I am pleased to be able to tell you that due to the crazy amount of money that the National Zoo makes off the cute little fuzzy bundle of joy, they’ve managed to negotiate a deal to get Butterstick to stay a few more years.

This WaPo article gives more information than I feel like typing so check it out.  You do have to appreciate that they actually namedrop ‘Butterstick’ in the article.  Why’d we have to give him a lame Chinese name.

I’m sure there’s more that I could say about this but we’re all to lazy to post now.  I think the 3B! crowd would be amazed at our half-assedness.

In addition to certain unnamed projects to which I will only refer cryptically, I am eagerly looking forward to any news about the film production of World War Z. The book was amazing and awesome and so many other words and now that I have heard that the script is being written by Mr. Babylon 5, J. Michael Straczynski, I am in full on pants-checking anticipatory mode.

The Zombie Survival Guide was really damn neat and thoroughly consistent in ways that I enjoy when reading books or watching movies. World War Z kept that consistency and tossed in a heaping helping of emotion and tension. It was sweeter than a pile of ponies ridden by baby pandas, but if sweet meant super rad and not like the kind of sweet that seems to have infected 3 Bulls of late.

Sorry it’s taken me so long to get these photos up. I went to go see Butterstick at the National Zoo almost two weeks ago and haven’t managed to get the photos online until today.

This is only happening because my work PC is hosed with a virus at the moment and my girlfriend went out tonight so I don’t really have much else to do (besides watching episodes of the A-Team that I TiVo’d).

Anyway, seeing the ‘Stick in person left me much impressed. He’s an adorable little ball of fuzz. Definitely worth waiting in line for about 15 minutes. He was just kind of rolling around and playing with stuff. It’s kind of hard to make out from these pictures though.

I’ve got some video I took (that’s of equally poor quality) that I’ll try and get online sometime soon.

Until then though, you’ll have to make do with these pictures.

Trash Lid!

Playing with a giant bong?

Yes, yes he is.

Man, he is really fiending for it

Papa Stick!

Hey, sorry for the incredibly long break between posts. I’ve been busy with work and all that. Actually, they got all new equipment and free weights at the gym so I spent a month wandering around disorientedly. Just recently have I managed to escape and begin to once again post on the WRN blog.

Anyway, this time of year it’s usual for people to anticipate the upcoming holidays, be it Christmas, Hanukkah, New Years, or whatever other holiday I’m not aware of. Often I would feel the same way. Not this year though. At least not as of 6 PM today. That’s when I officially reserved tickets to go see Butterstick at the National Zoo.

The tickets are only good for 10 minutes and there is no guarantee that the ‘Stick will be out. Still, the hope that I may get to see this cute little ball of fuzz romping around is enough to get me psyched. I’ll definitely be bringing my camera and maybe I’ll be able to capture a little movie of Butterstick scampering about.

Until then, I guess I’ll just have to get my panda fix from some of these pictures here.

Still, the countdown to Jan. 6, 2006 has begun. Hopefully Panda Day ’06 will end in success.

Hey, I just wanted to give some love to Unrequited Narcissism for their awesome post on naming the new panda at the National Zoo. The official zoo page has some ridiculous Chinese names like Tai Shan or Qiang Qiang.

It’s perfectly clear from looking at the picture that this little guy’s name should be something far more accurate … like Butterstick. So check out the modified survey that the folks at UN put up here and vote!