This Is Not A Post #1

Finished one major project and have a brief break before work goes psycho again, so I thought I'd stick my head up and say "Hi!"

Hi!

If this were simply a "check this out" post, I'd highly recommend:

James the Pirate over at Shooting Rockets At The Sun (anything with pirates is good, eh?);
The Sexism Harvard Likes over at Riding Sun;
Global Warming & Imminent Destruction over at InakaYabanjin;
and Kevin Drum Gives Us All An Accounting Lesson. Lucky Us by Dennis the Peasant, who will, er, eventually, be bagelled. "Help! Help! Come see the repression inherent in the system!"

If this were a "Today's Season Word" post, it would go like this:

紅梅 (koubai)

Red plum blossoms

As the first blossoms [of the year], and because of the scent, plum blossoms are still highly prized in Japan, and in haikai. ... Note that while generations of translators have called this tree by the name "plum," to English and American gardeners it is the "Japanese apricot," ...

Haiku World, by William J. Higginson

To the Japanese, plum blossoms are the symbol of first love. At the beginning of spring in Japan, it is common to see images of Japanese boys in the old-style school uniforms and Japanese girls in spring kimono with plum blossoms in the fore- or background. These images are used as ads for spring sales, to sell plum candy, etc.

Plum blossoms are to me, nostalgia, innocence, romance ...

Yes, I had to look up innocence to make sure I spelled it correctly. Why do you ask?

Well, I still have no time to research and develop good posts. In fact, I should be writing reports right now. My post from last week, Something Witty ... (just before this one), still holds, and it may be some time before I post again.

Thanks for dropping by!

(Image hosted at Flickr.)