Happy Tanabata (sort of)

Last year, I entered a piece of art in the Ro Ho En Japanese Friendship Garden of Arizona's Annual Anime Drawing Contest - it was my first time entering into an art contest as an adult.

Industrious Hygienist art on display at Japanese Friendship Garden in Phoenix, AZ.

I didn't win, but it was fun to see the other entries and meet some of the other artists. 

I've waited to post the art until now, because I wanted to post it on the day of Tanabata, since that is the Japanese celebration I made my manga about. There is some confusion about the date of Tanabata - some people celebrate it on July 7, some on August 7, and if you're actually following the Gregorian calendar as it compares to the Japanese lunisolar calendar, the "official" day to celebrate it is August 9, 2016 for this year. 

I figured that if Google decided to celebrate it today, I could celebrate it today. Check out Google's doodle for the 2016 Tanabata celebration. 

The manga has two of the main characters from a space opera novel I am working on and is entitled "First Tanabata Together! (Lunar Colony) - July 7, 2102." The characters have written their wishes on slips of colored paper and hung them on a makeshift tree made of gears and other accessories they scrounged from their living quarters on the Moon. They've made other decorations, including origami and a poster of the traditional Tanabata song. My favorite piece of the manga is the extension cords hanging in the backdrop, tied in some of the creative ways my contractors tie their cords. 

Characters from my in-process space opera novel - celebrating Tanabata on the Moon.

The poem/song on the poster is a traditional Tanabata song, which goes:

"The bamboo leaves rustle,
shaking away in the eaves.
The stars twinkle
on the gold and silver grains of sand.
The five-color paper strips
I have already written.
The stars twinkle,
they watch us from heaven."

If you look closely on the manga, you can see the two dieties that the celebration is about, Orihime and Hikoboshi (represented by the stars Vega and Altair, separated by the Milky Way), on the two wall-screens. The Tanabata legend says that the lovers Orihime and Hikoboshi are allowed to meet only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, according to the Japanese lunisolar calendar. 

During Tanabata celebrations, participants write down wishes on colorful paper (called "tanzaku") and hope the two lovers were able to meet. I've written my wishes and will burn them on midnight as is tradition. Hopefully, next year, I'll have another piece of art from the space opera novel to post on Tanabata, with a short story introducing the characters and the story world. Happy Tanabata!

Pre-Conference Activities at #Safety2016

While we were at #Safety2016 in Atlanta, the Industrious Hygienist put together this quick video of the pre-conference adventures experienced by Piper Pangolin on Saturday, June 25, 2016. 



Before attending the Council on Practices and Standards with ASSE, the Industrious Hygienist and Piper did some reconnaissance of the Omni Hotel, CNN Center, and Georgia World Congress Center. We were dismayed to see that the Cartoon Network store next to the CNN Studio Tours Store seemed to be closed for construction (since we love cartoons!), but we still enjoyed the bear statues. 

After the Council on Practices and Standards meetings, we attended the House of Delegates meeting and were impressed by the generous contributions by ASSE Chapters and individuals to the ASSE Foundation during the "Lightning Round" of fundraising in celebration of the ASSE Foundation's 25th Anniversary. The student section from Keene State College were present at the House of Delegates and contributed to the ASSE Foundation as well. We can't wait to see the videos they create with Sammy the KSC Safety Squirrel.

We love the ASSE Foundation's "I [heart] Safety" campaign! Looks like we found another non-profit to donate to (when we have profits to do so)...

Happy (late) 25th Anniversary to @ASSEFoundation

Piper Pangolin is ready for Safety 2017

The Industrious Hygienist and the team at Sock Puppet Safety are already excited for Safety 2017 in Denver! We used some of the footage from our #Safety2016 conference recap video to try out an iMovie trailer for Safety 2017.



We hope you like our first attempt at a trailer. We have great video-making plans for the rest of 2016. 

Piper Pangolin at #Safety2016

We had an amazing experience at #Safety2016 - Piper Pangolin toured the expo hall and many of the vendors were courteous enough to let her showcase their spiffy products. We learned that pangolins are not great at CPR and chest compressions. We also learned that the Coca-Cola Bear is ginormous. We found some spoggles from Haber Vision, LLC (i.e., Advanced Safety Eyewear) that look lovely on Piper, with built-in prescription lens capability. 

The Industrious Hygienist co-presented a concurrent session on gender equity for occupational safety and health (OSH) programs that was well-received. Thanks to attendees of Session #769 for sticking it out to the end of the conference and attending our session! 

We hope to see all of our new friends at Safety 2017 in Denver, CO from June 19 to 22, 2017. Enjoy the video(s) and let us know if there is a particular topic you'd like to see in future Sock Puppet Safety videos.  



(Sock Puppet Safety and the Industrious Hygienist received no promotional consideration for the products in this video. This video is educational in nature and intended to show what safety professionals can expect to see at future professional development conferences from the American Society of Safety Engineers.)