Gung hay fat choy, bitches!

Welcome to the Year of the Rat. One of my favorite parts of Chinese New Year is what a flattering sign the rat is to be born under. (As opposed to being Born Under a Bad Sign).

One of the hardest working signs from the Chinese zodiac, the Rat usually invokes the image of disease, lice or the Black Plague. The Chinese zodiac actually holds the rat in high regard. And also the typical readership demographic of this blog was born in 1984.

Which means Jenn can rub it in Ryan's face that he is a pig/boar, meheheh (year of the boar actually has a nice description too actually but I digress.)
Rats in real life invoke actually amazing facts despite their nasty reputation and obscene habits of scurrying under my car at the most inappropriate times when I am fumbling for my keys. Maybe they are mad that I do not recognize them as kindred spirits?

What I meant to say was, there is a lot of trivia you may not have known about rats. Such as:

- A rat can last longer without water than a camel
- Rats are omnivores, eating almost anything in their path, including dead or dying rats
- Rats can't throw up
- The first house rats were recorded in Boston in 1775
- The average life span of a rat is 3 years
- Over the period of one year, a female rat can have 3-6 litters of up to 10 rats
- The only naturally rat-free zones in the world are Antarctica and the Arctic
- Certain Alberta, Canada islands are rat-free due to agressive government intervention
- Rats emit a high frequency socially induced vocalization when tickled, equivalent to laughter in humans
- Splinter in "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" is a ninja rat
- Templeton in "Charlotte's Web" is a Brown rat
- "Flushed Away" is a movie about a rat flushed in the toilet
- A rat can survive being flushed down the toilet (in most situations)
- "Ratatoille" is a movie about a rat who wants to be a chef
- "Willard" is a movie starring Crispin Glover from "Back to the Future" about a man who has control over rats
- "Rats" is a Pearl Jam song
- A group of rats is called a Mischief
- Chuck E. Cheese is a rat

Anyway, rats are the first sign in the zodiac. They are leaders and conquerers. They are charming, passionate, charismatic, and hardworking. They are intelligent, ambitous and stong-willed. They are energetic and versatile. They are charming and an appealing friend to anyone; however, Rats are highly exclusive and selective about choosing close friends for their social circle.

There are a few seemingly bad points that I will brush over (manipulative, controlling, quick-tempered, demanding obedience, etc etc etc). Gambling, drugs, and alcohol tend to be temptations to the Rat. I think the good outweighs the bad overall because we Rats are all awesome.

Rats should avoid Horses (1966. 1978, 1990, 2002) and are best with monkeys ('69, '81, '93),

Good professions include - espionage, psychiatry, psychology, law and politics. I don't know what Beth and Jenn are doing but you both should become spies is what this is telling me.

Happy Year of the Rat!