Girls with body paint at Eeyores Birthday party

Unlike last year’s hot and dry April, this time Eeyore enjoyed a breezy 49th Annual Birthday celebration in Pease Park!  The event was a cool smash, with energy flowing well into the late evening.  This one-day event, from 11a.m. until sunset, is held on every last Saturday of April.  It’s gotten big, but it’s still a homegrown Austin tradition of weirdness and dance.

Is it a pagan ritual?  Is it Mardis Gras?  What is this flamboyant, sexy vibe thing happening in Austin?  It’s obviously handed down from a party started by some hippies.  There’s always several drum circles and scantly clad or nude girls dancing about.  Most are dressed or painted as forest nymphs.  These are the characters that have the best chance of cheering up Eeyore!  Without them, our energy wouldn’t make it to the level that makes this celebration so unique.

This party is a celebration of nature, as mid-spring ushers in already long hot days filled with sunshine.  In central Texas, April is one of the best months to run around half naked in the park.  It’s a good time to take a trip and set aside some time to understand the forest around us and be grateful for it’s blessings.

But more importantly, somehow back in the day, a famous little emo mule became the center of attention.  Maybe he needed it, always moping around in Winnie the Pooh stories.  Constantly melancholy and swaying through the forest like the beast of burden.  Eeyore needs a hug, so every year Austinites throw a party in honor of that little miserable donkey.  Cheer up Eeyore!  The whole town just came down to the park, to dance and be near with vibrant love and cheer!

A girl in flower hat walks with a huge smile!

Photo Gallery of Eeyore’s 2012 Party in Austin, Texas.

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Also be sure to check out last year’s event at: Eeyore’s Birthday Party, Austin Texas 2011

From BBC’s Richard Black:
“The adult male, which they have nicknamed Iceberg, was spotted off the coast of Kamchatka in eastern Russia.

It appears to be healthy and leading a normal life in its pod.

White whales of various species are occasionally seen; but the only known white orcas have been young, including one with a rare genetic condition that died in a Canadian aquarium in 1972.

The sightings were made during a research cruise off Kamchatka by a group of Russian scientists and students, co-led by Erich Hoyt, the long-time orca scientist, conservationist and author who is now a senior research fellow with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS).

Footage apparently shows adult white orca. Courtesy of Far East Russia Orcas Project

“We’ve seen another two white orcas in Russia but they’ve been young, whereas this is the first time we’ve seen a mature adult,” he told BBC News.

“It has the full two-metre-high dorsal fin of a mature male, which means it’s at least 16 years old – in fact the fin is somewhat ragged, so it might be a bit older.”

Orcas mature around the age of 15, and males can live to 50 or 60 years old, though 30 is more commonplace.

“Iceberg seems to be fully socialised; we know that these fish-eating orcas stay with their mothers for life, and as far as we can see he’s right behind his mother with presumably his brothers next to him,” said Dr Hoyt.

The cause of his unusual pigmentation is not known. The captive white orca, Chima, suffered from Chediak-Higashi syndrome, a genetic condition that causes partial albinism as well as a number of medical complications.

It is possible that an attempt may be made to take a biopsy from Iceberg; but with researchers reluctant to do so unless there is a compelling conservation reason, they are hoping instead for closer observations including a detection of eye colour.

The project Dr Hoyt co-leads, the Far East Russia Orca Project, has pioneered visual and acoustic monitoring in the inhospitable Kamchatka seas, and has produced a number of papers on the communication of killer whales.

This may lead to improved understanding of the animals’ complex social structure, which includes matrilineal family clans, pods consisting of several families, and much larger “super-pods”.

A related project aims to study and conserve habitat for all whales and dolphins around the Russian coast.

In recent years a white humpback whale nick-named Migaloo has drawn intense interest in Australia, while the Arctic beluga is naturally white.

The most famous white whale, though, is the fictional sperm whale that drove Captain Ahab to his eventually fatal fury in Moby Dick.”

It’s not uncommon to see vintage and custom cars driving around Austin, particularly on south Congress.  They rumble onto the scene and somehow always score a great parking spot. But every year, the local scene is handed over to tons of vintage steel. The schedule for this event hardly need be checked in on, because it’s an obvious site. If you venture to any of the downtown streets, you’ll notice increased number of vintage cars and trucks.

The official event is held at the Travis County Expo Center. For all current and historical information, visit the official website at Lone Star Roundup.com. The expo center is the place to be, if you want to see all of the best custom rods. Some of these machines don’t get taken into common automotive traffic. Also, there is plenty of entertainment with races, games, live music and more.

