, we haven't counted) since our last post,

USC SQUIRRELS RISES (or is rising) FROM THE ASHES OF MEGA-NOT-POSTING.

We were silently patiently methodically not posting on purpose. Why?

According to our independent research (to be sure we're not affiliated with anybody, though we have a deep affinity for everybody), ALL GREAT BLOGS GO THROUGH A TIME OF NON ACTIVITY.

We believe this akin to the farmers of yore that let their fields go fallow. This deliberate rest helps make the soil (our case "blog posting") fertile.



*We love the word "exactly"- it connotes power and certainty :)

The Lord Loves You, Facebook Administrators, and USC Squirrels is Tryin'!!!!

So we were attempting to log into Facebook to say hi and check in with our facebooker friends, when we got this as are welcome (read below) Seems that they think our name is FAKE. Long story short, we're going to take Jesus' advice and "shake off the (facebook) dust from your (our) feet"

The Lord loves you, Facebook Administrators, and USC Squirrels is tryin'!!!!

Facebook Login
"Your account has been disabled by an administrator. If you have any questions or concerns, you can visit our FAQ page here."

So we went there and found:

Why was my account disabled?
Your account was disabled because you violated Facebook’s Terms of Use, to which you agreed when you first registered for an account on the site. Accounts can either be disabled for repeat offenses or for one, particularly egregious violation.

Facebook does not allow users to register with fake names, to impersonate any person or entity, or to falsely state or otherwise misrepresent themselves or their affiliations.

We do not allow users to send unsolicited or harassing messages to people they don’t know, and we remove posts that advertise a product, service, website, or opportunity.

Our Code of Conduct outlines the types of content we do not allow on the site. This includes any obscene, pornographic, or sexually explicit photos, as well as any photos that depict graphic violence. We also remove content, photo or written, that threatens, intimidates, harasses, or brings unwanted attention or embarrassment to an individual or group of people.

Tom & the Myspace Gals

Are we crazy or just out of touch with the "myspacer scene?"
There are a lot of gals on myspace that want to be our friend.
At first we thought it was because we as squirrels have a reputation for being approachable, cuddly and having a keen sense of hearing (which makes us good listeners).
But there are some gals out there that are really, really, really forward, in a "party hearty" kind of way, and they keep asking to be our friends and so far we have said nothing and written nothing & they are making us nervous.

BTW, we have written to Tom about this.

Tom is everybody's friend, and we were hoping Tom could talk to some of these gals, but Tom isn't returning our emails. Do you think Tom thinks we are prudes? Do you think that Tom is siding with Shizue, Krystal, Bubbles & the rest of the gals that "wanna partay with u"? ("u" being us.)

Nanci's (with an "i" thanks!) Bag Contents, 9/19/07

Nanci's (with an "i" thanks!) Bag Contents, 9/19/07
Originally uploaded by USC Squirrels (Unofficial- Unauthorized-Unbad)

Can you say workaround? This technology thing some times throws us for a loop, but we are a stubborn bunch and are now using a Flickr tool to link* this photo Nanci did.

This is a follow link to the one from last month....and yes, we have been working on this off and on for the last 5 weeks or so...when not jamming the big points on DK (Donkey Kong).

Flickr is phantastic photo phun! (we're also on the silly side, case you haven't noticed)

*hyper link, but we wish they would have called them hot links, because "hot link" sounds cool and delicious, but that's neither here nor there now, is it? Wait a minute, they don't call it hyperlink, they call it hypertext...we're so confused- see what we mean?!

Living with the Fever (Donkey Kong Fever)

OK, so sometimes you have to take something potentially destructive and turn it in to something constructive. Our scary stuff inside can be gifts in disguise.

To wit: We shared that we were all suffering from Donkey Kong fever, which sounds bad because it could be bad, but we have established a blog that is dedicated to sharing with our readers all the secrets to big points and high scores, cracking the codes and getting that crazy ape to give up the young lady prisoner!!

More details and the full story are on our new blog, How To Win at Donkey Kong
http://www.how-to-win-at-donkey-kong.blogspot.com/

We're Expanding Our Online Presence, and Building community on the World Wide Web

Nanci (with an "i" thanx) has just added a photo, and has added this photo with comments to a group on FLICKR.
This is big news, please join us in congratulating Nanci (with an "i" thanx).
We are so proud of you!!!





http://www.flickr.com/photos/10501880@N07/1413346490/

Not this Again! Yes This Again!

Not this again, yes this again. (See post on 7/27 on the allegedly-inebriated-squirrel-photographed-at-posted-on-Flickr incident and the ensuing fallout)

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/oh%2C-food%21-i.ll-just-_-wahhhhhh%21%21/squirrel-catapult-is-awful-yet-we-cant-look-away-270290.php


OK, so we have another situation that we are including here as part of our policy of openness…not crazy about this whole situation, but as you know, we have a couple of short tempers in our group, and this kind of “humor” sets us squirrels off.

There’s a video out there that shows a squirrel flung from a homemade catapult. I guess some people think this is hilarious. We don’t.

And so one of us wrote this comment.

The first line refers to the site administrator’s note that comments are up for “audition” and for would be commentors to “polish our words.”

Dear Gizmodo,

Your asking us to "Polish our words" to "audition" to be a commentor? PUL EEZE!

The only thing we plan on polishing is that kid's ass!

Message to the boy-in-need-of-a-new-cruelty-free-hobby, you are notice, BITCH.

Come to USC (that's in Los Angeles) and try that...oh never been here? That's a surprise!

Watch your toes spineless ones!

USC Squirrels


Pretty intense, right, so then others of us followed up with:

Dear Gizmodo,

We hope this comment catches you in time, before you read the first post. USC Squirrels regrets the recent rash response to the above post “S.C. I.A.,Y.W.C.N.L.A.”

We apologize for any pain and / or embarrassment you may have suffered from this comment.

We don’t like that the post contained a threat, which we consider offensive in and of itself, and we are troubled by the foul language, which we think is a sign of small vocabulary, laziness and a lack of imagination.

While some of us in our community are offended by this video (because it’s pretty lame) we understand your right to display it. And we don’t feel that intimidation of violence solves anything.

Thanks,

USC Squirrels

And, then, we had to add something about how poor the video itself was:


Oh-one more thing:

On a film critique-y note, we’re no experts (though some of us live near the Cinema school here on campus), a few of us feel (content aside) this thing goes on just waaaay toooo lonngg.

As the late great James Brown says, “Hit and Quit It.”

Can you tell the person who made it that as hard as it is to cut things down, they are ALWAYS BETTER FOR IT. (e.g. Most director’s cuts and DVD releases with extended scenes suffer greatly from the “new” scenes.)

Thanks,

USC Squirrels

We've been sick with a fever...DONKEY KONG FEVER

Symptoms include an irrestible urge to get high scores and rescue the princess from that rascal of an ape.

May also include dreams of barrel jumping backwards for 300 points, and fantasies of watching the big ole dumb ape fall on his head and go ouch!!!!

Sufferers of donkey kong fever may also experience vast periods of non blogging at their website for over eight weeks because they are in love with playing and winning at Donkey Kong...HEY!

HEY, that sounds like US!!

Sooooooooo, sorry about that. We know that we've been negligent in our blogging duties and we hate to think that we let all of our many loyal readers down... will you forgive us?