y.st./source/pages/en/weblog/2015/07-July/12.xhtml

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$xhtml = array(
	'title' => 'Country fair',
	'body' => <<<END
<p>
	Today, I went to the country fair with my sister.
	A friend of my mother is on the city council of a local city, so she receives a pair of tickets for the fair each year.
	The fair isn&apos;t really her cup of tea though, so she offered the tickets to us.
</p>
<p>
	This is the first time we&apos;ve been to the country fair, and the theme this time appeared to be dragons.
	There were all sorts of dragon- and non-dragon-themed art pieces set about, including a large, spinable globe with a surface made up of triangles.
	In many places, there were banners that read &quot;yes yes yes&quot;, though I&apos;m not sure what was meant by that.
</p>
<p>
	Many of the booths had beautiful hand-painted signs and many types of artwork were on display and for sale.
	Pottery, woodcarving, and glasswork were quite popular.
	Musical instruments were also available, most of them ornately-carved.
	Some of the pieces that stood out to me were clay sculptures made to look like human hearts and broken-off branches carved into faces.
</p>
<p>
	About half-way through our time at the fair, my sister and I stopped for lunch at a vegan food stand, a place selling tofu burritos.
	The burritos contained quinoa, which I had not yet had a chance to try.
	It seems to be a fairly-bland gain, similar to rice, but with a different shape and texture.
	In addition to the burritos, we got delicious hibiscus drinks containing mint, oranges, and a few other plants that I do not recall.
</p>
<p>
	We found a section of the fair labeled &quot;Energy Park&quot;, where the focus was on sustainable living.
	Not everything there related to energy though.
	There were a few anti-$a[GMO] booths and a seed exchange.
	We hadn&apos;t known what to expect at the fair and didn&apos;t bring any seeds to exchange (not that we had any seeds to exchange anyway as we don&apos;t farm or garden).
	Some people from one of the universities had brought some energy demonstrations, including a music transmitter that sent music to the speaker in a beam of light.
	If the beam was cut off, the speaker no longer played, and if the light was sent through a filter, the music became muffled.
	They also had a few types of light bulbs on display with a reader that told how much energy was being drawn by each.
	The most efficient of these bulbs was a large $a[LED] the size and shape of a regular light bulb.
	Though expensive, these bulbs are supposed to last a long time and save a lot of energy, which should result in an overall savings.
	We also saw (and got to try) orange watermelons.
	They taste the same as the commonly-seen red watermelons, but for some reason, you don&apos;t see them as often.
	Many edible plants are this way: several colors exist, but for some reason, only one color is commonly found in markets.
</p>
<p>
	At one point, we saw a cool flag that looked like a hybrid between a gay pride flag and a United States flag.
	The blue starry corner from the United States flag was present, but the thirteen red and white stripes had been replaced by the six rainbow stripes of the gay pride flag.
</p>
<p>
	As time was running out, we came across a stand giving out <a href="http://peacechain.com/">Peace Chains</a> in exchange for an optional donation.
	They came in a variety of languages, though I didn&apos;t see any in the language I wanted on in: Esperanto.
	It wouldn&apos;t have bothered me too much, but there were chains in the bogus languages of Elfish and Klingon.
	Why would these fantasy languages be acknowledged but not the actually-used international language of Esperanto? Admittedly, I was slightly-annoyed, and was going to leave without one.
	However, I decided to show that there was interest in Esperanto by asking if he had any in it, thinking that maybe if enough people asked about them, he would make them in the future.
	It&apos;s a good thing I asked because it turned out he already had some Esperanto chains, but I had overlooked them.
	I was quite relieved.
	I don&apos;t mind fantasy languages being used, honestly.
	I just think that acknowledging fantasy languages while not acknowledging an important real-world language is an insult to said real-world language.
	I got an Esperanto chain, my sister got a German one, and not knowing which language out mother would want one in, we brought her home both an English one and a Spanish one, all paid in full.
</p>
<p>
	We over-stayed our welcome, as did many other people.
	After about an hour after we were all supposed to be gone, a member of the staff caught us in a sweep he was doing of the park and escorted us to the exit.
	Though he said we were supposed to leave through the public exit, he decided the staff exit would be a better option because it was closer.
	He led us out saying that there was a way back in, and that people had snuck back in before, but that he couldn&apos;t tell us how to get back in for obvious reasons.
	We hadn&apos;t even considered trying to sneak back in, and found it odd that he had brought up the possibility.
	After parting ways with him, we headed home.
</p>
<p>
	My <a href="/a/canary.txt">canary</a> still sings the tune of freedom and transparency.
</p>
END
);