The scene on south congress is getting bigger every year. Not only from the custom cars parading the strip, but also the growing tourist and hipster invasion that is happening these days. When this event mixes with the SoCo hipsters and tourists, the locals driving around, and 35 police placed throughout each intersection on Congress street, oh and some orange cones, suddenly you’ve got a traffic jam that you’ll never forget!

This rapid rise in population is actually the middle and upper class. Apparently the rest of the nation is suffering a loss of middle class, but here in Austin I’ve seen a rise in upper and middle class. What used to be a downtown warehouse district, which sat defunct for years and was actually a sketchy place to hang out, is now home to high class bars and restaurants.

But it’s here that you’ll find some of the freshest nigiri sushi in Austin!  We sampled some Hamache (Yellowtail), Sake (Salmon), Unagi (Eel), and Red Snapper (Tai).  For drink it was hot Lychee Sake and it was spot on!  Plus, the environment was great.  Our server was a crisp girl with dreads and an expensive full sleeve of tattoo work.  And our chef at the sushi bar was an Austin native named Taco.  Thankfully it was still Austin, even if the street was decorated like Dallas.

Just over to the east, about six blocks, you’ll find the 6th street area.  The infamous stumbling strip of clubs and hole-in-the-wall bars has not been phased by the new growth of Austin population.  It still gets as packed as ever and is engulfed in the sounds of live music jumping from club entrances.    Even when it was a little big city, it was still the spot to drink.

One of the first drinking holes, just past congress, is Buffalo Billiards.  But this isn’t the usual dark drinking hole.  It’s full of pool tables, shuffleboard tables, and plenty of light.  The buildings facade is a large amount of glass window, more than running the length of a shuffleboard table.  People walking down sixth street are given a view of the first shuffleboard table’s action, and tonight we were on the spotlight!

#1  Don’t die! Drowning is the most common fatality for the area.  Not only is alcohol and swimming a really bad idea, but there’s something you don’t know about the coast there during spring.  It’s full of rip-currents!  Here’s the best rule of thumb, If there are waves and you’ve been drinking, don’t swim!  Even if you are a good swimmer and not drinking, the rips during spring will take you away!  Yes, the waves are usually small, but they are all over the place and the water trying to return offshore is massive and deadly.  Wading is fine, but when you decide to swim to the next sandbar out, please…just don’t do it!

This guy was just hanging out with the Saturday afternoon crowd on the beach.

#2 Don’t Take Glass Onto The Beach! WTF?!  It’s glass…on the beach!!  They are gonna have checkpoints as you enter the beach and they will be digging in your ice chest.  Even if you make it past that, there will be cops and code enforcement on four-wheelers.  But the worst is when the crowd starts getting rowdy and throwing stuff at each other.  Glass bottles flying through the air is not a good thing.  Only assholes bring glass to the beach.

#3 Don’t Go North Of The Hotels! Don’t explore the area north of the hotels.  After the convention center, the beach is open for public camping and driving on the sand.  If you don’t have a car, then you shouldn’t be there.  It’s likely to be crazy out there, and not in a good way.  There’s very little protection, just a cop or two that might drive by, and people tend to get stabbed out there.

#4 Don’t Go To Mexico! Those days are over…for now, at least.

#5 Don’t Drive Drunk! If you are a student there on vacation, you shouldn’t be driving around anyway.  Everything you need is within stumbling distance.  The beach, the babes, the clubs and lots of booze are all within a couple of miles.  After you drive in and unpack, put your flip flops on and stash those car keys!  But if you do decide to drink and drive, there are plenty of small town cops just itching to meet you on the road.

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While South Padre is a great place to go for your spring break, it’s not without the possibility of a super bum-trip.  Most of all, just be aware of your limits and be smart about your choices.  But just in case, those are the the top five things Not To Do For Spring Break At South Padre Island.

For photos and more stories about Spring Break at South Padre Island, visit Spring Break SPI360

It was a lot easier than I had expected, and if felt better than I imagined. Wells Fargo had been my bank for 10 years, but last summer they started to really piss me off. Even still, I procrastinated for almost six months before finally bringing the hammer down. Even though the final straw was caused by a small error on my part, it was the money thirsty reaction from the bank that broke my back.

It started last summer, during a routine payday trip to the drive through. The over friendly teller informed me that Wells Fargo was no longer going to offer me a free checking account, instead they would soon be deducting money on a monthly basis. I was now going to be charged for giving them money to play with.

He told me that I did have choices, and ways to avoid the fee. If I kept enough minimum balance, or put and keep money in the lowest APR savings account on the planet, I could avoid the $10/month fee.  My response was somewhere along the lines of, “yeah, I’ll find another bank”.

The biggest kicker, was how he told me about the new change.  He said, “we are going to grandfather out the free checking.”  Grandfather out?  Did he just say that?  I’ve heard of things being grandfathered in, but not grandfathered out.

That was during summer  of 2011.  Fall came and the monthly service charge started flowing out of my checking account.  It was only $5 per month, so that was better than the ten dollars I was expecting, and led to my procrastination.  I also had a few things dialed in to that account, so I reasoned that it was too much hassle to change everything.  Paypal was set up with money on hold and there were still auctions underway on Ebay.

Then something else happened that upset me.  I decided to use the free bill pay feature, twice.  It took the bank almost two weeks to pay my bills, after I had initiated the transaction!  The money was taken from my checking account instantly, but somehow it took a tremendous amount of time to be credited to the recipient.  It was beyond eternity, by today’s digital standards!  There is only one reason to take so long.  They again play with money as long as they can, before letting go.  Adding to the insult, the bank can’t emphasize enough that it’s a free service to pay bills!  The problem is, you could walk and deliver your payment faster.

The bank not only takes forever to pay bills, because they are hastily gambling with our funds, but they also take their time to credit incoming deposits.  My paycheck would take 1 1/2 days to be available for withdrawal and money coming in from Paypal took 4-5 days.  When I called and rattled cages, I found that each side blamed the other as to why the funds took so long to migrate from one computer to another.  When I pushed further, I found that the blame usually belonged to Wells Fargo Bank.

Finally, the day came that I made a mistake.  Although I knew I was dancing near the danger zone of low funds, I also knew that I had declined overdraft protection.  A few years ago, legislation finally sided with the consumer and told the banks they had to have our signature, before charging us $35 for going into the red.  If you don’t sign, and decline the overdraft protection, purchases that you attempt to complete will be denied.  How extraordinary!!  A computer that can say no when asked to produce a negative number.  It’s not so complicated…or is it?

As it turns out, I found one day that automatic payments are different than purchases.  And they can cause an NSF, in spite of refusing the overdraft protection service.  As bad luck would have it, I decided to transfer money to another account two days before my weekly paycheck.  I didn’t need the funds sitting in the checking account and I thought nothing was on the books.  But Paypal took money to pay an Ebay invoice automatically, and also to pay for a shipping label.  The first $92 invoice payment took the balance to the red, and the $4 shipping label was then tossed into the mix.  Both transactions were paid, instead of denied, and I was charged $70 in combined NSF fees.

When I called the next day, the bank wouldn’t budge.  I tried calling back and talking to someone different.  I even threatened to pull the plug on my account.  For my lunch hour, I went to the nearest full service branch location and again tried to reason with the bank.  He said his hands were tied.  He said the people on the telephone actually had the power. Even if he did agree that a $35 fine on a $4 transaction was a bit steep, he said there was nothing he could do about it.  No one could, or would, even consider lifting at least one of the two NSF fees.

My account was in the red for less than 10 hours.  I found the mistake and immediately had funds transferred back to cover the shortage.  It was already old news and fixed before I got my first email from Wells Fargo about the problem.  But none of this was good enough for a money hungry bank that had been patiently waiting for a chance to charge the notorious NSF.  It’s their bread and butter; it helps to put another Ferrari in someone’s garage.

So, let’s break it down.  We put money into our checking account and slowly take away from the balance.  Even if we live paycheck to paycheck, there’s usually funds in there for a good portion of the week and often for up to two weeks.  All the while, the bank is playing with our money on the stock market, lending it to other people and who knows what else they do to gamble and increase profit.  The point is they use our money until we ask for it back.

We constantly lend them money.  But the moment you dip into the red, they point out that they are lending you money to make the payment and it comes with a $35 fee.  So, how much can we charge them for all the time we lend them money?  How much are they willing to share of the profits they make by investing our money?

If I kept my money in cash, and paid everything accordingly, who would suffer the most?  Me, or the bank?

I paid the NSF fees to Wells Fargo Bank two days after they hit, and I closed the account.  I then started the process to change Paypal over to my new account at Velocity Credit Union.  I also opened a savings account at -ing bank.  Both of my new banks pay me to lend them money.  It’ s not a lot, but it sure beats me having to pay a bank to hold my money for awhile.

Another note about my bad experience with Wells Fargo Bank: I had transferred funds from Paypal to my checking account on several occasions. Each time it took about 5 business days for the transfer to complete. But when my account was in the red, it only took 24 hours for a Paypal transfer to show up on my checking account balance.

My guess is that this is another example of federal regulation that actually considers the customer. If the account is at normal status, the bank is allowed to delay transfer while they play with the money. But if the account is in the negative, then they must post the transferred funds to the account immediately. This is just a hunch, but that’s how it played out with my experience.